Day 181

As Mum put on facebook "can they do it? YES they can"! And they did, my little kids learning English, didn't let me down and almost got it all right, when they performed for their Mum's and Dad's! They made me proud of them all! One Mum took a group picture of us all, and who knows we could even be in the paper! hihi!

After the Mum's and Dad's had left I did do an English lesson with them all, but they were much too excited to learn anything new, but they did enjoy a game of  "Ring a ring of roses"!

And from there it was on to Aldi for me and Robert, we were getting all the bits for our picnic in the car! Robert did the trolley for us all around the shop and looked very pleased with himself. And for the first time this week, he didn't have any "wants" as we were going around!

In the afternoon we met with Katrin and her boys for some cycling. Richard came off of his and grazed his elbow really badly, so we moved the party to the garden and I got lots of stickers out for them all to do, don't they look cute!

Oh and as for the weather, yesterday it was 33°C and today it was just 13°C at 11am, it warmed up to about 22°C in the afternoon luckily, but it was a bit of a shock to the system. I made the boys put on shorts in the morning, but had to get them back in and change them when we went out to Kindergarden, good job we were running on time!

CU tomorrow

Day 180

This morning I got in touch with Richard's skin doctor and organised a new prescription for his cream, which Robert and I went to pick up. We had to wait 20 minutes for the cream to be made and had a little wander around the shops close by, mmh, that little wait cost 28 Euros! Oops, I got the boys a new T-shirt each and I got some 3/4 length trousers and a T-shirt, can't resist a 20% off sale!!

In the afternoon Katrin and Sabine came round and both went home with a bucket of cherries! All the kids had fun picking them too, as we now only have two chickens, we still have low hanging cherries and the kids were actually able to pick some! Richard loved it, but I won't be telling him, that he only picked unripe and damaged ones, I'll let him believe that his cherries are in this too!

Yep I made Florian some cherry jam. I only like cherries fresh from the tree, so I haven't tried the jam, but I'm sure Florian will love it!
CU tomorrow (keep your fingers xed for me, tomorrow my English kids will be showing their Mum's what they have learnt,....oh help!)

Day 179

Work today, but from home. Whilst I was busy translating, I let Robert play on the Wii, he thought it was brilliant that I had to work! I did just under 2 hours work, so the Wii really got a workout today! After I'd finished, Robert and I went shopping, I was going to get them a magazine for in the car, but Robert couldn't decide which one he wanted, none of them appealed to him. Strange that then at lunch time he accused me of being a mean Mummy cause I wouldn't buy him a magazine, and he so so wanted the Pokemon one. Tears and all, it was, then when Richard heard about that he started crying too, so I think it might be a trip in the car without any sort of magazine, I don't need tears about Pokemon - so maybe I am a mean Mummy!

In the afternoon I had to go to Kindergarden for an information afternoon about all what will be happening, when Richard becomes one of the big kids at Kindergarden! Richard is going to love it, I know. He wants to eat there when his friends eat there, so that will be three times a week, and in the afternoons, they will start learning some skills they need for school, but all disguised as fun and games. It was very interesting and considering I told Katrin I would be round within 30 minutes, it took a while, I never got there until after about 90 minutes. OH and it was sooo sooo hot in Kindergarden, I thought I was melting, well, I got a nice mass of curls whilst I was there!!

This evening I fancied some cherries, so I just got a dish went out in the garden and picked some....ooh that was good! And they were delicious!

CU tomorrow

Day 178

So what is with the weather, why does it have to go from 15°C on Saturday to just over 30°C today without any warning! (Didn't check the thermometer yesterday but it wasn't 30) Sometimes it would be nice to get the chance to get used to the heat. Oh well, we made the most of it, I think.
Well, sort of.
In the morning I gave an English lesson at Kindergarden, Robert helped, then after that I decided that I had just enough time to mow the lawn (at the time, I didn't really get that it was a bit hot!!) Robert helped with the front lawn, he did one side nearly all on his own. And then he felt the heat and went in and played some Lego, whilst I finished mowing, so so hot! When I came in Robert took one look at me and went "Mummy, are you knackered?!"

In the afternoon we met lots of other Mums at the playground, we all thought it would be cooler at the playground (it normally is, on top of the hill, with a cool breeze blowing) but not today, it was hot there too. But we had a good time chatting anyways. I took two pictures before we left, so you get to see them both!

