The More the Merrier

We had friends over for a BBQ today. A perfect way to spend a Sunday in Germany. 

 Lara, Leon and Sophie were joined by Andrés and Lina for dinner.

Then a couple of nasty wasps wanted to join in as well.

The Piñata

Yes, a piñata in Germany! Not only did Andrés' and Adrian's Abuela help to build the playhouse in the back garden, she also transported a piñata in her suitcase. Our neighbor Gabi choose one early evening for the kids to have a go at that Elmo face. The closest birthday was little Adrian's, so that was more or less used as an excuse.

 Gabi giving instructions. For some reason, Lina and Sophie thought that they needed to get changed into their princess and fairy outfits.

 Andrés went ahead and showed the girls how to do it.

Then Sophie had a rather feeble go.

 And here is Lina with the piñata still intact.

 The final blow with the goodies spilling out.

 Followed by a mad hunt for the candy and various little toys.

Lina and Sophie found some Elton John-type sunglasses in the fallout.

Thank you, Abuela, please come again. We all enjoyed your visit.

A New House for the Kids

Big changes are happening in our neighbor's back garden! Could that be a play structure?!

While the neighbor boy, Andrés, is visiting his grandmother for a few days together with his dad, his mum Gabi and her mother (abuela) visiting from Mexico have been working almost around the clock to set up this fantastic play house for him. It needed to be done by this afternoon when Andrés was coming home. It was an incredible amount of work and I admire the two ladies for having been so disciplined to follow through so diligently. 

 Apart from having had the pleasure of watching little Adrian for a couple of hours here and there, this was the only time we were all asked over to help put the roof on. 

Adrian busy supervising.

 I think Andrés was really happy to discover his new toy. 

 ... unfortunately, I'm afraid he will have to share it with the two girls as there is no fence between our gardens.

This is a very quick slide and even faster when wet. 

Who needs to go to the playground now?

Musical Chairs

Sophie has been making more friends as two more girls have joined our neighborhood. They are Sissi (6) and Jessica (3) who moved here from Shanghai with their parents - talk about culture shock. 

It was Sissi's birthday today and she invited the kids from the neighborhood to celebrate with her.

 There was cake and candy and a few games such as a potato run and musical chairs.

(I apologize for the terrible picture quality)

Sissi's dad explaining the rules...

...and off they go. 

When has musical chairs ever not ended in tears?

I Want to Ride my Bicycle

Sophie's old $20 bike with the training wheels had been on its last legs, when suddenly the inner tube disintegrated. Time for a new and proper bike - without training wheels. 

She picked a pink Princess Lillifee bicycle that matches her helmet.

 And she is doing pretty well. This square in our development is perfect for learning. She just needs some more practice with the starting and stopping, but that's what Daddies are for.

Here she is with Andrés.

(By the way, that house in the background is the one that Ciaran and Sophie helped build.)

The First Annual Robertson 4th of July BBQ

There was no question though we left the U.S. that we would continue to celebrate the American holidays like Thanksgiving and the 4th of July. Any reason to have a party, right? 

Our friends and neighbors were happy to hear that and we managed to get quite a fun crowd together for our first 4th of July BBQ in Duesseldorf. 

The planning was half the fun. 

I am quite proud of my little cheese cake creation. Not quite 50 stars, but 13 stripes! And it must have tasted ok, as it was gone in a heartbeat.

We went all over town trying to find a flag post to properly hang the flag Andrew had purchased on Long Island. We could only find fixtures for boats, so our bedroom window had to make do. 

Ah, the master of the beer and the burger meat fairy, alias uncle Ralph and aunt Helga, have arrived. Let the party begin.

Well, we opted for German beer instead of an American brew. That's understandable, right?

I think this was 8 lbs of ground beef. Twelve hours later, there was none left.

We could not have lucked out more with the weather. Probably the only nice day with California blue skies in the first three weeks of July. The rain arrived two hours after the end of the party and was to stick with us.

Two of Berit's friends - Li and Dennis hanging out in the beach basket.

We extended an automatic invitation to next year's BBQ to everyone who was present today.

More red, white and blue than I ever used to wear in the States.

Let me guess, airplane talk by the grill?

Kids' corner was in our neighbor's garden.

Lina's little brother Philip taking a siesta. He was to have a rude awakening when he was in the line of fire of a water pistol squirt from his big sister.

Andrew wearing his Hawaiian airplane shirt (making sure the grill does not catch on fire?)

Caught the kids finishing the candy underneath our dining table.

Finally, sparklers for the kids. For next year, we will save some proper fireworks from New Year's. 

The party went on for many more hours. Our margarita was flowing faster than the beer until we ran out of all three bottles of tequila. 

We thank everyone for coming and celebrating and look forward to next year's bash. 

A Day by the Lake

The weather is somewhat nice, it's a Saturday, and there is a big lake with two beaches nearby. Needless to say, we joined our neighbors, jumped on our bikes, and rode a couple of miles through the forest to the Unterbacher See. Even though the temperatures were not scorching hot, it was a perfect place for kids. A beach with a water play area, shallow water and life guards. 

 Sophie and her friend Andrés spent three hours in the water and on the beach.

What a perfect afternoon in fun company.

The kids were so tired by the end of it that they fell asleep in their bike seats on the way home. 

Did I mention that there is a nudist beach right next to the beach we went to? Had a not so nice view of some fat old Germans airing out their jewels. The hot young guys must not have been out that day. 

