Pool Time

...a few somewhat random pics on my cell phone...

Quinn feeding the pigs near our house after playing soccer (hence his 1. FCN jersey) and some treasure hunting (Geocaching) with one of his friends from kindergarten.
A snapshot of Quinn at his swimming lesson. In this picture, you can see the yellow floating pad. It is kind of like a neoprene lilly pad. The kids had to step on the pad and try to balance. The instructors would then try to shake the kids loose. Each child had varying methods of stepping onto the pad, all of which included a fair amount of caution (key word here is the word 'stepping').

What does Quinn do: He jumps with both feet on the pad. So much for caution. Let's just say that he loves his instructor and is really comfortable in the water considering he can only swim a few strokes.

Quinn on his bike. He saw a few singletracks in our forest and wanted to ride them. Unfortunately, I was pulling Emily with the Chariot ... and definitely not ride single track. But, a few days later, after picking him up from his swimming lesson, we did a few single tracks on the way home...which have a few bumps.

Quinn learned a new word that day: Mountain Biking (and the German version: mountainbiken ... see, German is easy).

Quinn, Emily, and I went treasure hunting (geocaching) one nice Sunday in early May.

Quinn even let Emily use his shovel. The caches were a bit hairy for the three of us ... mainly because I had to help Emily and couldn't really help Quinn climb over the tree roots, etc...normally not a big deal, but there was a small stream on the other side. Thankfully, we all found the cache and had a blast (we came home covered in dirt).

Emily seems to have the same gene as her brother: she loves stamping her feet in puddles.

Lots of cheap entertainment: who needs TV when you have a puddle?

Growing up, the traditional 'opening day' of the public pool was over Memorial Day Weekend, which tended to coincide with the end of the school year. Needless to say, this time of year was one of great happiness for a kid.

Our pool (the outdoor part) has been opened for a while, but it hasn't really been warm enough to keep the kids warm enough...until this weekend. It's been pretty hot here, and without air conditioning, 80°F / 25°C is pretty hot.

Emily was a bit under the weather (unfortunately), so I took Quinn for a 'quick' outing...that lasted over 5 hours.

I love these pictures of Quinn where I can see that he is in total reflection mode.

Our newly renovated neighborhood pool, with the super cool slide. Note to self: at 10am it is empty. Tons of people there at noon.

Chatting

Emily has been rambling for a while, but her vocabulary was pretty much limited to 'ja' and various grunts that basically told us that we were doing something wrong.

On Saturday, while at the table, Emily put out one of her grunts, and Quinn said 'Emily said Danke'. Thinking back...yes, she did.

We've noticed a few additional words lately...and we're expecting the flood to come soon.

...and the favorite word of most children: Nein / No.

Swimming

Quinn hit another milestone yesterday: he swam on his own. OK...it was only about 3 meters before his head fell below water, and the motions of his hands were more like chaos...but he kept himself a float.

Emily and I got to see it all from the baby pool. After he did it, he immediately looked back at us, and were lifted our arms in jubilation. I'm glad I could be there for it...even though it can be stressful to get two kids to the pool alone (something that Eva does more regularly as Super Mom).

While he has pretty much always been comfortable in water, his swim lessons are definitely helping him to be even more comfortable in water.

On the Emily side, I've determined that she really likes dresses and that she's getting more picky when we lay out her clothes. She keeps trying to put on the 'croc' sandals that we got her...but it is still mostly too cold for them.

Happy Easter 2011

Easter Time again. Quinn was old enough last year to remember the routine...and to really begin to look forward to the long weekend. In Kindergarten, they begin more discussion about spring and Easter, so this adds fuel to the fire.

Emily still has no clue...and why on God's green earth would you paint an egg? I love pictures like the one above where you can see Quinn deeply concentrating.

I was tasked to help Emily color eggs (also known as: don't get paint / markers on the furniture or clothes). How do you like my bald spot?

Brother and Sister.

In Germany (and much of the rest of the world except the US) there are these things called Surprise Eggs (Überraschungseier, ÜEi for short). They have different names throughout the world (as I've noticed in the many international airports I've been too). They are like a Cadbury's creme egg...but with a toy inside. Kinda like a Cracker Jack Egg. It is amazing what type of toy they can get into the darn thing.

Nonetheless...Quinn and Emily got an XXL ÜEi from our friends for Easter. While Emily has no idea what Easter is, she knows what chocolate looks like, and she got that thing unwrapped and started eating before Eva and I really knew what was going on.

Quinn was her accomplice.

...following pics not necessarily in order...

Eva and I thought that we were super smart in recommending two toy lawnmowers for the kids: one for each. The lawnmowers have always been a hit at the house, and now that Emily is old enough to 'have one' and since Quinn's had to get retired last year...it was time.

The whole thing backfired when Emily found Quinn's lawnmower (right) first. It was clearly on 'his side' of the Easter Egg Hunt. Quinn tries really hard to be diplomatic (he knows it was on 'his side' of the Hunt) and helps Emily find hers. In his 4 year old words, he tried to convince Emily that she found his lawnmower.

She didn't budge. Quinn gives up and just rips his lawnmower out of her hands. Crying ensues. She still thinks Quinn's lawnmower is hers.

Emily is very, very strong willed. Like her mother ;-) Quinn on the hunt.

It took Emily a while to figure out why we were looking behind the bushes so early on a Sunday morning. After all, she doesn't like eggs. Why would she want to find them.

Chocolate. That is the reason. Emily figured out quickly that some of the eggs were chocolate. Emily's *white* knit from my parents (Thank You!) is still clean...but we had to take it off before the lawnmowing got started.

The girl catches on quick. When she saw Quinn's Easter basket, Quinn was still basking in the glory of such a cool easter basket. Quinn, in all his pride, shows it to Emily and starts trying to convince Emily that she probably also has an Easter basket.

Emily sees the chocolate ladybug on Quinn's gift (you can see it in the pic below) and quick like lightning, she rips the piece of chocolate from Quinn's gift and starts running away, happy that she found the chocolate.

I didn't even have time to say 'no'.

Emily on the hunt. Thankfully, the weather was super warm and sunny, allowing us to enjoy the long weekend even more.

More chocolate for breakfast.

Attempted family pictures.

...it's down here somewhere...

...sunglasses from Tante Nina. Danke!

...next attempt at a family pic...

Quinn playing badminton with Tante Nina.

Unfortunately, I somehow nuked the pics of us playing soccer down the street.

As with many holidays, it is amazing how quickly they come and go...but this Easter was a truly relaxing long weekend with great weather and great family time. It is great to see Quinn's excitement as well as Emily's confusion (what's going on here ?)...both of which make me smile from ear to ear!