Hiding from the heat!

Up, Up and away!

CU tomorrow

Day 175, Day 176 and Day 177

Are you ready for our busy fun-filled weekend?!

Day 175 (Friday)
No school or Kindergarden today, today was a tidy up day. I gave the boys a HUGE plastic box and they actually got all excited about tidying up the Lego! I never got a before picture, but here is the after one, and believe me, any carpet you can see on this picture was NOT visible before they tidied up! Didn't they do really really well.

Whilst they were upstairs, I was busy tidying up downstairs, I even cleaned the window in the lounge, I was going to do more, but once it started raining whilst I was still cleaning the lounge window, I decided that it probably wasn't the right day for window cleaning!

We picked Florian up at the station and this week, his train was actually early, that was a surprise, luckily we were there on time!

Day 176 (Saturday)
Yesterday whilst the boys were tidying up their bedroom I decided that it might be a good idea to take a trip to IKEA and get them a new cupboard to help with the tidying up. I put the idea to Florian and that is where we headed for after breakfast.
We dropped the boys off in the playarea, their first time there, and went in search of the cupboard we wanted. Of course it wouldn't be a trip to IKEA if we only came out with what we went for, and we of course came home with another photo frame for our already extensive collection!

It was then time for lunch and as we were so close to the restaurant I always go to with my friends, we decided to go there. First I got to use my phone and found out the opening times of the restaurant, and off we went.  We had delicious lunch, and there we planned the rest of the day.
I won tickets for the open day at the airport. Open day might be the wrong word, they are just finishing building the new runway and to celebrate they had a party and we got to go! You had to apply for tickets online, unfortunately Mum and Dad didn't get tickets to go, so it was just us.
We decided to park and ride to the airport, we caught the three o'clock train and got to the airfield a bit earlier than our tickets said, but it was no problem. We were lucky with the weather, it didn't rain (we have since heard that it rained most of the day at home, and we have seen pictures of people who went in the morning it was wet then too) There were a few airplanes to see. Here are the boys in front of an old one!

And here are me and the boys running down the middle of the runway, where the airplanes will land this time next year!

They also had all the diggers and things that were needed to build the runway there and all were open so the kids could sit in them, here are a few that the boys sat in!

On our way out, we went past the airport fire brigade, and they were letting the kids try their hand at aiming the hose. The boys LOVED that!

At 7.30 we started our journey home, bus from the runway to the airport, train to the car and then home in that, we got in at just about 10pm. A very late night for the boys, in fact when I piggybacked Robert from the car to the bedroom he fell asleep on my back again! So cute!

Day 177 (Sunday)
A nice lazy day today. I have been reading a lot this weekend, and Florian has lent me his kindle to do so, great fun! Whilst I was reading, Florian and the boys were building up the cupboard.

They actually did most of the building themselves, so they are well proud of themselves on this picture!

Just after lunch Robert's friends Dad popped around so show me the present that we have for the football trainer (he's 50 next week).
I made all the labels for the beer bottles.

Now we are watching and enjoying Top Gear.
CU tomorrow

Day 174

Bank holiday here in Germany today, only this time Florian couldn't make it a long weekend, he has to work tomorrow, so he wasn't home. But then again neither were we, I took us to see Mum and Dad and we had a lovely day down there!
The boys played with Lego for a long while, then they remembered Nanna's toys (iPod and Nintendo) and they then spent a long while on them!

I love Sunny, but I also love watching the birds in the garden, I don't get to do that much here with Sunny around, but I did at Mum and Dads, and I got this shot of a sparrow pretending he is a mixture of hummingbird and blue tit!

We were quite late getting home, and we seemed to be being chased by a storm although we never actually got wet! But when I sat down in the lounge the lighting went all strange and this is what I saw out of the window (I went to get a picture from the front door), it was really dramatic!

