February catch up

Apologies to the throngs, well, handful of Dresser Drawer watchers for the lack of blogging. It's just that February is gray and miserable, and I get gray and miserable too. Good things have happened though, and more good things are on the way.

My cousin, Iris, came to stay with us for two weeks on her tramp through Europe. She was our beta tester to see how Wendelstein Strasse did as a guest house. It was great having her.

Matcy sent a box of red and white supplies (hearts, stickers, etc.) for a Valentine Party in the kindergarten class.

The day before winter break, the kids celebrated Fasching at school, the German holiday where people dress up to scare away winter. M was a dog; MM was a cheetah, TG was a Native American. We braided an eagle feather into her hair. They also had a Fasching party at their German class where they painted faces. I had an errand to run beforehand, so the kids brought books to read until their class started. My favorite image of the day was MM in a full cheetah outfit of ears, leotard, skirt with tail, purple tights and orange boots sitting quietly reading The Economist. She likes to look at the pictures and the flags of the different countries in the job posting section in the back, but I'll never tell. Let her look like a current events genius.

During the break we spent a day at a giant swim center with huge blow up animals in the water for kids to climb on, slides, and a super-heated outdoor pool that lets you swim outside in February.

The next day, we joined friends from school for a Pirate exhibit in the old castle of downtown Stuttgart.

Then, today, back to Rothenburg with the Wandering Club for six kilometers through the outskirts of the city. We went with two other families with three kids apiece, so the 15 of us looked like a herd of hikers as we headed along. We probably walked that far again in the afternoon as we took a tour on the wall and ate a pastery famed in Rothenburg: the Schneeball, or snow ball. This little beauty is flaky dough that is put in a round metal container with a large handle, like a giant tea ball and fried, then sprinkled with powdered sugar or dunked in chocolate. Of all the ancient beauty of the city, what held the kids' attention for the longest was a video outside a bakery on the making of the schneeball.

And upcoming:

Spring is on it's way. Bulbs are starting to poke up from the ground. Roses have tiny buds and the forsythia is about to bloom. We used to walk to school in the dark. Now it is light when we wake up at 7 a.m.

Uncle George and Aunt Susan are on their way! They will be hear for two weeks with a chunk out of the middle for them to go to Italy. We can't wait to see them.

More soon.

Nothing but photos

An epiphany. I have discovered that my generation primarily uses internet social networking tools (like blogspot) as delivery mechanisms to force strangers to look at pictures of their kids. Rather than deny this, today I'll just post maximum pictures with minimum editorial content. We all know why you came here and it wasn't to hear me ramble on about this week's episode of Lost (although I do have questions).

One aside,however, while I'm on a social networking rant. Exactly what the heck is twitter and why does anyone care. I don't get it. Really I don't. Compared to twitter, even facebook makes perfect sense to me.

Back to our regular scheduled programming...

Photos are linked below. Learning the type on the computer. Sledding last weekend. Volksmarching today. Lost teeth (3 of them). Click on toothless Maddie to view the slideshow.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day. The kids woke with minimal but quickly waxing excitement when they discovered that Piper had left candy baskets for them on the table.

I stayed in bed and endured a processional of children jumping on me asking if I'd like a Skittle. I hate Skittles. Surprisingly, this added to the joy in a "have your cake and eat it too" sort of way (I get to offer Daddy candy and then I still get to eat it).

Settling in

Life has fallen into a pattern now that we are moved in and with internet. To answer the question burning in everyone's mind: Do the kids get ready in the morning in a timely manner in Germany? No, I still find myself at 7:15 chanting "get up get up get up get up eat eat eat eat eat brush teeth brush teeth brush teeth put on shoes put on shoes put on shoes." I just say it to more people.

I mention this as an example to point out, beyond spending Saturdays in quaint European tourist spots instead of Home Depot, we have a rhythm to the week and it's not much different than home. Andy gets up early, has a 15-minute bus ride, 15 minute walk and he's at work. Much better than the Pa Turnpike commute. He's not traveling to Washington DC during the week and doing reserve duty on weekends, but he's still at work. Poor man.

I have started attacking my Get Involved in German Community Life plan. The girls have joined the local swim club. They are at practice two nights a week. It's not easy to strike up a friendship when your face is in the water, but they are starting to meet the kids on the team. Micah is still learning to swim so he has swim class on Thursday evening. We still go to the pool often with a group from school on Wednesday afternoons when the kids have a half-day from school.

