Celebrating with Friends

Today is Alexandra's real birthday so we enjoyed a day of fun with the Warren Family. We all went in the pool - it was Anthony's first time ever. He was not sure what to do about it but he was not too thrilled about being in the water. After watching Alexandra and Ava splash around, he started feeling a little more comfortable.

Alexandra and Ava enjoyed the day, and of course, shared cupcakes! When the weather turned bad, we moved inside and they played dress up. Anthony was the lion chasing the princesses ~ not sure who enjoyed that more. Next weekend is the real party, so there is more fun to come.

Happy 4th Birthday Alexandra

Okay, a day early but we were too excited to wait any longer. Since her birthday fell on a holiday this year, we moved her actual party to the weekend following her birthday. Last night she stayed at Gamma's which gave daddy time to put together her new doll house. One box, yet so many pieces. It is amazing how much patience you need for kids toys these days. It seems like everything must be assembled or is tied down with so many twisty wraps it takes 2o mins to get it out of the box. After a little while, the house was assembled.
Daddy went to pick up Alexandra from Gamma's and I waited patiently at home to see her reaction to the new dollhouse. Her first words "WOW Mommy - what happened to my dollhouse?" Her favorite part was the bed - "It is fancy with the lace trim" - that is for sure from Gamma's influence, we all know that Mommy is not into fancy.

Grey Squirrel

Today was Alexandra's first recital. She has been taking ballet this year at daycare, not really sure what she has learned but she was very excited about her recital. The song was Grey Squirrel and her big debut was scheduled for this evening.

At 10:30am we had a dry run, so the kids would know where to stand and practice on time on the big stage. True to form, Mommy shows up with Alexandra, and quickly realizes that she is supposed to be wearing her costume. Of course, Mommy messed that one up. She was the only kid practicing without the costume on.

At showtime, Mommy was backstage helping keep the kids organized and got to watch all the exciting performances from the backstage view. Alexandra did great, and she was a beautiful Grey Squirrel

Good Bye Minkie!

Today we have reached a huge milestone in Alexandra's life. She spent her first night without the minkie. For all of you who do not know her, her minkie (pacifier) has been her best friend since we was little. On the way to the hotel in Frankfurt on our last night in Germany, she realized that her last minkie had a hole in it. She said she was going to throw it away when we got to the hotel. I panicked a little, you would too - a 10 hour plane ride without the plug is no fun. I suggested waiting until we got home. She went to bed on Wednesday night and appeared in the kitchen on Thursday morning and announced she was throwing it away. I was shocked - I thought surely she would have changed her mind. We went and got Daddy, he had to witness the big event - and boom - it was in the garbage. Last night was a little intense, but she went to sleep without it. Good Bye Minkie - we will miss you.

We made it!

We have all arrived safely back from Germany. We had a great setup on the flight back and got lucky to have a whole row to ourselves. Anthony and Alexandra only took two short naps on the 10 hour flight home, but in general behaved themselves very well. The trip was very intense for us, we did not have the best weather and the kids were probably a little young for the adventure - but overall - it was a great time. It is always nice to see family, and always nice to come home and sleep in your own bed.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Growing up, every summer we would return to Germany and stay at the '"summer house" in Wangen. I have so many great memories of playing outside in the backyard overlooking the lake bordering Germany and Switzerland. It was a place we always went with my dad - he just loved it there. So when we had the opportunity to have the kids go - I was all about it. It was Onkel Dieter's birthday. Both my cousins Stefan and Sibylle were supposed to be there with their family. We packed the kids in the car and headed over to Wangen - only about a 15 min ride from Radolfzell. We arrived to find that Stefan could not come because Charlotte was still sick from her recent Adnoid removal - what a disappointment.

When we walked into the house, Alexandra and Anthony instantly ran outside to play with the other girls. They had the table set up nicely for lunch and the kids had a great time playing in the sunshine. All the kids played very nicely together, despite not really being able to understand each other. It is just amazing how much they look alike, especially Alexandra and Carole.

At times, Anthony would get left behind, the girls seemed to think he was always messing up their playing and pretending. They made pizza's out of the flowers in the garden, played in the sandbox and of course - had Popsicles. Amelie was able to teach Alexandra all kinds of scary things on the swing - she was very impressed.

After lunch we walked into downtown and they played some more on the little playground. We had a great time, we even decided to all go to the animal park the next day together.

