Fall is definitely here!

I haven't really posted an update or pictures for November, so here we go.
A few weeks ago we took a trip to the Nuremberg zoo - by train. We all enjoyed the train ride and seeing the animals. Finn and Lily especially enjoyed the seal and dolphin show. Sadly, the Nuremberg zoo does not have elephants anymore - we'll have to go to Munich to see them.

Finn and Lily loved the little goats, and we bought a couple boxes of those pellets from the machine to feed them. Finn was convinced they were eating poop!

This dolphin was BIG! And if I remember correctly, the oldest one they have, 50 years old!

Panthera Leo

Ursus Maritimus

Panthera Tigris

Homo Pullensis Wagonis - my favourite species. :)

Life is going well. Finn and Lily are enjoying going to preschool ("Kindergarten"). Lily has taken to her group of peers and teachers like a fish to water. She loves it there. When they have their weekly gym class even the older boys admire her for her climbing and balancing skills. She is fearless! And the other day her teachers figured out how to make her talk more quietly when playing with Finn. (She has a VERY LOUD voice, no kidding.) They just have to ask her to please speak German, then she'll start whispering right away - in English. :) Her German is getting better all the time though, she has no problem communicating with her friends.

In the afternoons we either hang out at home or go places. Finn and Lily do hip hop dance at my gym once a week, and Finn does Kinder music at preschool one afternoon.

Before bed we often have our "family time" where we play a game or read and act out a story with Schleich and Playmobil figurines (Lily's all time favourite: Daniel in the lion's den). For nighttime story reading we just finished my favourite book from the Narnia series: "The Horse and His Boy". We started "The Voyage on the Dawn Treader". It will come out in the movie theaters before Christmas, maybe we can take the kids to go see it.

Sweet dreams!

And good morning! Blue is especially cuddly in the mornings.

On the weekends we enjoy spending time with Neil. Exploring in the forest, riding our bikes or crafts on rainy afternoons are a favourite.

Here Neil and the kids are playing with "Playmais" - corn starch based foamy blocks that are a lot of fun. You can cut them, mold them, and they stick together if you moisten them a bit on a wet cloth.

Here is what Finn made with minimal help - he loves playmais.

Lily's Nemo fish

And Neil's creation. That's supposed to be me - I didn't know whether to be offended ("Did he really want to marry Pamela Andersson, but she happened to be unavailable?") or relieved ("So - love DOES make a guy blind, phew.")

By the way, Neil put my mini-me in THIS dress - the dress he picked for me to wear at Claus' and Julia's wedding. He's been bugging me to wear it around the house. I think it might be time to make use of our babysitter and get out a bit more...

This weekend we are laying low. Finn is sick (yes, AGAIN), but to spice things up a bit he came down with a case of scarlet fever, and we think he has a virus on top. The scarlet fever is being treated with penicillin and most of the symptoms are gone by now, but the cough is still there. The rest of us are also battling sore throats and headaches, but we're hanging in there.

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Today our friend Thorsten was over to put up the tree house we got from them. Jana didn't want it anymore, and Finn and Lily have outgrown our small plastic house and slide. The house is put together and secured in the ground, all we need to do is put the slide on once it has settled a bit. In the spring we will paint the roof and move the sandbox from its current spot to underneath the house.

Lily "helped".

And, last not least, we are SO HAPPY that grandpa's bypass surgery went well and he is recovering at home. We wish we could be with you, but then again, a quiet house is probably better for you right now. We will see you next year, one way or another!

The extra mile ... or 140.

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Have you heard about Rick Hoyt? He had a dream. He wanted to compete in an Ironman triathlon (3.8k swim/180k bike/marathon run - total 140miles). And he did! The first time he tried, the wind in Hawaii was so strong he was blown off his bike. But he didn't give up, and the second time he succeeded.
Rick is intelligent, charming, and he has a college degree. He also has a wheel chair and a special computer to help him communicate. And he has a father who shares his dreams and "loans" him his arms and legs to achieve his goals.




