Twentyfourth week in Germany

It was once again a week with quite a bit packed into it. First, we ordered a new computer and it had gone to the customs office so Monday I asked my German teacher to call the office and find out what I had to do to pick it up. I didn't have enough time to get it on Monday after picking Bailey up from school and getting across the Rhein by 3:30pm. So, that was the Tuesday morning plan. However, I feel I have been unfair to Bryn skipping so many toddler groups, so we went to that first for an hour and then went to pick it up. We actually had no problems. It worked out quite nice. We got Avery from school and went home to start trying to get the computer set up. It was great because Bailey has dance class after school so we had a little extra time to get things set up.

Wednesday was crazy as well. We were planning on having a Bailey sleepover on Friday, she wanted it to be an American Girl Camping theme party. Yeah, that is easy to accomplish when you are not in America!!! So, we had to get to the store to get the stuff for the party, plus I had to make a pecan pie for our Relief society Activity on Thursday night. We were doing a Thanksgiving theme, and they asked me to bring something American traditional. Since I really don't like Pumpkin Pie, and only stomach a piece of it on Thanksgiving, I thought I'm not going to go to the trouble of making a pie that I don't even want to eat. So, we went with pecan. We have imported pecans because we can't find them here and I couldn't find corn syrup. So, I used this vanilla syrup instead. I'm not sure the consistency was perfect but it tasted really good. I needed to get that done on Wednesday because Thursday was too full already.

Wednesday after Girl Scouts, we picked Bailey up and went straight to the pizza place, Hallo Pizza, ordered our usual "Kentucky Pizza," went to the store across the street to get the pie stuff, went home and ate pizza. After which the girls were so good to get ready for bed early and watch a movie while I made the pie. It worked out great. Greg went to a US/Germany hockey game so he wasn't back until fairly late.

Thursday, we got the girls to school, and went to toddler group. I had to do my German homework at the toddler group because no other time presented itself. We left toddler group early to get over to the store to get the stuff for the party. We made it just in time to pick Avery up from school. We went home, ate lunch quickly, I had my German lesson, then it was time to pick Bailey up. We came home, had leftovers. The girls came with me to the Church so I could help set up. Bryn fell asleep on the way and actually transferred okay to the stroller so she stayed asleep while the other two watched Cinderella 3 in the Primary room, until Greg got there to pick them up. He got there in good time, so the girls were disappointed. Everything went pretty well. It was my first activity in German and a bit hard for me to understand. After, I was going to try to go to the book club, but I was so tired that I just came home and debated whether or not to start Baileys cake. I decided to wait until Friday morning, although I was planning on picking up our German driver's licenses on Friday morning. I decided to put off the driver license thing until Monday morning and get Bailey's party things finished.

We just made a traditional chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and put ground oreos on top for dirt. Then we made tents out of graham crackers, a fire pit out of gum, pretzel sticks, and gummis for the flames. It turned out pretty cute I thought. Next, Avery and I constructed fishing poles for the fishing game we had planned out of dowel rods, string and clothes pins. We found a bucket to put the catches into. Avery and borrowed some firewood from our landlords and made a pretend camp fire with wood, a lamp, and red, orange, and yellow tissue paper. We were all ready for the party which was happening at 5:00pm.

We had chicken schnitzel and kohlrabi for dinner, which is a favorite amongst my girls. Greg got home just in time for the cake. Then, we did the fishing, by setting up a blue sheet in front of Baileys closet and had the girls throw their lines into the sheet and when they felt a tug on their line, it was a mixture of crafty things, beads, these annoying sounding noise makers (which I regretted afterwards), magnetic clips, etc. I think they had a pretty good day catching "fish." We divided up the loot or "fish" and wrapped them in newspaper to take home. I let Bailey and her friend Olivia build a tent to sleep in which ended up being a good activity because it kept them busy for quite a while. We roasted marshmallows on the grill and had s'mores before they went to bed. They chose a movie to watch in their tent, and went to bed but not to sleep until about 12:30.

No, they didn't sleep in. That is the crazy part. They woke up at 7:00am. We had eggs and bacon for breakfast, and the girls played until it was time for Olivia to leave. I think the girls had a great time. I'm pretty sure Bailey felt it was worth the wait as her birthday was about a month earlier. Saturday, we had a normal (walk down to the market) morning. It was rainy and we did a few other errands.

That afternoon, we had a birthday party to go to, but the only one who wanted to go was Avery. So, just Avery and I went. It was fun for us to have some alone time together. The baked goods at the party were amazing. She had a ducky cake, but then had apple cake, peach cupcakes, some other chocolate thing, mandel hornchen with marzipan, etc. She just kept getting more sweets out to serve. It was an incredible display. When we got home, Greg was having a video conference with his parents which led to him watching the U of M Wisconsin game through the computer to his parents TV. I know that sounds complicated, but anything to watch the game! I was really tired by this point and feeling slightly under the weather. Sunday morning, Greg went to Church by himself as the girls and I were all feeling a little sore throatish. What a week!