Lewie hard at work creating a present for Daddy's birthday.
Happy birthday Dada!
The finished product! An upside-down love heart or a spaceship? No one will ever know!!
Josh also made a something special for Daddy: it's the best game EVER!
We headed to one of our favourite shopping streets in Koeln, Breite Strasse, for lunch and in search of some birthday clothes. We weren't so lucky on the clothing front, but we did find an awesome Rosterei (coffee shop where they roast their beans on site), ran around a fountain...
and gave the cow statue a kiss. Mwah!
Ben's favourite local Brauhaus for dinner, Em Ovje.
And his favourite night cap!
This was not on the same day, but Ben also enjoys the search for his favourite beers, of all types. Here is a small selection...
After a hard day at work/home, there is some comfort to be found in a jar of pulverised sweet biscuits.
This week we helped celebrate one of Josh's kindergarten friend's birthday at Glessener Muehlenhof in Bergheim. Only 15 minutes from where we live, this small hobby farm is a great place for kids to visit and feed farm animals, ride on the back of a tractor, hide in a hay bale maze and explore the farm. There is also a cafe on site, and they do birthday parties!
Lewie with his leaf to feed the rabbits.
Here you go, rabbits! Uuuummm...
Awesome hill slide. What cannot be shown in photos: me taking Lewie down the slide!
Photo???
Making pizza for dinner. We should try this at home!
The kids loved racing around on the many pedal cars, tractors and bikes...
Some of the adults enjoyed it too!
This Spring/Summer has been very topsy turvy, weather-wise. Luckily, the sun shone for the Stommeler Olivenfest. Actually, it was a lot hotter than I was prepared for in my jeans!
Ice cream. Is gunna save the day!
Ice cream and olive paste, that is.
And cannoli!
Hhhmmmm... I'm working on it!
Walking around our dorf (village), Josette and I came across a mother duck and her very many baby ducks (what a busy Mummy duck!). We initially tried to pass by slowly, but the ducklings got confused and tried to hide under the pram wheels, so we backed off not wanting to cause them distress. Once calm again, we passed by, this time at a much faster pace. I just hope they made it across the very busy road (to our left) safely.
Raph's may be expensive, but the kids love playing in the playground. And we love it when they play in the playground without us! Cheers!
The burgers are pretty awesome too!
As part of the enrolment process at the International Freidensschule Koeln (IKF)/ Cologne International School (CIS), Josh was required to attend an "exam". Two very lovely women led him through a serious of tests assessing hearing, vision, following instructions, Maths, gross motor coordination etc, the majority of which in German. I am continuously surprised/proud/jealous of how German has become second nature to Josh, and in such a short timeframe. By the time it took me to attempt to translate what was going on (making up most of it), they had moved on to the next thing, or even the thing after that. He is so amazing and of course passed the exam with flying colours. The second woman in particular was very taken with both Josh and Lewie, "sehr schoen, sehr suss!"
After a few mild days, the rain clouds were back again.
Rainy days call for reinforcements in our indoor play. The new beach shade tent was an instant hit!
Lewie loves making towers.
Josh loves construction too. He also enjoys reading, and listening to music and audio books.
When the sun is out, we like to explore the field between our house and kindergarten/school.
Sometimes it all gets too much, this playing business...
... even eating lunch can be tiring!
In that case, it's into the bath we go,
a little cuddle on the couch,
then a story and off to bed. Night night! Morning!
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