Easter Break. This is going to be more like the day-to-day blogging I used to do waaaaaaay back in the day when I only had 1 kid and stuff. ;)
Fridays are always half days for the kids. And it's pointless to even send them to school as no lessons happen before break. But, Easton's class did a small "Hobbit" play and Easton (Mr. Stage Fright himself!) played the role of Thorin, Lead Dwarf. They all did so well. So precious. See what I did there? Hobbit?? Gollum??? Moving on...
My Easter break kicked off that Friday evening. I went out for the evening with my very first friend in Berlin: Kim. We did dinner and then went for craft beers at this nifty little place up in our former neighborhood. Good times. Kim chose 4 beers for a sampler for me and then shared the highlight of the evening with me: a chocolatey coffee-y Milk Stout from none other than good ol' Left Hand Brewing Company in Colorado. (Kim is from Colorado too. Kind of.)
On Saturday morning, we met up with much of our small group (from church) for brunch up in our old part of town again. Besides the wonderful company of the dear friends we've made hosting small group, the group chose a vegetarian-vegan place! Yum!
Sunday the 29th is when Germany finally did their Daylight Savings time change. Spring forward is always so blah, am I right? Jason had to report early to play at church and the kids and I showed up eventually. With it being Easter break, and Germans being very good at taking holidays, plus more than a few members of our congregation playing in or spectating at the men's Berlin's Recycling Volleys championship volleyball game and furthermore, the Vattenfall Half Marathon was going on keeping some other regular 'parishioners' away so attendance was light. I packed the kids some lunch to eat after church was over as we had planned to surprise them by going to see the movie "Home" at the Sony Center that afternoon.
The Cinestar theater there screens movies "OV" (original version) even though the entire website is in German, the staff speaks German, and the ads are all in German. As we were waiting for the movie, they show commercials that are pre-previews, right? Like, go buy this snack at the snack bar or shop at this nearby store and then we were surprised to see naked people in two different ads before the children's movie. One was an ad that was sort of "This is Berlin" and had a topless swimming woman and later a slightly overweight man's bare bum as he stood there and surveyed the scene. The other was for who knows what but ended with a man and woman who had just shared a croissant looking out a window together wearing shirts but nothing down below. Dalton was bothered. I was bothered. When am I going to get in the Euro- mindset? We don't have German TV so I have no idea if it's as "they" say with nudity on regular TV too, but if it is, I'm glad we don't watch it. Anyway, back to "Home". We really enjoyed it minus Jason's short nap again. ;) Although I kept getting distracted by the "alien" who speaks incorrect English like the B.F.G. or a Lolcat, perhaps, so I kept wondering what they'd do when they dubbed it in German. We ran into a classmate of Dalton at the theater who is definitely still an English Language learner and I kept thinking, "I hope B____ back there doesn't think this is correct!" :D When we left, our little Dalton bid him "Ciao". Even though it's Italian, many many many Germans / people living in Germany use it to say goodbye. I usually hear "Ciao" or "Tschüß". Unless it's a little old lady, I rarely ever hear anyone say what "we" (as Americans) think of as 'Goodbye in German': "Auf Wiedersehen", right? Anyway, I thought it was cute that Dalton is apparently a "Ciao"-er. I'm a Tschüß-er for sure.
When we arrived home, there was this terrible smell in the house. I had noticed it a little the day before and cracked a window but it had gotten bad. I thought it was something in the boys' room as, you know, they're stinky boys and all and also their room is the first you come to when you enter the flat. Jason did a little investigating and discovered a squashed egg in Dalton's backpack. Their class had decorated hardboiled eggs and, well, seems like one was forgotten in his backpack. Eew. Cleaned that up as best we could which involved attempting to wash both boys' backpacks.
We had an easy dinner and then, as the clock had changed but our bodies hadn't, we piled on to the couch and watched a couple episodes of our new favorite "Dog with a Blog" before we tucked the kids in for the night. I was so excited not to set my alarm for the morning.
