April 15-22

Monday April 15

Still flying high from the race yesterday. Yeah! And to top it off, the weather is just gorgeous: sun, 70's, a slight breeze. Love it. The daffodils and forsythia are blooming and the trees are starting to get their yellowish-green halos! Finally!

Did some wash Sunday night and hung it out on the balcony today--dry by mid-afternoon! After picking GE up from Kindergarten I took her and HR over to one of the near-by play grounds to play. The place was crawling with kids... and this time we actually knew quite a few of them from either school or Kindergarten. Nice feeling, but a little sad too since we will be leaving in just 2 months.

GE with the pigtail on the swing.

HR climbing.

Swinging with friends from her Kindergarten.

Digging in the sandbox with friends L and J from Kindergarten.

Some clouds moved in later and it started to spritz. Rain overnight but then it was sunny again on Wednesday.

Doesn't she look comfy?!

ME went to her Irish dance class and then stayed at her friend's house to play for a while afterwards. MK went to her German tutoring.

Tuesday April 16

It's my friend SL's birthday and she invited me over for Kaffee this morning. The sun is shining again! I dropped GE off and then rode over to SL's. We visited until nearly 11 a.m. and then I had to hurry to get my groceries (thankfully not a long list).

Took the girls (ME too this time) to the park after Kindergarten again. Played and played with neighborhood friends while I sat and chatted with other moms or read on my Kindle. HR took an awful spill on her scooter just as we left, scraping the skin off both knees (she was wearing shorts) and the tops of her feet! Oi vey. Thankfully I had a stash of bandaids in my purse, so we patched her up and she hobbled home a little more slowly.

Wednesday April 17

A cloudy, cooler start to the day, but by mid-afternoon it was in the 70's and sunny again. Lovely! Got my groceries in the a.m., then practiced my music for May 19 when I'm singing in church again. Then made lunch for the middle girls, helped HR with her homework when she came home, and took a nap after lunch! Picked GE up at 2 and headed into Bad Godesberg with her to get tennis shoes--her winter boots and Gummistiefel are too hot for days like this!  MK needed an outfit for her dance thing on Friday, so she ended up bringing ME and HR on the bus to Bad Godesberg and meeting me there. Everyone got an ice cream cone and then we went into the shopping Galeria and got everyone a few things. Remind me not to shop with all four girls at once...

Rode home with GE on the bike and the bags loaded in my paniers. The other girls rode the bus, getting home just 10 minutes after me. I quick threw supper together and bathed GE, then headed out to run with some of my running group friends. It's not an official training night since our trainer is taking a week break between the 1/2 marathon and starting a new course next week, but some of us wanted to meet and run while the weather is so lovely!

Thursday April 18

Cleaned the apartment in the a.m. Another pretty day, but cooler. J gave a presentation in the evening to the group of Doctoral students that meet periodically to vet their research projects to each other.

Friday April 19

Cooler, but still sunny and gorgeous! Got my groceries after dropping GE off, took some packages to the Post to mail home (Christmas ornaments and gifts). HR's friend E came over to play after school and her mother will pick them both up around dinnertime to go to their house and spend the night.

We've been meaning to invite over a number of different families we've gotten to know or who have extended a warm welcome our way at some point during the year. This evening ME's friend, Y, and her family (from Siberia, Russia) are coming over for dessert and drinks. J picked up some good Calvados (a French apple brandy), Scotch, wine and a bottle of Sect (which I like--sweet & bubbly). I made a chocolate applesauce cake and got the fixings for a peach dessert that a German friend introduced me to: Amarettini (little Italian cookies) crumbled, then topped with fruit (this time peach slices), and a dollop of Quark on top (I substitute goat's milk yogurt because I can't eat the cow's milk Quark) and a sprinkle of ground vanilla. We started with the latter, then I brought out a plate of small squares of the cake. We chatted, shared stories and watched some YouTube videos that sparked some interesting discussion. Y and ME performed their pantomime skit that they had done together for the party program at the end of their Klassenfahrt a few weeks ago. At some point GE was climbing all over Y's brother (who was clearly not accustomed to a 4 year old's antics), so I shuttled her into my room with a pile of books and said I'd come check on her. It got quiet very fast! (Not sure she even looked at the books! Baby KO!)

