Cooling Off and Ready for Fall to Arrive

Since summer is still in full force and the thermometers  read a 100F/ 38C+  on a daily basis, the best way to cool off is to go swimming at the YMCA. And since my kids love the water, we have been to the pool almost every other day now. Some days, we swim indoors and some days we swim outdoors. Both kids feel so comfortable in the water and love to dive for rings or jump off the edge of the pool and practice their swimming skills that they don't even wear their puddle jumpers in the water anymore. Of course, we are right there next to them in case something unexpected happens.

A little movie to show you how happy and fearless my kids are in the water:

We are looking to sign them up for swim lessons at the Y (Amelia had already swim lessons two years ago) and hope that they can eventually join the swim team there.  

Other than swimming, the kids enjoy being back home. Amelia has adjusted well in Kindergarten and goes happily every day. The third week in and we can tell that she is still tired after being at school for 7 hours and so our afternoons are usually low key: snack, then free play or swimming, some TV time while I cook dinner and then bath, story time and bed. By the end of each week, Amelia looks like this after school:

The other morning, my heart swelled two sizes because I found them sitting in the living room together. She was reading him his favorite book: Room on the broom by Julia Donaldson. I love that she enjoys reading books and that he sits and listens to her read aloud. 

They must have gotten this love for books from us parents because if I have some free time, I will read. My favorite view last week:

While running some errands the other day, Elliot discovered a big duck. 

On Sunday morning, before it got too hot and humid, we took the kids to a nearby park where they rode their bikes and we ran/walked 2.5 miles on a paved trail. This area has an awesome trail system and I can't wait for it to get cooler so that we can do this more regularly. Amelia and Elliot are the perfect training partners on their bikes. 

The afternoon looked a bit more like this since we all were pretty exhausted:

Since September is about here, we are hoping for some cooler temperatures and I'm excited to know that Fall is just around the corner. I love decorating all things Fall/ Halloween and to be outdoors more often. Can't wait for my favorite time of the year to arrive.

Spending Time with Dear Friends

Next to spending lots of time with family, I was looking forward to spending quality time with my dear friends. Some, I have not seen in 4 years or I haven't met their precious babies yet, but as it is with good friends, you just pick up where you left off the last time. And truly, it amazes me every time how easy that is with good friends. After being reunited for a few minutes, it feels like we just met a few weeks ago. Of course, over the years friends have come and gone but as I grew older, I figured out who are my real friends because they didn't mind the long distance friendships or the keeping up with my constant moving or the fact that sometimes we haven't communicated in months. They just always stood by my side and listened to me whenever I needed them. There were days when I wished I lived closer because I needed a friend's shoulder to cry on or their hugs, but despite being far apart, their love, laughter and encouragement always were right there when I needed it. Because real friends are like stars. I can't always see them but I know they are always there for me!

I had the chance to spent lots of quality time with my oldest and best friend in the world: Nadine. While some of our get-togethers where rushed and loud and involved 3 rambunctious kids, we also had the opportunity to spent some girl time together. In those times, we did nothing fancy because all we needed was each other (and a delicious ice-cream sundae). 

Our boys are exactly two weeks apart in age and we truly hope they become best buds (given that both their nicknames could be Eli)...just like their mommies. So far, they really enjoyed hanging out with each other. Aren't they adorable!

Elias and Elliot

Tante Nadine and the kiddos:

In Paris, I visited my dear friend Franzi (yes, we share the same first name) and her family. It may has been a short visit but we stayed up talking till late in to the night and enjoyed hanging out all weekend and refilled our friendship tank till the next visit (hopefully sooner than later). 

Another one of my dearest friends is Anita and while she and her family do not live in Berlin anymore, she made the time and effort to come and visit so that we can see each other. It made my day!  Just being together, chatting, and catching up in person felt so great. And meeting her adorable daughter was icing on the cake. 

 

We also were able to meet up with the other girls (except for Franzi who had to work in Paris) from our church girl's group. We met each other in 2nd grade Sunday school and have been best friends since then. Nowadays. we are all mothers and married and gather whenever we all (or most of us) are in town. Our gatherings have definitely changed from pj parties and game nights to wrestling toddlers and babies while trying to get a bite of breakfast in but we wouldn't have it any other way. It's good to know that your friends are going thru the same stages of life as you are and totally understand when your shirt is stained or you are running late.

Thekla, Anita, Susi and myself (we missed you Franzi)

I also had the chance to hang out twice with my dear friend Anne, who just moved back to Berlin. We haven't seen each in over 4 years and our (read mine) letter writings have subsided but we had no issue picking up where we have left off when we saw each other the last time. When Anne and I meet up, food (picnics in the middle of a bustling city, homemade dishes or trying out new restaurants) usually is involved. Good food, a good friend, and good conversations = happy times. 

Anne finally met my kiddos

Even though we were in Germany for 8 weeks, I was not able to catch up with everyone but hopefully the next time we are there it will happen. I miss hanging out with my dear friends on a daily basis but I feel so blessed to have spent these precious moments with them this summer. Luckily, nowadays multimedia makes it easy to stay in constant contact with dear friends and to be up-to-date on what's going on in there lives. However, virtual hugs are no substitute for seeing a friend face-to-face and to spend quality time with them. I love you all!!!

