2 birthdays and SNOW.

A huge weekend of eating, drinking and general merry making was had by all as the Monkey turned 4 and Herr Fitz turned...uh uh 38. The Monkey was very serious about turning 4 as she is now a 'big girl.' we celebrated with cakes, paper chains, pass the parcel and topfschlag. For the record "pass the parcel" isn't an international game and a little explaining was necessary. After a round everyone was on the same page. Topfschlag on the other had was easily demonstrated and all the adults ended up joining in yelling "kalt" und "warmer" as the blindfolded, wooden spoon wielding kid attempted to find the saucepan on the ground. Herr Fitz's birthday was dominated by loads of chatting with old and new friends, a few "sherbets" (for the record that is drinks) and loads and loads of cheese and chocolate.

It was extra nice as it snowed on Thursday and it stayed on the ground all weekend. More snow fell today and with it came some seriously icey bike lanes and footpaths. People were falling off there bikes everywhere. It did have the spin off effect of making people talk to each other as they check if people lying on the footpath with bikes on top of them were ok. I stupidly decided to ride the kids to their violin lesson and had to get off and walk parts of the way after some serious heart stopping skidding. Proudly I didn't fall off and got the kids back to Herr Fitz at work unscathed. He then went and "got the bike trailer sideways" around a corner at the same time as the Bear went hands first along the ground off his bike. Not knowing any of this I went to my German class and completely stacked it on my way home, I still haven't realised that the bike slid out. Luckily no-one was hurt, just a little damp. So I have learnt two thing today: 1) the "I'll just race out to the bin in my socks" time is over as when I opened the door there was about 2cm of snow in front of me and my brand new fluffy socks screamed noooo! and 2) sometimes it is best to catch the bus.

Bikers, Zoo and Siedler

It is somewhat official. I am part of a bike gang, or so I would like to think. Spent a fantastic evening at the kindergarten parent meeting during this week, lovely chatting to other parents over a beer or in fact a shandy which is called a radler here and the ride there and home was like being in a teenage bike gang. So though we haven't sorted out our gang colours yet (definitely something patchwork I think) I was picked up at the door by one other mum to find another couple of mums at the corner. On the way home we were an even bigger group and as people peeled off to their streets it was round after round of Tschuss and Bis Morgan. So much more fun than cars as driving after a couple of beers and yelling out of car windows is typically frowned upon.

After a big Saturday morning of post organising we decided to forgo grocery shopping and go to the zoo. So we all rugged up, jumped on the bikes and headed off on a barmy Autumn day (5oC and cloudy, it is amazing how differently you view the weather in different situations) Best decision ever!!!!!!! Followed this with a late night game of "Siedler" (The Settlers of Caitan) which I have wanted to learn to play for ages. It was a little tricky as it belongs to our upstairs neighbours so not only was it explained in German but the cards were in Hungarian. There was a period when I thought I was going to win, this was enough to get me hooked. I should be able to hone my skills in the next 7 months.

Robot Mania

Lots of rain and an ear infection meant we stayed inside all day Sunday and just relaxed. I think that everyone who knows us knows two things about us as a family 1) only 50% of us can truly relax, 2) a cardboard box can provide hours of fun (with a hint of arguing thrown in for good measure as the box holds many possibilities) and 3) we love robots and 4) I can't count. Now we have a new toy (and cornflakes in a plastic bag in the cupboard). The Bear was the mastermind behind the whole robot build and had been preparing for the opportunity for days. He has a book with make at home dress ups and has been pouring over it. With a little bit of coaxing and the fact that the chips still need their tube we downsized from a whole body robot to just a helmet version. Credit goes to Herr Fitz for the general shape, Me for the use of the Tube map as a circuitboard, the bear for all other decoration and the Monkey and Mouse for not breaking it -yet.

I even got all the pencils sharpened, this is as close as I can get to doing nothing, it was actually very relaxing and I felt my eyelids close a couple of times. The Mouse was very helpful and whacked me with another pencil when I had finished one. In an attempt to have a 5th cup of tea while the Mouse had a snooze in the stroller (a quick walk around the block to get her to sleep all raincoated up was worth it.) we got out the puzzles and set the big two to work.

Herr Fitz went to Hamburg to give a lecture and wowed them with his colonial knowledge. He was only gone one night and I had a sick Bear in bed at 6pm absolutely exhausted, the Monkey and Mouse asleep by 7 30pm, the broken yoghurt bottle cleaned off the floor, the 3km radius of yoghurt wiped up and my German course homework done all with a little help from a cup of tea, a hot chocolate a home renovation show on TV and two chocolate bars. Hope he doesn't go away too often or at least must make sure I stock the cupboard before he goes and swim a few extra times.

