Halloween 2009

We took the kids to my friend in Geneva for a Halloween weekend, we decorated her whole house and made ghoulish treats. The kids dressed up and (of course) came back loaded with candy. I believe they are starting to learn their lesson and managed not to eat all 6 pounds of candy within the first 5 minutes. Shocking!
Mandy dressed up as a dead Princess Peach (Anyone play Mario?) and Jason was Jason Vorhees from Friday 13th--all entirely their idea by the way!
For dinner we served chopped off monster feet, dead man's fingers and giant's eyes. For dessert there was eyeball muffins and spider crackers. Very delicious!
We can't wait until next halloween to do something fun like this again!

Happy Birthday, Amanda!!!

Amanda at age 3


Amanda at age 5


Age 6


Age 7


Age 10 (She is playing air-guitar in case you can't tell!)

Our darling daughter finally turned 10, she got to celebrate once on her birthday (it was Monday, first day back at school) and once with her friends. The theme was "popstars" and we had wii dancing, singstar singing, make-overs, outfits, photo shootings and lots of fun and games.
I didn't know that girls could eat so much until I saw them gobble away more than two trays of pizza! Now I know better...

I call Amanda my sunshine because she is always cheerful, there is very little that can dampen her mood or make her fussy. She never whines, not as a baby and not now either. She will make up her mind as to what she wants and go for it, never taking "no" for an answer. Some call it "stubborn", others call it "driven". Amanda takes her time in choosing things, a rash decision is something she will never make. She is thorough in everything she does, sometimes to the point of being slow--for example when it comes to food. Yes, she can take up to 20 minutes to eat one scoop of (now turned mush) ice-cream. Better than rushing anyhow, I say. (Her brother is off the table in about 5 minutes with his mouth still full of food!)
She is a good student who hasn't had one "C" last year and wants to study to become a dentist when she is big. When her brother got his tooth filled, she was allowed to "assist" because our dentist knows of her possible soon-to-be profession of inflicting severe pain to our mouths. (With assist, I mean that she got to hold and use the tool that blows air onto the tooth so that the dentist could drill and finish the filling.) My growing daughter is a talented artist and ballet dancer who can also beat you in chess and card games due to her wit. She is girly but not prissy, feisty but not mean, honest but not hurtful and is a caring person who is growing into the perfect woman! (Praise be to Tom and Hanna for creating such a creature!)

Plitvice Lakes & Waterfalls

Croatian National Park / Plitvitcer Lakes

We decided to head out to the Plitvicer lakes on our way home, little did we know that the area is a full 217 hectar large and it takes between 6-8 hours to just walk around all the lakes. Luckily, they have a very neat ferry and mini-bus system where you can tour everything but don't have to walk all that far.
There are sixteen lakes in total, but I think we only saw 6 or 7 of those. They also fall in a sort of step-fashion, which creates little waterfalls whenever it goes to another step. The largest waterfall on the upper lakes was 78 meters high (255 feet) and was absolutely breathtaking. All of the lakes had gorgeous colours ranging from azure to green and blue, apparently the colours will change depending on the quality of minerals and organisms in the water.
They had several trails that you could trek on, and we took the little ferry-boats to cut across some of the larger parts and make our trip shorter.
Fish were everywhere, as well as ducks and birds and lots of butterflies. The kids got a bit tired after a while and after 6 hours of pure walking and climbing, we got into the car to start our trip back to Germany.
In retrospect, although it was nice for the kids, I think it's more of an adult tour.

Caves

We visited one of the largest stalagmite/stalagtite caves in Croatia name Biserujka on the island Krk. It lies about 12 meters under the ground It was breathtaking when you realize how long it took for those pillars to become what they are, when it can take 20-30 years for just one milimeter to grow. As you can see from the pictures, many of the calcine pillars are well over 3 meters. It's cold all year round, about 10-13° constantly and you could feel the humidity in the air, a bit like a very moist air con.
Legend has it that pirates of old hid a treasure of pearls in the cave, and "biserujka" means "little pearl" in Croatian.
Oh, Tom says Jason and me look like aliens in that picture...

More Croatia pictures

Holidays in Croatia

Halrighty then: pictures!!!

We drove down to the Kvarner bay where we had rented an apartment for a week. We spent most of our time at the beach, lazing in the sun. Tom and Jason went fishing (no pix, sorry) and caught our dinner once, that was yummy. The weather played along most of the time, and although it was supposed to turn sour it stayed lovely until the day we had to leave--perfect!
Of course we had some great seafood when there, it's just different when served mediterranean style and fresh from the sea. Luckily, the area wasn't heavily bombarded by tourists, mainly Croatians, some Czechs and Hungarians and of course your all-time favourite: Germans! (Ze Chermans arr comink)
It took us about 14 hours to drive down because we got stuck in Italian traffic jam, and the trip back was only 10 hours since we took a different route and drove at night. We taught the kids to snorkel and Mandy is really good at it. It's always a bummer when the holidays end but they were fun nonetheless.

Random pictures

I wish I could take pictures every day, but I just don't get around to it. Often the kids run away from the camera or refuse to sit still because "silly old Mom" wants to take yet another snapshot.
They are enjoying their holidays, we go to the pool as often as we can and rent wii games when the weather is shitty. Soon Tom and I will be on holidays for 3 weeks and we will go on a day-trip to France, a camping trip and a week of holiday at the Croatian beaches. Looking forward to that, and promise to capture that on my digi cam.
For now, enjoy these:

Summer is here at last

...well, German summer that is. How do you know it's summer in Germany?
Answer: when the rain feels warm!

It's really not fair because while the kids are at school and I am work, the sun shines and beats and it's all summer-go-happy. The minute I get out of the office, I see dark clouds and feel the sticky humidity of an oncoming storm. Ok, once or twice we managed to go to the pool for a few hours. See, the summer storms here aren't cold and the air still stays baking hot and stagnant.
Of course the kids are starting to tan, while Tom and I still look all pasty. We're trying to remedy that though, at least before we go to Croatia end of August. He he!
The kids only have to go to school for 4 more weeks, and then they will be sleeping in till 12 every day and wrecking havoc at home until I come back from work. Personally, I think six weeks of summer holidays is far too long but don't tell the kids that! The city does these holiday project for which Mandy has already signed herself and Jason up for. Like cooking classes, pottery classes and various try-outs for different sports. It keeps them busy and it's free!
I will probably have to rely on babysitters (aka siblings) every once in a while to take them to the pool while Tom and I slave away with ball and chain on our ankles.
Ah yes, summertime. When everyone crawls out of their dingy holes and dares to sit in the sun until they look like lobsters. When the beergardens are filled with tipsy Dads singing out loud to corny music. When the air is filled with the smell of bbq and cut grass. When you hope not to meet any of your colleagues at the pool today because you don't want your boss to chat you up when you're just wearing a bikini.
Summertime!

Fun Stuff

As we do every year, we went to the town fair and rides which are in the summer. Sometimes the weather doesn't play along, but this time we got lucky. Of course I managed to drop and smash my brand name sunglasses while waiting for a ride--the sacrifices you make for your kids!
We went on the spookride and actually got stuck. Mandy asked if part of the spook was being bored to death by sitting in the dark in front of an LCD TV showing a burning abyss. A worker came and "rescued" us but we got stuck a few seconds later again. So that was pretty boring! Jason won a little prize at a shooting booth and we were all thoroughly tossed around in the bumper cars.
Next year: same procedure!