Day 211

Last day of July and last day of Dinphy's stay :o(
But we finished it off with a lot of fun and food at the bakers! We haven't been for quite a while and the girl working there was pleased to see us back!
As time and time before we used the bakers as our photo studio and got some great shots of the kids, here just one of many!

Then just us adults

And then we roped in Florian's sister as photographer for a group shot

Unfortunately at noon it was time for Dinphy and family to set off home, so we waved goodbye from the bakers window and sent them on their way

Afterwards we headed for home. We spent the afternoon outside in front of the house with the neighbours, whilst the kids drove around and around, first on their bikes and then with the remote control cars!
CU tomorrow

Day 209, Day 210 and Day 211

Time flies when you are having fun, and that I suppose is why I haven't blogged in a few days, but I am already to do some catching up, so be prepared!

Day 209 (Thursday)
Robert's fever is going down now, but we all decided on a day of rest for Robert, and the best way to do that was to send our visitors out on their own. They headed to Frankfurt to the zoo, with a back up plan (Senckenberg Museum) if it started to rain. I'm sure Dinphy  won't mind me showing you a couple of their photos, especially as I didn't take any!
Look how close you can get to the animals now at Frankfurt Zoo, not bad!

 The kids were all glad to be back together for tea though, I think they all missed oneanother!

Day 210 (Friday)
Florian is home today, so we all got to go to the amusement park close by, where I took lots and lots of pictures, making up for the lack of them yesterday!
This is the petting zoo there, Robert has nearly all of the species from the petting zoo around him, I think only the turkey and the cockerel are missing! And in the background you can see Dinphy's kids feeding the animals from the outside!

 These swings were quite popular with the kids and adults alike! You had to pull the rope to get them to swing higher and higher!

 Then everyone had a go on the "mushroom" (that is what it looked like) Richard looked a bit scared at first, but he was soon smiling and thoroughly enjoying it!

 This ride was hard work for Florian and Dinphy, at least when they went around with the youngest kids, as their legs didn't reach the pedals. You had to pedal yourself around this ride!

 Then it was time for the sledge ride, Lisa was just big enough to go on this one on her own. They all really really enjoyed it.

We had a great day out, and were really lucky with the weather, just before we arrived, there had been a lot of rain, but none whilst we were there (unless you count the 20 drops that fell whilst queuing for the sledging!)

In the evening I went out to check on the chickens, to see if they were in the chicken house like they should be, and was quite excited when I couldn't see any sat on the fence. We then all went out to see them in the house, when we walked up to the gate we couldn't work out what had happened to the apple tree, that is when Hans spotted, that it was hanging sooooo low, cause all 6 chickens we sat in it! Too funny!

We picked them all off of the tree, took them in the house and then clipped their wings, hopefully tonight they will be in the house, like they are supposed to be!

Day 211 (Saturday)
I was up and at Aldi nice and bright and early and got some bits for the barbecue today! Mum and Dad came up to join us too! Unfortunately the weather wasn't as nice today as it was yesterday and although we barbecued, we ate indoors. Here are the men hard at work!

 and the kids tucking in!

And here are some of the fun things the kids got up to

Looks like Dad had the hardest job of the day, keeping the kids happy! First table football, then monopoly!

Nearly time to go and check on the chickens, if it is as funny as yesterday, I'll post more pictures tomorrow!
CU then!

Day 208

Doctors this morning, I am so glad our doctor is back off of holiday, cause I trust her more than any others I have seen lately. She checked Robert thoroughly, showed me how to spot the signs of meningitis and determined that he does not have it, and he "only" has a viral infection. We have some homeopathic medicine for him and hopefully soon it will start to work.
We took it easy today (his temperature was still pretty high), and stayed in. Dinphy and family went into Fulda in the afternoon so that Robert had the possibility of taking it easy. And whilst they were gone the boys and I had a game of Monopoly.

Richard was a bit disappointed that I didn't let him do the bank, but I told them both, that someone who is really really really good at maths has to be the banker! (Robert was only "really" good, I'm two "really's" better!)