But wouldn't you know it, at 7:15 (still 6:15 to our bodies, of course) those darn kids were all up an at 'em!!! I have to wake them up every single morning for school. How do their tiny bodies know to sleep when they shouldn't (school days) and wake when they can sleep in??? I know that's how pretty much all kids are, still it's frustrating. It's not that they need me to get up with them, it's that our place is so small I can't help but hear them as they flip pages in a book or wash their hands or whatever.
Oh well. They were up and so we were too. Jason started getting ready for work and I got to making our mostly-usual "Muffin Monday" breakfast of my 'signature' 100% whole-wheat, honey sweetened Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip muffins.
So, we enjoyed our breakfast:
And spent some time reading to earn a little screen time.
I realize the irony of reading on a screen to earn screen time but when you live in a foreign land, your English language book options are understandably more limited. We usually borrow Kindle books from our library back home, actually. Easton is reading (and loving!) The Hobbit. Dalton had been reading the "Cam Jansen" mystery series but, because of Easton's love of The Hobbit, Dalton is reading it as well. He's always been a very good reader, but I'll have to check in with him about his comprehension. According to Mr. Internet, The Hobbit is at about an 8th grade reading level (1000 Lexile). And, back before we pulled them out to homeschool when he was in the middle of 1st grade, he was reading at an "end of 3rd grade" level. Seems like quite a jump to take on the Hobbit but I'm all for him stretching himself. Go, Dalton!
Anyway, they did their gaming, and eventually we had some lunch before we headed out. The kids wanted to go to a Toys R Us and I know of two here. And they know of two also, it was pretty cute because I asked which one to go to and Dalton was all, "Maybe the one in the Mall of Berlin but we go there a lot..." and Easton was like, "I know! How about the one off the U9?" which is cute that he knows which train and stuff. Back home, Easton would never have said, "Hey, let's go to the mall off Highway 36". City kids.
While on the U9, I was overhearing a handsome young man and a 50-something woman talk in their American accents. Then the young man asked her, "Does Dalton want kids?" and I smiled and said, "I love hearing American accents here. I feel like I'm home....and did you just say 'Dalton'?" and the woman said, "My son is Dalton" and I was all, "My son is Dalton!" We've run into many many more Eastons and Autumns than we ever have Daltons. I enjoyed some chatting with them about where they were from (Utah and New Mexico) and where I was from (her daughter...Stephanie, not Autumn, that would have been too crazy...is living in Denver right now!) and what brought each of us to Berlin. They were there to visit Dalton, a 23 year old who is living here as part of a dance team or something. Ah small talk. Those kinds of conversations really don't happen with Berliners.
Anyway, we got to the mall, they had decorated for Easter with animatronic bunnies on various movie sets.
Then stopped in Primark for a return and inevitably more shopping...somehow all 3 kids got a pair of shoes and then we made it over to Toys R Us. The boys went off together and Autumn and I went somewhere else. And then, I lost the boys. Seriously made two laps around the store and couldn't find them. I wasn't terribly worried and apparently neither was Autumn because when I said, "I can't find your brothers" she said, "Am I going to eat the pancakes by myself?" (we were planning breakfast for dinner that night). Nice to know she would move on that easily after no more brothers. ;) But then we found them and headed down to the grocery store in the mall. (That happens a lot here: grocery stores in malls.)
While in the grocery store, a lemon yogurt fell out of the basket I was carrying on my arm and exploded all over the floor. In my, "Oh-crap-what-do-I-do?!?!" panic, I forgot any German words I might want to say. In the States, there'd be a clerk or 5 wandering around straightening shelves and asking if you're finding everything okay when clearly you are. Here, usually no one will even look at you and certainly isn't paying attention to yogurt explosions. Anyway, I spotted a clerk nearby and I could see the word for "towel" in my head (tuch) but knew I would pronounce it wrong plus, I really wanted to say, like "rag" or "paper towel" or something and then I'd have to mime what I needed anyway. So, I sent Autumn while I stood over the 'wet clean up'. She felt shy so Easton held her hand but Autumn did the talking and the guy immediately understood and without any charades other than to point over at me and my spill. Amazing. I was like, "What did you say to him?" and she said, "I said, 'Helfen mir. Ein Taschentuch bitte, da ist ein Schmutz.'" (Help me. A tissue/handkerchief please, there is a dirt/soil/'schmutz') and my mouth dropped open because it's not like she had to plan it out ahead of time and she just spit it all out without hesitating. She is doing great (obvi) but she is still nowhere near fluent and sure, it probably wasn't the way a "native" would say it, although I wouldn't know, but the man understood and took care of things and I find that super impressive. All I could think of to say when he came back with his handful of paper towels was "Tut mir leid" (sorry) and his "kein problem" (no problem) response.
