Ravensburger Spieleland

Since we couldn't go on vacation this week (Aidan's off school, but Jason has to work), I've been trying to do day trips in the area. Yesterday we went to a theme park in Germany run by the Ravensburger Puzzle Company. It's a great place for young kids. Think Camp Snoopy at Cedar Point, but more stuff to do and no grown up rides. It was a great day to go, 70 degrees, sunny and hardly anyone was there!This fire truck ride wore me out! I had to turn a crank to make the fire engine roll down, then turn another crank so Aidan could squirt the water to put out a "fire", then roll us back. This is when it would have been nice to have Daddy with us!
Clownin' around

Mommy got more exercise on the paddle boats.
Ravensburger is famous for their puzzles, so of course they had giant puzzles to put together, which the kids loved.

We spent a lot of time at the Grune Oase (Green Oasis) where they had lots of farm activities. The kids loved these pedal tractors and animals. They rode ponies and we went on a tractor ride and even milked a pretend cow.

"You're So Sharpei!"

Aidan loves High School Musical, just like every other kid under 10. We own both 1 and 2 and he's seen them a few times each.

Today, as he was telling me how he was going to buy himself a desk and computer to keep his map collection when we get back to Michigan (which is a story in and of itself!), Lainey said "I want a computer too, a pink one!" Lainey wants everything pink.

Aidan looks at her with disdain and says "You're so Sharpei, Delainey. Sharpei even has a pink car. Do you want mom to have a pink car, too? You want everything pink."

Lainey replied, "I like purple too."

I burst out laughing. What else could I do? My kids are nothing if not characters. God help me when they are teenagers.

Go State!

I can't believe how great MSU's football team is doing this season! And we're not there to see it first hand. Just our luck-the team's best season in years and we can't go to a game. At least we've got our SlingBox so we can watch the games on TV!

We're wearing our MSU shirts with pride around here, even though no one knows American football here (let along American college football!). I so want to be wearing these shirts at home right now, among all those U-M groupies! (Talk about a bummer, U-M losing to a MAC team at the Big House for the first time ever! Watching that was as good as seeing the Spartans win!)

I hope the Spartans can keep it up. There are still some big games to go, and I never trust U-M, not even this year. At least we're bowl eligible now. Hopefully, while we're home at Christmas, we can make a detour to Florida and catch a game there!

Go Green! Go White!

Nein, Danke!

Jason takes German lessons one hour a week. I take German 3 hours a week. Aidan has German 3 times a week at school. Lainey doesn't take any German classes, even Gymboree is all English.

Oddly enough, she is the one that is using the language without thinking! She now says "nein" instead of "no"-all the time! At her birthday party after opening every present she said "danke" instead of "thank you".

I think she's listening more than I am at my lessons! Just wait until next year when she starts at the bilingual pre-school...

Playing Hookie

I let Aidan skip school yesterday to meet our friends Kelly, Benjie and Cassie and their kids at Rhine Falls (Europe's answer to Niagra Falls). Cassie lives in Germany and Kelly and Benjie were visiting her. They didn't quite make it to Rhine Falls, though, since they didn't bring their passports and the Swiss thought they looked suspicious, I guess!

So, the kids and I went to the Falls anyway. They are MUCH smaller than Niagra, but still beautiful. We took a boat ride into the falls and went to the look out point. "Doing" the falls took all of 45 minutes.

Then we went and met the rest of the group in Germany, because luckily I did toss our passports in my purse before we left home. We went to a castle (I don't remember the name), but we didn't actually go in it. The walk up a super-steep mountain to the castle just about did me in and the others were already done with the castle, so we just let the 7 kids run around and play in the forest area.

Aidan is so into hiking and nature right now. I didn't feel too bad about him playing hookie since every Tuesday they do "WaldKinder" at school where they have classes in the forest. So he just had an extra WaldKinder class with his friends.

(Thanks for coming to visit, Kelly and Benjie! Keep the visitors coming-hint, hint!!!!)

Delainey's Birthday Party

All ready to party!
Lainey with Scarlet and Ellen and their mom from upstairs
She loves the attention!
Presents!
Aidan, Scarlet, William, Clara, James, Teddy, Lily, Lucy, Ellen, Lainey, Lea

When we were planning our move here, I was really feeling sad for Delainey. I figured that she'd miss out on having a birthday party since we were leaving all our friends and family behind. I think I really thought that for the next 3 years, it would always just be the four of us for celebrations. I didn't that we'd make friends quickly. Luckily, I was very wrong!

I just put the kids to bed after a 2 1/2 hour Disney Princess birthday bash with 14 kids. 14. Yep. 1-4. Ranging in age from 6 months to almost 13 years! I invited all the kids that live in our apartment complex, because they all play together so nicely. I couldn't leave anyone out, no matter their age. In fact, the 2 oldest girls (Ellen-almost 13 and Clara-11) asked me to move the party from it's original date of Friday to today because they were leaving for vacation right after school on Friday. They told me they really wanted to come, and they even asked their moms to postpone their trips until Saturday! Seriously? A 5th grader and 7th grader wanting to come to a 3 year old's birthday party? So, I switched the dates.

Most of the kids (and one cross-dressing mom!) came in Princess or knight costumes. They all played together, no matter what age or gender, and did crafts and ate a dinner of fairy wands (breadsticks and pizza sauce for dipping), princess parfaits (granola, fruit, yogurt), tea sandwiches, and tea in little tea cups.

I don't think Delainey walked anywhere at the party, Ellen was always carrying her! Ellen and Lainey adore each other. All I hear from Lainey is "Where are the big girls? When will the big girls be home?" Luckily, according to Ellen's mom, the feeling is mutual.

Lainey and I made cupcakes for dessert (Betty Crocker is a big hit around here where boxes of cake mix cost 9 francs!) and the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to her in 3 languages-English, German, and Swedish. It was so cool.

I'm sure she really felt like a princess today.

Alpabfarht

So, one may wonder "What is an Alpabfarht?" and "do you pronounce fahrt, like fart?"

First of all, yes it's pronounced like that. It's a very common word in German, too, which makes us English speakers giggle a lot.

Anyway, an Alpabfahrt is basically a cow parade. Each summer the dairy cows go up into the Alps for an all you can eat grass buffet and to make tons of milk for the farmers to turn into cheese. Every fall, the cows come home. Literally. It's too cold for them to stay in the mountains so they parade down the mountain roads dressed to the nines. They wear huge cow bells and headdresses made of flowers and greenery. The shepherds and farmers wear the traditional outfits from many years ago. It's like a scene from "Heidi".

So, Alp refers to the Alps, and abfarht means to go down (or exit). Much like an ausfahrt is an exit off the highway.

So apart from the funny name, the event was pretty cool. Except for the weather. It rained ALL day and was COLD, but I wanted to see the cows!!! (I really like Swiss cows. I think I may be obsessed. They are so beautiful on the mountainsides and I have to roll down my window to hear the bells everytime I pass them.) So we drove 1 1/2 hours in the rain, then walked straight up the mountain in the rain, then tasted a bunch of freshly made (some stinky!)cheeses in the rain, then watched the cows walk by us so closely we could pet them in the rain.

And the highlight of the event is that both cameras, the digital and video, had dead batteries. Duh. With all my planning and desire to go no matter what the weather, it didn't even occur to me to check the batteries. UGH!

You'll all have to wait until next year to see what I'm talking about. Hopefully, I'll remember to charge the batteries then.