The Big Day

A few more days passed with last minute activities, more good-byes to good friends, and one last trip to the Hutte in our old village.   Some people arrived on their horses and Genevieve got to ride one for a short walk around the Hutte.  She was very excited about that!

The morning of the big day, meaning the day we were to fly out of Germany to move back to the states, Brian took Drew, Isaac, and Genevieve to a bakery one last time.

The day was an eventful and wee bit stressful one, but nothing too major happened.  Little things like not having the cash for the cat on hand and me having to run to an ATM while Brian helped check in most of our 26 bags kept us moving and busy.  Right before going through security, we found a family bathroom and Brian and I tried to give the cat her anxiety medicine for the flight.  It was a pill, however, and getting a cat to swallow a pill is way more difficult than getting a dog to do it.  I've never done this before, and both Brian and I got bit trying to get it down her throat.  She's never actually drawn blood on anyone before so this was out of character.  She was highly stressed out before we even started, so it really wasn't her fault.  I remembered a syringe that was in her carrier, and Brian ended up breaking open the pill, dissolving it in water, and squirting it into her mouth while I held her.  It was an experience, but all was well after that with her.  It was a really long trip for her to be stuck in the carrier with no food, water, or litter box so she was rightly stressed for several days after.

As we were going through security, they pulled my purse out and I thought, "Oh no, what did I forget to take out of there?"  WHen they told me I had a knife in there, I was at first shocked, but I quickly remembered a few days before when Genevieve slipped her pocket knife into my purse before running off to play at the playground.  It happened to be her second pocket knife after losing the first on and just buying a new one a couple of months before at a German shop.  We took a picture of it before it was confiscated, and I sent it to my friends in Germany asking if one of them could stop by that shop and buy another one.  My heart was truly hurting for her.  She had no idea that they'd confiscate it.  I guess she hadn't been paying attention when the same thing happened to her dad previously.

Brian is taking the picture and was sitting next to Hannah.

Bobby wanted to sit with his sisters, so I sat across the aisle from them in case he changed his mind later which he did.  He's getting braver about sitting away from me lately, but it never lasts the whole length of any event.  He always changes his mind in the middle.  I switched with Genevieve when he did.

These two were on the other side of dad, across the aisle.

He did take a nap though before Genevieve and I switched places.

It was a looong day due to the time change we added six hours to our day, and it was after 9pm when we got to the hotel rooms in Baltimore, and after 10pm when we were all tucked in.  We'd had no dinner really, but the airplane gave us lots of food throughout the flight.  Most of us were okay and the little, pickier guys ate up my snacks for their dinner so we could just get to bed.

Our luggage

The whole process of getting our 26 bags, 2 booster seats, 1 car seat, and 1 freaked out cat in a carrier to and from the airport in a shuttle bus not much bigger than our van was exhausting.  BUT WE DID IT, and we are so thankful it is OVER!

Am I Three Today?

My littlest guy woke up asking, "Am I three today?"  He reminded us all day that he was three.  I was able to use up some of our last ingredients to bake a small 8 piece brownie cake in the apartment.  I baked it in the morning and we went outside to the playground next to our apartment to eat the "cake" and sing to our big boy.  I found three candles, but couldn't find where our lighters were packed, so we just pretended they were lit.

After they played on the playground for a while, we walked over to the chapel for our last daily Mass in Germany and got Bobby a birthday blessing from our priest as we said good bye to him.  

Bobby was all too happy with the meager celebrations, and the even more meager gifts.  We had his birthday gift shipped to my sister's house in Texas where we would be staying just a few days after his birthday.  The only gift we had for him on his birthday was a Chase Paw Patrol lollipop keeper.  Why, oh why, didn't anyone tell me not to spend money or time on a big celebration for children because they appreciate the small things so much more when there isn't the big to-do?  

We didn't even do a family dinner out as is typically our tradition because I had a good friend in need of help for an emergency situation that night.  We brought pizza to our hotel/apartment for a family dinner in and then I had to leave and Daddy and the girls held down the fort for the rest of the evening.

We love you, Bobby!  You are a joy and bring so much to our family.  As you frequently say to me, Bob, "I'm eating you up because I love you so much!"

