Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas day-The girls are wearing their gift from Oma & Opa

I've been quite lax about posting the last couple of weeks. So many Christmas parties, church obligations, school stuff...but here I am to catch up. We have successfully made it through the Christmas season in one piece. It was a very lovely time. Lennart and the two biggies have left to take Oma, Opa, and Uncle Marcus home and Sarah and I are left here to clean up. So what am I doing? Updating my blog-finally! Hope you all had a nice Christmas as we did. Enjoy the rest of the year!

Da da da dummmm! Ella's 1st Reconcilliation!

Ella is the girl in hot pink-Elisabeth is also there, in the poncho

What is the color of fear. That is the color I should be typing this post in. Ella had her 1st Reconciliation (Confession-for those of you non catholics) last Saturday. The priest wanted us parents to be good role models and also go to confession. Ella has been learning her prayers and the correct responses for a few months now and was totally nervous. What I couldn't tell her was that I too was nervous. I haven't been to confession since my very 1st one almost 30 years ago! I was secretly learning all the correct responses and prayers right there with her. We went alphabetically, so we got to be 3rd in line. We had two priests, one for the kids, one for the parents. Wow, the kid line moved quickly, but we parents apparently had lots to say,our line took forever. Ella came away from hers before I had mine. She was elated! She loved it-said she wants to do it all the time. We do have a really lovely priest. Feeling only a little relieved from her good experience, I headed off for mine. I'll spare you the details but it actually went very well. I was so worried, imagining the priest yelling at me and damning me to hell, I forgot, they are actually very nice, caring people, who actually want to help me be a better person not yell at me. During the following mass, Ella and her class sang the Hail Mary and at the end received their Certificate of Reconciliation. I was very proud of her! She did a great job, now on to 1st Communion in May!

Ice Skating at the Old Opera

So, look back a few weeks ago, on a Thursday after school. Rachel, Sarah, and I decide to take the kids to the temporary ice rink outside of the Frankfurt Old Opera.

It was a beautiful night. The 8 children had a blast. Unfortunately, two of them were not old enough to skate-just old enough to very thoroughly annoy their mothers. Yes, you guessed it-Sarah was one of those children! She took it upon herself to explore the area every chance she got. The bad part is, we are in the middle of the city which is very busy and full of people getting off work and coming around to drink hot mulled wine or finish some Christmas shopping. She is just small enough to maneuver very quickly and easily through the crowd. Unfortunately, I am not small enough and was constantly having a mild stroke thinking she was gone forever in a sea of people. After a few of the above mentioned strokes, I decided I had to get out of there-much to the disdain of my other children!

One week later, on the last day of school before the winter break, the three of us thought it a good idea to try it again, this time with even more kids from Ella's class. However, this time, Sarah and I left our little ones at Sarah's preschool. A much better time was had by all. Sadly, I forgot my camera but it's the same location, just even more kids. It was a really lovely way to end the school year with skates, hot chocolate, friends, and a beautiful backdrop.

My cup runneth over, with Christmas shows!

Yesterday seemed to be Christmas Performance Jubilee! First Sarah's 2 year old preschool class was up at bat. They sang Twinkle Twinkle and Jingle Bells. Very cute! Here is Jingle Bells (Sarah is in the middle wearing a burgundy dress):

After a quick trip back home for a nap, Sarah and I were out of there and off to Hannah's Christmas party. Her mixed age group sang a german song and her preschool group sang a super crazy spanish Christmas song. When Lennart and I first saw the lyrics and heard a pop version of this song, we thought they were crazy for trying to get our non spanish kids to sing this but they did a great job! Unfortunately, at the show they turned the lights down, so the video is way too dark and you can't actually see Hannah but you can hear them and it's too cute! For whatever reason, I can't seem to upload it here but did manage on youtube. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsNG3gO47og

Following Hannah's show, all three girls and I were off to the German/American Choir's Singing Christmas Tree. It is a lovely show, but come 7pm, after a hard day of parties, the two youngest were not in the mood any more. I spent half of the show with Hannah hanging on me, asking how much longer and the other half chasing Sarah around the church and taking her back and forth to the bathroom just to kill time! It started out a great day, but I think ended with one show too many. Somehow, it's just not really special quality time if I keep getting annoyed and telling one girl or another to stop complaining and just feel Christmasy! Remind me of that next year, if I mention trying something similar again.

PS. The following video is Hannah's Grand Finale. Live, she is in the3rd row in the middle. On the white screen above, she has long blond hair and a blue long sleeve shirt on and is in the front far right.

3rd Annual Christmas Cookie Decorating

The long awaited, very highly anticipated, super dooper, fun for everyone Christmas cookie decorating/cookie exchange at the Poth family house has finally arrived. My girls have been asking for months, "When are we decorating cookies at the Poth house?" Every year, our hostess, Leanne, goes to wild lengths to ensure that everyone has fun and has once again succeeded. After baking some 200 cookies for the 18 children to decorate, making 16 different colors of frosting, and filling a trillion little bowls with assorted cookie toppings, she whipped up lots of yummy goodies for us moms.

MMM, I sure look forward to the baked brie and champagne!

