with two European trips under her onesie belt already,
wee one's pretty comfortable with the suitcase

Yup, it's that time again: we're off to visit Oma and Opa in Germany! We fly tomorrow and I'm freaking out trying to pack everything last minute here. (Actual quote from the boys today: "Wow, you started packing late!") The do-not-forget list includes blankies, legos, games, knitting, camera, swimsuits, addresses for postcards, and a dozen other must-have vacation items. I'm a little worried I'll forget to pack the underwear! (Note to self: add underwear to list.) I really don't want to pack a bag of polyester fiberfill, but I hope to finish up those tiger and lion animals, as well as make wee one a back-up/wash-day dolly, and I don't have a clue of when I'd get into the city or where to find fiberfill there. (You might recall that my in-laws live in the hinterland. Literally, the area is called the Hinterlands, and they ain't lying!) What's the German for fiberfill anyway??

I'll post vaca pics as always. Mensch, am I looking forward to a break! See ya all on the flip side of the globe....

"okay, I'm in, close it up and let's go!"

We did it! We made it to Germany. It's always stressful, it's always crazy, and then it's always a relief. Even though it's always the same, the kids conspire to make it different every year.

Yesterday the boys were so excited, ready for the trip, wearing their German Wild Bunch t-shirts. Wee one had no idea what was going on, but as it involved seeing lots of cars and buses and planes, she wasn't complaining yet.

We always eat dinner at the McDonald's in the International terminal before we board the plane. (In fact, we only ever eat McDonald's at the airport and while we're in Germany.) Wee one got her very first Polly Pocket doll in her Happy Meal. So, naturally, she tried to eat it.

After eating, we always head to the same corner of the terminal, where, after a renovation which included the removal of ALL the outlets you might be able to plug your laptop into, there's always still one forgotten power source hidden by the bathrooms. Every year, hubby sets up the computer there and the boys watch some of their favorite shows until boarding. Can you guess what they watched this time? By the end, we had a little crowd of Icelandic girls standing behind the boys, peeking.

it's Sizzles!

Once we were in the plane, we got wee one strapped in with her Cares child seat belt system.

This was a must-have for her, since she's an active one. If she hadn't been strapped down, she wouldn't have stayed in that seat for a second! It worked great for take-off and landing and turbulent moments in between. She did still want to get out to climb around on mommy, throw a tantrum or two, and then flop around while sleeping. Thank goodness for the sleeping. This is how she was awake.

so this is why the boys fight over the window seat

Oh yes, the window seat is awesome. Did you know, you can see all kinds of things through that window? If you get close enough, apparently.

We went through passport control and security in Iceland (we always fly Icelandair and love it), then got into our second plane. The boys led the way (big travelers, that they are). They knew we had the same seats as before and when we sat down, S says, 'oh yeah, these are the same seats. Here's the crack that was in my seat and the stain on the tray.' We were on the exact same plane! And they'd cleaned up all the diaper/baby mess I'd left around our seats. I felt bad that they'd cleaned up our area just for me and wee one to sit there again. Wee one didn't let that stop her from making more mess though.

Frankfurt airport was just the same as it ever is. I had to walk like a mile to pick up the stroller from the bulky luggage area. You have to walk a mile to do anything in the Frankfurt airport. It always seems unnecessarily huge to me every time, with long, empty corridor after long, empty corridor. But at the end of the long walk, there's always my in-laws and the drive out to the country.

And waiting for us at the end of it all is always the same house. Unpacking is a breeze, since I know the four drawers, one cabinet and half closet I can always use. The boys started playing in the backyard like we were here an hour ago and just went out to eat. And the same toys were brought down from the attic for wee one to play with that the boys and my husband and his siblings played with.

der Laden is open for business again!

Only one thing was new.

The manos blanket I knit for my in-laws for Christmas now sits on the living room sofa. Both S and B have already had a chance to cuddle up with it and declared it to be very nice. S said, "I think I'd like a blankie like this." Don't worry S, it'll always be here for you.

The things we do in Deutschland...

building a treehouse with Opa

even wee one helped

tennis rackets and a squooshy ball, but baseball muss sein

with baby stroller and dollies that belonged to her Tanten

showing everyone her bellybutton

And fresh berries to boot!

We can't be sitting around in the lovely countryside all the time. We're Americans. We need to shop!

After one day in Germany, some crazy American urge to consume came over me. We drove into the city and picked out some new games for the family to play: Dragon Delta (a planning game similar to Roborally but with a less technical theme and more opportunities to mess up other people's plans) and Hase und Igel (a totally awesome race-style game, but, true to its theme, a race where you often have to be slow to get to the finish line first).