Buddies When There's No One Else???

Hannah and Genevieve had been helping a little extra with babysitting as I cleaned the house for the final inspection and we had our last pick ups.  So, I decided that they were at their limit with being patient with the boys and I would take any boys not napping that I could for some of our boring appointments, vehicle registration, etc.  One afternoon, I told Drew and Judah they were going with us to an appointment and they were not super pumped about it.

Drew begged us to leave him with all sorts of promises to be good.  He was refused.

Judah had a funny and good point, "Why are you taking the two people that don't get along, Mom?"  I told him that I just was and that they could get along.

After the initial resistance passed they actually had a good time together.  They played Tic-tac-toe with each other and Brian and myself.  Then they discovered some abandoned sand toys in the pebbles outside the door of the building.  I propped the door open and watched them play very happily for the rest of the appointment.  In fact, they got along better the rest of the day too, even once we returned to our apartment.  Perhaps they just needed to be forced together and not have so many choices for playmates.  Later on we all went swimming and the two of them played a good long game of Monkey in the Middle with me before Drew tried to drown Judah. 

I'm only kind of kidding.

Biospharenhaus: Our Last Field Trip with Our Germany Homeschool Group

This was a bittersweet day for us.  We have had so many wonderful field trips with our homeschool group and this was a good one, but our last one as well.  We didn't have a car that day, so two of our good friends came with their vans to pick our family up that morning.  It was an hour drive away and both vans put on a movie for the kids.  We never do movies in the car because of Drew's car sickness, but he has been doing so much better and I thought it would be okay.  It wasn't.  Suddenly, Judah says, "Drew is throwing up, Mom."  I was so not prepared for that.  In our van, we have all the supplies to deal with that since it used to be a nearly everyday occurrence, but I had nothing.  No clothes, no cleaning supplies, nada.  Luckily, he hadn't had any too nasty for breakfast and it was mostly water because he had to wear the clothes all day.  Yuck.

This field trip featured a tree top walk, followed by a picnic and hike, and ended with another falcon show.  One of the moms asked if it was stroller friendly, and these pictures should answer that question loud and clear.

I had to put Bobby in the Ergo for this part because I had to help Judah get from disk to disk.  He kept wanting to take a step to the next one and then let go with his hands completely to reach for the next chain with both hands.  There was a net underneath, but who really wants to test that out?

At the end of the tree top path, there was a huge slide and a baby slide to go down before heading back.

During the hike we came to the barefoot water exploration area.  The kids all loved taking their shoes off and wading in the little stream.  They could've played like that for hours if the little ones hadn't gotten so tired.

I was impressed that Bobby asked to take off his shoes and wade in the water.

The falcon show was small compared to both Freisen and Potzberg with only three birds brought out individually, but it turned out to be pretty awesome when he was choosing kids from the crowd to come down and assist him.  The third bird was brought out in a wooden box and one child from the crowd was told to hold onto the string attached to the door of the wooden box.  Another girl was told to put on the falcon glove and stand in a certain place and hold a dead headless baby chick for the bird to come eat.  The German girl got nervous at the last minute and went to sit down.  The guy called Drew out of the crowd to take her place.  He seemed nervous as well, but he did what the man said.  He told me later that the man was joking with him about the chick being for him to eat instead of the bird.  (All of this was in German, by the way.  I don't think he spoke English.)  Anyway, I have a video of some of it at the bottom of this post.  From the sounds inside the box, everyone though it was a huge scary bird.  What a surprise we all got when a very small falcon flew out, straight to Drew, grabbed the chick and flew to the perch to eat it.  Drew had a much better end to the day than his beginning.

That's Drew in the red shirt.

And More Good-byes!

The boys' last day of Kindergarten was the day before we moved into the furnished apartment.  It was a sad good-bye.  The head teacher took a few special moments with each of them.  She spoke to Drew exclusively in German, but spoke half English, half German to Judah.  

I took a picture after their cubbies had been stripped.

We played at the playground across the parking lot after school like we've done so many times.  The boys found a cricket and played with it for a while.  They've been so interested in insects and so we've been talking a lot about how to tell if it is an insect by counting the legs and body parts.