Most of these kids are already friends, but there were a couple that were new to us. Hannah immediately hooked up with the cutest little thing named Lottie and they seemed like they had been life long friends.

Leanne makes the cutest decorations for the day. I especially like "Don't frost your friends"

We moms don't get all this fun and excitement for free, though. We each baked 8 dozen cookies to earn our keep-that's right 96 cookies! Or in my case, 96 pieces of chocolate walnut fudge. Everyone takes 10 of each type of cookie and now my kitchen counter is home to a myriad of yummy Christmas goodies!

After all the fun, Leanne even fed our children dinner-no not cookies! Hot dogs, pizza, and pretzels.

After a long, but very fun afternoon, I put the big girls in bed and Sarah and I tried to stay awake to see Elf on television, so much for that!

Thanks for a blast, Leanne and can't wait for next year!

The Brose Christmas Season is Open!

Being that I am american and being that it is the day after Thanksgiving, I kept my kids home from school and Lennart took the day off and we opened the Christmas season. After sleeping in from last nights fun and frolicking at the Pikolin's, we dressed up nice and snugly and headed off to the Frankfurter Christmas Market. For the car ride into the city, I burned the ultimate christmas CD to listen to. I included some of everyone in our families favorites. Here they are:

1.. Jingle Bells

2. The Twelve Days of Christmas

3. The 1st Noel

4. O little town of Bethleham

5. Frosty, the snowman -Ella Fitzgerald

6. Silent Night -Ella Fitzgerald

7. We wish you a merry Christmas -children's version

8. Santa Claus is coming to Town -Tony Bennett

9. Deck the Halls -Nat King Cole

10. Rudolph, The red nosed Reindeer -Ella Fitzgerald

11. White Christmas -Bing Crosby

12. O Tannenbaum -Nat King Cole

13. The Christmas Song -Frank Sinatra

14. Hark the Herald Angels Sing -Frank Sinatra

15. Joy to the World- Nat King Cole

16. Rudolph, the red nosed Reindeer -Dean Martin

17. It's the most wonderful time of the year -Nat King Cole

18. Let it Snow -Frank Sinatra

19. Silent Night -children's version

20. The Little Fur Tree (a short christmas story)

21. The Runaway Snowman (another short christmas story)

22. Santa gets Stuck (the last short christmas story)

Normally the Christmas Market is actually too packed to enjoy however, since it is not a holiday here, we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the market and could enjoy all they had to offer. Fried goods, bratwurst, hot chocolate, carousel rides and lots of looking at all the christmas goodies. It was very nice. Now we are home and I've promised a christmas movie for tonights movie night selection, so I'm off to the video store. 'Tis the Season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's time for our annual Thansgiving feast at the Pikolin house. We are five american friends married to german men. Every year we get together to celebrate Thanksgiving and invite one non american family. This year, The Streit Family, an english mum married to a german, were our guests. So altogether, we were 12 adults and 13 children. Along to help were also 3 very wonderful babysitters to keep the kiddos happy while we moms were in the kitchen, cooking and laughing and drinking the occasional glass of wine. We girls got together in the afternoon and the men came a bit later. I just love this time when we girls are together in the kitchen! It is so much fun!

Here we are:Joerg (our host),Rachel, Paula, Leanne, me, Sarah (our token non-american), and Jenny (our hostess).

Jenny read the children a story about the first Thanksgiving. It was picure perfect!

Jenny did a beautiful job on the table.

Even the children's table looked nice!

Here is Andy carving the turkey-all 24 pounds!

When the children had finished eating and we adults were still chatting around the table with our pie, Jenny pulled out a bunch of pillows and blankets and put Charlie Brown Thanksgiving in the video player for the children to relax. It was great! They were so tired by then, it was the perfect end to a great Thanksgiving.

Sarah's First Official Haircut

Nevermind the mouth full of food, that's what I get for pointing a camera at a 2 year old while she is eating. Not thinking she yelled, "CHEESE!", full mouth and all. But just look at her new do! Does she look older or what?!

Hannah's 6th Birthday

Yippee! My little girl is 6! She woke up to a new scooter just like Ella's, from me and Lennart. Per her grandma's request, there were 6 pink flowers for 6 wonderful years. Ella even promised to give her one of her euros! Topping it off was the dollhouse she wanted from her Oma, Opa, and Uncle Marcus. What a nice morning. Pictured is the cake she took to preschool.

Here she is later that afternoon at her party. She picked an indoor playground, which I was happy to oblige. Amazingly, Ella noticed, upon inspecting her invite list, that her best friend Luise and her little sister Henriette were the only girls! In addition to Luise and Henriette came 5 boys. Funny enough, I wouldn't call her a tomboy, she wanted makeup and princess Lillifee stuff for her birthday and she still loves the color pink, but she nevertheless isn't a typical girl either. You've gotta love her!

Snow Day

We woke to a teeny bit of snow this morning. Yippee! The kids were so excited they immediately dressed and ran outside. They tried to build a snowman, but there just wasn't enough snow. They managed to scrape together enough for one big ball which they eventually broke down to throw at us in surprise snowball attacks.

