Ella is 8!!!

Ella awoke this morning to her 8 pink flowers for 8 great years, per her grandmother's request. She was also serenaded Happy Birthday with some yummy cinnamon rolls. She was so excited about her birthday, she could barley go to bed last night. We had to make 4 pans of brownies so that she could feed not just her class, but the entire lunch room (3 classes!).That said, Ella made 2 pans all by herself and Hannah helped considerably with one which left me to make one after they went to bed, man are they getting old! BTW, if you are wondering what the pink round thing is in the picture, it's a trash can. Ella desperately wanted a children's trash can for her room. And in boxes. What a goofy,huh? She wants to organize her desk better, so Hannah gave her inboxes that she can paint and decorate and then use to store her papers. All in all, I think it was a nice day for her, and for me, well, it seems like forever ago when I had just had my first baby. I never could have imagined just how much joy she would bring me. What a gift. Crazy!

Hannah Montana wannabe

You know 2 year old Sarah has two big sisters when in addition to the normal Twinkle Twinkle and If You're Happy and You Know It in her children's song repetoire are Hannah Montana, CampRock, and High School Musical songs. She can sing a mean Best of Both Worlds by Hannah Montana and tonight she blessed us with her newest song from Camp Rock. What a ham, although she actually does this all the time, even when noone is looking because she really just loves singing and dancing. Such a goof!

Skypegirl

I have discovered skype! A friend told me to try it quite a while ago, but I take a bit before I actually try something new. Love it! Granted, my computer is in my kitchen and that's pretty much where I always am so it's super easy for me to use. Get it and add me as your contact and we can call or video call all we want and the quality is better than messenger. That is assuming you would like talking to me...you could get it and call someone else I suppose! It's free. Doesn't get better than that. Give it a try!

Pooped

I think this little one had a bit too much fun partying on New Year's Eve. The next day, she couldn't even stay awake for her favorite t.v. show with Papa.

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a good 2008! We rang in our New Year with friends at our house. We ate raclette (a very yummy cheese dish eaten with potatoes, loveingly coined the artery scraper meal by a friend) and even the kids stayed up this year. While we ate our raclette, the kids watched Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D--at least halfway, until Sarah got too scared and we switched to Blue's Clues!

At the stroke of midnight, we let off our fireworks. Germans do love their fireworks on New Years. It always amazed me that a country with so many rules and regulations is actually far more lenient about personally used fireworks than the US. I used to be way too scared to actually use fireworks myself but 11 years over here and now I buy rocket after rocket to start our new year right. This was the first year the kids managed to stay awake and 2 of them quickly regretted it when the fireworks began. With everyone outside setting off their own fireworks and us directly in front of our terrace doors, it is quite loud. Hannah doesn't even like the sound of a balloon popping, so you can imagine her feelings last night. She stayed inside on the couch and covered her head with our quilt till we came back in and closed the door. Sarah screamed and shook everytime a new rocket exploded. Next year, they can go to bed like normally. Ella, however, got right in the middle of everything and really enjoyed the thrill.

After we chased all the bad spirits away with our rockets, we came back in and finished our game that we adults had started earlier. The kids crashed within minutes.

After a few hours of sleep, it's New Year's Day- time to clean up and wish everyone a happy and peaceful 2009!