Pre Easter Activities

Two days ago, we headed to a nearby forest to go on one of the published nature walks with friends of ours, who also have two kids about the ages of Quinn and Emily.

The hike itself was relatively non-eventful, but was nice in that the kids actually walked and entertained themselves with nature, letting the adults chat a bit ;-)

 Afterwards, we colored Easter Eggs, and then I took Quinn out to play soccer.  While the picture is relatively far away, one may see the relatively large spread of ages playing - from Quinn (being the youngest) to a few teenagers.

 When we were watching the boys play (we were kicking the ball at the neighboring basketball court), it was obvious that Quinn wanted to play...but he didn't dare ask, so I just asked him, he smiled huge, then ran out to the field.
Despite being a vary diverse (both age, culture, and language), all the kids were very well behaved, and they really took care of the younger kids -> helping them learn the game and encouraging them when they did good things.  It really made me feel like I belonged to a community.  

Quinn must have ran a marathon during the game, and he had a blast.  Once we got home, he asked when he could play with the 'big boys' again.  Before too much longer, Quinn will be one of those big boys, and he will bolt to play soccer right after breakfast.  As long as he has fun and treats the other players like he was treated today, I couldn't think of a better thing for a kid to do.

Happy Easter 2013

Normally, I do not like to post out of chronological order, since today is Easter, I thought I'd make an exception.

 As always, Quinn was up at the crack of sunlight to let us know that the Easter Bunny had come.  We have the rule that the kids cannot go into the living room until we wake up ... so Quinn was great, and he stayed out of the living room...but he shared his excitement with us in our bedroom.

 Quinn thought it was time to get up because it was already past 7am, but since we moved the clocks forward today, it was just way too early.  We tried in vain to get him to go back to sleep (I was the same as a kid).

 Unfortunately, the weather was way too cold to do the easter egg hunt outside, so we brushed off our standard hiding places...and had a blast looking for eggs and chocolate.

 Now I'm off to 'air out' the kids before preparing our Easter Ham, which I picked up from the butcher yesterday.

Happy Easter!

Pre Easter Festivities

Last weekend, suffering through yet another week of really cold, wet weather, we decided to head to a children's museum in an effort to have some fun, get the kids out of the house, and to stay out of the cold.

We weren't the only ones with this idea...the place was packed.

The museum had a very cool exhibit on chickens, and they actually had live chicks that you could hold.  Quinn actually wanted to go back and hold the chick a while longer, and he was very sad when we had to move on.

 There was a pretty cool playground in the area...with a very steep (fast) slide, but it was just too cold to stay out there too long.

Hopefully, Spring will come soon!

Greetings from the Schnullerfee

Shortly after coming back from vacation, Emily (finally) decided that she didn't need her pacifiers anymore.  On one hand, we didn't want to push this step, as she only used them for sleeping, but on the other hand, it was time, as she's getting mighty close to 4.

With Quinn, Eva and I invented the 'Schnullerfee' (literally translated 'Pacifier Fairy') to help encourage Quinn to give up his pacifiers.  Like the Tooth Fairy does with kid's fallen out baby teeth, the Schnullerfee comes to the house and takes the remaining pacifiers and leaves something in return.

 With Quinn, the Schnullerfee left a bike (used, which we got from one of the neighbor's kids, which was a bit interesting when the neighbor saw their old bike, but he was old enough to play along).

So, in an attempt to be fair, Eva found a used bike for Emily, which we had stored in our basement for what seemed like forever, waiting for Emily to decide that it was time for the Schnullerfee.  Not really knowing what the impetus was, Emily decided that it was time, and she packed up her remaining pacifier in a handmade Easter basket for the Schnullerfee.  The rest is history.

Emily's First Bike Ride

While it has already been two weeks since we came back from our 3 week vacation in Florida, due to catching up with 'the real world' as well as some computer issues, I'm a bit limited with blog posts, basically being handicapped or limited to those pictures or videos on my Galaxy Note II.  More content will follow

Just a short video of Emily on her 'Schnullerfee' bike, which the Schnullerfee (Pacifier Fairy) brought when she came and took the rest of Emily's pacifiers.  The bike was used that we got from a flea market...but Emily was so happy when she woke up and saw it in her room, that she didn't notice the scratches.

Please note that I have set this video as 'Private' on YouTube, with only a short list of people who can see this (you got an email or will be able to access).  I hope you understand my locking down these sorts of videos a bit more.