Ella looks so big to me in this picture.

Here she is with a scary snowball surprise!

Six Quirks Tag

1. Link the person who tagged you. http://glamontierth.blogspot.com/logspot.com/

2. Mention the rules on your blog.

3. Tell about 6 quirks of yours.

Heather's Quirks by Heather:

1. No one may whisper in my ear. It gives me the creeps.

2. I hate to sleep facing someone's face. I don't like feeling breath in my face or letting someone else feel my breath. Grosses me out.

3. I'm a vegetarian that hates vegetables and fruits. Call me a breadaterian.

4. I'm obsessed with my christmas ornaments. I've already brought up my box from the cellar and photgraphed them. (See pics) Please note: The beautiful beading, pearls, glitter, etc. just does not come through in a photo. You'll have to come visit to see the beauty!

5. I'm still scared that something scary lives under my bed(no, not evil dust bunnies!) and is going to grab my leg at night. Even if I'm not completely dressed/jewelry removed/whatever, I still jump into bed and finish from the safety of the top of the bed. I WILL NOT stand still next to my bedside at night. Weird, I know, that's why it's a quirk!

6. I love taking different routes to get from point a to b. I've gotten to see lots of cool little things while just driving home from somewhere.

These are 6 of my quirks. Hope you enjoyed!

St. Martin Day Parade of Fire!!!

Ok, it wasn't actually a parade of fire but children carrying paper lanterns with real candle in the middle. So it could have been a parade of fire, but luckily even though it was windy and some of the children were quite young, no one set anything aflame! Let me say, it was not my best day as a mom. It started nicely enough, I had my 3 plus a friend of Hannah's. We met up with Rachel and her two and a quadrillion other children from Erasmus and their parents and teachers in a park in downtown Frankfurt. I was worried about losing someone or someone setting something on fire, so I made the kids stay with me. I was so proud that I remembered scotch tape for any last minute paper lantern repairs, camera, even extra batteries! I got everyone lit up and lined up for a super photo opportunity-but alas-I left my memory card in my computer. Argggg! So, no pictures of this years parade but here is one of years past:

Those were the good old days when adults outnumbered the children 5:3. (Lennart and I were there, just not in the photo) This time is was 1:4. A little nerve racking yes, but I hoped to leave cute memories for the kids. Well, we marched through the park to a pavillion where Hannah and the other kindergarteners performed a little play about St. Martin and how he shared his coat on a cold, snowy, blustery day with a poor man. A lovely story, Hannah played a tree blowing in the wind. Unfortunately, I could not see or hear any of this performance at the time due to small pavillion, many people problems but Hannah showed us her part at home later that night. After this, we marched to the next area where all the children broke up and shared traditional sweet bread men. Now the fun is over and time to treck back to the car. But wait, it's now pitch black and we are in the middle of a large park. Hmm, which way to the car? We followed others in the hopes, they knew what they were doing but Sarah lost all desire to go home. She decided to stop moving. I am carrying a big bag full of waters, tape, camera, hats, scarves, etc. and now also get to carry a kicking screaming two year old. Ella was horrified. She desparately wanted to get away from the scene, but never in million years would I let her walk alone at night through the park. So we trudged very slowly kicking and screaming and complaining all the way, but we did indeed find the car. By then, I was expecting either a heart attack or nervous breakdown, yelling at the kids to just get in the car and stop everything! So much for the lovely memories. It started so nicely...

ps. In the end, we did talk through everything that transpired in the car and hopefully the children will not look back and think of me as evil but remember something fun before the chaos.

Happy Halloween!!!

Sarah and Louisa having fun in the firetruck
Here's the big girl posse-Ella, Helena, Hannah, & Elisabeth

Most of the trick or treat gang
Costumes aren't so cute under coats and hats!

So, it's cold and rainy-wait-it must be Halloween in Frankfurt. Actually, that's not fair, usually we have very nice weather for Halloween but not this year. So, trick or treating lasted about an hour and then it was off to a warm dry place for dinner. At the food court on the base, which Rachel graciously signed us onto, the children were set free to run and yell and act absolutely crazy with all the other american kids dressed up in their costumes. It was chaos but totally fun. We four moms let them have at it, while we casually ate our american junkfood(Popeyes Chicken, Taco Bell, or Subway) and chatted. We arrived back home around 9:30 (note:this adventure began around 4)! Hannah and Sarah were still so high from the fun, that they weren't sleeping until after 10!!! So, I think we can say, halloween fun was had by all.

Costume note:Ella was the cheerleader, Hannah was Princess Lillifee(a german fairy princess) and Sarah was a ballerina(although she called herself a princess all day)

Here they are-The Fabulous Brose Babes!

I am starting to take pics, hoping one will turn out right for the Christmas cards. Here's the first try. Not right for the cards but perfect for posting.

Entering the 21st Centry!

So I decided to do it! I will join the ranks of others and begin blogging. Maybe dorky, but I don't see anyone stateside enough and still want you to be part of my life on the other side of the big pond. I have no idea how this works and how often I will post but let's give it a try!
Ps. It's all Glenda's fault! Her awesome blog inspired me.