G5 Summit in Geldern

Cousins Talea and Thore were spending a week with Oma in Geldern and the two other cousins Luca and Kiron were going to be dropped off as well this weekend. So we thought it would be a brilliant idea to add Sophie to the mix. After all, Talea needed some more girl support. In order for Oma not to get a complete nervous breakdown, Berit and I stayed around to help. But the kids actually entertained each other very well.

 Two princesses and a knight

 OK, so one evening Berit and I were able to escape to watch one of the football euro cup games (Germany : Greece) on the big screen. 

 Like a production line

 Special movie treat while Thore is napping. At one point, Sophie had her arm around Talea.

 Yes, who would have ever thought? I actually started knitting. My ultimate goal is to knit the Royal Family. 

Dessert.

No comment. 

It was definitely a very fun weekend. This here is a huge reason why we moved to Germany. 

Any Excuse For a Party

We have been very busy this last month especially with traveling (be ready for loads of pictures) that I am only now starting to find time to catch up with posting pictures. 

A few days before we left for Britain, we all went an hour north where Uncle Gerrit and his girlfriend Gerdi live. They had sent us an invitation to a garden party already back in January making sure that we would all be able to make it. 

 Uncle Gerrit is ready for the party or a beer. Fortunately, the weather was gorgeous. Sophie was excited to see her cousins again: here with Talea and Thore.

My brother Stefan joins Uncle Gerrit in entertaining the kids

Talea and Sophie surrounded by pink balloons...

... while Kiron is showing off his chain saw (!) to cousin Thore.

Although there was more delicious food apart from dessert, devouring the mousse au chocolat made for the best shots.

So yummy.

So after the meal, we were stunned to find out that Uncle Gerrit and his girlfriend Gerdi had eloped to a light house by the North Sea two weeks previously and were now celebrating their wedding with all of us. Like I said, we take any excuse for a good party. Congratulations!

Waiting for the toast.

Cheers to that!

Irrland with Kiron and Luca

The big adventure park, Irrland, near my mum's has opened again for the season. We met with my older sister, Anke, and her two boys at my mum's - one big family - and trekked over to Irrland for the afternoon. It was a first for the boys, Luca and Kiron.

 Sophie is showing Kiron the mud pit, i.e. heaven!

 Then Kiron discovered the tractors with manure carts attached (how much more German can you get?)  and Sophie joined him for a race.

 Anke and Kiron wobbling on a three-wheeled go cart. They got about thirty feet before Berit took over for Anke. 

 It's much faster on four wheels. Sophie is becoming a pro at these carts.

 Oma and Berit guarding the food.

A trip to Irrland is not complete without a visit to the slides. Here is a glimpse of Andrew and Sophie on the right slide.

 One of my favorite parts was watching the piglets play. But like Andrew said, it must suck to be born a pig in Germany. We could smell the sausage being grilled nearby. 

 Running off the last bits of energy on the Schwabbelmeer (wobble sea)

 Although we had initially planned to take the train back home that night, we changed our minds and stayed another night. More time for play!

Andrew and Luca

 Kiron and Sophie

Dessert while Luca gets to read tonight's story.

Winter Is Here

It has been crispy cold here over the past week with record setting low temperatures. Now all we are hoping for is a bit of snow. Sophie still keeps asking every single day. We spent a day at my sister's house in Gütersloh, where we at least had a dusting of the white stuff. 

 We keep hearing: "Well, you should have been here last year..."

I much prefer this over the rain we had in January though. 

Cousin Kiron's Birthday

It was Kiron's third birthday, so we headed over to Gütersloh for a quick overnight trip to help celebrate. Sophie and Kiron play very well together and they are always happy to see each other. 

 Sophie helped unwrap presents.

 Birthday cake at the kids' table. Note the miniature snow shovel and broom. All Kiron needs now is a lawn mover. He wants a pink one.

 I don't know what it is with Sophie's male friends to always want to try on her dresses. Kiron almost did not want to let go of this one. Very handsome.

Chilling in front of the TV at the end of a long day. 

Christmas Day Dinner Or the Geldern Chainsaw Massacre

As opposed to the majority of other English-speaking kids, Sophie slept in until about 9 am on Christmas Day.

After some playtime with the new doll house and Ariel Barbie, we headed over to a nearby restaurant to meet with my sister Anke and her family for a Christmas lunch buffet. 

When we took a shortcut through the bushes and behind the patio from the parking lot to the restaurant we got the German stare. An entire family seated near the window turned around in unison to watch us do the forbidden. I swear one uncle spat out his soup. It must have been quite the boring family gathering if we were the attraction...

 Sophie and Kiron were certainly happy to see each other again. They spent a lot of time catching up under the table.

After lunch we headed back for coffee to my mum's house. More presents were exchanged for the kids. Kiron received by far the coolest toy. Yes it's a chain saw! And he had the word down fast, walking around saying: Kettensäge - he he.

Visiting Gütersloh Again

Since we are so relatively close now, we arranged another trip to visit my sister Anke and her sons in Gütersloh for a couple of days again. Unfortunately we seem to be attracting the rain there, so that most of the time was spent with indoor activities. 

 As soon as we arrived on Monday, we headed with Kiron and Anke to his gym class, where they had a Nikolaus party for the kids with lots of cookies and other goodies.

One of Sophie's favorite things to do was going on this giant swing.

 Running off the sugar high.

 Action shot!

 Singing about the Christmas bakery (Kiron, Anke, and Sophie)

 Baking Christmas cookies. Anke had found letter stamps to mark the cookies with. 

 But about twenty minutes into it, the attention span started to be stretched.

A Lovely Visit by a Special Princess

We had my sister Anke and her two boys Luca (11) and Kiron (almost 3) come for a quick visit today. We hope it was the first of many more.

While Anke and I were having our coffee, Princess Sophie and Princess Kiron came down to surprise us.