I woke the Bear up to go to the loo in the middle of the night and he must of been dreaming as when we got to the bathroom he said "ich habe meine Schuhe verloren" which is I've lost my shoes.

shoes, rain and lanterns

Things I have learnt today

1. Wrap a plastic bag around your lantern when it rains as it prevent it disintegrating....learnt this to late.

2. If you procrastinate long enough good things can happen

Today is St Martin's Day. He was a roman soldier who shared his cloak with a poor man. Big day here as it is the day kids make lanterns and go to the church (yes I went to church) and then walk the streets with their lanterns singing. Now, no one loves a good bit of public singing more than me, I have been hot housing the kids with the lyrics of 3 songs all week so we would be ready. Unfortunately it rained so no street march and even though there was singing in the church it wasn't the same. The kids and I were very brave about it and even though we are sad it rained we aren't going to dwell on it....except for the 5 minutes I will spend talking about every 11 th of November from now on. As we had to walk to the church around the corner and we went with a friend who has 4 kids and the kids sung the songs (voluntarily, I didn't even prompt) it was just like the real thing. I tried to upload a little video of the kids singing but failed. Trust me the Monkey has her mother's voice. This picture will have to do. Some very helpful boys from kindergarten told the Bear and Monkey they had baby lanterns as they were quite a bit smaller than the rest. In my defense it was our first go and they all looked small on the internet when I goggled making lanterns. Luckily the kids laughed at the comments.

The Monkey did actually have a good time.

St Martins Goose made by the Bear at kindergarten, it did have a tail but it got eaten on the way home. All of the Monkey's got eaten on the way home.

Herr Fitz has been in the mother country all week at a big nerdy conference and said it was good and of course he put his 2 cents worth in. It finished today and now he should be buying me tea and frys chocolate bars. The kids have missed their Dad so much and have been helpful more often than not so no one has gone insane. The Monkey said tonight that she was going to dream of Daddy. I am trying to work out how much I should tell him I paid for my new winter boots and as I can't lie i know I am going to fess up. He only has himself to blame as he was the one who found the shop.

Check out these little beauties

In my favour I have been boring people and accosting people about boot brands (thank you Frau K for the tips about the frog brand) but the best point is I got them for nearly half price. Yes yes I know "all pots half price" is just a selling ploy but aren't these boots magnificent. As it was an outlet shop I knew asking if they had the black in 38 was stupid but gave it a shot. Answer No!!So I spent a good 20mins with the brown 37s which fitted my right foot just fine but the left wasn't so happy. Just as I was wondering if buying slightly ill fitting boots for such a price was stupidity the shop assistance magically found a black pair in 38. I managed to refrain from any sort of inappropriate hugging and just flashed my credit card. See phaffing about pays off.

So much food!

Rock and Roll Fairy or worms

(this was the best picture I could get of this great outfit the Mouse wore as she wouldn't stop dancing).

Our favourite place.

Puzzles and knitwear. Looks like a good winter.

What a weekend. Let me just start by saying Herr Fitz went to the soccer on Friday night and has been grounded ever since and isn't allowed to go out with M again as I think he is a bad influence. Or, he could just start wearing a watch and remembering that riding a bike takes balance. Luckily he did "man up" his words not mine and I got all the cooking done for our lunch guests on Saturday. It was a wonderful day. Frau M came to visit and brought her now world renowned vegan vanilla slice (even better than the one you can buy at the bakery at Sawtell) and M and H came with Australian red wine and vegemite. The wine was so good. I forgot how beefy Australian red wine could taste...it was wonderful and drinking a couple of glasses in the middle of the day is so lovely. Luckily there was more for everyone else as Herr Fitz couldn't face it...I think that is penance enough and he is no longer grounded. The day ended 4 million calories later with a quick walk around the sports park as it had stopped raining and the Monkey wanted to ride her bike and I wanted to make room for more vanilla slice.

Sunday saw MORE cake as we went to a birthday party, though we sensibly ate soup first and said no to beer. How very grown up and responsible of us. 10 out of 10 for parenting there as we even took the kids to the park in the afternoon all wrapped up in their jackets and wet weather pants. I have developed a very warped sense of warm and cold as last week it was 10oC and I thought it was warm and was waxing lyrical about the warmer weather. This week we are back to the slow slide into winter with most days 1-5oC.

Our poor Bear has a double ear infection. Here is where we get "needs improvement" on our parenting report as we only took him to the doctor as he couldn't hear us on Monday morning. We even tried the would you like a chocolate sentence and he didn't answer. The Monkey on the other hand has perfect hearing as she was yelling "I'll have a chocolate, I can hear you, I'll have a chocolate" over and over again. It gets worse as it was last week he woke up in the night saying he could hear a banging noise. We told him it was the shutters outside and told him to go back to sleep (which he did after about an hour). The upside of this tale is that the shutters won't bang in the wind as I stuffed paper in the locks and that the Bear did get antibiotics as his ears were "uberhaupt nicht in Odernung" (and that was after looking in his 'good' ear). Bless his very practical winter socks the Bear didn't complain and only missed the first hour of kindergarten.