Rottweiler Dog

Today we went to visit with Onkel Hans, Tante Monika, and Britta in a town called Rottweil. This is the oldest town in the Federal State of Baden-Wurttemburg and was about 1/2 way between Radolfzell and Singelfingen where they live. We planned on meeting and walking around and having lunch.

Alexandra was very impressed with all the "dogs" and big things she could take her picture next too. Apparently, this is the town that Rottweiler's are named after - they used to be a butcher's dog. We had a great lunch and then it was time to part ways again. The time in Germany always goes by so fast - but we will try to visit again soon.

Hopeless Romantic

Daddy really is a hopeless romantic at heart. Today was a relaxing day in Paris, we slept in a little and decided to go to Palace Versalies - just outside of Paris. Oma had gone there a long time ago with my dad, so I wanted to see what it was all about. We took the metro around 10am and arrived to find a HUGE line. After standing in line for about an hour and a half, we got up to the entrance and booked a special guided tour of the palace. The tour was nice, took us through the different rooms and showed us some beautiful things.

One of the most impressive things was this clock. It was built to run until the year 9999. It has been running and just has to be wound once a month - it was precise. Amazing and very beautiful. After walking through the house and the Opera house that was built from wood to look like marble, we moved onto the gardens out in the back. Here is where the romance starts. They had an area where you could rent a row boat and row up and down the "water way." Daddy wanted to do it - I of course thought he was crazy. But there we were, in the middle of the water and I think it was our favorite part of the time in Paris. We just loved it. What a great view of the Palace and it was so nice and relaxing. Way to go Daddy!

Mission Accomplished

Not only did we successfully find the Arc de Triomphe, we successfully walked up the 284 steps to the top. I had been practicing my stair climbing at work to prepare for this day. I had been to Paris before so I knew what we were in store for. Tight quarters, and very twisty steps..all the way up...and down. Robert is afraid of heights, but this view was worth it. Unfortunately, it was a little overcast, so it was not very clear for pictures but the picture in our head will last forever.

While on the lookout tower we could see the Eiffel Tower. We thought it would be a good idea to walk, it did not really look that far away, besides we would be able to see so much more of the city. Man was that a mistake, it took us over 2 hours to get there.

Paris Day 1

We arrived in Paris and had our first true French experience. After figuring out what metro to take to find our hotel, had tried to ask someone were the hotel was. I tried with my broken French and basically got the look of death. Those French people are so nice. We finally found the hotel and what a nice surprise, they had a market right outside. This market had all kinds of cool things, and there is nothing like walking through a market to get into the culture. We bought a scarf for myself and decided to go on a mission.

The receptionist told us we could take a bus to get to Notre Dame, so the adventure seekers got on the bus. All of a sudden, the bus stopped and basically told us we were at the end of the line....but where was Notre Dame? The question that we found ourselves asking quite frequently during our time in Paris. The bus stop said "Invalids" and it was not more fitting to how we felt about our adventure so far. We saw the castle from far away but decided to head toward the Champs Elysees.

It was cold and raining, not the romantic adventure we were hoping for. We found ourselves on the correct path eventually, finding all the walking a little overwhelming. Paris is a big city, but only when you are there and you think you know where you are going does it really hit you as to how big it is. We made our way up the main drag taking in all the scenery and enjoying the people watching. With the Arc in sight, we had a new goal and mission, get to the Arc, and walk to the top.

US Citizens who do not know their Country?

Today Robert and I headed to Paris for 3 nights away. Oma kept the kids for us, with the help of Tante Heidi and Onkel Dieter. We caught an early train, 6:50am. We started to get a little panicked because getting to Paris required 3 trains, with only a few minutes between them. Of course, our first train was delayed by 10 mins, which only left us 2 mins to switch to the second train. We boarded and found seats. Robert and I were talking when all of the a sudden, the gentleman next to us started talking to us in English. He was very nice assuring us that we would make the next connection, with no problem.

After a few more minutes, he asked us if he could as us a question - of course! So apparently he is a teacher and is taking his students to the West Coast and wanted to know some interest stopping points between Death Valley and San Francisco, something interesting to see around Bakersfield. Robert and I just looked at each other, we had no idea. Turns out, there probably is nothing to see around Bakersfield.

