Applesauce

Yesterday, I took the kids up the road to pick some apples from a tree that no one seems to own. The apples aren't beautiful, but they are free. They aren't so great to munch on raw, but they work for baking.

Today, I kept my promise to K to teach her how to make applesauce.

I peeled the apples, then K cut them in small pieces and put them in the pot.

We found a friend on one of the apples. :)

H decided to carry the apples around

After she was finished cutting the apples, she poured a little water in the pot.

All ready to go.

Once the apples cooked a little, it was time to add the cinnamon and vanilla sugar.

Adding cinnamon

When the apples were soft enough, she mashed them.

All done!

Now, the final step is to eat it.

H at first refused to try it. Once I forced some in his mouth, he couldn't get enough.

Soccer Camp

Last week K and Timo participated in our local soccer camp -- K as a player, Timo as a coach. The first two days it rained, but that did not deter the Swedes at all. The final day, it was nice enough for me to take the camera and the boys out to the field to capture some of K's experiences.

Tying her shoe

Doing the soccer pose.

I love this action shot

AJ thought it was fun to ride his bike on the grass.

K's turn to play goalie

Taking a break

While K and Timo were occupied with soccer camp, I ran errands (the first day), took the boys to the safari park (the second day), and took the boys on a walk. I tried to help AJ feel like he was doing something special since he really wanted to go to soccer camp as well. Unfortunately for him, they don't have anything for his age group.

First Day of First Grade

Today was my precious K's first day of first grade. It wasn't really a full day as the morning was filled with the inauguration celebrations (the school recently moved to a new building), and the kids got out early. Nevertheless, it was her first day of school. She has been anxiously awaiting this day for about three weeks now. She couldn't wait for it to come, even wishing that Saturday were Sunday so she could go to school the next day. I am happy about her enthusiasm, and I hope she keeps it as school becomes more routine and less of a novelty.

As for me, I was forced to blink back the tears that came with the realization that my little girl is growing up so quickly. It didn't help tonight that the country song "I Loved Her First" came on when I was running. I was tempted to turn around and run home so I could spend time with my precious girl while I can.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the morning. I got to stay the whole time. :)

Before we left for school

Buckled up, and ready to go

K with her teacher, waiting to go in. They all met in the school yard beforehand, and there was a short ribbon-cutting ceremony.

H waiting patiently for a chance to escape from his stroller. He's gotten big, too. :)

K in her classroom

Singing

K at her desk. She loves her Hello Kitty pencil bag. :)

I left her classroom for a while and took the boys to the preschool area to play for a bit. This was a big hit.

H loved the slide.

AJ playing with some toys.

H discovering the animals

K's friend (who is younger) wanted to catch H coming down the slide.

Here they are.

She loves H. Maybe a little too much at times, but she is a sweet girl. :)

After a while, we all headed back upstairs to K's classroom. We stayed there until it was time to go home. Tomorrow is a full day. K and AJ will be gone for 5 hours. I am excited about the one-on-one time with H, but I miss my older two just thinking about it. If I could homeschool them here, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Snug as a Bug in a Box

Last week, I visited the kids' school to help out. The school recently moved into a new building, and there was a lot of unpacking to do. The kids were pretty good, especially when I let them play in the empty boxes. I brought bananas just in case they decided they were hungry. This is how they chose to eat them.

A Tisket, a Tasket, H is in the basket

H decided one day that he wanted to sit in a basket we have. He grabbed a small book, climbed in the basket, and opened up the book to "read." Meanwhile, Mommy grabbed the camera. :)

Digging a Hole

A couple of weekends ago, Timo had to dig a hole in our yard for a pole to hold our satellite dish. The kids really enjoyed helping dig.

C is for Cookie

I made snicker-doodles yesterday, and I put some in a container to give to the neighbors. They weren't home, however, so we brought the container back to our house. I sent K out with the cookies again this morning, but she brought them back in and left the container on the living room floor. Someone found them.

Three Kids, Two Swings -- No Problem

The kids have figured out how to share the swings so everyone can swing at the same time. This works really well since K can swing H instead of pushing him.

