So here were are in May

 And now it is May!

 The spring has been amazing so far. Living in South Australia for 11 years often makes me forget how humidity can make the temperature feel so much hotter. The flowers are blooming everywhere, and the opportunity for adventures abounds. One of my favourite places in the world is the little windmill museum just near our apartment. We have taken the kids there everytime we are in Germany and each time we experience something quaint, slow and lovely. Once it was the fairytale story teller in the smoke house when it was freezing and dark outside, once the christmas play with the terrifying Schwarze Peter, once an easter egg hunt with real boiled eggs (this year we were ready for it), once the bee keeper gave us a talk, once we poured tin into moulds and once, just ONCE we climbed the windmill. Frau N and I are big fans of the windmill so on the first lovely weekend we had free we popped in with any kids who were willing (or knew they could ride home at anytime by themselves because most are big enough to do this now) and found ourselves in the thick village life. Yes my mental image of myself was in full costume.

Unfortunately we just missed the baker, though he explained he was happy to be going home as he had been up since 4am. So another trip will be necessary to buy woodbaked bread.

May (or possibily the very end of April) saw me successfully continued my relationship building with Dr Oetker and his sachets of baking powder and a pavlova that wowed (even it I do say so myself) them at Frau F's birthday was made and I am hoping to recreate the effort in June, don't want to rush these things.

We are just coming to the end of a crazy amount of public holidays. Easter, May Day, Christihimmelfahrt and all the bridging days (moveable days schools get) to make these 3 day weekends into 4 or 5 day weekends. So school has been a bit all over the shop and I think the kids are forgetting what a full week is like. That said, things are ticking along. The Bear did well with a maths test on angles and we are all across the vocab for that in german now. The Mouse got her pen license (Inky Fuehrerschein) which she has been working really hard on and just loves writing in cursive with her inky and the Monkey found out that you never tell a mother who is an art teacher (who can work one on one and is in need of a creative outlet) that your plans to build a dome shaped house for art were deemed to difficult.

We have sat in the sun at friend's houses, welcomed a new baby to the friend crew, visited the museum and of course adventured to forests, hung out with Lola the dog and her fabulous crew. And squeezed in the occassional huge breakfasts and cake along the way. Ice cream has been eaten too but there is never enough time or anyone willing to take a brief pause from eating said icecream to take a photo

Then there was a day trip to Paderborn to hang out with the crew there, where we started with a giant garden breakfast then walked it off through the town before spending the afternoon frisbeeing and eating cake in the garden again. The weather was so nice and it was a super relaxing day.

 

You have to enjoy the sunshine so we backed up the next day with a walk in the forest. The Teutoburg Forest where Hermann the Cherusker lead the germanic tribes and held of the Romans in the 9th century. Not so much holding the Roman forces at bay as the strolling and finding cake and pottery experience for us today. I wonder if the loitering outside the pottery shop whilst I selected just the right shade of green cup then Frau N doing the same will be something the kids tell with anguish and boredom when they grow up. A huge thank you to Familie N and G for sharing this with us and shouting us cake in the very lovely cafe at the top. Note: Herr F nearly wore his very bright boardies and when we were surprised with the eat in cafe treat we both breathed a sigh of relief that the more sedate grey shorts were sported.

  

The most recent long weekend luckily for us started with an overcast lazy book reading TV/screen watching day to recharge the batteries and avoid the masses in town for the opening of Katholikentag. The four day catholic convention that saw streets closed, buses diverted and the kids in depth planning of alternate routes home if they couldn't get through. The general rule of "you can go anywhere on a bike" held and they made it home.

But just before May happened this happened

This girl turned 9!

Celebrations were had at home, at school (oops, one cake to few, luckily the birthday girl said she'd take the hit and not have a cake, even luckier, someone in her class didn't like cake) and at an ice cream cafe in the city where she ordered her first spaghetti eis. 

 Then the Bear turned...13!

Unfortunately there was no giant 3 balloons in the shop so I improvised with number sparklers. Bad parent moment as I forgot he doesn't really like sparklers and I really can't blame him after the 2017  cake bunting catching on fire even though mum promised it wouldn't incident. More cake was eaten and a 10 hour Marvel movie marathon with his very own shopping list of junk food (after we had discussed what ws humanly possible to eat in a day) was his wish. He was one very happy Bear particularly as the "can't sit still" members of the family left the sofa/movie faction in peace for a couple of hours in the middle of the marathon...the weather was too good to sit inside

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Welcome to being a teenager our boy. You are amazing and we love you.

 The night inbetween his birthday and his movie marathon we meet Herr M, Frau J and the Possum and went to the fair called Send.The Bear surprised us all by asking to go on the rollercoaster. He had 3 very willing accomplices and 4 very willing spectators/camera operators.

May aready! Part 3

LEIPZIG

A trip isn't a a trip without a visit to Leipzig and the Frau K and Girls there. This time the English/Leipzig/ Australian contingent also made an appearance and we spent a beautiful day in the botanic gardens and butterfly house catching up and eating icecream. Thank for the english Yorkie Tea! We trained (Harry Potter style cabin on the way back which saw various scenes reenacted), we trammed, we caught up on the last 4 years, we watched dodgy reality TV, threw in a bit of Bach and East German nostalgia and we just hung out like no time had passed since we last saw each other. I finally got to see one of the lakes in Leipzig and the Monkey dipped in her toes. 

May already! Part 2

Cake, Cake and More CAKE

It is an understatement to say we like cake. Actually the best thing about cake, apart from the cake is enjoying it with friends. Leading up to Easter in the cold weather we had a lot of cake experiences, some were birthdays, so were just because then easter Sunday came, we switched to bread in the morning then were back to cake in the afternoon.

Frozen pond in front of the Windmill.

Easter bread (Baked by Frau Z)

Not our table but somewhere we often 

                             enjoy cake and chatting

The healthy part of easter.

 Dancing after all the easter cake

Random stuff indoors as it was still freezing!

Elaborate engineering that required ladders to be fetched and all was videoed and sequenced into a fabulous film.