Happy Halloween!

Folks, I'm spent. We've been walking the neighborhood for an hour an a half, trying to keep six excited girls under control. But it was tons of fun, and after a thorough scrubbing both girls, they fell into their beds and didn't move any more. See why:

Trick or Treat!

The crowd

Very nice treats for the little creatures

Raiding the store

Back home, exhausted

Half of the loot

I hope you all have a very happy Halloween!

Wordless Wednesday - Halloween Edition

This is just beyond cool!  Happy Halloween to all you Doctor Who fans, and everyone else!

(Source)

PS: Susannah:  I hope you like that one!!
PPS: Janine: As promised, I keep them coming  ;-)

Out Today...

Today's hubby's birthday. Out celebrating my wonderful man!!

(Source)

Hope to see you all tomorrow for a Wordless Wednesday!!

The Voice From My Bedroom

I got to follow the following one-sided conversation last night as I was getting ready for bed:

R1: Gandhi sucks!!

R2: ....

R1: Why is Ethiopia taking all of our wonders??

R2: ....

R1: You could just be the angry Dutchman and declare war on Ethiopia for building all of the Wonders...

R2: ....

R1: Right, and I'll be the angry Swede and declare war on India because they are right next to me...


Conversations I overhear while the hubby plays Civilization online with his friend. Priceless...

Saying Good-Bye?

We're up to a quite difficult decision here at the moment. Earlier this year, Violet became friends with another little girl. They played together several times, and she actually was the first friend she made independently from Lily. So far, all her friends were the little sisters of Lily's friends, which is fine, but she never had to make an effort so far as to making friends.

So she and the other girl, E., who's about a year older than she is, became friends. We met a few times with the other family, and it was great to see how Violet's self-confidence and independence grew.

In early summer, E. and her mom left to visit her grandparents in Canada for a couple of months. I thought that something was amiss when E. started school in Canada in early September and a few weeks ago, her dad confirmed that they are going to return to North America. Obviously, E.'s mom was not very happy living in Germany, feeling isolated and hindered by the language barrier and when the dad received a good job offer from overseas, they decided to move back to the United States.

In the meantime, Violet keeps asking me every once in a while when she could play again with E. I know that she'll return to Germany sometime in November for a short visit before returning to Canada and then the U.S. permanently. I suppose that the family will probably be busy biding their farewells to quite some people over here, so I wonder if I should still try arrange for a last meeting for the girls.

In the last weeks, Violet hasn't asked for E. any more, and I would hate having her to go through a difficult good-bye; on the other hand, I wonder if it would be worse if she asked me for E. next time and I had to tell her that she wouldn't come back. I was not prepared for a situation like that, as this family were actually "stayers" like us, and think back and forth on what would be the best decision for Violet.

Any thoughts?

Week In Review - Ten Things Of Thankful (15)

Saturday morning (almost noon actually), and I somehow have made my way out the bed. It's been a fairly quiet week, but still with many things to be thankfu for. This week's top ten:

1. The hubby for letting me have the last piece of pie.

2. Finding out that our state is going to pay for Lily's kindergarten fees as it's the last year before school and they want to encourage as many kids as possible to go as kindergarten is still voluntary in Germany.

3. Crafting fun fall decoration with the girls.

4. Hubby's reading my mind when it comes to dinner  ;-)

5. Having an awesome pediatric optometrist who takes so good care of Violet. Her eyesight hasn't improved and she has also developed a serious astigmatism during the last 3 months, but we know that these professionals will do their best to help her.

6. My coffee date with my coworker on Monday. Insanely expensive Pumpkin Spice Latte!!

7. A great friend who thinks about me when she's going shopping at the military post and brings me stuff.

8. A quiet cup of pumpkin spice cappuccino while writing this.

9. Lily being absolutely excited about singing with her kindergarten class for the people from the old folk's home. She gave me a little sneak peak of the concert in the morning, and she has the sweetest singing voice ever. And I don't just say that because I'm her mom!!

10. The coffee maker overflow this morning.  Really makes me appreciate my first-world problem. If the worst thing happening to me this morning is a mess of coffee grounds on my counter, I'm luckier than most.



Have a great weekend everyone! And thank you to Lizzi for hosting this wonderful link-up!

Halloween Memories

It's Friday!!! The entire weekend ahead, and the weather is supposed to beautiful. I hope to be able to take a walk in the woods with the family, and maybe bake a cake or so... There's nothing better than a Friday night, and to top it off, Janine and Kate have picked a great cue for Finish The Sentence Friday:

One Halloween...

... we had a lHalloween birthday party for the hubbie.

With Billy Mays (well powdered)...

... a medieval wedding couple...

... a gorgeous pilot...

... and a little jaguar girl loving her cake!

PS: I grew up in Germany, where Halloween has arrived only a few years ago, so I don't really have any fun stories to tell about Halloween. But they are definitely in the making  ;-)