Wasps' Nest

That yellowish tan thing in the picture is a wasps' nest Timo discovered yesterday. He suspected that they had built a nest in there, but he had no idea it was this big. The wasps are also huge. I told the kids to stay out of the back yard for a while. This works well since they mostly play in the front, anyway.

Daddy's Home!

Germany Trip Day 16: Finally Home

Because we were technically ahead of schedule by two hours, we felt we could enjoy a leisurely morning. Breakfast was not rushed, and Timo played downstairs with the kids while I got the room packed up.

The drive back went well, with the kids taking a second day in the car really well. At one rest stop, we discovered some tiny frogs that the kids enjoyed playing with. We had also planned an extended stop near some castle ruins we visited last year as we thought it would be a good place for the kids to run around and the timing was right for a stop. However, we found the place to be extremely crowded and busy, so we made a quick bathroom stop, bought some drinks, and kept going.

We arrived at home sometime in the mid-afternoon, allowing plenty of time for me to unpack ans start some laundry, the kids to play outside, and for a trip to the grocery store to restock our fridge after having been gone for two weeks.

It was fun to go on such an adventure, but it was good to be home.

Germany Trip Day 15: Leaving Nuremberg, heading home

We weren't the only ones having a fitful slumber throughout our night in Nuremberg. This is how I found the kids when I got up in the morning. At least they seemed to sleep longer than we did.

After getting up and getting ready, Timo took a load of bags to the car while I led the kids to the restaurant for breakfast. We made sandwiches for the road between bites of food, and we checked out when we were assured that the room was free of our belongings. We then drove out of town and started north.

We made pretty good time on the road. Actually, we did much better than we had thought, and we did not encounter as much construction traffic as we had anticipated. We arrived at our hotel shortly before dinnertime, expecting to be able to eat and relax for the rest of the evening.

This hotel had been the same one we stayed at in Fehmarn on our way down. We had made the reservation in person, and, guess what? They didn't honor the reservation and the hotel was booked. This was a familiar song that I didn't care to hear again. We grumpily loaded everyone back in the car and drove toward another hotel that was located closer to the ferry we would have to take to get to Denmark. On the way, we decided to go ahead and see if we could get on the next ferry and find a hotel in Denmark.

The line to the ferry was long and slow, so I got H out of his car seat, and we wandered around until Timo and the car were closer to the front. We had purchased our ticket for the ferry ahead of time, and the date was for the next day, so we were hoping we would be able to get a ferry -- any ferry -- across that night. We were shocked when the man not only told us we could get on, but he pointed us to the priority lane that was boarding right away. Thank you God that we got on that ferry because we needed some favor on that day. We ate dinner, and the kids played in the small play area on the ferry while we crossed the sea. Forty-five minutes later, we arrived in Denmark.
When we arrived, we focused on finding a hotel for the night. This proved to me much more difficult than expected, with four failed attempts before we finally decided to drive all the way to Copenhagen to improve our odds of finding a room large enough for all of us. Shortly after 9pm, we finally checked in at a Scandic in Copenhagen. Every Scandic has a play area in their lobby, and the kids got their pent-up energy out before settling down in our room for the night. We all slept fairly well, and we were happy to know we had just cut two hours off our travel time for the next day.

Germany Trip Update: Money Recovered!

So remember the money that we "lost" in Heidelberg? Well, this morning, Timo told me that it was returned to our account. I had given up hope since it had been so long. Praise the Lord.

Germany Trip Day 14: Nuremburg

Nuremberg was not the best of experiences. We arrived before dinnertime and had a difficult time locating our hotel. It turns out that it was down a walking street, so Timo had to find a place to park while I checked in. When I got up to the reception, there was no one there, no bell to ring, nor a sign indicating when they would be back. Someone finally came up (the reception was upstairs, inside a locked door, which someone had opened for me on their way out) and checked me in. Our room/apartment was located in the adjacent building, and I went up to check it out before heading to the parking lot to gather the bags, the kids, and my hubby.

After getting everything up to the room, we decided to go eat. I had looked at a few places in the guidebook on the way, but we ended up at a little restaurant famous for its Nuremberg sausages located in the Craftsman's Courtyard. The Courtyard itself is supposed to be a big tourist trap, but everything closed at 5, so we missed all the cheap souvenirs.