Still hasn't rained though, it actually passed us by!
CU tomorrow

Day 173

Last day of school today! Whilst Robert was there, I went shopping, I got a whole new set of towels and bathmats at Aldi for our bathroom. I think I got all the shopping I need for the rest of the week, and as we are going to invade Mum and Dad tomorrow, I'm probably right!
I got home before Robert and then I have to admit, I played some more with my new phone!
Robert got home in time for us to go and pick Richard up together, but first I read his report. I think it is probably a report that half his class got. He needs to stop distracting the other children in class and needs to listen to both other kids and the teacher better. On the plus side, he was praised for his reading skills and they said that he is good at remembering information! The bit that I giggled a bit about was the art class report, he has never liked drawing or painting and that was certainly reflected in the words, but I can't exactly blame him, I'm no good with a pencil or paintbrush either!

In the afternoon we were meeting our friends out the front, and the kids were going to play on their bikes, whilst we did some weeding....didn't happen! As soon as they all arrived it started raining, so into the barn we went, and then it REALLY REALLY came down. You can't really see quite how bad it was on these photos

but the kids watching it, say it all too!

And you'll know just how bad it was, when I say that we had to leave the barn and go indoors, it was just too wet even IN the barn!
CU tomorrow

Day 172

Oh dear did it rain this morning. We stayed relatively dry getting the kids to school and kindergarden, but when I went to work, OH DEAR! I only have about a 100m walk from the car park to the office building but in that time I got so wet that my trousers were still wet when I left 4 hours later! And it is NOT a nice feeling sat there with soaking wet jeans! I survived and we had a good giggle about it!
I left at 11.30 and popped to C&A and got Florian and I a couple of T-shirts each. Then it was home to get Richard and wait for Robert.

Poor Robert actually had homework today, which really surprised me, as tomorrow is the last day of school! But he did it no fuss. We then had a game of trumps and then it was off to the hairdressers. The boys both got a nice short haircut, but only Robert would let me take his picture. (notice he has some colour in it this time, just a bit of green on the fringe!)

And I am now young again - no grey!
This afternoon a neighbour brought me a parcel over, my new mobile phone arrived, and I have been playing with it for most of the evening, maybe one day, I'll work it all out! I did get it to talk to our wireless network and got into the internet, not bad. It's fun so far!
CU tomorrow

Day 171

Good things come to those that wait! As of July 1st my boss will no longer be my boss! He will still be at the company, but he won't have any personnel under him. Now it is just wait and see who comes next!

This afternoon was a busy one, Katrin came to help out. Robert was invited to a birthday party two villages from here at 3pm, also at 3pm Florian's sister was dropping off her girls for me to babysit. Mmh, how to solve the problem, 1) I mustn't tell Robert the girls are coming otherwise he wouldn't want to go to the party, 2) leave home before the girls get here, 3) have to have someone here for when the girls come - Thanks Katrin!
It all worked fine, Richard was thrilled that his cousins were here, and they all played really well. 2 of the girls were upstairs building Lego and playing playmobil and Annika and Richard were on the Wii downstairs (along with Katrin's boys and Sabine's youngest)
At 6pm I had to pick Robert up again, and I left Richard and Annika at home playing and the other two came with me to surprise Robert. Who was well surprised and excited. Back home they all played or watched the wii until their parents came to pick them up again!

Busy day! CU tomorrow

Day 170

Today the boys had a football tournament. this one was being held by our football club, so that meant that we all had to pitch in. I volunteered to sell coffee and cakes, which meant Florian got to look after and watch the kids! The weather got it all wrong and thought it was April and not June, so we had everything except snow I think, it was wet, windy, sunny, cloudy, blue sky, very very strange weather, but mostly it was cold, so we sold LOTS of coffee. As we were on in the morning we didn't sell many cakes, but what we had there looked delicious.
Florian took lots of pictures of the football for me, this is my favourite! Makes me giggle everytime!

When we got home, we all warmed up again and the boys played on the Wii!
CU tomorrow

Day 168 and Day 169

I forgot, yep, I forgot to blog yesterday, I nearly forgot to pick Florian up at the station too, so it goes with the theme of Friday! But from the beginning

Friday - Day 167
Robert was not a happy chappy in the morning, Richard didn't have any Kindergarden, so I made Robert go to the busstop on his own. Oh dear, tears again, but he still had to walk on his own! Last time he told me he was crying cause Richard got to watch more TV than him, so there was no way I was giving in this time!
Richard and I went to the bakers to meet with other Mums and kids who also had no kindergarden! It was a great morning, its been a while since we have been to the bakers, and even the girl there was pleased to see me! I told her we would be back as soon as autumn comes back!