Whilst my German is not fantastic as was seen when I told the bike shop guy I had a slippery wheel instead of a flat tyre (luckily he took pity on me and fixed it on the spot for only 3euros for the valve) I did managed to get us to the doctor only being helped once by another cyclist who saw me looking at my map, understand what was wrong, buy us a hot chocolate and cake as a reward at the bakery, get the medicine and understand how to mix it up as it comes as a powder.

Herr Fitz has started his quest to work in a field that requires travelling to different countries whilst not using aeroplanes by catching the train from Germany to London. It should be an interesting trip home next June.

A huge thank you to all the lovely folk who have said they enjoy reading this littl' old blog, I really enjoy living and writing it. I am a very lucky person indeed. I also love that most of these people are just as bad with technology as I am and have had to tell me via email/facebook as no-one, including me really knows how to comment. xxoo

winter shoes, flowers and...

Herr Fitz's famous Reibekucken!

It only happens twice a year but both times it takes me at least three days to understand which way to do it. Yes we have moved from summer time to winter time so now the difference between Germany and Australia is 10hours and we are ever so close to waking up in the dark and eating lunch in the dark...sorry Germany it isn't that bad. After at least two failed winter shoe buying trips the changing of the clocks meant we bit the bullet and went to buy shoes or walk home barefoot as a penalty for wasting time again. Bless Herr Fitz and his Depression era shopping mentality he tried to convince me the Bear takes a size 35 shoe. Not even a poor grasp of the local language and a knowledge of the appalling service culture could stop me consulting with the very well dressed and bored looking shop assistant on this issue. For the record he is a 33 (and that is allowing for thick socks). Now we are the owners of a mountain of shoes that take up the hallway and will no doubt send me mad during the coming season. In the process of waterproofing our winter shoe empire I may have inadvertently given myself a very handy super power. I scotchguarded the boots but didn't think to wear a glove on the hand inside the shoe so now I have a very water resistant left hand. An especially good super power given the annual rainfall where I live and the fact that we don't have a dishwasher.

We were a very cultural family on Sunday not only was there art but theatre too. Herr Fitz took the Bear and the Monkey to see a fabulous play at the library http://www.theater-don-kidschote.de/stuecke/babilu.html and I took the Mouse on the back of the bike rugged up in all her winter gear to see some open artist studios near the harbour with some fellow Australians. It was the second play by this company the kids have seen. The first was about a pirate and we are all in love with the poster illustrations. Coincidentally the illustrator had a studio at the harbour and I got to take a look. Very inspiring, as was the tucked away printmakers workshop who was working on some robot images..I am such a sucker for robots.

(thanks to Miss and Mrs S for the Monkey's vest)

Sunday was Halloween and rather than have to explain we had nothing sweet to German 12 year olds I was forced to buy a whole tub of lollies and found a use for the kids potato stamps of jack-o-lanterns and pear (not at all Halloween but very easy to cut out) when we stuck them on the lolly bags. Luckily a group came by or I would still be explaining to the Bear.

Monday was a public holiday the two little girls I looked after last time I was here came for a visit. They were 5 then and now they are 11 and so grown up. They brought me some beautiful flowers which they had put together themselves at the florist (the only stores open on the public holiday). It was so sweet to see them playing with my kids and watching and listening to the great mix of english and german.

It is official I am on the craft team at Kindy. No, I am not doing the children's homework or pushing small children out of the way in my quest to the glue. AND it is important to put in here it wasn't me at a table full of kids though we were sitting at the kids tables. It was a craft working bee, one of 4 craft afternoons in the lead up to the Kindy Mega Christmas Market....I am tingling in anticipation all ready. So there we were, about 10 mums and 2 kindy teachers making paper lanterns...it was so much fun even though step 3 of the folding still alludes me. We jokingly said we would try it again as homework...I did and oh it was tragic...I wasn't the only conscientious one but I was the only one who couldn't get it to look even remotely three dimensional. I am remembering a paper snow flake incident from last year that involved folding, cutting and unfolding that was very disappointing for the children and amusing to many others.

On the house front our neighbours above had a blocked brain so there was a late night gurgling of pipes and much jubilation when the swooshing of water noise was heard and the pipes above were clear. What we realised an hour later was that it hadn't cleared, just simply found another exit...OUR BATH! This is one of my top 5 reasons for not wanting to be a grown up. We had to give up late that night and called in the plumber the next day.