Found These

Found these on my phone.

 Who can resist this smile?

Cheeky monkey

Not an Early Bird

Sophie takes after me in that she needs some time to get going in the mornings. On some bad days she will even kick and thrash and yell: "Go away!" Once she has had her ten minutes with cheerios and milk to wake up, she is her old self again. And she already is the first kid to go to bed in the neighborhood.

Yes, this is my bed. She sometimes sneaks into bed with me in the middle of the night mostly when Andrew is gone. 

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. 

Say What?

Sophie had her eye and hearing test at the doctor's office today.

Here she is waiting for the examiner.

She passed with flying colors and was rewarded not only with gummy bears but also one more injection for a vaccination. This in turn was rewarded with ice cream in the afternoon. ;-)

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.