In the afternoon Richard and I took Robert to his friends for a birthday party - they were going to Takka Tukka Land (indoor playground) so he was very excited about it all! Richard and I went down the road and played and chatted to Sabine and kids. We didn't even bother to go home first. Which is where I went wrong. I was fully expecting Florian not to be home until after the kids were in bed (he had been in Belgium), so I had no problem sitting at Sabine's chatting. Just before 5pm I decided, that maybe we should go home and just check emails to make sure...and oops, there was an email there saying "I'll be on the train that gets in at 5.12pm" - BIG OOPS, it was already 5 to 5! So Richard and I rushed to the car and drove to the station, we got there with a minute or two to spare, phew. But all was OK, the train was late!

Robert got home from his party at 7.30 pm, he'd had a great time. Florian was already out at sport then, but Robert didn't mind!

And then the evening came, and I hadn't taken a picture all day and then promptly forgot to blog! oops!

Day 168 - Saturday
A lovely lazy Saturday! Florian went and got rolls for breakfast -delicious! After that the boys (including Florian) had fun on the Wii, and I had fun in the internet. (I forgot to do one of my scrapping duties - blog Layout of the Day yesterday so I apologised for that - I think yesterday was a day of forgetfulness!)
In the afternoon Florian and I moved some cupboards about upstairs, so Richard now has a set of drawers that he can open without help! After that it was out to the garden for a game of Rummikub (our new bigger set which we bought with our birthday money!)
Whilst we were playing Richard was playing football or something, and all of a sudden he screamed, he was getting his ball out from under the bench and the bench fell over and on to the bridge of his foot. OUCH! We gave him some Arnika and cooled it for him, but he said he couldn't walk on it! And it really looked as though he meant it! Everytime he tried to stand on it, he ended up hopping. Florian and I had just decided who was going to take him to hospital to have it xrayed, when Robert decided he wanted to go cycling, he said Richard could go on his scooter cause he had hurt his foot. We told Richard we were going to let the doctor look at his foot, Richard said, he was going to try and ride his scooter, he got off of my lap - walked to the scooter NO LIMP, got on it and rode off! MAGIC! I would have looked a right fool at the doctors! But I would rather it that way than any other!

After tea Florian and Robert were on the Wii again, and Richard came in the lounge saying "Mummy, Sunny doesn't mind" - what doesn't Sunny mind?

I think he did a little bit! Cause he ran straight off when Richard put him down. But he did come back, when I called him, and then Richard and I both had a cuddle with him

CU tomorrow

Day 167

English class this morning, I want the kids to "perform" for their parents in two weeks, mmh could turn out embarassing, OR the kids could surprise me and actually get it right "on the night" (in our case morning) we'll see!
This afternoon Robert spotted, that once again we have ants living in our lounge with us, so after he had finished his homework, we went into town and got some poison to put down.

Whilst there we picked up a prescription for a friend and then I treated the boys to an ice-cream at the ice-cream parlour. The boys had a Mickey Mouse and Pinocchio and I had spaghetti ice cream. Delicious!

Don't ask! He decided to spoon some of the ice-cream into Pinocchio's hat!

Back home I put the poison straight down, and I hope that was the last we see of the ants and their flying partners! Yuck!
CU tomorrow

Day 166

Hihi, I was busy scrapping and watching NCIS, when I saw first Mum and then Florian pop up on skype, that means they had just come online and were probably on the lookout for my daily post! hihi! Well, I am here now, typing as fast as I can, whilst shrinking a picture for the blog at the same time!

Two lots of great news today, the first came this morning as a phone call. Yesterday was World Blood Donor Day (or something like that) and I decided that it was time again to write to the red cross to find out if I can donate blood again yet! And today they phoned me back! And woohoo I am allowed to donate, in fact according to this phone call, I have always been allowed to donate. The rule that if you were in England between 1979 and 1996 for longer than 6 months you can't donate, apparently meant for 6 months in a row and not added up! So yep, I can donate! But I will be sensible and wait until after our holiday and then go, but I am quite looking forward to doing my good deed again!

So the second bit of good news is, that our fight to keep our Kindergarden teacher paid off! She signed her new contract today!! Such great news!

