Home Sweet Home

Frankfurt

Found the amazing playground I took the kids to a while back when we spent the night here before flying out. Great weather and fun. What an end to our time in Germany.

If Maddie Sue hadn't had thrown up right outside out hotel room the afternoon would have been close to perfect.

Packing

Last walk to Market Square
Last time, I swear it, I will open this luggage

We are trying to get everything into our two suitcases. If I didn't keep having to re-open them to get out essential toys, it would be a lot easier.



Plus, the stress of finishing the "lasts" is getting to me- last ice cream, last pizza, last crepe, last bakery visit, last playground trip, last walk around market square etc. etc.





Today we take a train to Frankfurt, spend one night and then fly home Sunday late morning. I cannot wait to sleep somewhere where the sun rises at a normal time. Today Maddie Sue woke up at 4:22 a.m.- ah!

LASTS

Had to move apartments today due to a scheduling error. I thought the worst part would be the packing and unpacking. It turns out the it is the super excited wound up 2.5 year old who I can't get to stop jumping on my sofa bed in the living room.

Alley Festival- food and lots of music with kids (incl. Maddie Sue) dancing in the streets. The music we heard until WAY into the night since our apartment entrance is just a few feet beyong the 02 sign on the right of the photo.

Austin has a list of things we HAVE to eat before we can leave. Ice cream . . . check.

Class Field Trip to one of my favorite places in Weimar- the historical cemetary. Goethe and Schiller are burried here- and one of my relatives!

Last week in Weimar

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Me and SMU student Steven at the Leuchtenburg castle today.

No thinking involved in the trip, just fun.

Austin ready to leave on his overnight class trip via bikes.

SMU students Sal and Steven hanging out with Austin in the upstairs of our apartment watching SpongeBob in German.

Maddie Sue completely wound up at the spaghetti dinner we had for SMU

students at my apartment last night.

Climbing rock walls in the Goethe Park. Austin is at the top.
Playing in the natural springs in the Goethe Park.

Walking, walking and walking

ACC Playarea

No matter how long we are away from home each summer, it is always the last week that I start getting homesick. Maddie Sue and I have whopping colds and because of this I still have yet to get her out of my bed since Julie and Dorothy left Weimar. This also means that I have yet been able to sleep an entire night without being kicked or woken up by her chatting in her sleep.

Despite her active nightlife, she continues to rise with the sun which, I know for a fact, now begins at 4:15 a.m.

My goal today has been to tire out the kids. We have spent the large part of the day at the park running and playing with Austin riding the bike that we rented for him. We actually had to switch out the bike for an older version since the first bike only had front brakes that either he couldn't sqeeze tightly enough or, as he insisted, decided a switch was in order. Regardless, his method of biking into trees to stop was making me nervous.

I have now officially given up on the computer in my apartment, which isn't a bad thing since there is both a sandbox (with other kids) and wifi at my favorite cafe/restaurant/tea place next to the town castle.

Watching the US Soccer Game in a Beer Garden Right next to Maddie Sue's Pre-school Playground.
Maddie Sue at her pre-school's summer celebration party.

Austin

Dinner out with Dorothy and Julie on their last night in Weimar.

Per typical (East) German fashion, the fact that I can only read the German Yahoo news homepage on the computer in my apartment is of little concern to my landlord. So, the kids and I are again at my favorite cafe with my laptop. They are playing in a sandbox in the yard waiting for cake, which is what it seems like we eat most of the time- not a bad thing!