School's In

After a week-long break, during which we did nothing huge or exciting, the kids are back to normal this morning. That means no more "help" with the current carpentry project:

looking for safety goggles, she couldn't find anything in HER room, so she raided Daddy's room and found his 3D glasses from some visit to the movie theater...she is sanding away at the side of her desk, which we had only just started - the whole thing being cut with a jigsaw and sanded with super-fine sandpaper because I didn't have anything else.

putting together the frame of the desk

That's teamwork!

Also, someone lost tooth number two this month:

And now they're both gone. I kind of miss them. It's awfully quiet!

a bit of a blast...from the past

9. February 2007 

That's nearly 6 years ago to the day. And six years ago, we had sunshine an went to the playground and it was warm enough to play in the sandbox. This year, it's cold, and covered in snow. And one more thing, that little fat-cheeked, baldy baby? She is nearly as high as my shoulder now and has hair down to the middle of her back. It's crazy. CRAZY.

Also: she is learning, with much effort, to read. German. Phonetically. She is meant to read aloud for 10 minutes daily. Yesterday, she insisted on reading an English book. And what's more? She did it. And she seemed to grasp it more quickly than the German...it could have had to do with the easy-reader book, but does that matter? She's learning. I'm happy!

a WASTE of my time...

which resulted in this (helping get out my frustration):

and now back to your regularly scheduled program, which did not include reading my blog...I know. Because I never manage to update anymore, which only means I am totally and completely missing out on the little snips of life that I am thus going to forget.

For Example: G went to her first birthday slumber party at the weekend (no, she will not be having one of her own, are you crazy? I'm not! and yes, she DID ask) where she proceeded to be awake as per usual, at 2am. However, with the help of a friend, she was not only awake, she got UP and the two of them fully intended to start their day, were headed to the birthday girl's bedroom to play when they were intercepted by Birthday Girl's Mama who sent them right back to bed!

Mr. D: discovering the unfortunate but inevitable silverfish that abide in all walls everywhere...informed me in great earnestness: "Mommy, I saw GOLDfish in the BATHroom..."

Miss G on going to school in the morning: "Mommy, I don't want to go to school tomorrow, I don't FEEL like it." When told she had to go anyway, as it's the LAW and we could go to JAIL if she didn't she asked: "Why can't we call and pretend I'm sick?" (ME: "Because that would be lying" ) to which she responded: "But _________ did it...". and ______________, if you are reading this, you'll know who you are! 

Dido finally has a new album coming out. Very excited. I follow her on FB. For years, her page has been silent, and then suddenly, she was recording, and posting about it and then her page was informing her followers that her new single would be premiering on the radio for the first time EVER on X January 2013. It included the link to the live streaming to the Radio station in question. That would be the BBC's Radio 2. Why do I mention this? After hearing her song, I kept listening. I left the stream open on my computer. I listened all day. I listened every day. I'm still listening. And because I am still listening. And because I now have a cell with internet (thanks, Mom), I can listen to music EVERYWHERE. 

That's what I was doing today, while walking home from school after the failed meeting with G's teacher. I was pissed. It was snow-storming (by which I mean, snowing with serious WIND) and I was miserable because I could not SEE and my eyes were stinging, and I could not even open one of them, and my glasses were just a blur of water. But I was listening to the radio and the morning show was featuring a new(ish) artist in the UK and he played this AWESOME song (live) called Lightning Bolt. I could NOT stop grinning. The music was happy and peppy and I think the lyrics were fun, but I don't even know because it was his voice and his accent and the WAY he sang the words that caught my fancy.

That's all. I got carried away. I'll be back in another five months, eh?!

Let It Snow...

Pssst. Winter's here. For now. The snow came down on Wednesday and on Friday it was perfect for:

building a snowman.

which she did. by herself. after spending an agonizingly long time doing homework with me.

she. is. awesome.

(D. was at a friend's house, or he would have happily helped destroy it. No, that's wrong. He DID help destroy it. After he got home and G went off to her singing rehearsal...)

The First Week of School. (put on your reading glasses!)

The first week of school has gone by in a whirlwind of well...confusion, color, excitement and activity. It has not been without its Ups and Downs. 

Monday.