So what else is new...er I did the ironing (not exciting, I know), Robert took his time finishing his homework (and I think half of that was work he didn't finish at school...I think we need to practise on speeding him up! Football training today, this is Robert getting a tip on how to run with the ball and then shoot, and how to then carry on running. Lets hope at the tournament on Sunday he remembers!

OK time to finish my layout and get myself to bed
CU tomorrow

Day 165

Blogwise I would say today was a pretty boring day. I had work in the morning, well I was there...! This afternoon was spent doing homework, watering all the plants in the garden and feeding the animals! Then just as the boys were starting to play out in the garden it started to rain, so I let them come in and I put Ice Age 2 on for them (we recorded it at the weekend for them). I think we were about 15 minutes in to the film, when the sun came back out again, but oh well, they really enjoyed the film!
and by the time that finished it was time for tea, then bed! So nothing much to report from today. I took the camera upstairs with me, for when they were getting ready for bed, and got this cute (well I think it is) picture of them cleaning their teeth!

Note Robert is wearing MY favourite T-shirt!!
CU tomorrow

Day 164

Bank holiday in Germany today so no work for me and Florian, no school for Robert and no kindergarden for Richard! Florian and I had a lay in, whilst the boys were watching TV downstairs. We took it nice and easy in the morning, the boys were on the Wii (that includes Florian) and I finished my book (The Help by Kathryn Stockett). In the afternoon Florian's sister and our friends came round for a bbq. The weather wasn't quite as nice as yesterday, but that didn't stop us bbq'ing! Everyone bought a little something round and we ate really well!
We bought baguettes in the morning and I made garlic butter to go with them, our friends bought pasta salad round (that had garlic in too), and we had so many sausages...! Delicious!
Unfortunately Florian had to go back to work tonight, our friends took him to the station, sometimes I wish it could be weekends forever!

The season finale of Glee is on a minute, so I wanted to finish blogging before then. And look nearly forgot the picture, here are all the kids on the trampoline this afternoon

CU tomorrow

Day 163

This is what the boys do of a morning - watch TV and cuddle Sunny, and it looks like Sunny LOVES it!

We had a lovely lazy day today, we were out in the garden all day, reading and playing with the kids (well Florian did the playing, I did more reading!)
We did get our weeds sprayed with the weedkiller, now fingers xed that it does its job!

The boys rediscovered there wheelbarrow at some point during the afternoon, and here they are "using" it!!

Late in the afternoon Florian's sister phoned and wanted to know if we fancied going to the festival in their village for a sausage and chips for tea...we were really lazy when she phoned and weren't sure whether we were going. BUT we let the boys choose, and of course then we went. It was good fun, apart from the part, when they were playing hide and seek, and I couldn't find Richard....but that only lasted probably 2 minutes, but they were LONG two minutes! We told them then, that a festival was not a clever place to play hide and seek at!!

Florian let me watch a "chick flick" tonight (Definitely, maybe), I enjoyed it, and he enjoyed his book!
CU tomorrow

Day 162

Weekend! Robert got an alarm clock for his birthday which we have been using this week to get them up for school. Me, being the mean Mum I am, thought that this morning I would set his alarm for 7.30 rather than 7am! Mmh didn't work, when it rang at 7.30am I heard Robert come running up from downstairs to turn it off - they had heard it over the baby phone!! So much for a lay in for both of them!

Florian took the boys to get some rabbit food and weedkiller this morning. So I had a little bit of a break - when I said thank you Florian said, it won't be long, hey I'll take what I can get! :o)

Unfortunately it looked like rain for most of the day, so we never put the weedkiller on our weeds, as it has to be on for four hours, we didn't think it would stay dry that long. We were wrong, it never did rain! Florian did get all our hedge cut today, and the boys helped with the raking and clearing of the twigs!
Katrin and her kids stopped by for a bit, and Katrin was witness to a really good paddy by Richard! Everyone was having a cake (they are packaged separately in little bags) when I gave Richard his, he broke it into 4 pieces in the bag... and then wanted to take a different cake, as his was broken. Well, I was having none of that! And he went off in a huff, and saying over and over and over again "cake", "I want cake"- well I kept saying - yes you can have cake, here it is!