It's people like these who inspire me. Who challenge me to go above and beyond what I think I can do. Who remind me of what really matters in life. Love, respect, serving others and, most of all, God. To become the person I was meant to be, do the things I was meant to do. To go the extra mile for my own children, whatever that mile might look like for them.

And who inspires you?

An early Christmas gift

Well, we really only wanted Finn to test drive the bikes at the store to see whether a 16 or 18 inch bike would be the better fit. The 18 inch "Capt'n SHARKY" bike won hands down, but when your name is FINN that is no surprise really, is it.

The hand-me-down got handed down, again. The back pedaling brakes threw her off a bit, so the balance bike is still her favorite for now.

So, instead of giving the bike to him when it's muddy and yucky out we are enjoying the nice fall weather and taking bike trips every day. Finn is so fast on his big bike now!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween is a relatively "new" event here and the only costumes you see are scary (witches, devils, skeletons and the like), so we don't take Finn and Lily trick-or-treating. But they got to wear Halloween shirts and they handed out candy to the kids who rang our doorbell, so all was well. :)

We have a little seahorse!

After two weeks of swimming lessons (10 in total) Finn earned the "Little Seahorse" diploma! There were three boys in his class, and Finn was the youngest. (The other boys were 6 and 7 years old.) We are so proud of him. He had to swim one 25m length (breaststroke), jump in from the diving board and dive in shoulder-deep water to pick up a ring from the bottom of the pool.










We'll be going to the pool regularly to practice with him. He is so happy he can swim without water wings now!

A surprise visit for Omi Lotti!

So, last week we packed up the kids and some assorted nessecities and drove north pretty much all day, to this beautiful place:

Oma and Opa knew we were coming, but one person did not: Omi Lotti, who celebrated her 86th birthday on October 11. We thought a surprise visit would be just the right thing to show her how much we love her.

So, the next morning, after a hearty breakfast prepared by two enthusiastic little chefs (with just a little help from Oma :) we were on our way to surprise Omi.

"Omi Lotti, where are you!? Oh - there you are". And Finn's concerns ("Maybe she will fall over dead when she sees us!") were unfounded, luckily. Omi was very happy we had come!

Of course we also spent quite some time in the great outdoors. The weather was really nice for the whole 5 days. Lily chillin' in Warnemünde:

Waiting for our food (fish, what else?) at a restaurant.

"Ahoi! You got some fish for us?"

He did: two cods fresh out of the Baltic.

A little lesson in how to cook fish perfectly. What stuck most with Finn was that "Oma cut their heads off!"

Which made for a happy kitty.

And good night! My theory is that they are so used to sleeping on top of each other that they didn't even notice the bunk beds were missing. :)

And on to new beach adventures!

We learned that rubber boots and waves are not the best combo. At least the second time around I brought extra pants and socks along.

They could have stayed at the beach all day. Lily kept asking why we hadn't brought our swim suits. :)

We DID bring a kite though, and team Neil&Karin did a pretty good job getting it up in the air.

Now, keeping it up there was MUCH harder than it looks.

And some popcorn around a fire after the sun went down - Finn and Lily were in heaven. I think they could have sat there all night, throwing sticks into the fire.

The next morning: preparations, preparations for the big day. Buying flowers, drawing pictures ...

... and making cake for ...

... the birthday "girl". 86 and counting! Happy Birthday, Omi!

After lunch and a walk in town it was time for presents, coffee and cake.

And a snooze for little (Lily) Charlotte in Omi Charlotte's arms. Omi sang Lily a song about her mother being a "Trampeltier" and "was kann das arme Kind dafür" and poof - Lily was gone.

Thus refreshed Lily was adamant she wouldn't miss out on any of the late night fun.

Cheers, Omi Lotti!*

May the next year bring you much joy, health and good times with your loved ones!

*Disclaimer: Tempting as it might be, we are NOT feeding our children champagne or other potentially sleep-inducing beverages. Lily was quite content with her grape juice.

And in this picture, Lily is NOT drinking Oma's beer with her straw either, we promise! :)

It's OCTOBER!