D. went to Jack + Jill alone. It must have been a Good Day, despite his being alone, as there were no accidents, no tears, and a joyful greeting, despite my somewhat late arrival due to a mix-up with car seats.

G went to her first full day of school according to the official Schedule. She was out by 12:20 and I biked to school to make sure she got on the right bus, and then I left her to ride it home while I met her at her bus stop.

G and I picked up D. Then D went to his very first playdate away from home and without G. or Me. While he was there, G and I biked down to the Sport Center and she went to girl's gymnastics for grades 1 - 5. She was skeptical at first, but upon arrival discovered at least half her class there. The plan was for her to be there until 5:30pm, at which time D and I would be there to pick her up. In the meantime, I biked back home and then on to retrieve D from his playdate at 5pm, giving us just enough time to bike back to the Sport Center. Unfortunately, D didn't want to leave and striked and then insisted he was going to ride his own bitty bike all the way there. At this time, I got a call from another Mom telling me that the kids had gotten out at 5pm and G was beside herself with worry that I was not there, and that my bike was also not there. Said Mama drove her home and Daddy had to pick up her bike later. Turns out, the girls weren't paying attention and at 5pm, were meant to go to Hall 3 for fun + games. G insisted she never wanted to go back, but upon closer questioning, it turned out that she had had a good time, but my not being there at the end sent her into a spiral of worry and tragedy. She'll go back next week, and even better, she'll get a ride with a friend. I am a very lucky Mama.

Tuesday.

D. to Kindergarten.

G. to school for her only long day of the week. She was meant to have English and P.E. on Tuesday and get out at 1:05pm. So D. and I got on the bike and met her at the school at 1pm to get her safely on the bus. Said bus left at 1:09pm and the class got down at exactly 1:05pm, so there was a bit of a panic on the side of the kids. Thankfully both our neighbor (4th grade) and I told G she should just be calm, she'd make it okay. D and I left her to ride home with neighbor and hopped on the bike. Thanks to short legs and lack of enthusiasm, we got out after the bus and had to fight wind on the way home. For that reason, we were behind the bus when it stopped at Eichenstrasse and I saw one of G's classmates get off with frightened tears. She had missed her stop. Instead of following the bus and abandoning her, I turned around and walked her back to her stop and her neighbor took her in tow so I could continue to G's stop. Met another Mama on the way who was missing HER daughter. No, I hadn't seen her...I did however see G walking down the street and was hurrying to meet her when yet another Mama pulled out of her driveway asking if I'd seen HER daughter. Nope, hadn't even seen her get on the bus back at the school! 

G however, was walking home safely with our 4th grade neighbor and we met them on the way. All was well. 

D was picked up a few hours later by his friend for his 2nd "official" playdate and G had a last-minute friend come over as well.

Wednesday.

Wake up to pouring rain and a raging head cold with aching head, screaming throat and stuffy nose. Apologize to G and let her know I will not be meeting her at the school to see she gets on the right bus. She has a phone, she has been told many times which busses she can catch and to ask either crossing guard or bus driver, should she be unsure, whether the bus goes to her stop.

I spend the morning flat on the couch, G is out by 11:20 today and I go to the bus stop to meet her. My brave, brave girl. She has ridden the bus with all of the 'Heimkinder' who told her that she could NOT ride that bus, it was only going to the 'Kinderheim'. My girl looked at the bus number, walked to the crossing guard and asked. I am so proud of her! She got on that bus alone, with all of those Heimkinder and met me at the bus stop.

As with any sick day, the kids were over the top with energy and mischief and I couldn't do a thing about it. Besides which, say what you will, having school from 8am - 11:20am was too short. G was full of energy. She could not fall asleep that night. She had not been stimulated enough. I mention this because there has been discussion at school that the children have too many hours and English might get cut. I will never understand the school system here. Why is it okay to cut English and have two hours of religion instead? 

Thursday.

Conference with Kindergarten Teachers today. Question being: should we sign D up for the pre-school program or not. The end decision was to go ahead and sign him up until December and then see how he does. As with G, he is a 'kann-Kind' meaning his birthday falls just outside the cut off date for starting school, but close enough to the date, that he could start school next year. With G, there was never any question that she would not start until she was nearly 7. With D, I am uncertain. G had a hoard of friends who would be starting with her, a major argument for waiting. She also had some language deficiencies, due to her ear problems and needed that extra year to catch up. 

