Fun Visit with Uncle Lenni

Two Sundays ago, my "little" brother came all the way from Germany to spent a week with us. While Derrick was on a business trip, the kids and I loved having him here. Uncle Lenni is very hands-on and both children constantly asked to play with him. Their favorite game was hide-and-seek. But he is also great in building Lego or playing Firemen Sam with Elliot. 

While I worked the first part of the week, he also installed new faucets in our bathrooms and painted an accent wall in my master bedroom. 

Thursday and Friday I took off so that we can spent some quality time together while the kids are at school. Amelia's school also hosted their annual Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday and invited all family members to join the students for a traditional turkey meal. My little girl was beaming from ear to ear because her uncle from Germany was there to share a meal with her. 

After the lunch, Amelia showed us her classroom and had uncle Lenni practice some spelling words on the Ipad. And then it was time to head out to our next adventure. 

Since my brother is an avid paintball player and wanted to do something unique "American", we decided to visit a nearby gun range for some target practice. I was just there to translate and watch but then he convinced me to try my aim. (This is not the first time I shot a gun. 14 years ago in Florida, we practiced with a police officer from Campus shooting down some cans with a shotgun and a small handgun at his property.) While I do not support our gun laws in the U.S. and I'm not in favor of having guns in a home where children reside, I do think that gun ranges are a great option for people, such as my brother, to shot a gun in a safe environment with instructors.

 

The next day, my brother and I went shopping at Opry Mills Mall here in Nashville. Unfortunately, I was not able to convince him to purchase some cowboy boots but we were able to find some sneakers in shoe size 15. 

For lunch, we stopped by the Bavarian Bierhaus and enjoyed some German Pils and tasted some foods from my home country. 

Afternoon entertainment

That evening, our YMCA hosted their Family Fall Night. Due to the cold weather, they moved most of the activities indoors, except for the fire pit. We made S'mores and drank hot cocoa by the fire before calling it a night. 

For the weekend, we did the touristy things and went to see some sights here in Nashville. We met my German friends for a late lunch at Burger Republic on Saturday, which had me swooning over their burgers. 

We have 7 murals here in downtown and one of the most famous one was only a few steps from the restaurant. It is called WhatLiftsYou and is the perfect backdrop for some unique pictures. 

And some little wings:

Amelia also found her own truck:

Next up, a quick stop at the former train station, now a hotel, before we made our way to the Parthenon.

The Parthenon in Centennial Park is across from Vanderbilt University where the football team played against UK that afternoon. Thus, my brother got to see and hear what noise a college crowd can make and what tailgating looks like. 

The Parthenon:

 Centennial Park:

When visiting Nashville, a trip to Broadway to Honky-Tonk is almost a must. Unfortunately, we didn't had a babysitter and bar hoping with two little ones is a no-no. So I was only able to show him what is going in Nashville after dark while driving by. Given that it was super crowded that night, we actually didn't mind not to fight our way thru the crowds. 

Next time he comes to visit though, I will make sure that we will go out night one Lenni. And I don't care if he likes country music or not. More about our weekend highlights will be in the next post.

Early Birthday Gift and Camping

Since Elliot's birthday is in December and within two weeks, he receives all the gifts and then has to wait an entire year to get another surprise, we decided to surprise him this week with an early birthday gift. One happy boy on his new  bicycle:

He has outgrown his balance bike and was ready for a big boy bike. The training wheels will come off next week when he knows how to use the bike properly. I have a feeling, he will have no issues racing off. Now his sister just needs to up her game and get more confident on her bike to keep up with him. 

On Friday, my company hosted their annual Chili cook-off. All employees were invited to bring in their best pot of Chili to participate and win a prize and add their name to the plaque on the wall. I participated and made my first ever Chili recipe. Then it was time to taste 14 different recipes. 

Some were spicy, some meaty, some nutty (yes, one submission contained walnuts) and some were not my favorite. While I didn't win, I heard several people voting for my submission. My husband also was a big fan of it, which is a win in my book. Maybe I try next year again. It definitely was a tasty way to start off the weekend.

Saturdays are for fixing things. Elliot is a big helper around the house. Here he is fixing the cat's scratching post while Amelia is fixing my hair:

Because the weather went from 39F last Sunday to 75F on Saturday, we decided that it is a great night to camp out in the backyard. So while Derrick set up the tent, I prepared hot dogs and the kids collected fire wood. But first, we had to look for birds:

Dinner:

And for dessert we ate S'mores made over our newly built fire pit. Amelia and I worked hard to put this together during the lunch hour. 

After a quick shower (courtesy of being in our own backyard), it was time for a good night story and some star gazing inside the tent. The tent is quite spacious and had plenty of room for a couple of folding chars and air mattresses for the kids. 

 

Good night, sleep tight:

Amelia actually went to sleep after a few minutes but Elliot did not. Both kids came inside to spend the night in their own beds but loved the experience of camping in a tent. I can see many more adventures happening around that tent in the future. 

Today, we finished the weekend off with some household chores and sewing lessons for this little lady. She is so happy to be learning how to sew. This is a Mini Sewing machines that works so much better than the kids' sewing machine she had received for her birthday. Her barbies will be sleeping well tonight in their newly sowed sleeping bags.

Now, it is almost time to pick up my "little" brother from the airport. We are so happy that he will be staying with us for the next week. Derrick will be out of town on a business trip starting tomorrow, but we have lots of fun things planned to keep us busy. 

Halloween 2017

These past few days were full of fall/ Halloween activities. On Saturday, we decided to carve our pumpkin. This year, Amelia was my big helper. She didn't mind scooping out the "yuck" from the pumpkin whereas Elliot touched it once and was so disgusted that he was done helping.

 Our finished product:

Fall is in full swing and it looks so beautiful all around us with the leaves changing from green to yellow to orange to red. But even better is a big pile of red leaves to jump in to. 

Halloween was a full day for us but both children were excited about it. Especially Amelia as her class had a little Halloween party that day. It only lasted 30 minutes and I was a bit shocked to see no Fall or Halloween decorations in the room and that her teacher looked rather annoyed. But we made the best of it and served the kids some yummy Halloween snacks and then they played the "mummy wrap" game. Luckily, they really got in to the game and had fun wrapping their classmates up in toilet paper. 

Right after the Halloween party, we picked up Elliot and headed to the dentist for their semi-annual check-up. My kids love going to the dentist and they did great. We were in and out of the office in 30 minutes. 

We headed back home for an afternoon snack and some more pumpkin carving. These are the little pumpkins they picked at the pumpkin patch on Sunday and there was not much room for big designs. But they turned out pretty spooky nonetheless. 

Finally, time to hit the streets with my little witch and Batman. 

After only 6 houses, Elliot declared that he had enough and so we headed back home. I did not complain as I wasn't feeling well, courtesy of my flu shot from the day prior. I think these two had more fun looking for the their "next customers" and handing out candies instead of begging for them. 

And that concludes our Halloween activities. I hope you all had a safe and successful Boo-fest and won't get sick eating all that candy.