Next, the boys went shopping. They each got 10 Euros for their birthday to spend in the family stationery/toy store. They usually go straight to the toy corner and pick out Siku cars, which are like German Matchbox cars, and then spend the rest of their money on erasers and candy.

let's go to Cologne!

And then yesterday, hubby wanted to go to Köln with a friend, so I tagged along to, yup, do some shopping. Cologne is home to the Dom...

Cologne cathedral

...and the Mouse, star of kids' Sunday morning television here and the mascot on the side of the West German Broadcasting building in Cologne. Since I knew that the best knitting store in Cologne, Maschenkunst, was closed on Mondays, I just drifted around. I did stumble upon another yarn store, Casa Lana, which looks lovely on the website but is actually on the small side with the standard German selection of Lana Grossa and Lang yarns.

I did like these funny crocheted German flag washcloths in the window though. Washing up the dishes with the German flag...hmmmmm.....

Okay, American consumerism satisfied. Now back to German stuff. Another one of those good, hour-long German walks through the country perhaps. Or eating some sort of freaky meat.

Wee one enjoying the view from the in-laws' backyard.

Yes, there has been some knitting here in Germany!

A semi-secret sweater, to go with the semi-secret baby hat, is well underway. The pattern is the placket-neck baby sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and the yarn is Rowan Pure Wool (which I'm liking very much, by the way). I'm making the 0-6 month size and it's sooo tiny and cute.

But before I could finish that tiny sweater, there was an even tinier sweater to make that was already overdue. A few years ago, I made little sweater ornaments for my in-laws with the initials of each family member. As the family has grown, I've gone back to the original pattern (the mini-sweater ornament from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts) and made more sweaters. There was a "C" for a little cousin two years ago, two "L"'s for wee one and another cousin last year, and now a "T". My sister-in-law eloped over the summer and so, one more sweater was suddenly needed.

I saved the leftovers of the original yarns I used so all the new sweaters will match the old ones. I brought the blue yarn (for boys) with me to Germany and planned to knit the little "T" sweater this week so it would be done in time for a big family gathering we had yesterday. I sat down to start knitting on Tuesday, got right to the part where I join the sleeves to the body and start working in the round, and ran out of yarn. Aaaaaack! And the yarn is Rowan Felted Tweed, not really a yarn you're going to find here in Germany. Double aaaaack! But, would you believe it, Maschenkunst, the awesome yarn store I didn't get to visit when I was in Cologne on Monday, had some!! I saw it in Daniela's online store and, knowing that the German mail system is super efficient and fast, put in my order as quick as I could with high hopes of getting the yarn in time to finish the sweater by Saturday. Sure enough, it arrived the very next day, and I finished the sweater mere hours before my new brother-in-law arrived for the party. Phew! (A big thanks to Daniela for saving me and helping keep the family together!)

Next up, are those crazy lion and tiger toys for the boys and a new dolly for wee one. OR the fabulous sweater for me that I just found in the latest Rebecca magazine. Oooooh, I'm afraid those poor animals might be put on hold again!

* knitting will not be cancelled

we made it!

Kings of the corn maze. We were supposed to find four stamps in the maze. We had so much trouble finding the third one that our little piece of paper ended up looking like a chinese take-out order: 3 number 1's, 2 number 2's, 1 number 3 and 3 number 4's. Leider, no fortune cookies in the corn maze.

"Kniffel!"

King Kniffel. The weather's been a little gray and cool, so we've been playing games all day long. The latest favorites are Yahtzee and Wizard, and an old game of daddy's, Super-3.

proud builders halfway done!

Lego kings. Together with their uncle, the boys built their BIG birthday present from Oma and Opa, the Lego Technic Bulldozer. Here's a video of S, cleaning up the living room with the remote control bulldozer.

And when the boys go to sleep, daddy and uncle get to play with it!

"that way! that way!"

We promised the boys we'd go to Legoland Germany this year and last week it was finally time. Legoland is a good four hour drive away from the in-laws, so we decided to pack up the car Thursday afternoon, drive down to Günzburg and spend the night at the brand new Legoland Village before going to the park on Friday. Legoland Village is a village full of lego-themed cottages a short walk away from the park

Vorfreude ist die beste Freude

The boys were so excited. We got a Lego Racers house. It was teeny tiny, but super cute. These Germans sure are clever. There was just enough room for six beds (including two for the boys in an itty bitty loft up the stairs) and a bathroom. And there were lego decorations inside too.

don't you want one of these over your bed at home?
you could make your own with about 500 white lego pieces

The village was so cool! Each little group of houses had its own lego theme and its own themed playground.

snakes, why did it have to be snakes?

