holiday at home

With three kids and snow everywhere (though it has finally thawed) we decided to have a holiday at home and wait till the spring to go on adventures further away. So, armed with one of my infamous mudmaps with the bus connections scrawled in the margin we set off for the mythical indoor play centre. There was a brief moment as we stepped off the bus and an ill wind blew up that we thought we might never find it and end up stealing potatoes from the nearby fields to survive but as we rounded the corner the wind died down and there it was. Google German weather for that day and you will see that I wasn't just using the wind as a literary device it really was a very gusty day.

We had a great day and only lost the Monkey for 15 minutes but found her wandering in the maze possible unaware she was lost until she saw Herr Fitz and it was then she started crying. Totally exhausted we ate pizza for dinner, bathed and put the kids to bed and started in on some of the English language DVDs we got as Christmas presents to round off a great holiday at home weekend.

Even though the Christmas decorations are just about all down and kindergarten has gone back we kept the holiday mood alive with lots of lego play and the discovery of "Berliners" (jam filled doughnuts). We have always known about them but the kids have only just discovered them as the local bakery have put them low enough for the kids to see.

The Bear joined the Lego club and has been waiting months for his first Lego magazine. The day it arrived he took it with him to sport as he had to wait for the girls. Unfortunately it rained that day and I didn't realise his bag was at the bottom of the trailer which gets wet. Luckily we dried it out on the heater and he was very philosophical about it, "I can still read it Mum, it doesn't matter that it is a bit wrinkled". I would have cried like a baby had it been mine so I was dumbfounded and very proud.

The holiday spirit promptly ended on Wednesday when I went to the skin clinic to get a pimple that had gone crazy over the last 6 months seen to and came away with a numb face, wonky smile and the feeling that I had definitely mispronounced the word pickel (ie pimple) at least once which, for the record would have had very embarrassing connotations so I will not elaborate. There were no embarrassing questions asked so let's just say I got it right every time. And let us never mention the fact that when reading a kids book in German to some new friends yesterday I may have said dein (your) instead of sein (his) so i may have indicated that the half dragon / half hippopotomus character had the nose of the kid's mum not of the character's mum (who was actually a hippopotomus). Again let's never speak of this possible mistake every again and see if we get invited back.

We wrapped up this week with a few late night drinks with Frau S the First and her Herr M. So it is safe to say we are starting off the weekend very slowly.