A Sunny Sunday or Big Sister for an Afternoon

Dare I say it? Could it be that summer is sneaking this way? I am no longer pulling up my shoulders when I go outside either because I am cold or to keep the rain from going down my neck. How I have missed this weather! And I think I am the person who is the most excited about this in Germany because I have already heard so many complaints about the humidity. What humidity? If you want humid and muggy, go to the Eastern half of the U.S. This here is just right.

Finally a sunny (and warm) Sunday!

 Already in the morning, Sophie was busy playing with neighbor boy Andrés in the paddling pool. A big hit! Look at that blue sky over there! And note how we have taken down the wire on the fences (not sure if I had mentioned this before) so that they actually have three gardens to run around in.

 When Andrés had swimming lessons in the afternoon, Sophie got to play big sister for a few hours with little Adrian. She was being very good with him. She did not leave his side.

 She even helped getting him dressed so that we could take a walk over to the playground.

 This is where we ran into Sophie's other new friend, Talisa, who lives right above the ice cream parlor. After they rode their bikes for a while, a long while, we were all ready for some ice cream. A very nice couple let the girls cut ahead of them in line and then treated them to their ice creams. How nice!

And that was the last time we saw Sophie's bicycle in working order. The next day the inner tube had blown. Maybe it's time to upgrade to a seriously roadworthy bicycle. We will have to ask Dad because he is making the money (I quote Sophie).

Not the Baltic Sea nor the North Sea, but...

... the Unterbacher See (See meaning lake).

This large nature area with woods, lake, playgrounds and numerous bike trails is literally in our back garden. Oma came over to visit us for the night, so we gave her Andrew's bike and off we went to explore this Duesseldorf beach.

After some time at the huge playground (I did not take a picture, sorry), we were all thirsty and walked over to the beer garden next door (I love Germany for that). They had even thought of putting a sand box next to the tables. And look who we ran into at the beer garden - our neighbor Andrés and his family! Didn't I say it was literally in our back garden?

(This was before Sophie poured sand all over poor Andrés' head.) 

Face Paintings, Swimming, Biking and Friends

You could say that by now we have settled into a little bit of a routine here in our new home in Düsseldorf. It's quite nice - not too crowded of a schedule, leaving plenty of time for excursions and play. 

Here are a few highlights of what Sophie has been up to over the past couple of weeks, waiting for temperatures to warm up a little so that she can play more outside.

Our little bunny

 While playing at the gym's childwatch on a Sunday morning, she was lucky to have her face beautifully painted by a professional visagist. Needless to say, Sophie enjoys the childwatch and I enjoy my zumba class. ;-)

 On Mondays, Sophie started swimming classes at the gym. When she has learned to swim independently she will take a swimming test called "Sea Horse" certification. The pool is too deep for her to be able to stand anywhere, so for her first class, Andrew jumped in the water with her. By the second week, I was able to just watch her from the side. She is making big improvements, but above all she loves the water and feels so proud to be learning how to swim.

 Learning more important stuff: we took the training wheels off her bike and she has been pedaling laps around our little square which is perfect for bike riding. I'm sure there'll be a few scrapes and bruises before she is steady on two wheels.

 On Saturday, May 12 we went to the Old Town with our neighbors where they had a European Union Festival. Oddly enough the Greece booth seemed to be the most popular one that day. 

Here is Sophie and Andrés enjoying some French Chansons in front of the music stage.

 Of course Sophie could not pass up the face painting booth. And us big people could not pass up the Austrian wine and French tartes flambées.

 This time Sophie chose a dolphin pattern. 

 May is full of holidays in Germany (May Day, Ascension Day and Whitsun). One of them was today, and since the weather was cool but dry, Sophie and I decided to cycle back to the wild animal park in Grafenberg which had that fabulous playground in the woods. We were here last when Sophie's friend Ciaran was visiting. Sophie met some kids the same age at the playground and was brave enough to try out the giant slide over and over again.

 Then we still had a carrot and an apple to give to the bambis. The young wild boar had grown quite a bit and were losing their stripes. There was a bit of a funky smell near the boar enclosure, so we did not linger there for long.

Deer enjoying our apple.

Then it was just an all downhill ride for us home. 

Acquiring Essentials on Andrew's Birthday

We had our big helpers coming to visit for a few days: Oma, Aunt Helga, and Uncle Ralph. Armed with a drill, wrench and other handy tools, they were ready for our to-do list (not the honey-do list as I know better not to let Andrew near these fiddly tasks).

 First priority: setting up our Strandkorb (courtesy of Oma) while it was still mostly dry out. With this Strandkorb (literally beach basket) we have become very German. It really does block out the wind and some rain. And there is even a little table for our gin and tonics and apple juice of course - very clever design. Did I mention the foot rests?

 Quick break for the helper, Uncle Ralph. We beat the estimated set-up time of 2 hours by 15 minutes.

 My mum already promised that she would be spending quite some time in the Strandkorb this summer.

 Next, we headed to one of the numerous DIY-stores (the Germans have more than the Italians, British and some other country I can't remember put together) and to our surprise were met with excellent customer service by a first generation Italian-German. She sold us the "Bakersfield" grill. We downsized a little from our U.S. "monster" of a BBQ, but it can still cook good old American hamburgers. Andrew is happy.

 We had our neighbors (Andrés and Lina) over for our birthday dinner.

 ... as well as Berit and her friend Li.

I have to say, I was quite proud of my birthday chocolate cake creation. In never thought that baking could be so much fun.