Saturday April 20

I met some of the running group women for a morning run (about 7 km). J took ME along to the airport to meet his parents. MK stayed home and babysat GE. HR was still at her friends' house. I picked up a few groceries before heading home to make lunch for everyone: a hefty vegetable stew to serve with fresh Brötchen. Their arrival went smoothly. HR's friend's mom dropped her off shortly after they arrived and we all squeezed in at the table to eat.  After lunch we tromped over to the Friesdorferhof to check them in. J's mom, KSF, stayed to take a nap while his dad, JF, walked with us over to the big playground. The sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm sitting in the sun. Around 2 I took HR home again to take a short nap before she went to a classmate's birthday party at 3:30.

Full, but pleasant day! Love the signs of spring all around: trees getting their green halos, tulips and daffodils blooming, flowering tress with fluttering pink and white petals. Finally.

The trees are starting to glow light green--can you see them up on the hill in the woods?

Flowering trees across the street.

Forsythia at the neighbor's!

Sunday April 21

J and his dad picked up fresh Brötchen for breakfast. We planned to go to church which usually starts at 10:30. A few minutes before 10 I noticed the church bells were ringing, but I disregarded it. However, it was clear when we got there that the service had already started and that it was *very* full... Confirmation Sunday for about 15 youth! Yikes. Decided not to barrel in during the sermon with four squirmy kids (who didn't actually want to be there), but we weren't sure exactly what to do instead. I definitely didn't want to sit around all day crammed into our apartment (or I'd go nuts!). So, we stopped back at the apartment for some day-outing supplies (backpack with water bottles, pretzels, baby wipes, kleenex, and some warmer layers for the girls), then headed into Bonn. At first our plan was to eat somewhere and then to go to the König Museum, but as we got off the U-bahn I suddenly remembered that the Botanical Gardens are open for the spring and they have Sunday hours (and are closed on Saturdays?! How crazy is that?!), so instead of eating downtown and then taking the U-bahn back to museum, we ate at Im Südhaus in the pedestrian zone and then walked down the promenade to the Poppelsdorfer Schloss and around the back to the Botanical Gardens. We spent at least an hour in the gardens--the kids exploring and running and finding flowers (we drove home the fact that they were not allowed to pick the flowers, so they looked for ones that had fallen to the ground) while I fiddled with other settings on my camera. Then home for some naps and quiet time before a light supper.

Walking past the Sterntor in the pedestrian zone.

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Discovering a play area we'd never noticed before!

Sweetness!

Poppelsdorfer Schloss

Grape Hyacinth

Turtle!

Flowers in her hair, pink flower from the ground.

Messing with my manual settings... too bright, overexposed.

Better...

Too dark...

Better...

using my "soft" effects

Cactus house.

Mommy and baby turtle!

Three generations.

Back at home, working on Minecraft with Grandpa.

Brushing Grandma's long hair while Daddy reads some from a Little House book.

After the kids were in bed, the grown ups sat around the T.V. to watch an episode of Tatort, a German crime procedural show. When it was over, JF (my FIL) and I walked to the U-bahn to meet J's aunt and uncle who are visiting us for 14.5 hours on their way back to Paris. We walked them to the same hotel (Friesdorferhof) where my in-laws are and got them settled.

Monday April 22

Got up early (5:45) for a 7 km run with my FIL. Then back to the apartment to get the kids out the door for school and Kindergarten. J's aunt and uncle joined us for brunch at 9:30: soft boiled eggs, Muesli with yogurt, berries and pumpkin seeds, variety of Brötchen (we stopped at the bakery at the end of our run), coffee, tea, jams, Quark, and soft cheese. Yum!!

It was shaping up to be another pretty day, so I took my bike to Bad Godesberg for groceries while J and the others took the bus and met me there to wander around a bit and hit up the bank for needed cash. Hung out with the kids in the afternoon and then J and his mom walked his aunt and uncle back to the U-bahn station so they could get their train at 4:40 from Köln. There was a bit of an incident just before they left because my MIL left a plastic tupperware container on the stove top to dry and my aunt accidentally turned the burner on when she was washing the stove top down after lunch causing the plastic to burn and smoke up the kitchen. Thankfully, it was such a gorgeous day that we just threw open all the windows and went out on the balcony and sidewalk until it aired out, then my FIL scraped up the plastic and cleaned up. Oh dear!

After the kitchen was put to rights, I made a slow cooked spicy spinach dish, baked some sweet potatoes, steamed the salmon and broccoli (not together), and served up a yummy supper.