Special Visitors…

We were lucky enough to have Brehan & Caro visit for a few days last week.  The girls adore them, and dinner is always quite an adventure…

It is hard to eat when you are laughing all the time!

Skating on the canal

We were in the midst of a deep freeze last week, with a couple inches of snow every night.  Mind you, Munich is flat, with snowplows for both the streets & sidewalks, so we weren’t really affected by the snow at all.

[Except it takes sooooo long to get the girls dressed for school, clean the car off, warm everyone up.   I have never been much of a morning person, but I am really beginning to hate the 7-9am hours.  Just too much stress for that early in the morning…]

However, we were able to take advantage of the low temps (a high of –5 on Thursday) to have some fun on the canal in front of Nymphenburg Palace. Alexandra managed to talk us into letting her out of her stroller & being able to run on the ice. Sophia just had a great time skating around in circles, and pulling our friend Dominic who was visiting from Italy. She & Alexandra are so funny together Alexandra is just doing everything she can to keep up with Sophia.  This does not bode well for us in the future… And yes, all Alexandra wanted to do was eat the ice shavings. So we left for lunch, and passed by all of the Germans playing a game on the ice, a mixture of shuffleboard & curling.  I don’t understand it, but with all of the ice cleared it looked like there was quite the serious tournament going on.

Sophia & Friends

Sophia has had a very friendly week between all of her activities, and our visitors.

First was a play date with her Doudous. She lined them up all over her bed to make sure she could remember all of their names.

Then she was able to show off her reading skills with Uncle Brehan A birthday party, line dancing included And finally the winter celebration party for the end of the unit in Sophia’s class.  The children were able to choose their own costume (a preview of what the Fasching Celebration is going to be like) and sang “Winter Wonderland” for all the parents.  Sophia decided to be an angel, using Alexandra’s halo, her butterfly wings, and an American Girl Nightgown. The kids had movements for all of the verses, and had obviously worked really hard at remembering everything! Then there was time for a smorgasbord of treats, sweets, and a few crafts for good measure.

Back to School

We felt so lucky, we were able to drive out of Paris ahead of the snow on Wednesday, and thru the swirls in the Alsace and Black Forest, all the way back to Munich.  Thursday, we woke up to snowy skies, and snowy fields by the school.  The cool thing is the kids can bring their sleds (sledges) to school, and play all through recess and then in the 30 min after school that it is still light out.

A carousel for Sophia

After promising Sophia a puppet show after church, we were dismayed to realize that we had missed the start by 30 min, so she was consoled by the endless rides on the carousel at Trocadero.

and she even got to ride the black horse (there is only one black horse on the carousel so it is a really big deal!)

and she & Troy were able to check out the ice rink at the top of Trocadero (totally new from when we lived in Paris)

Paris, on date night

We feel so very fortunate that when we arrive in paris we can call our favorite person in the entire world to watch the girls (thanks Leilani!!!) and have a few date nights.  We spent the first night walking by Notre Dame and then off to Mexican food, Monday at Georges (on top of the Pompidou museum), and Tuesday with friends Kate & Marc with amazing food.  Unfortunately we only took a few photos, too distracted by great food and conversation!

New Friends

After being amazingly late to church on Sunday (I don’t think we were EVER this late before), we finally made it, and then were able to meet our new friend Benjamin after the service.  His parents, Annie & Jon, are so proud, and we fee so lucky to have been able to meet him.  Sophia was especially proud to be able to hold him first,

while I just had to standby and Alexandra reminded Philip how cute she is and then the parents took over, and Annie & Jon shared their joy We were just so thrilled to be part of his introduction to people in his life.  Thanks for sharing Benjamin with us!!

xx

PARIS!!!

Troy had meetings scheduled for the first 2 working days of the year, then epiphany is a holiday in Bavaria & the girls weren’t going back to school until the 7th, so we thought that we would all join him in Paris for a few days.  A great excuse to see friends & celebrate the new year in our favorite city.

After arriving we immediately headed for the Jardin d’Acclimatation for some running around time (in the freezing cold) before enjoying a little room service.  (Troy travels a lot so he is used to it, but for me, room service is the ultimate splurge – and we brought out own wine!)  Anyway, back to the park… The girls loved the hall of mirrors. Sophia was so excited to show Troy how she was able to ride the horses, among other rides, all by herself!

Alexandra was ok at the beginning of the ride with Sophia, and then totally lost it.  The man working on the ride kept counting the laps down to her, in French, hoping to make her feel better. Sophia paddled around in her princess canoe and we all took our time with the percussion instruments Sophia spotted Guignol’s van, and we promised her a puppet show after church tomorrow and the trampoline is always a hit, except when you are too little or too old to jump, and then it’s just time to go back to the hotel & get warm!! and the train ride back…