Weekend in Germany

Saturday morning we got up and drove 4-5 hours to Trier, Germany. We had 2 cars, so we used walkie-talkies to talk to Justin in his car. 10-4 good buddy!

On the way there we drove under an underpass planted with trees. Justin pointed it out and said it was an animal crossing. I love that Germans have safe places for wildlife to cross the road.

Trier is the oldest city in Germany, and has lots of ancient Roman ruins. When we got there Saturday afternoon we saw an amphitheatre where they used to have gladiator fights.

My favorite part of the amphitheatre was the underground part. It was cold, dark, and drippy and I could easily imagine prisoners down there, listening to the crowds cheering above, awaiting their fate.

After the amphitheatre we checked into our hotel. It was called the Hotel Kessler and it was great. They gave us our own little "wing" so we didn't have to worry about the kids disturbing the other guests. It was also within walking distance of the main part of the city.

We went to a restaurant called Zum Domstein for dinner and it was the nicest meal out that we had on our trip. I had weiner schnitzel (which is kind of like chicken fried steak), Mike had lamb, and we had a cheese plate appetizer and German potato cakes. Yum! After dinner we walked down to see the Porta Nigra, which is another Roman ruin.

It wasn't until we left the hotel the next morning that I realized I'd made a big mistake with my trip planning. Trier (and probably the rest of Germany) closes on Sundays. We were lucky we could get our car out of the parking garage. It turned out fine, and we got to see the city, I just didn't get to spend any money. Mike probably always wants me to visit Germany on Sundays. :) We saw the oldest cathedral in Germany, a pink palace and ruins of Roman baths, and then we went to a medieval festival.

It was kind of neat to compare it to the Maryland Rennaisance festival, though it wasn't nearly as picturesque or entertaining. They did have one thing I've never seen at the Renfest. Take a close look at the photo...

They were making these delicious looking pitas with chunks of roasted meat and a creamy herb sauce. I was about to ask for one when Mike was like, "Don't you dare get that!" I thought he was being paranoid about street food, but it turns out he had taken a much better look at the vendor's booth than I had. Yes, those were live marijuana plants. The name of the place translates to something like, "Half Baked."

I got amazing goulash somewhere else instead, after Xander ate up most of my bratwurst.


After the festival we hopped in the cars and headed home, but we took the long way, driving through the wine country along the Mosel River valley. It was so beautiful, and this was in March. I imagine in the summer it's stunning. It was also neat to see some really old castle rubble on the tops of some of the hills.

They really need some scenic overlooks though, so people can pull off and take some photos. The roads were so narrow and steep we had to just keep driving most of the time.

We had a great weekend in Germany and I'd love to be able to spend more time there, just enjoying the old world beauty of it all.


Click HERE to read about the next day of our trip. We went to Paris!

Belgian Beach

We arrived in Belgium on Thursday afternoon. Friday morning we took it easy (we slept in), and at 3pm when the cousins got out of school we went to the beach. First we tried to go to a little town called De Haan but we didn't find the beach access so we tried another place someone had recommended to my brother called Nieuwport.

We got to the beach in time to watch the sunset.


It was very cold there! But it was fun watching the kids playing, totally oblivious to the weather, just enjoying the beach.


After the sun went down we looked around the town for a place to eat. I wanted to go to a type of place called a "frituur," which is a traditional "fry shop" type place that serves french fries and fried meats.

We went in and there was a glass case filled with different kinds of meats prepared for the fryer. I got this photo from google, but it looked almost just like this.


We got some chicken things that looked like the chicken fries at Burger King. Xander loved those. We got a shrimp kabob and another kabob with alternating pork and bacon. My brother got an egg roll type thing and my nephew got a hot dog, and of course we all got fries.

It was more interesting than good, but I'm glad we got a chance to try their traditional fast food.

(First two photos taken by my brother. Keep checking back for more of his awesome work!)
Click HERE to read about our next stop: A weekend in Germany.