He thought it even less amusing when I got the camera out! and kept running inside in an attempt to escape having his picture taken! Eventually the draw of the cake was too much for him and he came closer, where I got this picture of him!

You can see the tension bursting to come out there! in the end he gave in and ate all the crumbs he had made (oh yeah, somewhere in there he ended up trampling on the bag so it was no longer 4 pieces of cake, but just crumbs!) He apologised after eating the cake and then got a whole one. But all of this drama went on for probably at least 20minutes, maybe even half an hour! Silly boy!

Whilst Richard was having a paddy, Robert was climbing the apple tree (the slide helped him get into the tree!)

CU tomorrow (hopefully less drama)

Day 161

Lovely day today! It was the Kindergarden outing today. The bus picked us up at 8.30am and off we went. First we went to a "Schokokuss-Fabrik", a Schokokuss looks like a teacake but does NOT taste like one in the least, so when at 10 you move from England to Germany and someone gives you a German one...YUCK! And that is a lasting memory, cause I still don't like them, even if I have just watched them being made and all! Anyhow, the kids all loved it there and we all got a box of them to take home - Florian will enjoy them! Here some pics of the process

and yes if it looks a bit cramped, it is the smallest Schokokuss-Factory in the world - it is only the size of a garage, but according to the owner and their homepage, they make up to 10.000 a day!

From there it was on to a little zoo, it had quite a lot of animals and birds and a great big playground! We all had a lovely time. I decided that I should get a good portrait shot of all the kindergarden kids, and I think I did, Richard played with his friends, and we all enjoyed seeing the animals and birds.

We got back about 3pm and then went to pick Robert up at his friends house. He had had a great time there. Soon after that it was time to go and pick Florian up, and then we went out for a Pizza - yummy!
Florian is now out at sport, and I am going to play with the photos I took today!
CU tomorrow

Day 160

English in the morning, we started practicing our little play we will be putting on for the parents on June 30th. Mmh, at the moment it can go both ways either a big embarrassment or a big hit! We'll see, but I must say the kids were good this morning and enjoyed pretending to be caterpillars and butterflies!

This afternoon we didn't really do too much, for most of the afternoon I had a headache, but the boys were good to me and kept it quiet. Whilst Robert was doing his homework, Richard and I made some REAL lemonade. Here he is watching and waiting for the pot to boil!

And here is the finished product.

DELICIOUS! (I have to remember to save some for the boys tomorrow and not drink it all tonight!!)
After that we went out and watered all our plants, the boys were both excited to see that the Zucchini is already flowering. Nothing showing on the lines of carrots, but it has only been two days!

When we came back in, Robert didn't know what to do, so I suggested he could do some reading, so he went upstairs and got the Treehouse book down. Richard who was upstairs sorting Lego at the time followed the book down. He didn't want Robert to read, he wanted Mummy to, so I did. We only had one chapter left in that book, so we finished it. Then Robert went to get the next part, and we read, and then read another chapter, and then another and before we knew it, we had read the whole book!! They were so excited about it, that they even said thank you at bedtime! Bless them!

I'm having an early night tonight, nothing on TV, so I'm going to read a couple of chapters of MY book now!
CU tomorrow

Day 159

Library this morning, the boys were quite upset, cause we hadn't yet finished the books we got out last time. It was the last library this term, so we had to make sure we had all the books back, then I was allowed to bring the books back home with me, plus a couple more for the holidays. So the boys were very excited when they saw the pile of books I had!
After checking all the books, we all had breakfast in the library, I tried to sell some of my cake there, but everyone was more into the rolls and jam, meat or cheese, and then had no room left for cake!

This afternoon was football, last night I made a card for the trainer, who will be 50 at the beginning of July. I took it along for the other Mum's and Dad's to see and approve of it. They liked it! Now we all just have to sign it!

Oh and I promised to show you my card I got from Florian, so I took a picture of that too!

Now what did I forget, I found two ticks today and they weren't on Sunny, nope, they were on me! I got them out, the spots are now a bit itchy and sore, so I have to keep an eye on them. Very annoying. Last time I had a tick and went to the doctor, she told me that I don't need to go in, unless the red ring around the spot gets bigger than a Euro, and that the best way then to find out if I had got Borreliosis from it, is to test the tick - so I have kept the little monsters that bit me, just in case!

CU tomorrow