CU tomorrow

Day 206 and Day 207

Day 206 - Monday
The weather was no better on Monday but the weather forecast says it will start improving from Tuesday onwards, so we decided that today was the day for the indoor playground, but first Dinphy and I left her husband looking after the kids and we went to Aldi for some shopping and after lunch off we went to the playground.
The main attraction this time there was the big vulcano slide, here are the kids on it!

In the evening, Dinphy, Hans and I had a great game of Rummikub, I thrashed them, sorry I shouldn't really do that to my guests, but I couldn't help it, I just kept on winning!

Day 207 - Tuesday
Yay, the sun came out today, and we spent all day in the garden! We had some new guests join us today too, meet the new girls on the block! (Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo, Alex and Tiger)

The kids enjoyed the trampoline

and when Robert started to feel a bit off I got the Playdoh out for them all to play with! We had lunch in the garden too.

IN the afternoon Robert was feeling really bad, and when I took his temperature it was sky high (39.4°C) so I gave him some Ibuprofen and made him have a lie down. After that he was able to join in all the fun, but he did miss his first football training of the season which should have been today.
Hans cook for us today and we had a delicious meal of meatballs and spaghetti (I even have some in my freezer for next week, yummy)

At bed time Robert's temperature was down to 38.2°C still high but not as bad, I gave him another dose of medicine and put him to bed. About an hour later he called, that he couldn't sleep, when I went up, he was burning up, I took his temperature and it was 39.2°C that isn't supposed to happen, not when he has had his medicine. I phoned Katrin up so she could ask her Mum about ginving him more medicine...mmh, her suggestion was to take him to the hospital, as a high fever and neck ache can mean meningitis...agh. So at 9pm off we went to the hospital.
The doctor there said that although he has a high temperature and something is probably on its way, it wasn't meningitis as his neck wasn't stiff (even if it did hurt), so he prescribed some paracetemol and we went back home. Phew now for our doctors in the morning!
CU tomorrow

Day 204 and Day 205

I was too busy having fun to blog yesterday, still busy having fun, but taking 10 minutes to blog before I end up having to do a whole week!
Summer is still missing so if anyone spots it, please send it here, we are missing it!

Day 204 - Saturday
We took a chance with the weather and drove out to Point Alpha, the US base on the former East German border.

It was very interesting as always and as Dinphy said, seeing it there makes it so much more real, as you can visualise just how close East Germany was and how devastating it must have been for families living there and even torn apart. The kids didn't get that part of the tour, but they did enjoy a good game of tag around the tanks, and we got them to pose in front of one.

After being there and having lunch there we then picked Florian up at the station. In the evening we went to our favourite Chinese restaurant. It is one of two places in the shopping centre that are still open, it is really eerie going there, but plenty of people still do, it was full! It was as always delicious and we all ate much too much!

Day 205 - Sunday
According to my weather app, the chances of rain today were only 10% so we decided that if we wrapped up warm we could brave the colder weather (it never got over 14°C today) and go to the amusement park which is quite close by. So off we went, by the time we got to the motorway (which isn't far away) it was raining, so we pulled on to a carpark and rediscussed our plans. So from there we went to a cave nearby. We had to do a short but steep walk to get to the entrance of the cave, and then there we had to wait for quite a while without actually knowing whether it was open or not...but it was. Whilst waiting I got this picture of the kids!

The tour guide did a really good job, even involving all the kids in the tour. This is the main cave and you can see up to the top of the hill, where 400 years ago (according to the guide) a cow fell through and that is how they found the caves.

Afterwards we took group pictures, Hans took this one so Florian could be on the picture, and I thought Florian should feature on the blog as he doesn't very often.

Afterwards we went home for lunch and then we went to the Sieberzmühle where we had booked the bowling lanes for a couple of hours! We had a great time, one game we played girls vs. boys, which was 3 against 5, but no problem for us, we won it TWICE!! And here a picture of a winning team!