Is it just me, or is this year flying by? We've enjoyed some nice sunny fall weather lately, and now that Finn is better we're back to playing outside and of course biking. Finn could definitely use a bigger bike, but on the other hand Lily on her balance bike can keep up quite nicely with him on his small bike.
After just a few days in Kindergarten Finn came down with a cold that turned into bronchitis and kept him home for almost 2 weeks. We narrowly escaped a round of antibiotics, which we were happy about. Hopefully he will stay healthy now for a while.

While cleaning up the other day I found this picture he drew some time ago (when he was still 4), and his drawing skills have definitely improved a lot in the past half year or so. He can finally get the stories that are in his head on paper. I don't remember everything he told me about this one, but it is a pirate ship with three blue cannons, the pirate captain (with the black hat) and his mate coming running through the woods, and the sharks jumping REALLY HIGH (obviously, ha ha) out of the water to catch the guy in the blue boat. Or something like that. Oh, and the flying M's are birds.

Last week we took Lenny and Blue to the vet's for their yearly shots. The kids were so upset, and a bit baffled that the cats did not cry. Not one bit. Imagine that. It's been half a year since the vet saw the cats and well, Blue gained some weight since then. British Shorthair are a big breed, and while Lenny weighed in at a lean 11 lbs (5.2kg) Blue tipped the scales at 15lbs (6.8kg). So, he's supposed to go on a diet. If you know our Blue you know that he is always hungry, in fact, he's STARVING most of the time. He just loves to eat. The thing is, he doesn't really get that much and we always make sure he won't steal Lenny's food (thus the always acting hungry). They get dry food and when I weighed his usual portion it was actually already the recommended amount for overweight cats supposed to lose weight. So now he gets even LESS than that. I went out and bought him some special food with more fiber that's supposed to fill him up more. Poor guy. He's just big boned, right!? :)

"Who? Me? Fat?! MAJESTIC, I call it! Oh, and Neil, what you said about a treadmill for cats - you were just kidding, right? RIGHT!?"

A weekend morning at our house. Lily up at the crack of dawn, and after a few minutes of cuddling in my bed ("Can we get up now? And now? How about NOW?") I take her downstairs where I try to wake up while she watches some cartoons on the laptop. A little while later she is joined by her brother and Lenny. While Lenny is more interested in watching the birds outside, Finn and Lily need to hold onto him so that the poor cat won't be scared by the dog in the movie.

When Lenny can't stand all the love a moment longer it's Blue's turn.


Meanwhile (and after at least one cup of coffee, better yet, two) I've been able to get off the couch and into the kitchen to make some pancake batter. Buttermilk pancakes with Canadian maple syrup are our special weekend breakfast treat. Finn loves to cook. This batch got a little dark, so: Quick, out of the pan with them!

Oops. (And guess who comes running :)

This is about the time Neil appears, at least 2 hours after all the fun started. (But he makes up for it by watching Finn and Lily in the afternoon so I can have a heavenly nap.)

Good pancakes, brother!

Enjoying time with daddy on the weekend

In other news, Lily got a hair cut last week. Exciting, I know. Considering that the last time she went was in January after Finn chopped her hair off, she did really well. But she kept saying she didn't "want them to do that to me, Mama!" I finally figured out what she meant. The lady beside her was getting highlights done, so her hair was getting covered in aluminum foil. Lily thought she was going to look like that too! :)

This is before:

And after. Now the back is ALMOST one length again, but a couple strands are still shorter. What Finn cut off the top and front is about 3-4 inches long now, so I can clip it away or braid it. It sure takes a long time growing back!

In still other news, Finn and Lily had their first dance class last Thursday. It was at my gym and is a 45min hip hop/street dance class for boys and girls. They enjoyed it so I'm thinking of enrolling them. With the cold and rainy season coming soon it's a good way for them to get some exercise (running, jumping, hopping on one leg, doing some dance moves, stretching etc) and the added bonus is that I can hop on the treadmill while they are having fun.