Royal Company

My brother with his two kids in tow has been visiting with my mum's for a few days. Today they came over to Duesseldorf to drill a few more holes into my sister's walls at her new place. She has done more with her studio in the last two months than we have with our place in the past year. ☺

Talea and Thore stayed at our house to play with Sophie while my brother Stefan went off to work on said project.

 Here is a picture of Princesses Talea and Sophie and Thore the knight at their dinner of cannelloni. 

Thore actually said to me that he did not like the meal at all as he was munching away. 

I put the hair clips in so that he could at least see his food.

A Quick Visit from a Hamburger

Berit is moving into her new studio about 2 km from our house and our dear brother Stefan came down from Hamburg to help her. He brought along his son Thore. Sophie was happy to practice being a "big sister" to him. She even read him a story at one point. Really cute. 

Here is a picture of the two of them eating some ice cream at the playground.

Jump Around the Paddling Pool

Cousins Thore and Talea are visiting Oma in Geldern this weekend. Sophie went ahead with Berit on the train on Friday night to join them. This meant that Andrew and I did not only have an evening off (and we did not stay at home), we also got to sleep in the next morning before we also headed for Geldern 20 hours later.

 Oma had bought a giant paddling pool for the kids. She must not have been thinking because she does not have a garden hose. It took innumerable trips to the kitchen sink with the watering can. 

 One - two - three...

 ...everybody jump now!

And time for a break in true Thore-style.

Hamburg

Our biggest trip during Sophie's break from preschool was up to see my brother and his family in Hamburg. Weatherwise it still feels more like September than July. Brr!

 Sophie is becoming a pro at taking train journeys.

On Friday morning Sophie and I met with my childhood friend, Britta, for brunch. Britta also has a daughter, Hannah, but unfortunately she was visiting her grandmother. 

In the afternoon we picked up Thore and Talea from preschool/daycare, went home and played princess and knights.

 The weather was improving on Saturday: time to head outside. First to the local playground.

 Then we went to the Landungsbruecken (shipping piers) in St. Pauli, where we sat on the steps and ate   herring fish rolls and watched the athletes cycle past on their triathlon.

 From the piers, we took the ferry (sorry too crowded for a good picture) to the Elbe beach, where it was time for dessert.

 We watched some impressive ships sail by 

 Even a Mississippi riverboat.

 Sophie grabbed my camera and took a picture of Talea.

On Sunday, I wanted Sophie to be able to run around outside as much as possible before we were going to jump back on the train home. We explored yet another playground (this one was big) in a park called Planten un Blomen.

Big slides, tunnels, ladders, mountains...

 The three crazy kids.

 A derelict building right next to the playground made for an interesting backdrop.

 As did the TV tower.

Thore, Alexandra, Stefan and Talea.

Thank you for having us and see you again soon.

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!

A Walk in the Woods

Before we were all going to spend a few hours sitting down in cars or on trains to travel back to our respective homes, the whole bunch donned our hiking boots and marched towards the woods. The forest around Bentheim covers a large area and is quite famous in the region. There is also an old sandstone quarry where we walked. The royal palace in Amsterdam was built with Bentheim sandstone for example.

My old stomping ground - and my brother's

The two city slicker girls (and Stefan) swatting the flies in disgust

So who lives here? A princess? A witch? An animal? Rumpelstilzchen?

It looks so much like our old climbing area in Southern Illinois.

The most interesting engraving we encountered on our walk.

Not sure if we were able to convince Talea and Sophie that this trek was enjoyable, but at least the giant snail we discovered on the path evoked a couple of oohs and aahs. 

Angelina the Sow and Other Creatures

On our third day in Bad Bentheim, we took a little excursion to a nearby zoo which I used to go to when I was little. Here is an excerpt of some of the more interesting animals we saw.

 Isn't Mother Nature beautiful?

 Uh oh, the stork!

 Angelina the sow -

we watched her enjoy her bath from the restaurant where the menu was full of local pork dishes.

Again, it sucks to be born a pig in Germany

 Two very protective geese

 The (not so) ugly duckling

Twins for a day

Renaissance Faire

And now to the occasion for which we gathered in Bad Bentheim this weekend: the renaissance faire with jousting and medieval market.

 Getting ready was half the fun.

 Two beautiful princesses ready to meet their brave knight

 Well, there was a spotting of one at that moment walking through Delhi airport (you pick).

 Having a whirl at the medieval carousel

 Thore and his mother Alexandra

 Enjoying a taste of the mysterious sugar wool ball

 Now to the jousting performance:

 Some highlanders made it all the way to the continent

 Sophie's favorite knight Ullrich of Bentheim 

(he ended up winning)

 All knights with the bad guy on the right

 and one female jouster to round it off

 In the Turkish brew tent

A successful outing: one little prince by the hand and one big prince in tow.