Happy Valentine's Day!

Helau

While one kid got to go to the Ear Doctor to have a playmobil treasure coin removed from his ear..the other got to go celebrate Fasching at school, in full costume.

And in that vein, my princess:

Ooh, and no, this wasn't his costume yesterday, but the boy got his face painted a while back (the day we had the problem with the incoming molar...). His Fasching celebration was yesterday, he was a night, without boots, sword, shield or hood...but first he had his 5 year checkup, which is where they made the discovery of the toy in his ear...

And now we're off for a week of vacation, no school, no homework (except the daily reading) and no kindergarten pick-ups or drop offs. yay.

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?!

December 21 - Stomach Flu

Not ONE photo taken today (see December 20th).

December 20 - Right Before the Stomach Flu hit...

On the evening of December 20th, I was sitting here, catching up on my daily photos, fully planning on catching up to the actual day. I had literally just opened the photos from the 20th in Photoshop when I realized that my stomach was not just bloated still from lunch (and it's around 7:30 pm by now) but that it was nauseous. Badly so. And that maybe I hadn't been bloated. and maybe I hadn't eaten too much food at lunch as originally thought. and i was suddenly VERY glad, that I had not eaten dinner. So although I had planned on finishing up the photos and watching a Christmas movie, I ended up crawling into bed. The rest is history. The stomach flu had come, exactly one week after the kids had it. So I spent Friday in bed and took not ONE. Single. Photo. I missed the last day of school. I missed lunch out with the kids. We had to postpone our sleepover as well as our trip to the mall to see the Christmas decorations. And while I lay there in misery, everything turned into chaos...so when I woke up on Saturday, feeling better, though VERY weak, I had a huge mess greet me...

The good news is: although the stomach is still queasy now and then (and might be for the next week or two, if Miss G is any indication), my strength returned slowly throughout the day and we were able to go to the Mall, get our Coffee (Starubucks beans to brew for Christmas) as well as the tees for the kid's pj bottoms and we were even home by lunchtime!

Back to the 20th though! I am not going to pick out one photo at this point, there are only a few more days. So enjoy all the photos from that afternoon:

After school, after the doctor's check-up, and after christmas present shopping for each other: they got to watch a movie:

while Daddy did some last minute work:

(and I fell asleep on the couch - big indicator right there!)

Sparkle took a page out of Buddy's book and decorated with some snowflakes, though not nearly as many as Buddy...

And thanks to the amazing A-Team, I got more Christmas Cards this year than ever before. EVER. 

19 December - roasting marshmallows

"Mommy, he thinks it's like a fire outside and the gingerbread house is his house...he's pretending the candle is a fire."

Yes, we did find Sparkle near the gingerbread house, roasting marshmallows. Everyone of which was still there that evening!

The day was otherwise crazy with doing. It was my last day to get ANYTHING done as Sven is now on vacation...so I spent the morning finishing up D's pants and wrapping as many presents as I could, only to stand there scratching my head when it came to packaging, because I cannot find simple bows ANYWHERE.

At some point, G came home and I realized that I needed a gift for the music teacher as well as a card. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! sewed up a quick felt christmas tree pin for her (I was not feeling the crafty bug this year...) and then made her a card:

card description is at Oscraps along with my supply list. And after all that, and getting Sylvie's present ready, I forgot to get the camera out again. Thank goodness I snapped some shots of Sparkle that morning!

December 18th - The Gingerbread House

the first thing I'll say? They are each getting their own next year...

After making the house, D donned his Santa hat and shirt from J+J and G put on the reindeer antlers and taped a red circle to her nose. They then proceeded to play 'Rudolph'.

I'm sharing Sparkle today, because he was quite entranced with either his reflection, or the awesome Mirror D decorated and gave us for Christmas (via J+J). I wanted to share the pretty mirror. Now to find a place for it...

Speaking of Sparkle, we were all pretty sure he'd be in or near the Gingerbread house in the morning. He seems to enjoy it when we put a new Christmas decoration up and we can usually count on finding him nearby.

December 17th - Santa Claus is Coming...

Christmas Party at Jack and Jill's in Neubiberg! The kids sang Santa Claus is coming to Town for us in their Santa shirts and hats. A.Dor.A.BLE. after singing, they sat in a big circle and waited for the jolly man himself. The photo above? that would be Mr. D's face when he saw Santa walk in...

2012 Christmas Tree & Decorations

This is mostly for Grandma, who has been hearing every detail of our tree and living room for the past two days, thanks to a little grandson who can't stop talking about it with her, despite claiming he'd rather speak German...

Reminders of Seattle (Mariners)

We totally need something with Mount Rainier...& Pike's Place. And the Space Needle. And Basically? Anything that would remind me of Seattle, I need. Shoot. Why can't I be there to shop?!

(sea urchin for the ocean we are missing)

and to bring a bit of Grandma in to Christmas:

the trees we made hanging:

rainbow happiness, thanks Target (years ago):

this santa is mine!

Fancy pants poodle on a pink davenport. (For G)

The Gingerbread Santa (for D):

This is where the Christmas cards are usually hung, as well as the stockings. For now, it's empty because I was too lazy to try and get back there to hang the cards. Over the years, the space has diminished because of someone needing a place to store all his stuff...

Shelf decorations. LOVE that Santa (love after Christmas Sales, will miss them this year. Boo!) Found some holly while looking for a bright pink poinsettia. Love the holly. Love it with that Frame. Filled S's ugly lantern with Christmas balls and suddenly: it's festive.  Jingle Tree hiding behind the nativity (which Miss G set up).

And more word-happiness in frames and a big paper ball ornament done in old Blitzen scrapbooking paper I had from way back when. You know? When I used to paper scrap. The shelf above this one is lined in Christmas cards. I actually got some this year, despite having not sent any...!

His ornament is at home with Grandma, so I made a frame for him, to make sure he's part of our Christmas we well:

I think Sparkle was excited that the tree finally went up. We found him nestled amongst the branches, gazing up at the lights Sunday Morning:

Whew. That was a lot of photos. Hope you enjoyed, Grandma! Now you know what D has been talking about!

December 16th - My Gift

That's my Christmas Present under the tree. Yes, I know what it is. In fact, I plan on wearing it today. Point is, it arrived yesterday and I went and picked it up in all its loveliness. Rose-Gold pendant and matching earrings. Thank-You Santa and Pierre Lang!

Daddy spoils them. They are watching a Tom & Jerry Movie. In PJ's. Before Lunch....

While trying to get a shot of my jewelry under the tree, someone decided he needed to be in the picture. I had the camera propped up on the floor with a super slow shutter. First time around, he jumped up before the 2nd click and all we got was a ghost image. 2nd time, he literally sat still until the clicking was over. Impressive.

playing the leap pad (he claims to need to more games to fill up his case) while G is at a birthday party eating too many sweets so that she'll end up losing all her stomach contents at around 10pm and give S and I over an hour of scrubbing and a few day's worth of laundry...