After playing we were going to go on the playground, but it started raining, so we decided to eat at the Sieberzmühle instead. Delicious as always, and after eating we did get to the playground (between showers).
And now we are all officially worn out, but it was a fun day!
CU tomorrow

Day 203

OK own up, who stole summer!!! I was sure Dinphy was coming to visit in the SUMMER holidays not the AUTUMN holidays, but it feels more like autumn, it was only 15°C today and really really windy....

We did go out in the garden this morning and the kids picked some of our red currants, in fact they picked about 2kg of them, and out of 1kg (and some strawberries) Dinphy, Hans and I made some jam! Which is on the menu for breakfast tomorrow!

In the afternoon we went up to the playground, where the kids had a great time, taking the death slide to its limits!

When we got back the kids were fighting at the doorway over who gets to stand where to go in, but when we got there to stop them fighting, they changed their tune and said they were stood there for a photo, well guess what Richard didn't agree!!!

CU tomorrow

Day 202

This is Richard when he woke up this morning!

 that red ring has been on the side of his face since about Monday, only then I thought that maybe Robert had hit him with something, but when this morning it had grown I got a bit worried. I did a naughty thing and googled it and oops, it is "Borreliose" (lymes disease in English) what you can get if you get a tick! AGH, so I called our doctor who is of course on holiday then I tried the paedatrician he too is on holiday. So then I called the stand in doctor no answer, by now I am getting a bit panicky, but I finally got through to one and off we go. The doctor wasn't 100% sure it was a tick, but to be on the safe side, Richard now has to take (and I have to remember) Antibiotics for the next 14 days!
Luckily it only looks wierd Richard can't feel a thing, it doesn't hurt or itch or anything.

Once back more tidying up and then I rushed to finish the photo book. (Uploaded and ordered already now). Dinphy and family also had an exciting journey, they stopped for lunch and then the car refused to start again. They are now members of the ADAC (the German AA) and have a new battery! They got here at about 6pm, exactly when I sent the boys out to look out for them!
And here are the kids on the Wii together!

CU tomorrow

Day 201

busy morning! The boys tidied up their bedroom and I got the guest room, bathroom and office all tidied and cleaned ready for tomorrow. That was pretty much the whole morning in a nutshell!
After lunch, I sat down with a book I started when I went to bed last night, and oops by 2.30pm I had finished it! It was soooo good! It was part 2 of the audio book we listened to on the way to England and I can highly recommend both. AND it has been translated into English (its a German book) So in German the first part is called "Gut gegen Nordwind" by Daniel Glattauer, and in English "Love Virtually" same author of course! It is best if you know nothing more about it than that it is Email communication.

After finishing it was time for another trip to the playground. Today we were meeting to discuss whether or not the Kindergarden kids will be taking part in our village parade in August. We decided yes and set about discussing how to dress them up. The parade is all about the blueberry harvest at that time of year. So we will try our best to make the kids look a bit like blueberries using blue-ish rubbish sacks! Pics in August!

When we set off to go I realised that the boys raincoats weren't at home, which meant they were at Florian's sisters, so after the playground we set off to pick up the coats! We got them and we also got a box of things to paint. So if the weather is really bad this coming week, we do have one fun activity!

CU tomorrow

Day 200

This morning we visited my friend at work, to give her all the goodies I brought back from England for her. The boys thought it was fun in Mummy's office, and they drew me some pictures on my deskpad for when I go back to work after the holidays!
From there it was on to Aldi for some more food shopping (when I went on Saturday afternoon, whilst there were no other people out shopping, there was also no fruit and veg left!!), the boys were really well behaved there, cause I had promised that if they were they were allowed to spend the pennies that my friend gave them and Richard still had some from Mum and Dad at a different shop. So afterwards that is where we went - a Euro shop. Richard had 4 Euros to spend and Robert 2. They took their time deciding and enjoying! Robert got himself a plastic airplane, and Richard, well Richard is Richard, he got some things to make things with! He got a packet of pipe cleaners, a packet of decorative jewels, a packet of little pompoms and a plain box, which he can decorate with his buy! So cute!