D on the other hand, is a smart little brat. He's had nearly 5 years of extra language and learning from G. His little mind is quick as can be, but he is extremely immature and lacking in self confidence. I am not pushing him either way, but want to make sure he has the opportunity. Unlike G, he does not have a group of friends who will start one year or another. There is at this time, one other boy in his group who will start school in 2013. There are two who will start in 2015, and there is one (his best friend) who might start in 2014. Might being the keyword here. He is an August birthday and although that puts him within the cut off date, if he is not ready, a doctor could get him out of starting. So nothing is certain in the case of friends. Whatever happens, D will get to enjoy (or hate) the preschool program for the next few months and then we'll see.

After the conference, we met one of the new kids in his class. S. African English Speaker. How is it that the English Speakers all find their way into the hedgehog group? Family lives over our Bakery, right down the street. Son is in 2nd grade at G's school. Go figure. 

Missed G at the bus stop today. My stupid fault. I relied on bad information that she wouldn't be home until 12:45, so didn't set out to meet her until 12:40, at which time I found her walking down the street towards me with our neighbor Mama. turns out, she'd been there for an HOUR (in her words) and the light had never changed. Neighbor Mama confirmed that the crossing light was NOT working. Thankfully she came along to help G cross the street! G was not upset with me, but I will not do that to her today!

Today.

Have you made it this far? After all that babbling, I am now going to supply a feast of images, as I went crazy last night trying to catch up with way too many new releases! None of them have much to do with the previous week...the week was a bit too crazy for photos!

for Jimbo Jambo Designs (I am guest creating for her this month). Photos are all recent, from September and end-of-August:

This layout was taken from G's Birthday Invites. I expanded the 10x15 size to a 12x12 layout (photos from her Einschulung, except the one with sunglasses):

The story of Racoony...photos were taken last week when Oma and Opa were here.

Love this new Kit by Amy Wolff. The quote: "Worrying will never change the outcome" resonated with me. There was quite a bit of worrying about G and her school start. On her part, on my part...and all it did was use up energy better spent on other things. Lesson Learned? Probably not! 

Picture from her first day of school. She looks so pensive...

Using Sahlin Studio's newest kit: Retro Mod. Love this kit. Was not overly happy with this layout...but then, it's scrapped now. So no complaints. Photos were taken this spring. Just some everyday photos of the kids playing in their room.

The inspiration for this came from CD Muckosky's new Sketchy Skool. When I saw the 'i love the library' sketch, I immediately thought of my college Library. Ugly from the outside, but full inside of colorful, way-too-comfortable couches and the infamous womb chairs. I don't think I ever managed to go in there and study withOUT falling asleep! It's been a "few" years since I've been to Oberlin, and the photos were taken from a Google Images search, except of course, the little one of me, blended into the womb chair. That was taken during my tenure at Oberlin, in a friend's dorm room. I appear to be studying. And I fuss at MY kids for not sitting properly at the table while doing homework!

I will 100% admit to grabbing this kit just for the name. Pumpkin Spice. I love it. I love a Pumpkin Spice Latte and as far as I know, they do NOT make them in Germany. I have managed over the years to get a cup or two while visiting in the States at Christmas. Some stores have syrup leftover in December, but it's never been often, and it's always been FAR between. While I was creating this layout, it occurred to me that I may never have another pumpkin spice latte, as we will not have the opportunity to travel to the States in the Fall or Winter again for at least 14 years...and who knows if there will still be pumpkin spice lattes in that many years?! I nearly cried at the thought.

This one came about because i love Sahlin Studio's new Retro Mod kit, a lot, but did not like the first layout I created with it. So I tried again. This one uses some vintage-y type photos of our first dog. Loved combining the vintage chic kit with an ArtsyTemplate by Anna Aspnes. Opposites DO attract!

And finally, before I leave you with a feast of words and images to get your head spinning, I want to share this last one, using Anna's Sunflower Artplay. I had been putting off scraping with this particular artplay because I wanted to use the photos Mom is sending me of  G's Sunflower, but it hasn't bloomed yet. As I was perusing old photos for the above layout, I came across these photos from my friend. She'd sent them to me sometime like SIX years ago and I was meant to scrap them...