On the way, I took some pictures of churches and buildings, but our main goal was to get dinner. We all ordered some of the sausages, and the waitress also brought us some bread. What I didn't know until later is that she charged us extra for the bread, even though we didn't order it. I would have chosen a different assortment, and only ordered what we would eat. That was a surprise when the bill came, but what could we do?

St. Klarakirche: St. Clare's Church

Handwerkerhof: Craftsmen's Courtyard at Königstor Tower

At dinner

My dinner: the famous Nuremberg sausages

H and K playing in the Craftsmen's courtyard

The sign of the place where we ate

The tower right by the entrance of the Craftsmen's Courtyard

After leaving the restaurant, we ambled down the streets, looking around at the buildings and snapping some more photos. We stopped at a fruit stand and bought some strawberries for later, then continued on our way.

I thought this street looked picturesque, but when we started walking down it, we realized we were walking by some pretty shady stores. Whoops!

Looking down one of the main streets toward St. Lawrence Church

Lorenzkirche: St. Lawrence Church

St. Lawrence Church

St. Lawrence Church -- check out those flying buttresses.

Tugendbrunnen: Fountain of Virtues -- Yes, the water is coming out of their breasts.

Heilig-Geist-Spital: Hospice of the Holy Spirit

They day was hot, and we searched for a place to buy the kids ice cream as we walked. There were plenty of Italian ice cream places, but K had been suffering from some strange allergic reactions during the trip, so we decided not to take a chance with cross-contamination with her. Timo took the kids into a grocery store as I looked around a little more.

Frauenkirche: Church of our Lady

The Beautiful Fountain -- that's really what it is called

Another side of the Beautiful Fountain

The "Wishing Ring": a brass ring that you can wish on. Turn it three times, and your wish will supposedly come true. I turned it just to say I did, but I didn't make a wish.

Building across the street from St. Sebald

St. Sebald church

As I entered St. Sebald Church, I heard beautiful choir music. The church was hosting a choir concert, and I would have loved to stay and listen, but the timing was all wrong. Because the church was being used, I quickly and quietly looked around, and grudgingly left to meet Timothy and the kids again.

St. Sebald Church

Timo was unsuccessful at finding ice cream in the grocery store, and we didn't see any other stores that looked promising, so we plodded back to the hotel to unwind. Everyone was thirsty (they never give you enough to drink at European restaurants), so it was a good time to call it quits on the sight-seeing.

Our apartment consisted of a small living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom in two parts, a kitchenette, and a balcony. Both the kitchenette and the main bedroom opened onto the balcony, and the kids had a blast playing out there. They set up some chairs in a line (front to back) and played train while H ran in a circle, going in one door, and exiting the other. Meanwhile, I looked around a little more. I saw a familiar sight in the kitchen drawer, which made me think of my home in Sweden.

You can't escape IKEA

Occasionally, I would check on the kids outside and enjoy the view from the balcony. One advantage of having a balcony is that we could watch the sunset.

It was getting late, so Timo and I washed the strawberries, and we called the kids in to have a snack. They relished the huge berries, and I drank a special bottle of pear juice I had purchased a few days before. The juice was said to be from the pear orchards around Nonnenhorn, and I thought it would be fun to taste it.

One of the huge strawberries we bought at the open market on the way back to the hotel.

After snack time, we got the kids to bed and went to bed ourselves. The next day was to be full of driving and we really needed a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. It was a Friday night, and the hotel restaurant didn't close until midnight. That wasn't the worst of it, though. There were a bunch of drunk people walking by in the middle of the night, yelling and being overall obnoxious to anyone trying to sleep. If it had been cool enough to shut the windows, this might not have been so loud, but it was hot.

Finally, it started to rain. Timo and I both thought that the rain would send people scurrying inside, but it didn't really help. Then we had thunder to deal with, too. We finally dozed off for a couple of hours of fitful slumber, but H woke up a couple of times during the night, cutting down on my sleep time even more. I was so glad when morning came, and we could get up and get out of there.

Nuremberg was not planned to be a tourist stop. We stayed there because it was a good stopping point on our way north. For the time we had, we saw a lot, but one could spend days there. If we were to do that, I would stay in a nice, quiet hotel outside of the city.