Belgium

We flew from DC to London, and then took the Eurostar (Liv called it the "bullet train") to Lille, France, which is about 30 minutes from my brother's house.

Our best train story was that we had non-transferable tickets for the train, but we got to the station 4 hours early. I had Mike wait out in the lobby with the luggage while I took the (extremely tired by that time) kids to the ticket counter and asked if we could transfer to the earlier train. The very nice lady took one look at us and put us on the next train for no extra fee.

Here's a picture of the kids on the train:


Once we got to Lille, we picked up our rental car. It was a blue Toyota that could actually seat 7 and had a manual transmission.


I was pretty nervous about driving in Europe, but it worked out great! I think I like driving there better than driving here. Trucks have a slower speed limit than cars and have to stay in the right lane except to pass. Passing is only allowed on the left, and the traffic had a really efficient flow. By the way - turning right at a red light is illegal. Oops. Oh well.

Also, in case you're ever lost in a parking garage in France (not that I'd know anything about that), here's the word for Exit:


We got a little bit lost on our way to my brother's house, but once we made it (thanks to Mike's brilliant navigation) the kids started playing right away in the amazing back yard, and my sister-in-law prepared the most delicious stir fry I've ever eaten. Our guest room was so beautiful too!


Click HERE to read about our first full day in Belgium. We went to the beach. It was chilly, but fun.

European Vacation

Two weeks ago I was on a plane with my kids and husband on our way to Europe for 12 days.

We flew out on an 8pm flight. I was sure the kids would sleep on the overnight trip to London since it was their bedtime. Think they did?

Of course not. :)

Here's a picture of a traditional windmill near my brother's house in Belgium. We had so much fun with his family and they were such gracious hosts. Olivia especially loved playing with cousins.


Click HERE for photos and tales of our adventures in Belgium, Germany, Paris and London.

First Haircut

What a week for firsts! I gave Alexander his first haircut this week and he looks like a different guy. He slept right through the whole thing.

Xander's First Steps

Okay, these aren't EXACTLY his first steps - we were too excited to film those. These are probably his 19th+ steps.

I love that smile on his face - SO happy and proud of himself. (Plus, he'd just finished playing with his big sister's princess paper dolls while she was in bed and couldn't stop him.)

A very good night for my little guy.

What (Not) to Wear

#1 - We are going to Europe in just over 2 weeks!

#2 - We are taking the kids! :)

We are so fortunate to have family in Belgium and London that have offered to host us for a few days. I can't believe how fast our trip is coming up. I still haven't figured out what to pack, but I do know I'm not letting Olivia choose.

Here are some of the outfits she's put together lately:




She walked out one morning wearing that last outfit and asked me what shoes she should wear. I figured it couldn't get much worse, so I told her she could wear any of her shoes she wanted.

Silly me.


Yes, those are Cinderella's glass slippers.

Overheard in the bathroom

"Mom, me and Xander are cats."

The kids were taking a bath together and I looked over in time to see my daughter do a great big lick on Xander's water-splashed shoulder.


For some cute REAL kittens, check out Kitten Cam.

Are my eyes playing tricks on me?

Xander's birthday photo yesterday reminded me of something:
his sister when she was 1.

Is this crazy or what?


I'm going to have to keep my photos organized, because in 20 years I don't think I'm going to remember who was who!

Happy Birthday, Alexander!

My 1-year-old didn't mind that he had a quiet birthday today, but his sister sure did! She woke up and ran into the kitchen looking for donuts and cake and balloons and presents. Oops.

Lesson learned.

The birthday boy had a great day.

Happy birthday, sweet son.

Gift of Love

I get a warm feeling every time I think of this story, so I thought I'd share it. One year when my dad was struggling with employment and I was making more than I needed, I splurged on Christmas for my folks.