I will be back...at some point. Anna has created my absolute DREAM Artplay Palette this week: Fairies.

And I can't wait for inspiration to strike. 

I also have a layout from the heart in the works. A week ago Friday, we had to flee from our house, as the neighbors had managed to set their kitchen on fire. The whole street was closed down as fire truck after fire truck arrived on the scene. They were accompanied by Ambulances and police. The fire was put out, there was damage, but thankfully not to our place, and the only injuries were slight smoke inhalation of three of the neighbors, who were taken to the hospital for overnight observation. This is news of the best kind, because at the time of the fire, there were no less than 8 children in the house, as well as 9 adults.

Strawberries & Layouts

This past holiday-weekend was spent shopping, picking strawberries and BBQ-ing with friends. I can't think of a more perfect couple of days. Well okay, maybe I could have lost the shopping part, but it was necessary! Both kids needed summer shoes and we needed food to put ON the BBQ and for that matter, S. decided we needed a new BBQ as well, but he did that shopping by himself while the kids and I went to the strawberry field.

When we arrived, both kids filled up their baskets as fast as they possibly could, not paying much attention to the quality of the berries they chose. They were in a hurry to get eating and somehow believed they had to fill their baskets before they could start eating...Once their baskets were filled, they took off running down the rows of berries and found good spots to plop down and eat, and eat, and eat. I thought I'd never get them out of there, thankfully D. eventually needed the toilet and that gave us an excuse to leave. That boy had strawberry juice from ear-to-ear and all the way up to his elbows!

The following day found us at friend's with a huge load of food (buffalo wings, a rib-eye, fruit salad, brownies, salsa, ingredients for s'mores...) and a new BBQ, still packed in its box. S. and Jamie put it together and eventually fired it up. S. hardly left its side all day. I think it's safe to say, he loves his new toy.

John offered to hire him on the spot to be the grill-master at their Birthday BBQ in July. S. laughed, but I have a sneaking suspicion John was serious.

Monday (holiday) found the lucky S. at the movies to see MIB3, leaving us at home to play on the playground and unknowingly pick up ticks. It is absolutely necessary to check for the dang things after every trip out side in the grass...G. found it on her leg the following day and had a meltdown. She didn't understand what a tick is, and kept asking if it would drink ALL her blood? and would their be a hole in her leg when the tick was out? We took a trip to the ped's to get it removed. Thankfully, she caught it soon, and it hadn't had long to suck on her leg or spread possible diseases.

Now a quick blast from the past before I start on that huge mound of laundry that never seems to end:

a teeny darling baby in her fishy bikini. No, she never wore it in water. It's cute though, isn't it? I think we passed it on to Rebekkah...

Yes. I am guilty of using RadLab to process my pictures so they will match the kit I am working with. And also so blurry pictures aren't quite so obviously blurry...those really were days...when she fit in a laundry basket!

We're hoping to pick more strawberries today, and have another room to clean (one a day is about all I can handle) so I'll be off now!

NewReleases & Cooties

What, wait! Hold on a minute, Cooties? did you know that game is still around? It's new and 'improved' have you, but it's still there. I actually don't care for the 'improvements and when we played, I mostly took the 'old' accessories, but you better believe G loved the eyelashes, lips and bow, and both kids fought over the roller blades. But there I go, getting ahead of myself. 

Way back in December, the kids got the Cootie Bug Game for Christmas. They opened it up once, weren't immediately excited, and it's been gathering dust since. On Saturday, I said: hey, let's play the Cootie Bug Game! They both happily agreed and got comfy. Needless to say, the Cootie Bug game is BOR-ING. It was much more fun to play with the finished bugs...and that might be why D. refused to play with us again on Monday...he wanted to sabotage our game instead.


AnnaArt.


New Release and Sale Items this Week.

Playing the game allowed for photos and Anna's new FotoInspired Template (arriving today!) was perfect for scrapping them:

I hate to admit it, but I am getting a bit burned out. Either that, or the non-stop back aching and sudden nasty ear-ache and sinus congestion is burning me out. I would (to be absolutely honest) much rather be sleeping right now. Quiet sleep, without kidlet interruption? Yes! The past two nights went something like this:

Monday: I can't sleep, throat raging. G can't sleep soundly, leg hurting. midnight-ish, I've finally dozed off, G. starts screaming. I get up, realize throat is not raging alone, ear is aching to make me cry. Take care of G., take care of me. Sleep  until 11am, let S. get kids to Kindergarten.