First Full Week of Kindergarten

Amelia just finished her first full week of kindergarten and I can tell that she is exhausted. Not from it being too difficult, by far not, but the fact that she is at school for 7 hours each day and learning the ins and out of what it means to be a kindergartner and all the school procedures. Her teacher's name is Ms. Wyatt and there are 22 children in her class. 

She is eager to learn and happily walks to school every morning.

Since the class consists of children from all different backgrounds and skill levels, the first week of school was kept pretty easy by learning about colors, a few nursery rhymes and numbers 1-5. Each day the kids spoke about a specific color (and will continue with that next week as well) and enjoyed different activities with that. Every day Amelia brings home a bunch of pictures and completed work assignments and if that keeps on going, we need to build a shed for all the paperwork. Here are some of her masterpieces from this week: 

She loves doing number puzzles and quickly completed this assignment.

In art class, they learned how to draw a robot and a chicken. Pretty good looking, or at least better than mine :)

On Wednesday, little brother and I decided to surprise Amelia and join her for lunch at the cafeteria. Not sure who was more excited to be there. Elliot loved being at school and eating with the big kids and Amelia declared it "the best day ever at school". I guess my kids are still easy to please. 

 

If it is not too hot or it rains, we walk to school every morning and afternoon. Since we live half a block from the school, it takes less time to walk than sit in car line. The kindergartners are ready for pick up:

While Amelia is busy at school, Elliot and I are adjusting to having fun without her at home. So far, it has been quite the adjustment for this little man as he is very clingy. Spending all summer together with his best friend and now being apart for more than 7 hours each day is kind of rough. But we try and make the best of it. Elliot helps me in the kitchen or "drives" the shopping cart or we blow bubbles in the backyard.

And he is never far from me, playing with his cars or trucks.

We even made it to story time this week at our local library. In the beginning, Elliot was quite shy but warmed up quickly and even participated in the dancing and making music. We will definitely return next week and maybe even make some new friends there.

But we are all happiest when we are back together at home. While Daddy was out of town for business this week, we are delighted to have him back home today.

Now, it's time to relax and rest those tired bodies.

Vacation Blog Posts

I am still working to catch up on the blog posts for our vacation in Germany and will post them in chronological order. Thus, you will have to scroll further down to see them (I'm at the beginning of July now). I try to post a new one every 1-2 days this week, so hopefully by next week I'm all caught up. Thanks for reading along!

Family Fun Weekend

On Friday afternoon, we started our weekend off with a trip to the gym. Our local YMCA organized a Family Fun Night and invited all their members. The theme of the evening was princesses and princes. After our workout, the hubby and I took the kids to the pool where they splish-splashed around and showed off their "swimming" skills. And then the games started. The kids loved riding the water toys and diving for rings. 

I was amazed by Elliot's diving skills. He looked like a 5 year old diving under water. And he was so proud of retrieving the rings from the pool floor too.

There was also a bouncy house and matching the theme, a mermaid swimming in the pool and princesses, a prince and a fairy walking around. 

Tinkerbell, Merida and Amelia

The Y also served hot dogs, hamburgers, lemonade and chips for dinner as well as popcorn during the movie "Frozen" on the lawn later on at night. Since our kids were pretty exhausted from all the fun in the pool, we didn't stay for the movie. It was a really relaxing and fun pool party (not very crowded) and the perfect start to our weekend. 

Since it was not too crazy hot yet on Saturday morning, Derrick and the kids spent the morning outside riding scooters and bicycles, playing chase and learning how to hold a golf club and fence. 

On a hot Sunday, the kids cooled off in our pool in the backyard. It might be small, but they are having fun.

Between some chores around the house and playing, we took it easy. Resting and watching the Olympics were on the list on Sunday afternoon. We love spending time together and truly are happy to be back home with my main man.

Birthday Celebration

Since we just moved here and don't know anyone yet, we decided to celebrate Amelia's 5th birthday only within our family and keep it small. Of course, there won't be a birthday in this house without decorations and so when my birthday girl woke up on Wednesday, she loved all the decorations and balloons.

My proud 5 year old:

She was all excited about her gifts even though she only was allowed to open a couple in the morning and more when Daddy came home from work in the afternoon. 

But too shorten the wait, we went to the pool and had fun swimming and sliding. 

 

Future Olympian in water aerobics!?!

And then it was finally time for the birthday (cup)cake (since she does not eat any kind of cake or frosting). Happy 5th Birthday, my little princess!

And more gifts to unwrap:

She wanted to have a Taylor Swift CD for her birthday and when she got it, she was truly excited (and since then all we listen to is this CD, mainly the song "Shake it off"):

And she got a princess scooter (please ignore the fact that my children don't care about wearing clothes):

Afterwards, we had a little dance party upstairs. Elliot loves doing what his sister does and so wearing a princess dress seemed like the best way to dance and swirl:

 Say "cheese, please":

 My two boys:

For dinner, Amelia chose to go to Texas Roadhouse. The kids love it there because on family night they offer an arts and crafts activity and Andy, the armadillo, makes an appearance (the food is so and so but who cares when the kids have fun).

This girl had a fabulous birthday and thanks everyone who wished her a happy birthday and gave her gifts. She is one lucky 5 year old.