First I picked up a coupon organizer like this one:

Then when I went home for Christmas I went around their town and picked up gift cards for them from places I knew they liked or thought they'd have fun trying. I sorted the gift cards into the different sections of the coupon book. For example:

Produce: Chili's and Appleby's
Meat: Outback
Dairy: Dairy Queen
Beverages: Starbucks
Seafood: The Gangplank
Sports: Wingers
Entertainment: movie tickets

My folks loved the present. They have always enjoyed date nights, and during the following year they were able to use their coupon book of gift cards to go out and spend quality time together doing what they loved, even though times were especially tight.

A year and a few months later, my father passed away very suddenly. I wrote a tribute to him here.

A few months ago Mom thanked me again for the present, which by then I'd mostly forgotten about. But she told me it meant so much to her now, because she'd been able to go out on all of those fun date nights with Dad during that last year he was alive. She said they are memories she will treasure forever.

I love you Mom and Dad.

Making Christmas treats with young children

Olivia LOVED making "Muddy Buddies."
They're chocolate and peanut butter covered Chex cereal coated with powdered sugar.

Liv's favorite parts?
Stirring the chocolate and Chex together.
Tossing them in powdered sugar.
No cooking waiting.
Calling them "Lil Buddies."

The real Lil Buddy!
What does his shirt say?

Don't tell his sister!!

Another favorite treat is making Christmas cookies with Dad.
The best parts? Using the (ancient) cookie shooter.
Touching every cookie as it came out.

A Potential new favorite: Ice cream cone Christmas trees.

We haven't tried these yet, but you just get some sugar ice cream cones and flip them upside down. Then let the kids frost them with green frosting and decorate with little candies. I don't know how this could fail to be a hit.

Click here for the Muddy Buddies recipe.
Click here to head back to "Works for me Wednesday" for more great ideas.

Christmas tree

I took the kids to get our tree on Saturday. Sadly, the camera was lost that morning, so I can't show you the muddy shoes and runny noses.

Bummer, huh?

I'm so in love with our tree! On the farm she was such a petite and dainty little lady surrounded by big, spectacular giants.

In our house she's the perfect size, with soft needles and a citrusy pine perfume.

Isn't she a little princess?

"But where is your tree topper?"
you might be asking.

Oh there it is,

way................

up............

there...

I should probably trim that a bit.

Oops.

Click here to see a close-up section of my tree on flickr, where I labeled some of my most very favorite ornaments of all time.

WFMW: O Tannenbaum

I've decided we're getting a real tree! A couple of farms nearby have fresh trees and I'm going to take the kids to get one this week. I'm so excited for how much they're going to love it.

Even though we're going to have a real tree, I'm still going to use this Christmas scent that I discovered last year. If you have a fake tree and want the fresh Christmas tree smell, you have to get Tree:

"Tree is the perfect blend of fresh douglas fir, sweet musk, warm vanilla, crisp winter air and enchanting Christmas magic."

(I didn't realize Christmas magic smelled like anything, but if it does, it smells like Tree. Tree works for me. And for my sister.)

I mentioned this scent in a post from last December. It's one of my favorite posts so I'm putting a slightly shorter version of it below:

I've been thinking a lot about what makes Christmas at home magical for me. My family has always had a lot of traditions and I want the same thing for my kids. We trimmed the tree tonight and I had to laugh at what will eventually become the new Christmas traditions for our children.

First, instead of going to the woods, or even to a Christmas tree lot to pick out a tree, Mike made the trek into the storage room in our basement and hauled up the giant box that holds our fake Christmas tree. It comes out of the box looking more like a green rectangle than a tree, so we spent a good half hour pulling the branches apart and trying to make it look "real." This is a painful process because those wires are really jabby!

While we trimmed the tree I wanted Christmas music, so I set up my laptop and played youtube Christmas slide shows set to Nat King Cole, Andy Williams and Karen Carpenter songs. My daughter decorated the bottom half of the tree with kid ornaments and I did the top with nice ones, and maybe I will re-do it while she's sleeping tonight. My mom always did, and Mike says his mom did too.

After we finished the tree we washed our hands. Not because of sticky pine sap. Mainly because of the lead warnings on the tree and on the lights. Seriously, can't we make anything without lead in it?

