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!

Saving a Few Euros on a Rental Bike is Never a Good Idea

hitching a ride home

broken chain

post two beers, pre-broken chain

chain repair

Dorothy, Julie and I rented bikes today after my class. Dorothy found a "perfectly good" bike in the 6 Euros section, while Julie and I opted for 9 Euros bikes. About one-third of the way into our ride we discovered the benefit of paying the additional 3 Euros. Dorothy's chain kept falling off- 10+ times. Luckily, I was a bike mechanic in a different life, or maybe it's an ability one acquires from being a Mom to 3 boys. Regardless, the skill to replace a bike chain came in handy today. However, even my mechanical skills were unable to help us when, after stopping for beer we bagan biking home and her entire chain broke- in half. Luckily, the two beers each of us had consumed made hitching rides from each other more fun, and certainly less painful.

Friends

The computer is my apartment is amazingly slow as of late, so I've been lazy about posting to the blog . . . Munich was great and the kids had a nice 2nd weekend with the daymother. We have started our last two weeks left in Weimar- amazing how the time has flown by! The Director of SMU Abroad has been visiting our program so I have been busy with her. My friends Julie and Dorothy arrived Monday evening and it's been fun having them here. I never realized how completely and totally obsessed Weimar is about Goethe until they arrived and took a tour, which apparently focused almost exclusively on him. Now, whenever we walk anywhere I feel like I am always pointing out things about Goethe- where he lived, worked, swam, studied etc. etc.

Tonight after we all took a long walk in the park, the two of them cooked the kids and me a great dinner and then I went to an opera with the students and they watched the kids for me, which was great. Tomorrow after class we are meeting up and renting bikes for a bike ride. Since the two of them are avid bikers, or at least much more so than me, I suspect that Thursday I will have some trouble getting out of bed. . .

Here comes the sun . . . and with no AC it is HOT!!!

The way tea is served at my favorite place to hang out in Weimar.
Grocery shopping with Austin. He's so excited because for each 10 Euro you spend they give you a soccer card for the German team. Everyone is so amazingly excited about the games starting!


Picking up Maddie Sue from Kita. The school's outside play area is down a cobblestone alley from the school right across from the Music University. So, as the kids play they hear the music students practicing their instruments. Ginko trees, one supposedly 400(?) years old shade street.

Dancing after dinner.

Home Again

Maddie Sue had trouble not eating the stale bread we were feeding the ducks.

Feeding ducks down by the river than runs through the park. In the back you see a building. This area used to be where the townspeople would swim in the summers.

Austin and I like to go to the Back Factory for hot chocolate and a snack afterschool every day.


The kids had a great weekend with the Day Mother and her family. The daughter Salome celebrated her 12th birthday- each year the kids happen to be there on her birthday weekend and get to attend her party. This year we gave Salome a dress that I had also bought Maddie Sue so that they could match (purple dress in picture above). Austin's favorite part of the weekend was taking two buses to and two buses home when he went to the outdoor swimming pool with Salome and her friend.

I got home very late last night after walking home from the train station and it was fun waking the kids up this morning and hearing them talk about their weekend. On our way to school, Maddie Sue kept singing a song she made up called: "My Mommy is the best Mommy in the whole wide world." Gotta love that song. Of course, I'm going to Munich this weekend with students and I wonder if she'll be singing that once I leave her alone again for another weekend . . .

Berlin Weekend

Late dinner at Dada Falafel
Komische Opera- Tales of Hoffman

taking a break from our walking tour at the Soviet Memorial in Berlin

Concert Friday night at the Berlin Philharmonic.
Brandenburger Tor

Arrival at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof

When the sun shines life moves outside . . .

Tomorrow morning I leave for Berlin with the SMU students. Maddie Sue and Austin will spend the long weekend with the Day Mother that has taken care of the kids for the past three years whenever I take these weekend trips. Today the sun came out and sunny warm weather is predicted for all of Germany for the next few days. The deserted town of Weimar came to life today and everyone escaped from being cooped up in their apartments. The kids and I went to the park and played lots of tag, soccer, and our usual Germany staple- badmitton.

Today the kids and I intended to go swimming. We packed up our bags and walked the 2 miles to the swimming pool only to find that the indoor pool, as of yesterday, was closed as the outdoor pool was now open for use. Since we had a high of fifty something today, somehow swimming outside didn't sound particularly appealing, although there were a group of young girls waiting to change and swim. So, instead we walked to the mall and went bowling. That was Maddie Sue's first time bowling and it was lots of fun.