Monday, September 18, 2017

Toby turns 9 and Amelie turns 4!!

When you have two kids with birthdays just one day apart it seems inevitable that they will share a party at some point. We seem to be sliding towards that this year with Toby and Amelie, though we tried our best to celebrate them individually.  Each birthday we let the birthday kiddo decide whether they'd like to have a small party with friends or go somewhere as a family.  This year Toby chose for us to go to Miramar- a big indoor pool complex with water slides that our family all enjoys.  Amelie thought that sounded GREAT, so she chose that too.  So what we did was celebrated Toby's birthday dinner at home, then a few days later went to Miramar for both Toby and Amelie, and then a few days after that had Amelie's birthday dinner at home.  It was a lot of celebrating in a short time frame!


For Toby's birthday dinner he chose seven layer dip and for his "cake" he asked for homemade cinnamon rolls. Not the prettiest cake, but soooooo tasty.  He's a smart kid.

When we go to Miramar we like to get there right when they open, on an American holiday, and enjoy the slides and pools with hardly any other people.  After the German schools get out, more and more kids and families start to arrive, and by evening the place is packed.  (I assume, we've never been there in the evening. One or two evenings each week are FKK- naked time- so that isn't really our scene.)

We have been to Miramar many times, but I don't think I've ever taken pictures, so this time I ran around and took some photos right when we arrived and then put my phone away in a locker so I could go swim with the kiddos.  Our first stop is usually the outdoor heated pool.  Rob and the kids are going down those steps into the water to swim out of the building to the lazy river.

This is the large wave pool.  All of the kids like the Krokodilrutsche (crocodile slide) that goes across the back of the pool.  There is also a kiddie splash pool off to the right of this pool and hot tubs to the left.  (As a side note, Jacob solidified his independent swimmer status this day by swimming half way across the pool to me!)

Looking through the ceiling, you can just see one of the water slide towers. There are 8 water slides total I think, some with inner tubes and some without. One of the craziest things about going down the water slides here is that there is no worker telling you when it is safe to go.  You are expected to wait a reasonable amount of time after the person in front of you goes, and this usually works out just fine.

The outdoor hot tubs are nice when it is chilly out. There are also massage areas and spa areas, but we are always there with the kiddos and haven't bothered to try those out.  And there is a decent counter service restaurant where we get our bratwurst, pommes, salad, and caprese.  It was a fun day for all of us.

Then a few days later we had cheese fondue for Amelie's birthday dinner.  She went through MANY cake ideas, before finally settling on a unicorn cake.  With a little help from the internet, this is what I made.



Toby's Birthday Interview
1. What is your favorite color? Red
2. What is your favorite toy? Kid's Kindle
3. What is your favorite fruit? Apples
4. What is your favorite tv show? American Ninja Warrior
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? "Sandwiches- with ham, and cheese, and turkey, and lettuce, and all that stuff."
6. What is your favorite outfit? Shorts and a t-shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Monopoly
8. What is your favorite snack? Chewy granola bars
9. What is your favorite animal? Owl
10. What is your favorite song? Yellow (Coldplay)
11. What is your favorite book? The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
12. Who is your best friend? "I don't know, I have lots of friends."
13. What do you want to be when you grow up?  An Architect
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Volleyball
15. What are you really good at?  "Math, I like math, math is fun."
16. What is a food that you hate?  Mushrooms
17. What do you like to do with Mom or Dad? Play a board game
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  Frosted Flakes
19. What is your favorite dinner? Seven Layer Dip
20. What makes you happy?   "Video games and money"

 Toby is still such a fantastic kid. He is mellow, makes friends easily, does his school work without much input from Rob or myself, and is always full of empathy for others. I think it's safe to say he understands German better than anyone else in this house at this point! He is a perfectionist, and sometimes gets frustrated with himself, but we just remind him that he is awesome, and to not be so hard on himself.  We love our gentle Toby!
Amelie's Birthday Interview
1. What is your favorite color? Purple
2. What is your favorite toy? Cat in the Hat
3. What is your favorite fruit? Oranges
4. What is your favorite tv show? Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Peanut butter and jelly
6. What is your favorite outfit? "Ballet outfit, I think."
7. What is your favorite game? Forbidden Island
8. What is your favorite snack? Cheese-Its
9. What is your favorite animal? Horses
10. What is your favorite song? Jingle Bells
11. What is your favorite book?  Busy, Busy Ladybugs
12. Who is your best friend? Caroline
13. What do you want to be when you grow up? "I wanna have a shop and sell cupcakes and drinks, like hot chocolate.  Cupcakes will be two dollars."
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Play soccer
15. What are you really good at? Riding my bike
16. What is a food that you hate? Green beans
17. What do you like to do with Mom or Dad? Play games
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Toast with eggs
19. What is your favorite dinner?  Cheese fondue
20. What makes you happy?  Cuddles!