A Day with the Merk Family

Today was a religious holiday in Germany, so all the shops were closed. Robert took Alexandra to church with Onkel Dieter, this has kind of become a tradition on the Germany trip. Typically we meet in downtown Freiburg and have some champagne after, but this time, we kept that ritual for the house. After our champagne, we all piled in the car and headed out to lunch. They eat their big meals during lunch. We were meeting Stefan, Jeannette, Charlotte and Moritz. Alexandra was very excited to see her cousin Charlotte again, and we were all excited about getting out of the cold weather and rain and enjoying a nice meal with the family. Lunch was great, the food in Germany is never a problem.

After lunch we went by Stefan's new house. They are still in the remodeling phase but it is just beautiful and we love all the old vs new charm that this house will have when it is all done. The kids took a nap and that evening we went back to Stefan's apartment for some adult fun. Anthony stayed home with Oma, Tante Heidi and Onkel Dieter. Alexandra got to play more with Charlotte, which was perfect for her.

We got a call saying Anthony would not go to sleep so we headed back to their house. It needed to be an early night for us anyway, tomorrow Robert and I are heading to Paris for some much needed relaxation.

What is 3 hours between friends?

Today is the big day. We are heading to Germany and we could not be more excited. Alexandra and Anthony stayed home with me while Daddy went to work for a few hours in the morning. Alexandra was all dressed with her book bag on about 5 hours before we were scheduled to leave Jacksonville. We all piled in the car around 2pm and we were off on our way to Orlando. We are flying Orlando Frankfurt direct, I might be crazy taking two small kids across the world but I am not trying to switch planes too. We arrived in Orlando as scheduled around 5pm, I parked the car and meet Daddy and the bags at the airport. Oma was soon to follow. We got in line to check in and after about 1 hour of waiting, we realized the flight was going to be delayed 3 hours due to the Volcano in Iceland.

Now we just played the waiting game in the airport. The plan was to keep the kids awake as long as possible so they would crash on the plane. Since we were taking off at 11pm instead of 8pm, I had my work cut out for me. We ate dinner at Outback and got on the plane around 11pm. Alexandra was so excited to see that each seat had it's own TV. She was really impressed. Anthony was a little over tired and was harder to get to sleep but Alexandra was no problem. You really can not keep her from sleeping, she loves her sleep.

My First Home Made Cake

So, she did not actually make it herself, but she did help decorate it today at Publix. Alexandra and I went to go grab some groceries and Publix was running a "special" that allowed your kids to decorate a special Mother's Day cake for you. I, of course, was curious how much this "special" was going to cost - I really am not a huge cake fan. The price was reasonable and even if it wasn't Alexandra was going to do it. She did a great job and was the queen of negotiating for additional things to put on the cake. The poor guy at Publix - he never had a shot. Alexandra wanted to look through the box of supplies and picked out everything. My first homemade Mother's Day cake was great!

Fried Pickles

Who knew - Anthony loves fried pickles. This must be something strange that people in the south eat, because I personally had never heard of them. I am not from up north or anything, but I grew up in Cocoa Beach - which might be further "south" on the map, but is not nearly as south as Jacksonville. Daddy, Anthony and I went to Outback Crab Shack while Alexandra spent the night with Gamma. We had a great time and discovered that Anthony LOVES fried pickles. I think he would eat just about anything.

7 more days

Only 7 more days until we fly across the world and introduce Anthony to the family. We are so excited and can not wait to see everyone. Daddy and Mommy are taking 3 nights off and heading to Paris. Oma, Tante Heidi and Onkel Dieter will be in charge of the kids! Good Luck. Anthony has been coughing again and really been having a hard time falling asleep at night. I am just hoping that the flight goes well and all the new and exciting things really wear him out so he will sleep good at night. Every night when I put Alexandra to sleep, we count down how many more days. She is getting very excited because we almost do not need two hands anymore.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Just another day in the Adams' house. Today might have been my birthday, but life surely does not stop for this 32 year old. Another full day at work, but my co-workers got me a nice card and cupcakes, and then a peaceful drive home without the kids and chaos beings at 6pm when they hit the door. Dinner was fancy - tuna fish sandwiches and then I had two cranky kids to deal with. Sunday was nice, Gamma made me dinner at her house. I also got a nice fruit arrangement from my Sister in Law

One Little, Two Little

Okay, so we don't have three little Indians but we surely have two really cute ones! Daddy broke out an old costume from his younger years and the kids loved it. They sure are cute!