The Indiana Jones playground had a "crashed" wooden plane playground and a lego snake at the entrance. The Knights' Kingdom houses had a wooden castle playground and the Pirates had a giant wooden boat play structure. The boys played on all of them. They had so much fun in the village, they didn't complain once about having to wait until the next day to go to the actual Legoland. Seriously, if you're coming from a ways away to visit Legoland Deutschland, I really recommend the Legoland Feriendorf. It was awesome!

The next morning we walked over the little village boardwalk (yes, there's even a little beach/wading pond) to the village restaurant for our breakfast buffet. The boys studied the Legoland map while eating Unmengen von choco-cereal.

And then we went to the park... (and I'll tell you all about that tomorrow!)

Finally, legoland. The boys were so excited, I could barely get them to stand still for this picture. And then, the poor things, we made them walk through Miniland before going on any rides. But Miniland turned out to be pretty cool after all. I guess mommy and daddy aren't quite as mean as they look.

(click for the big version)

This is a 1:20 scale version of the Piazza San Marco in Venice made out of legos. Seriously, that's all Legos there. And the thing is as tall as you. And there was more. There were canals with boats that move through the water. The people in the piazza even danced! It was amazing, amazing, amazing.

(click for the BIG version)

And here's the German Reichstag. Did I mention this is all made of legos? I feel like I need to remind you because it's so freaking unbelievable. That's the Love Parade in front of the Reichstag. And in the background you can see one of the cranes from the construction at Potsdamer Platz. (Still, all legos.) There were a ton of buildings from Berlin, including the Brandenburger Tor, the Siegessäule (where Obama recently gave a speech), the Dom, and even the silly red Info Box. All the details were perfect too: there were moving Trambahns and tour buses and all sorts of little minifigures going about their Berliner business.

There were so many other cities that had been recreated, it was a whole miniEurope: an entire Hamburg port with giant ships and cranes and ferris wheels; Amsterdam with like 20,000 little lego tulips, Neuschwanstein castle (something for the Amis to look at - heh, heh); and a humongous version of the Munich Airport with the huge Airbus planes driving into hangars outside and little people movers inside. The coolest of all though was the model of Munich's new Allianz Arena, where the Bayern München soccer team plays.

(click for BIG picture)

This is supposedly the largest lego building ever built, with over 1,000,000 lego pieces. Did you forget that these things are all built of legos? I know! Me too! That's legos there. Legos. This model has 30,000 lego minifigures watching the soccer game. And some of them have little cameras that flash. It was so freaking cool even the boys spent some time captivated by it. Before they remembered about the rides.

Yes, the rides. Let's go on some rides. But wait, before we go, does anyone have to use the little boys' or little girls' room?

Oh, and pregnant lego people are not allowed on this ride.

Are we all good now?

A lego technic spinny, make-you-sick ride that the boys had to go on all by themselves. "Uh, those rides aren't fun anymore once you're over 20," we told them.

The lego pirates ride, where you ride in a lego-looking boat and shoot water at the people on the shore from water cannons. The spectators have cannons too though, so everyone gets wet. Even though we didn't have any swim clothes with us, we let the boys take off their shirts and play pirate. You can see B in front behind the fence and S's head is just visible behind a water cannon over the cement wall on the other side. Man, they had fun.

This will go down in family history as the trip where the boys became roller-coaster fans. Here they are together on their favorite coaster, the Feuerdrache. This was a park photo - you know the ones they make while you're on the ride that you can buy afterwards. What parents could resist that picture?

Later, when it started to rain near the end of the day, we went inside and built legos. At what other amusement park can you do that?!! The sprinkles turned into a real downpour and it was getting close to closing time, so we pulled on our funny Legoland rain ponchos and made our way back to the car.

Good bye, Legoland. Until next time. Oh yes, we have been told by the boys that there WILL be a next time.

Our last day in Germany, we went to the little amusement park at the top of the little mountain nearby. This was the flag in the park's "Indian Village". The Germans are a bit obsessed with the American Wild West. Here in Germany, in a mountainside fun park where kids can bounce on a giant "bungy" trampoline, take a ride on a mountain slide, and ride back up on the ski lift, it makes total sense to have an Indian village where young German kids can get their faces painted, learn to shoot an arrow, and sit around a fire in a huge teepee.

As an American, however, it's sort of strange and sad to learn about the native peoples of your home country from another land that seems to appreciate them and their culture more than your own. Well, our country, right or wrong, was where we were headed next.

The boys refused to admit that they were simply too big for the Kiddieland rides next to the airport check-in. We'd saved extra ride tokens from our trip at Christmas and they insisted on using them.

