Lily's birthday party

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We invited the usual birthday crowd and everybody had a lot of fun! Compared to last year it was SO much cooler outside though. Still, the games and bonfire were a hit with the kids.
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I will let you guess the party theme. :)

And to all the dads out there...

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... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! (It's Father's Day today in Germany.)

Finn and Lily think their Papa absolutely rocks. :)

Happy Mother's Day

... to all you moms out there! I hope you got cards as sweet as these two.

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In case you can't tell, Finn drew me a "colorful knights' castle". And Lily explained, "I drawed you a princess. With hair!"







There are no words to express how much I love the two little artists who made these cards. (And their dad, too. :)

Birthday Part II - Playmobil Fun Park!

Here are some pictures of our first trip to the Playmobil Fun Park. Definitely not our last trip! We had a great time despite the cool weather.

"It's my happy birthday!" - Part I

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Unbelievably, Lily turned 3 today. My baby, THREE!? (Sniff, sniff). I know this is old, but seriously, where has time gone? We had a fun-filled, busy day. Neil took a day off, which was awesome, and Oma is here too, which is great! Here are some pictures.

Her gift table, prepared the night before. We decorated the living room with streamers and balloons, and Lenny popped the only balloon that actually said "Happy Birthday". That sealed the cats' fate - they were banned from the living room for the night.

"It's my happy birthday", Lily kept saying over and over after I wished her Happy Birthday when she woke up. She also gave me a big hug and whispered in my ear: "I'll love you forever."

We were the first ones up and started baking black-bottom cupcakes (chocolate batter and cream cheese filling) at 6:30am. I managed to keep her in the kitchen so the surprise wouldn't be ruined.

After everyone else was up and dressed Lily got to see her gift table, blow out her three candles and open her presents.

Here Oma is helping Lily read the card Grandma and Grandpa sent.

And here Lily is looking at the electronic card from Grandma and Grandpa. She loved clicking through it on the touch screen.

Even Finn got a present: a "dinosaurus rex", as he calls it.

Breakfast! (And we ate "real" food too, not just cupcakes.)

After breakfast we packed some bags, put the stroller in the car and headed to an amusement park called "Playmobil Fun Park" near Nuremberg. It was a birthday surprise for Lily and we had a great time there! Stay tuned for pictures, I took well over 100. Don't worry, I won't post them all.

Spring Pictures

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The first BBQ of the season, much enjoyed by everyone. The little half Germans love grilled sausages. :)

A Portrait of the Princess as a Young Girl, courtesy of her big brother.

With temperatures up to 27° Celsius, we are enjoying the great outdoors. It's supposed to cool off again, but for now we're happy!





After they ran through a patch of stinging nettles. Ouch!

And what do you do when your foot looks like this?

More of this! :)


I've been running with pain for about a year (got tendonitis in my foot from too much running and having bad feet), but hopefully not much longer! Every few weeks a sports physician comes to my gym (he is a member and avid runner himself) and offers to help members with their training, so I went to see him. He wasn't too impressed with the orthopedic insoles for my running shoes I was prescribed last year, so he prescribed me new ones. I also got shots in my foot to reduce inflammation (the bruise formed after he "got a little too close to the vein" with one of the needles), an ankle brace for running, a prescription for 10 ultrasound treatments to loosen up my ankle joint (no idea when I will fit those in), and he told me to get this Nike Free shoe and wear it during the day as much as I can. It imitates barefoot walking and helps strengthen foot muscles.

So, maybe if all this helps I will run a half marathon yet! There was one in Ingolstadt last Saturday, a big, fun event with 3300 runners. A friend from church placed third of all the women, she finished in an unbelievably fast 1h:26 min.

May and June are going to be so busy for us. Lily's birthday coming up (we'll have two parties), Oma Karin will arrive this Saturday and stay for a week, more visitors will come mid-May, Finn will do a 2-week swim course with daily lessons starting at the end of May, Lily started weekly speech therapy with a speech therapist from Canada who specializes in bilingual children (Lily has pronunciation issues), and, oh yeah, I'm registered for two triathlons, so I need to find time to train. I'm not so worried about the sprint one, but the Olympic distance one will take me at least 3 hours to complete, and there is no way I can pull this off without proper preparation, especially the swim. On the other hand, I will be wearing a wet suit and hopefully that thing will keep me afloat a little. :)