Tuesday: In bed by 7pm, asleep before 9pm, wakened by G. around midnight. Leg is no longer aching, now she's coughing. A lot. I give her a cough drop and realize my ear is hurting again. Onion wrap. G is still coughing. Send her to S., to ask for Tiger Balm. He's dead-to-the-world and doesn't register. She comes back, says he's on his way. Tick-tock. No S., G is still coughing. Irritated, I get up, onion wrap clamped to ear with one hand and smear tiger balm on g. with other hand. Fuss at S. Back to bed. Still coughing. Get up again (S. is now ignoring us, angry that I fussed) and make G hot milk with honey, still one-handed, onion clamped to ear. G drinks milk, I toss onions, we go to bed, she yells at me: I MADE her drink the whole mug and now she feels bad.

You don't feel bad because of the milk, G., you feel bad because you are sick, now get some sleep so I can! Five minutes later, she's stopped coughing and is sleeping soundly. Two hours later, I'm still awake. 

Lovely. 

Moving on:

The Lilypad. (sosn)

I popped quite a few naproxen pills yesterday so I could get some work done. Kids were good, played, did watch some movies, and made dinner (brotzeit minus the bread) so that I could sit fairly immobile with a hot water bottle at my back creating these:

this is probably my favorite. Also took the longest as it's the last one I did and I was def. wilting...

gotta admit, I'd been wanting Kate's Doctor-doctor! and Bumps and Bruises Kits for a while now just to scrap the chin-stitching episodes. One down, one to go! And I might also do a photo-less ear-OP layout as well now that I finally have the kits!

G's name has a fun history, so when I saw Emily Merrit's Baby Book, I thought it was time to write it down for her somewhere other than the teeny baby book I made way-back-when, and in a moment of inspiration, I grabbed a photo of her namesake as well.


Just a few more weeks of April Lilypad Madness, and then things go back to normal. I might even start sewing again. Gotta get a summer wardrobe ready, and a first-day-of-school outfit! Yes, time to sew again!

Non Scrapbooking News.

We are booked for vacation this summer and will be out of the country for almost six weeks. So very excited about that. In fact, it is entirely possible that G. will have her very last day of Kiga in June, instead of August, as I'm sure the Kiga closes the last two weeks of August and that's when we'd be ready to go back. She goes to school tomorrow for registration to start First Grade in the Fall. Eek!

#everystory.

If you haven't yet, don't forget to sign up for the VIP list! There will be a pre-launch party with prizes and give-aways and I'm going to do my best to be there!

* * *

Ready to celebrate real world scrapbooking with me? Sign up for the VIP list to join me for an exclusive launch party on May 4.

Bad Blogger...My Excuse!

Of course returning to Germany after a three week stint in the States brings a big dose of jet-lag with it, along with the annual gloom of being back here, so far from family, but this year a nice little cold came slipping in on the tails of 'ol Jet Lag and left me flat for a week. I apologize, but maybe you were expecting this? I think I have a pretty terrible track record for the winter months, feel free to prove me right by checking old archives for the months of Jan-oh, July?! 

Let me take this much-too-early Tuesday morning to say hello again, and ease back into it...or try.

Going back a bit, Jan. 8th was my birthday, Andrea cooked for me and baked a cake: 

There were candles and family, except Sven who had to work from Jan. 3rd (remember we arrived back in Germany on the 2nd) straight through to January 9th:

Then there was that week of miserable sick. I hate those weeks. I got work requirements taken care of, but was in bed by 6pm most of the week. The only plus to being sick was when it meant missing the EBR meeting I had been dreading...

Some of the work I did:

Anna brought her ToothFairy Collection back this month!

Anna's weekly ArtSale included some fun stuff that I played with (this particular sale is over, but look for a new one starting tomorrow!). Psst, take a look at those photos. Sven took all but one with my Nikon. One was taken with my iTouch and then posted to FB on the spot. The quality of my iTouch's camera is so disappointing!