Do you sense a pattern? By now, we all have mesh backpacks that you can throw wet suits and towels straight into.

The girls and I are all in German class now too. Mine is for adults for a few hours Tuesdays and Thursdays. The girls just Tuesday afternoons. Micah was too young for the class, but he loves being an only child for an hour once a week and gets all giggly when I remind him that it is Mommy and Micah time.

We've started having more non-English speaking play dates. This can lead to confusion with the moms. I thought I was inviting one of Tess's classmates to swim with us while Micah had his lesson on Thursday. The mom, who had initiated the offer--I counter offered with swim to fit into our schedule, thought that was a great idea. I thought we had a plan until she started talking about spaghetti Bolognese for dinner...

Only one set back, which made me indignant. In the list of Sindelfingen sports clubs, there was a soccer group that offered Kinderfussball und Frauenfussball. Micah is a Kind and I am a Frau. I thought, "great, what a blast to be in the same club." The man who answered the phone told me that the book had a misprint and that they didn't take kids until 6, not 5, and that Micah would be way too young. And how old was I? he asked. I proudly told him that I was 42.

He laughed.

He told me that I would have to play in the Elder club. Elder! The women's club topped out at about 30. The next time I call, I too, will be 30.

Quote of the Day

Andy: "Hey Micah, would you like to play a game?"

Micah: "No because I cheat."

More Germany Photos

A bunch of family members have asked for us to include more Germany photos in the blog.

Click on the photo below for a link to a Picasa album that I uploaded today. It's heavy on photos of the kids.

Best News (so far) of 2009

Our friends, Joe and Di, are now parents of a baby girl. Congratulations Team K! Cathy and Richard have a 3B (beautiful baby boy). We offer our services as potential match makers in 25 years.

John and Leah, Charles and Silva, we are thrilled for you too, but that was 2008. What have you done for us lately?

Rothenburg

The 5fordhams, accompanied by cool cousin Iris, went to Rothenburg today. Rothenburg is, for lack of a better description, the quintissential medieval walled city. While there are many walled cities remaining in Germany, Rothenburg is the gold standard that the others attempt to compare themselves to. It's also one of the only ones that wasn't bombed. But I digress.

It's old, insanely charming and has a magnificent wall around the entire city. Truly magnificent. Suitable for elven archers to keep the orcs at bay for at least a week. Alas, I digress again.

The wall is quite impressive. The whole thing is, amazingly, open to tourists who can walk the entire perimeter of the city on top of the wall. About a 6km hike.

For reference, parts of the movie Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang were filmed there. It has that kind of quaint European flair.

We had a grand time despite the cold and our inability to locate the English speaking tour that the websites assured us (they promised, darnit) would leave from the markplatz at 2pm.

I should also single out our impromptu visit to the medieval crime museum. We squeezed this in because Tess is currently fascinated by mystery books and wants to be a detective when she grows up. The Medieval Crime Museum might more properly be referred to as the Medieval Torture and Execution Museum. Very cool and tasteful but not as appropriate to the 5fordhams clientele as we expected when we forked over our 10 euros. Despite (or perhaps because of) this miscalculation, my investment was more then returned as I watched Piper rush the kids past a really cool display of executioners' swords.

Click on the photo below for a link to some pictures.

Strasbourg

Andy and I took off from parenting last Saturday to go to Strasbourg for a day a belated anniversary outing. How long do you have to live in Europe before it feels normal to say, "Andy and I went to France for lunch."?

Beautiful but frigid cold.

My goal was to eat. I love French pastries (FYI: the Germans are great at bread, but the culture seems to go against the decadence of abundant fruit, cream and/or chocolate that the French lavish on their baked goods).

Andy's goal was to walk around the old city. Marriage is about compromise, so we walked from bakery to bakery.

Strasbourg fulfills all the guidebook promises. Stunning old city with a river running through the middle (the first city center to be classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO). The most stunning for me was the Strasbourg Cathedral, a smaller version of Notre Dame in Paris. It has all the Gothic beauty, but the smaller size makes it easier to take it in. Excellent examples of French and German architecture as the region changed hands from nation to nation.

Observation: It is hard to practice my German in Germany because people are eager to practice English. They cut me off and change languages. France is a great place to practice French. No one spoke a word of English or German all day, regardless of what language I would start or finish my sentences in. For more photos...