Play Day

Today was already Nanny and Pops' last day of their stay with us. ☹

They decided to spend all day with Sophie. 

 They went for a trip to the forest playground and continued with their role play even though it started raining. 

Sophie rode her bicycle there and back. Once she got on, there was no stopping her. 

Afterwards at home, Sophie still needed to take Nanny and Pops on a (pretend) flight to Hawaii. Everyone had first class seats. 

It has been a fun two weeks with our visitors. We hope they will be back soon. In the meantime we are looking forward to returning the visit in February.

Everyone Had the Same Ideas

The hottest weekend of the year. 

We decided to cycle through the forest for a cool down at the Unterbacher See together with our neighbors Mark, Andrés, and Adrian.

 However, this was the line to enter the beach park. These must all be people who had circled in their car for ages to find parking only to be standing in this line now. 

 There was no way I was going to stand in that line, so we headed to the nearby playground in the forest to stay somewhat cool.

 Andrés and Sophie playing frog.

 After a couple of hours in the woods, we gave the lake another try as we were desperately longing for a dip in the water. The line was much shorter, it was still very busy inside, but manageable and above all the kids had a blast and wore themselves out. 

See if you can spot Sophie in this picture above.

There's a good way to handle the heat. 

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. 

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.