So long, Farewell, Aufwiedersehen, Goodbye

I promise I didn't do the Sound of Music thing on purpose. But the twins do love that song. We have to sing it every night before bed and Philippa always says the "no" part of Liesl's line.

It still hasn't hit me that I'm leaving. Sunday night, the family had a kind of surprise going away party for me, except all my friends that haven't already left couldn't come. Which was like 3 or 4, apart from Rachel and Max who were there anyways. So it was just us, the grandparents and Sigrid, and Sonja, who was staying here the first month I was here. We sat out in the garden and grilled, and they hung up the Texas flag that hung at the capitol once. It was really nice, and I'm glad it wasn't a big thing. I don't like being the center of attention. I'm going to miss a lot of things here, and most of all my kinders! I love them all a whole bunch!

Greta's still convinced she's coming with me, flying away on the tram and eating ice cream and fries in the airplane. Johanna would come, but she told me she doesn't have enough money.

Happy Birthday America!

I need to get this video to work


They both say this, and I also got them to say "USA!". Except the best version so far has been more like "you say say!"

Happy 4th of July!

Sunday Picnic

We had to get out of the house with the kids last weekend, because we were going crazy, and so were they. The start of the strawberry season means working Sundays, so here we go. We made a picnic and took the kids to the town hall in Hannover, where they have a playground and lots of grass to run around.

we made them hold hands all the way there until they were happy

the closest we got to a family picture

magnus

future rock climber philippa

greta

henriette

johanna

philippa waits for no one

sharing your chewed up leftovers is caring

she was pointing at a "fart"

cheez

my real partner in crime, rachel

Trinkle Trinkle Trinkle Trinkle Halla Apple Pie....

First off - it's strawberry time!! They came on Wednesday. Finally, but it also means the crazy is starting. Well, the even more crazy. They ended up opening the pick your own this weekend, and now I'm working on Sundays too. But yum.

Apparently this has turned into the never ending song:

We've gone from "fwee" to "thwee"

Secret disco fist pump lessons

My beautiful face paint creations at the Kapellenfest yesterday. And a rare moment of Henny helping her sister. Until the other swing was free, and she left Greta hangin.

Fridays

safety first Greta

what, she has to know all the words

movie night!

Hey Pretty Laaaady!

What happens when they're not screaming

They learned how to go across the balance beam and slide backwards on the same day:

typical Greta

"Go Lizzie Go!"

just call me Maria von Trapp

Philippa kisses. usually they're way grosser

yes. she drinks black coffee and then asks for more.

rock star

nein nicht Foto!

coolest kid I know

Another Day in the Life

This is super safe...

look who can ride a bike by herself!

they're no always as cute as they look...

look at my pretty bag!

they call all bubbles "hello kitty"

"glunglasses!"

look Ma, no hands!

cool dance moves

Philippa's new laugh. this is the face of fun right here

someone's crrraaaaazzzzzyyy

she just continued to crack herself up for at least half an hour

Twins cracking each other up

Philippa's tall enough to open all the doors in the house now. That means I can't lock her in the playroom anymore or out of her parents' office. I look away for a second and she's gone. And when I'm in my room I keep hearing someone messing with the (very hard to open) door at the top of the cold, steep, winding staircase. But they're going to Kindergarten in 2 weeks!

Greta counting

I'm convinced Greta's a secret genius. Philippa's been counting for a while, and if you start to count, especially in German but sometimes in English too, she'll try to finish and usually gets it pretty right. But Greta, no, Greta's too good for that. Who needs to know how to count correctly to 10 when you can stand outside, facing a wall with no one around you, and scream "zwei! vier! 2! 4! 2! 4!" over and over. And then she just continues on with her business as usual.

A day (or more like 5 mintues) in my life

Okay I'm working on my post about Copenhagen, but here are a few videos from a couple weeks ago when I got stuck working all day on a Sunday after I had had to work all day Saturday too. I was told it would be from 11-1 at the very latest with only the twins, and it ended up being from 9-2:30 with all 5 kids. I felt like a bad au pair and literally just stuck them in from of the TV all day, because I couldn't deal with them anymore, but the twins have an attention span of 5 seconds and so I made travel plans in the dining room where's there's internet and simultaneously did my best to keep them from breaking everything. You even get a glance into their true nature. The family had to leave their play group early yesterday because the twins were beating up all the older kids. Those little bundles of chaos...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

These little twin devil children turn 2 today. I love them so much. 

Philippa, just reading the paper like normal

their favorite books (upside down farming magazines)

Greta acting normal

WOOF WOOF WOOF

Philippa

Greta

"mouth!"

the other one can say it too, I just can't catch them both on camera

p.s. Happy Australia Day!