Next, we stopped by the huge McDonalds playspace in the Terminal before going through the security check. Another odd America-in-Germany moment. We one and I were thrilled to find some Mexican-ish food in the food court there. McDonalds is easy to find in Germany, but don't hold your breath for burritos. After three weeks of German food and McDonalds, those crappy nachos tasted pretty damn good.

And then we flew home. Well, first to Iceland. We always fly with Icelandair, stopping to switch planes in Reykjavik. On our way this time, we got to fly with these guys:

It's the Icelandic handball team that won a silver medal at the Olympics in Beijing! This was only Iceland's fourth Olympic medal EVER and they were so excited. When it was time to board the plane, the crew announced that the Olympic handballers would be travelling home with us and they all filed in with their medals on. They got a huge round of applause and some champagne at the gate. The flight crew wore Icelandic team uniforms and there was free champagne on the plane for everyone and free movies on the new in-seat entertainment systems (wee one watched "Happy Feet").

When we arrived in Iceland, the plane took an extra turn so the airport fire crew could salute the Olympians with a waterworks display. It was cool to be a part of this special moment for them. But this actually isn't the first time we've flown home from Germany with an Olympic champion. Two years ago after the Winter Olympics in Turin, we flew back with one of the gold medal winners of the Swedish hockey team (he was a Boston Bruins player, flying back to return to the team). Our Olympic streak will probably end here though, since the games are in Canada in 2010 and London in 2012. Darn.

After the high of the Olympic flight, we were excited to finish our trip across the Atlantic and get home. Then there was a delay. We were so close (just a 4 1/2 hour flight away) and yet still so far away. We tried to keep the kids' spirits up while we waited and waited for them to get us a plane.

nope, she's too big for hand luggage

let's learn Icelandic: epla svali = apple juice
last year we learned koko mjölk = chocolate milk

After a two and a half hour wait, the Icelanders brought us home. Despite the delay, I still love flying Icelandair. It's just so nice to have that break in the middle of the long trip. The little airport is so quiet and pretty and the security and passport stuff is way less stressful. Plus, the place is full of lovely english-speaking Icelanders (oh, they're a good-looking folk) with such fun names (we had a blast watching that handball final and routing for Stefansson and Atlason and Petersson and Sigurdsson and figuring out what all our last names would be in the Icelandic patronymic naming system). Okay, I'll admit it, I'm starting to get a little crush on Iceland.

dreaming of fjords

And now, back in the USA, finally, we are tired.

The boys are back to school!

hmmm... let me guess what you did this summer

What I wanted to tell you about, before the kiddos interrupted me for days, was, well, who the hell knows what it was anymore. Here, at least, is what I remember from the last few days.

Over the weekend, we celebrated the official end of summer by visiting our favorite local corn maze.

The theme this year was the Olympics and we couldn't resist taking this picture of all the kids on the medal stand. They weren't quite in birth order. S (the second born) snatched gold away from B by finishing his hot dog first.

This was not an easy picture to take as wee one didn't really understand the concept and B (the first born) wasn't quite satisfied with his position. Take a look at the first try. The maze was fun though. It was a beautiful day. And I even did a little bit of knitting in the car on the way.

What am I knitting right now? Well, in Germany, I finished up the pink baby sweater set that I started shortly before we left.

my version of the peace baby set - more info here

And then I started a sweater for me from the latest Rebecca magazine.

Ooooh, I just loved those stripes and those large poofy sleeves. I was also really drawn to the orange color. The yellow is kinda blech, so when I went yarn shopping, I picked me out a pretty little pink to pair with the orange. The local yarn store by my in-laws has a nice selection of Lana Grossa yarns and I remembered enjoying the Cool Wool 2000 when I got some at New Year's for an itty bitty bunny ears hat, so I decided to go with that again. As you can see from my progress, I have had almost as much knitting time recently as I have had blogging time!

And the busy days and tired nights aren't over just yet. We've got company! My brother-in-law came to visit. We just saw him in Germany and now he's over here visiting friends and us. Wee one is very confused.

Oh, and did I mention that I'm moving and reorganizing the entire yarn stash again?

I've finally kicked myself out of wee one's room. My desk is gone (I now have half a cabinet in the kitchen for my desk stuff - city living with three kids is tough!) and the yarn is next. Then wee one will have her own little room all to herself with plenty of space for her toy stroller and doll house and all the other pink stuff still to come. Now I merely have to find a way to squeeze my yarn stash into the built-in sideboard in the dining room. The boys' games used to be in there, but they've been evicted (the games, not the boys). Essentially, I've spent the last month or so (before we left and after returning), moving everything from downstairs upstairs and everything from the left side of the house to the right side of the house. But soon, very soon, it will all be done.

And then we can talk some more.