January 29-Feb. 4

Tuesday January 29

GE has a bad cold with cough, so I kept her home today. She fell asleep while snuggling with me as I read after lunch, so I was glad I kept her home. J gave his last lecture as Gast-Lehrer at the Uni.

Wednesday January 30

Kept GE home again. She rode her Laufrad with me to the store for a few groceries and to get some fresh air and movement, but is still run down. She fell asleep again after lunch, poor dear.

ME's friend JK came home with her from school since her brother was having a birthday party and as she has 3 little brothers and the house was going to have 6 more little boys running around for the party, she did not want to be there and begged her mother to call me and see if she could come here instead. "Natürlich!" The girls did their homework together after lunch and then played and played. HR was invited on the spur of the moment to go to the twins' house (they are 1st graders but in another class) to play, so she did her homework here, then was picked up by the twins' mom and ate lunch with them. They brought her home about 4:30. MK went to her Deutsch tutor in the afternoon.

I went to my Laufengruppe in the evening (the time has changed so that now I don't go until well after dinner time--which is nice. I can eat with the family and then help get kids ready for bed before I have to leave). We did a new circuit routine for building abs--I have discovered some new muscles that I didn't know I had!

Thursday January 31

GE went back to Kindergarten today. Still a bit of a cough, but no fever and she wanted to go.
HR's friend EO came home with her from school. There was a little confusion because EO was supposed to stay for an extra 1/2 period for some math tutoring. So, instead of coming home, HR stayed with her. When she didn't arrive at the usual time, I had a moment of panic that something had happened between school and home, then realized she most likely had stayed with EO. Sure enough, when I went to the school at the end of the 1/2 period, there was HR, happily ensconced with the math group. The teacher had no idea that she wasn't supposed to be there and said she hadn't created a distraction (thank goodness!). All's well...  When GE came home from Kindergarten she kept having meltdowns while trying to play with HR and her friend. Then while she was snuggling me for the 3rd "take a break", she fell asleep (at 4:45!!). I let her nap for 1/2 an hour and then dealt with the resulting crabbiness of waking up when it's dark and dinnertime!

MK has been wanting a haircut. I hadn't found a time to go with her to the Friseur, so I wrote a note describing what she wanted and gave my phone number, and sent MK on her own to town. She came home with a lovely trim and some more layers around her face. "I love my hair!" (Whew! I was worried it wouldn't turn out the way she envisioned.)

Friday February 1

Took GE to Kindergarten. It's now light again a little before 8 a.m., so I got her to school shortly after 8 and had time to do a hill sprint workout on a hill near the Kindergarten, then went to get my groceries. Got a big haul since I won't have time tomorrow--running group in the morning and then out all afternoon and evening with my neighbor R and her friends to celebrate her 40th birthday!

Report cards! The girls were dismissed early from school and were all home by 11 a.m.. ME got all 1s and 2s. MK got 1s, 2s, and 3s (even in Geschichte!). The lower grades don't get report cards, just the parent-teacher conference meeting that I went to earlier this week.

Both girls did not get grades in Deutsch or other language heavy courses, although ME's had a written report: 
"Durch ihre extrovertierte, interessierte Art hat ME mit Hilfe differenzierter Aufgaben und einer wöchentlichen Förderstunde innerhalb des ersten Halbjahres bereits flüssig (und zunehmend korrekt) deutsch sprechen gelernt. Die gesprochene Altagssprache versteht sie bereits fast vollständig. ME liest schon altersgemäße deutsche Texte, versteht den Inhalt und die Kernaussage meistens und geht mit ihr unbekannten Wörtern selbstbewusst und produktiv um. Sie schreibt gerne englische Geschichten, beginnt aber auch deutsche Texte zu verfassen. Seit Januar kann sie schon fast alle Aufgaben im Deutschunterricht bearbeiten."

Google translation:
"Through her extroverted, interested way ME has learned within the first six months, through a variety of tasks and a weekly support hour, to talk already fluent (and increasingly correct) German. She understands the spoken everyday language already almost completely. ME is already reading age-appropriate German texts, understands the content and the key message, and usually deals with unknown words productively and with confidence. She likes to write English stories, but also begins to write German texts. Since January, she already can complete almost all tasks in German lessons."

Woo-hoo! Pizza party for lunch!

Both girls have found the songs that they've been dancing to in their dance classes and bought the MP3's off Amazon, so they've been practicing in the livingroom and entertaining us. Great fun!


Saturday February 2


Went to my running group in the a.m. It's cold and drizzly so we started indoors and then went for a shorter run. Meanwhile the girls and Daddy did a little cleaning at the apartment.