Finally, I plugged in a pine scented air freshener to get that Christmas tree smell in the air. It is good and actually does smell like a tree! After decorating the Christmas tree I wanted us to sit down to a nice dinner of comfort food, so Mike warmed up a can of soup for him and Olivia to share.

What wonderful traditions our children will have to look back on and try to recreate with their own kids, haha. The best part is that Olivia really DID have a great time. I think maybe Christmas can be magic regardless of whether the soup's from a can and the tree smell is an air freshener. Maybe the magic is about family doing Christmas things together.

What are your family's holiday traditions?

And for more great ideas, go here for Works For Me Wednesday!

The Men in my Life

My two favorite guys!

(This wasn't posed, I swear. If I was posing this I would have made sure the baby's eyes weren't half open. Both my kids do that with their eyes while they sleep.)

Thanksgiving Top 20/Bottom 10

It would take me weeks to cover our whole Thanksgiving extravaganza, so I’ve got a Top 20/Bottom 10 list for you instead. These are in no particular order:

TOP 20
Spending Thanksgiving with family
Pioneer Woman’s Lasagna
Mom’s shrimp dip
Pilgrim hats for dinner

The relationship between my mom and her grandkids
Black Friday in a small town
Free doughnuts
Home-made pumpkin pie

Kirkland’s
Christmas shopping mostly done
Thoughtful helping around the house
Paper plates and plastic cups

Puerto Rico board game
Turkey dinner left-overs
Xander learning to clap and crawl
Matching cousin dresses

Nothing really bad happened, and we were all safe (see bottom 10)
Playing in crunchy piles of leaves
Tired children sleeping in
Spending Thanksgiving with family (deserves to be said twice)

BOTTOM 10
Missing family that wasn’t with us
Undercooked turkey
FIRE in oven during dinner and a broken heat element

Emergency brake repair on Black Friday
Olivia’s infected sty
Having to force-feed medicine to kids
Getting thrown up on
Needing new brakes, a new oven and a new computer all at once
Overtired child wetting the guest bed

Wordless Wednesday

Just Desserts

Here is an equation that sums up my husband:
Turkey dinner + sports(football) = happiness

I like turkey dinner okay, but I'm more of a sweets person. And since I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year I get to make the menu, but I can't decide on which desserts to make. They all sound sooo good!

(I'd like to forget about entrees and sides and plan a week of just desserts!)

Of course I should probably make pumpkin and apple pies. But I feel so limited by tradition.

I really think the pilgrims would approve of this pie: And I am very thankful for chocolate.
Click here for the recipe.

What treats are you making for Thanksgiving week?

Dear Stock Market

I know it's been a while since we last talked. What's been going on? I stopped by yesterday to see how you're doing and was really shocked at how awful you look.

It seems like you're having a rough time, but I would like to remind you about our agreement. You're supposed to give me a nice cushion like this, in case I ever need something to fall back on:

I thought things were good between us, and my cushion was coming right along. Maybe even respectable enough for us to visit my brother and his family in Belgium next Spring.


But yesterday when I stopped by, I saw THIS, and frankly, I am appalled. This kind of poor performance is unacceptable. I expect you to get your act together and stop messing around.


This is your last warning.

P.S. - Sorry I can't write more, but I have talk to the house about its lack of appreciation too. Seriously, what's wrong with you guys?

Reasons today is nice

I've been saving some chocolate from Belgium for a special occasion, and today I'm eating it. Thanks to my sister-in-law for the delicious treat, I sure miss you guys!

Xander's little wheeze is just a virus and it's not down in his lungs.

Splashy, bath-time FUN

My mom is going to be here in less than a week to see my darling boy for the first time since he was born in January.

A friend that has been trying to adopt was just chosen by a birth-mom! Their new baby girl will be born in January. Click here to see her blog and the cute advent calendar she just made.


My sweetheart dropped Olivia off at preschool on his way to work, even though it made him a little late.

And he kissed me goodbye
just a little lingeringly

(Is that even a word? Because that's what it was like.)