This afternoon we went to the playground where they saw a LOT of their friends, here are some of those that were there.

CU tomorrow

Day 199

Oh the mountains of washing and ironing!! When I saw them this morning I thought it would be at least tomorrow before I finished, but I got it all done and put away today! Quite pleased with myself really.

So now the boys have summer holidays, and this is what the weather was like today...

Only not all the time, it kept taking its turn with the sun, but it was so unsettled that you couldn't do anything. Everytime I sent the boys out to play outside, they would be back in after 5 minutes cause it was raining again! Very annoying! They weren't too disappointed though, they got 30minutes on the Wii, a game of "Sorry", played some Lego, played some Ministeck, did some maths/drawing and a few other things I have probably forgotten!

I have been working on getting some more pages made for our photobook of the holiday, I have to hurry myself otherwise the coupon will no longer be vaild, and of course we are getting visitors on Thursday and are already counting sleeps! I just hope the weather gets better for then!

CU tomorrow

Day 198

This morning we went to Florian's sister for breakfast. They moved to their new house whilst we were on holiday, and today we got to see it for the first time. It's BIG! It is also very 70s so they have a lot of decorating in the next few years, but nothing that needs doing in a hurry!
After breakfast Florian and I left the boys there and drove to Frankfurt to see the last Harry Potter film. We had to drive that far, if we wanted to see the original version as opposed to the German dubbed version.
We really enjoyed the film, and as we were out all day, I didn't get a picture, but here is the poster that was hanging in the cinema!

And this evening it was more Harry Potter as ITV was showing a Behind the Magic about the last two HP films.
A perfect Harry Potter day!
CU tomorrow

Day 183 - 197 - Holiday in England

We're home, unpacked and a lot of the washing is done! We had a great time, so be prepared for a LOT of photos!

Day 183
Packing day and no pictures!

Day 184
Travel day - we left at 2am in the morning and arrived somewhere about 3pm English time
Here are the boys on the boat!

Day 185
Into the woods today where the boys went climbing and then on a nature walk

Day 186
Beach today and we couldn't have asked for better weather, the kids even got to go in the sea, and later on we found some great rockpools, even if they did lack in the crab department!

Day 187
We visited an old coal mine today, we werent allowed to take the cameras down into (or anything else with batteries for that matter) But I got a couple of pics before we went down

Day 188
The weather was a bit iffy today so we drove to Techniquest in Cardiff, it was a great hands-on museum, we all had a great time!

Day 189
We decided to ignore the weather forecast and went to Thomasland armed with an umbrella and rain coats. We were there all day and the brolly only came out for one ride the boys went on, not bad, if you remember the weather forecast was for rain all day!

Day 190
Shopping today - the boys spent their birthday money in the toyshop. Then on to my uncles to watch the vintage cars on their rallye past my uncle's house!

Day 191
Castle time, the boys were suitably impressed that real knights could have been there!

Day 192
Safari park today, a highlight of the holiday, the drive around bit was about 90minutes long and we saw all of the animals that were supposed to be there, it seemed that none were asleep. Some came right up and said hello even!

And in the bit you walk around, we saw (amongst other animals) meerkats with their three week old babies and lemurs up close and personal!

Day 193
Weston-Super-Mare today the weather not quite what we were hoping for, but we still had a great time, first on the pier and slot machines then on the beach!

Day 194
Mum and Dad had the kids for the day, whilst we went to Cardiff shopping! Next year we will bring the kids to see this castle and then visit that too and not just the shops!

Day 195
Last day today, so lots of packing and a golf tournament!

Day 196
Travel day, we started Thursday evening at 9.30pm and got home at 11am. The boys slept nearly all the way home, so that was a definite plus for night travel, lack of sleep not so brilliant and no photos!

Day 197
It was great away but it was good to be home too. I love seeing our animals again! (Richard is carrying the rabbit!)

Cu tomorrow, with a more normal post, off to bed now to catch up on more sleep!