Mid-afternoon I took the U-bahn to Siegburg and met one of RP's other friends who gave me a ride from there to another friends' house. The plan was for a group of her girlfriends to gather at this house where RP and her family were planning to come and watch the Rugby games for the afternoon. We'd arrive first (hopefully) and then they'd arrive about a 1/2 hour later. We all waited in the dining room and then "surprise!" Her husband had stashed a cake in the trunk of their car and we celebrated with some champagne. Once the kids were settled with the others, the women all piled into a car and headed to Bonn. We parked near the Hauptbahnhof and went to the LVR Museum to see the Schuhtick (scroll down) exhibition. Afterwards we wandered around the pedestrian zone for a while and then headed to Tao for dinner. Had a wonderful time!

RP modeling a pair of heels on the catwalk.

Canadian friend, H.

RP with another pair of heels; British friend L admiring.

How does one walk in these?!

German friend, C.

Exclaiming over the many shoes that Barbie and her friends get to wear!

Must try to come back with the girls to see this exhibit. They'd have a blast!

The favorite snake skin heels!

Dinner at the Tao.

Sunday February 3

This morning was Karnevalgottesdienst at the Pauluskirche. The children's choir was singing (in costume!), so I sent ME over to the church shortly after 10 in her Native American costume. When we arrived a little later, the sanctuary was packed... with clowns, princes, policemen, firemen, animals, and many folks had silly hats or wigs on. The service was nearly entirely in Kölsch, the dominant Rheinland dialect and the language of Karneval! Luckily for us, they had printed a bulletin in dialect as well! Even the Lord's Prayer was translated!:

Vatte onnse im Himmel, dinge Name wolle me ihre, ding Reich soll komme. Noh dingem Welle soll alles loofe, em Himmel onn op de Äed. Jävv ons höck, wie all Daach ons Brut. Vejävv onns, wemme ons scholdisch jemaht hann, jerad esu, mit mie och dänne vejävve, die ons jett scholdisch seen. Loss ons net zwievele, onn erlös ons von dem janze Övvel, denn du häss die Maach, onn die Kraff onn die Härrlichkeet, enn Iwichkeet, Amen.

The music was all accompanied by a special band with keyboard, drums, bass, and sax. The songs were all either traditional Kölsch Karneval songs or were "translated" into the Kölsch dialect and printed in the bulletin. The overarching theme for Karneval and for this particular service is acceptance and tolerance (power turns over to the powerless). The sermon was given by a guest Pfarrer (pastor) who is handicapped. I found the Kölsch translations absolutely fascinating! Between hearing it spoken/sung and seeing it in print, I was able to start to decipher a lot of the meaning ("oh, that's what they're saying!"). In addition to that, the "Prince and Princess" from the local Karneval club paraded in at the beginning of the service and out at the end in their fine, hand-made, costumes.

We hurried home for a fast lunch then headed to our friends' home in Schweinheim for the Karnevalzug that was to start at 2. Their living room was decorated with streamers and balloons, the dining table full of snacks and finger foods, the buffet with cups and Kölsch beer and Sekt. We were all verkleidet (in costumes) and had bags along for collecting the candy. When the parade started we were instructed to yell, "Schweinheim, Wutz, Wutz!" or "Karmello, Wutz, Wutz!" in order to get the people on the parade floats to throw candy to us. In addition to candy (lots of Haribo candy!) we were also thrown bagged popcorn (although it's sugar coated rather than salty), crackers, and butter cookies. The girls loved it-- especially GE who raced all around gathering up the treats and putting them in her bag (which Daddy was holding for her). After the parade was over (lasted perhaps 10 minutes), we piled back into the house and the girls sat around trading their loot and eating some of it too!  We stayed for another hour or so, visiting, and then walked home to burn off some of that sugar. All in all, a fabulous weekend and a fun (but comparably low-key) Karneval experience for the girls.

ME did their face paint for them!

Moi!

The monk (J) and the cowboy (our host, MH)

Getting into the spirit of things!

Our hostess, KH.

And their daughter, MH.

The Fußball game was a hit with everyone.

Waiting for the parade to come. It was cold and damp, although not raining. We put lots of layers on under costumes and thankfully didn't have to stand outside for long (the parade went right in front of the house).

A family of piggy banks (they had coins sticking out of their backs but by the time I realized this, I had put the camera away!)

Tallying up the loot and swapping for things they didn't like.

And eating some of it too, of course!

Monday February 4

I noticed that although it's still quite cold, there are a lot of birds singing again this morning! Spring is around the corner...

GE went to KG, I'm enjoying a quiet morning at home, finishing up the blog, straightening up, laundry, reading... My usual coffee/tee with SL is cancelled because she's sick. I love a day like this after a whirlwind weekend!