Amelie is equal parts excited to be getting older and determined to remain the baby of the family.  She does her best to keep up with whatever the big kids are doing and asks regularly why she can't go on the school bus yet.  But at the same time, she wants to cuddle with mommy, and loves days when we stay home together.  She loves to paint, do crafts, and help do chores. She is also able to write her name, all of the capitol letters, and numbers one to ten. I am glad I get to have a little longer at home with our ambitious Ameloo.

Friday, September 15, 2017

A Walk in the Woods: Burg Breuberg

A couple of weeks ago, Charlotte went to Europa Park, an amusement park about two hours away, with some girls from her Sunday School class. While she was gone for the day, the rest of us went to explore a castle that Rob found on one of his solo hikes that he thought we would enjoy.

We parked the car in the Odenwald and headed out on a beautiful trail on a beautiful day.  Jake and Amelie were not excited about this outing, but Toby and Rob I would not be deterred by some whining and fussing, so off we went. 

 We hiked a couple of kilometers along a well maintained trail and then we found this awesome metal slide.  I love surprises like this on hikes in Germany!  Suddenly Jake and Amelie had all of the energy in the world as they climbed up the hill and went down the slide over and over again.


We eventually pulled them away to go explore the castle at the top of the hill.  Burg Breuberg dates from the 1200s and while it has been damaged in sieges over the years, it was never completely destroyed.  Today you can tour around it, and there is a youth hostel as well, but there was a wedding happening the day we were there, so we stuck to the grounds.


I love when trees grow out of the walls like this. 
I tried to get Amelie to get IN the cannon, but I guess this will do.

We found this tower on the grounds.  We've never seen one cut out like this, so of course Rob had to climb on it.  The base part he is standing on is about 14 feet above ground.

Like father, like son.

And again.


It was a beautiful day for a walk in the woods, and one of the things I will most miss about Germany when we move are these random hikes where we end up at a castle with gorgeous views.

Cub Scout Day Camp and rock climbing

This was Toby's first year going to Cub Scout Day Camp.  He had a couple of friends in his group, which made him happy... even though he doesn't particularly look happy in this photo.




The first two days we dropped him off and the other kids and I went to do other things while Toby enjoyed crafts, sports, archery, campfire cooking, shooting BB guns, and learning the basics of whittling.  He even rode a mechanical bull! On the last day I drove him down and stuck around to go on the hike and spend some time with my Buddy.

He had a great time with all of the activities, and I think next year we will plan to camp out overnight closer to the day camp location to minimize the driving and maximize the Scout experience. (We had planned to this year but then the forecast was rain everyday so I backed out, and it did rain hard several times in those three days.) I'm glad Toby had fun and was such a good kid at camp.  He is growing up so fast!

 
The one rainy day while Toby was at camp, I was trying to find something fun to do with my other three kiddos and I remembered that there is a rock climbing wall in the sporting goods store at Ramstein.  We've never done any rock climbing (the kids and I, that is) so I thought this would be interesting.  Turns out Charlotte (while not dressed for this activity) LOVED it and her long spider limbs seem to be well suited to rock climbing.  She climbed nearly to the top of the wall with an auto-belay and was fearless about the heights.  She wants to go again soon!
 
Amelie made it up as high as I could reach to help her and loved going up.  But she did NOT trust the auto-belay and would hang there until her arms gave out and come down flailing.  It was kinda hilarious. But she did it again and again, so it must not have been that traumatic.
 
And Jake only climbed as high as he had to (with a little help now and then) in order to enjoy a nice belay down.  He thought the going up was hard but loved riding back down. We will need to go again and let Toby give it a try too. I'd also like to give it a try, but will need Rob there to help supervise children in order for that to happen.  It was a fun day for all of us!