Holding his Cricket

Two of Judah's Friends from School

One of the little German boys was crying because Drew and Judah wouldn't be coming back after the break.  So sad!

Good-Byes Everywhere we Turn

We went to our favorite local Italian restaurant and ordered our family favorite, the Schafkase (Feta cheese with olive oil, olives, peppers, tomatoes, and spices baked and served hot with pizza bread).

I had to leave early because I was meeting someone back at the house, but Brian and Genevieve stayed and shared a dessert.  Brian LOVES this place and really had to drag himself away.  The previous owner, the mother of the chef and current owner, has always been so sweet to us and we were sad to say good bye.

For a month we've been in the house with very minimal toys.  I have to say it's been nice and for a while there I was thinking we should just get rid of all our other toys, but then they started to get really bored when we were at home.  We had to get creative to keep the little ones busy.  Isaac mad Bob this car track and city on a brown paper bag.

Our really good family friends said their last good bye after church on Sunday.

Brian and I went to the old, 500 year old to be exact, bar in a village close to ours for one last time.  There was supposed to be a jazz festival there, but then the World Cup changed everything.  They cancelled the festival all due to the World Cup soccer game because they said that no one would come.  We enjoyed some delicious flammkuchen and talked with the owners for a long time.  They don't speak hardly any English and so they always have spoken German to us.  I do still have trouble when people talk too fast or just some accents are harder for me, but they were very easy to understand and I left feeling very proud that I had such a long conversation in German.  Granted, he was a talker and didn't require too many full sentences from me, but still it felt good to have made some progress since living in Germany for so many years altogether.

Its' not my favorite thing to have my picture taken when I'm eating, can you tell?

Of course, we had to say good bye to our hair dressers too!  Everyone got a fresh haircut right before moving.    Isaac got his first real, non buzz cut haircut from a salon.  He's been more interested in styling it and so I thought it was time.

Genna also had to get a toner on her hair to cover up the fading blue hair.  It is a shade darker than her normal color now, but she loves it.

At the furnished apartment, the boys and I had to get really cozy to read bedtime stories on Hannah's twin bed.  I didn't mind it one single bitty bit.  I love to read picture books to my boys, and I really love to cuddle!

A Trumpet Send Off

Two of Brian's friends surprised him with a mini concert with a trumpet and a hunter's horn.  It was very touching and beautifully played!  One of them came in town specially for this send off and the dinner that followed.

At dinner, Brian was lamenting that he had never sat in the cellar at this particular restaurant, but he'd always wanted to.  I had been seated there once when we took his mom there for lunch.  His friend slipped away and made a special request to the waitress that we be moved to the cellar and they did it without too much trouble.  It was such a sweet gesture.  Brian was pleased beyond words.

A Clue Jr Party and a Chicken Fest

The oldest three kids wer invited to a Clue Jr birthday party.  They were supposed to come in costume and character.  Each was assigned their character and I was emailed the information.  At first I was concerned about not having our stuff causing a problem for the kids pulling  costume together.  Hannah was Peyton Purple, Genevieve was Scarlet Red, and Isaac was Mr. Black.

I really fudged on Isaac's costume because it recommended a suit and bow tie for him because he was a butler, however, I didn't keep his suit out of the first shipment.  I thought of turning a shirt into a tux, but I only had one sharpie and a white shirt to work with.  I had to make his suit white. For Hannah we borrowed a purple dress.  Genevieve was supposed to dress like a movie star and in red.  We had no red dresses that we could find in anyone's closet, however, we had just put a fancy red dress into the thrift store pile.  So we dug it out to see if she could get just one more wear out of it.  And boy did she!   She won the costume contest!  And it turned out she was the murderer.

Two days before our good friends left the country to move back to the states, we met them and some other friends at the Chicken Fest.  They have delicious chicken cooked on spits by firemen.  I made sure that I got pictures of all my kids with their good friends.

It was really a nice time with our friends and we ran into our old landlord and his wife from last time we lived here in Germany.  It was a late night, but we drove separately since we had only the two smaller cars.  So I was able to take the three youngest home to bed around 10 or so.

Our Former Landlord

The kids had fun in the bouncy house and riding the mechanical bull.