And on Sunday, I finally just sat down and played with some fun Kits from the O: 

Still recovering at the weekend, we didn't do much (it is also cold and a bit snowy) but Sven finally had a chance to pull out a Christmas Gift: the EnviroBattery and play:

Making a potato battery. It managed to power up a teeny digital clock. Pretty cool. Potato Power!

despite appearances, this one was actually an attempt to power up a light-bulb using water. It did not work, though we are not sure if that is due to a faulty light-bulb, or lacking minerals in the water. Sven then tried adding vinegar and salt to the mix, but still couldn't get the bulb to light up. He did get the clock to run though.

And now a new week has started and I am going to keep up! There are some exciting scrapbooking-related announcements to make, freebies to grab and sales you don't want to miss! 

Happy New Year!

This is a super-quick catch-up because I am jet lagged and it is time to hit the hay! We made it back home safe and sound (if a little sleepy) Monday afternoon:

Yup, that would be someone sleeping (with eyes open) on a table at the airport in Frankfurt while waiting for the connecting flight that would take us to our FINAL destination. 

The kids were over tired from staying up late the night before (it WAS New Year's Eve, after all!):

Grandma read them their last bedtime story. Georgia chose a long one. Dean didn't quite make it:

 

And early the next morning, we were off.

Catching up a bit, here are a few photos, all these photos were taken with my iTouch, which is a fabulous Christmas Present, as it allows me to do Face Time with family, and that's like 1000 times better than skype, or the telephone (and it's free), but the quality of the camera is immensely disappointing. As you can see by these pictures, the camera is well...it's sad. I just did some research and it turns out, the back camera is only .6 megapixels. POINT SIX. So please forgive the terrible quality. Bad pictures are still better than no pictures. And in light of that, I'd like to invite you to follow me on instagram for instant photo gratification. Username is zaubera.

at the gum wall in Seattle (look for a full post on this later this month)

waiting for Pho (a first time experience that we did as take out, we should have stayed in!)

Like I said, home now, getting used to stuff here (kids won't go back until next week), new stuff, old stuff, work etc. Missing family. Missing my home country and language (totally hermit-ting here so I don't have to hear/speak German quite yet) and just trying to readjust. Until then...

11.11.11 (belated!)

Oh help me get back into the swing of blogging regularly! Or just to figure out time management? I mean seriously, how do people keep up? I'm too much of a perfectionist.

Let me update from 11.11.11, which was the St. Martin's Day Umzug in Kindergarten, the one where the Kindergarten wanted to split me in half, literally. Half my kids went one place, the other half stayed at Kindergarten and I needed to be both places at once. I was seriously angry at Kiga for a while there, causing this problem and not giving me a solution. On the way to help set things up:

love fall leaves...

It's like this: The Vorschulkinder leave Kindergarten and march to the Lebenshilfe. Once there, they finish their parade by doing a rather large round through the playground and woods with the residents from the Lebenshilfe. It ends with kinderpunsch and a fire. The younger kids do a smaller march around the Kindergarten with a bonfire and kinderpunsch at the end. In both cases, the Kindergarten is not responsible for the kids, the parents are. So one of us had to be there. Sven is never home by five, and needed to be at Kindergarten by five for Dean.

Waiting for everything to start (we helped with setting up):




" i want you to stay here! i don't want to go with Georgia. I don't want YOU to go with Georgia...."


so bored. already helped set up for the parade, none of her friends are there yet....

In the end, Kindergarten suggested I bring Dean with to the Vorschul-umzug. I would have, but didn't want to. There is no way he could have handled all that walking, and none of his friends would have been there...In the end, I waited around with Dean until his teacher arrived and begged her to watch over Dean until Sven got there, and that ended up being fine, as long as Sven got there by the time the parade was over. So I left Dean with F. Schermer and ended up walking WITH the vorschul-kids all the way to the Lebenshilfe (instead of meeting them there like the other parents did).

Got pictures that way:

Anna & Georgia leading the Igel-Group:

Thirty-One Schlaufüchse, all in a line...





After a very long march, they had a quick (length of a song) break where they got to sit in a pavillion and sing:


this is the only time they sat:





The very last stop and song:



The Igel Girls are a very tight-knit group...


If you knew where one was, you knew where they all were...



the fire:

After homemade baked geese, kinderpunsch and a lot of silliness, we walked home. Dean and Sven arrived shortly after, no pictures from his parade, Sven's phone doesn't work in the dark...