I indeed made pancakes (and potatoes) for dinner and it took well over an hour. Back home I had a nice electric griddle where I could cook 8 pancakes at a time. Here I use two pans on two burners and make, yup, two at a time. Annoying. But breakfast for dinner for me also included mimosas. Mmmm. An upside. :)
We watched "Backyardigans" in German as a family after dinner and Autumn realized, "Ha! Her name is 'bag'"...because of Tasha, the hippo. It sounds very much like "Tasche"...a German word for bag. Hilarious. Maybe one day I'll be as quick with my German as Autumn is.
The kids had their showers and then, because it was break, they all had a "slumber party" which means that Autumn slept on a mattress on the floor of the boys' room. That's they first they'd all slept in the same room since we moved out of our holiday flat in late September. Cuteness.
After we tucked the kids in, I decided to Face Time my family back home and I was like, "Who should I call first, my mom or my sister, mom or sister?" as they are both on Spring Break (both are teachers)...I decided on my sister as it had been longer since I'd talked to her but whaddya know? My mom and both sisters were all together having lunch at Red Robin! Fun! We chatted for awhile before they got on with their afternoon plans.
Tuesday morning, rather than the kids being too loud "too early", it was construction noises too early. They're still working on the flat below us and we've been dealing with construction noise in the building ever since we moved in. Seriously drilling, hammering, men shouting instructions...so at about 7:20 the hammering began. Lovely. And it was snowing. A lot. The kids had leftover muffins for breakfast and spent hours happily playing Playmobil all together. I'm so fortunate that they all get along so well. Meanwhile, I started on making some homemade granola because it takes hours, and well, with the snow and break, I had hours that I'd be home. Hours of work and it'll last maybe a day or two before it's devoured. It's like the pancake sitch the night before. Cooking. Pffft.
After Playmobiling and looking online for more Playmobil sets to buy, they made a fort:
They asked if they could sleep in it at bedtime. I said they could try knowing full well it would not work out. I spent the day cleaning the flat as I do on Tuesdays and working on my testimony. We host small group at our place most Tuesdays and we're in between "curricula". Rather than miss a week, we decided to come up with our quick, sharable story for whenever it might come up,
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." 1 Peter 3:15Eventually I started on dinner...on Tuesdays I don't cook a "real" dinner as small group starts at just 6:30. Easton had been asking for mac and cheese but only 3 of us eat that. I ran out of milk during cooking and as Jason had just walked in the door, I ran to the corner for some more milk. I grabbed a few other things while I was there and, remember when I dropped the yogurt the day before? This time I dropped a pack of blueberries!! Luckily (so luckily!) they all stayed in their container but dude, what's with me?! I ran back across the street to finish dinner and one of our small group friends asked if she could come by a little early with her dinner. And then the rest of the group began trickling in before long. The kids usually hang out in our bedroom and watch Netflix or play on their iPods as they're the only kids who usually are present for small group. They're so good. Group was good. The testimonies were nice to hear and share and we were able to give one another feedback.
We wrapped up around 9:00 or so and tucked all 3 kids into their fort on Dalton's mattress. Of course it didn't even last 5 minutes but we let Autumn sleep on the mattress on their floor again and the boys were in their own beds. It was nearly 10:00!
And, of course, construction noises happening again the next morning at 7:30. Not cool. We had a lazy morning, eventually getting around to eating a late breakfast. Eventually we headed to the Mall of Berlin to see if the other Toys R Us had anything cool. Autumn bought herself a new Playmobil set and the boys were stoked to find some new Skylanders things they'd been desperate to get. Seriously they were so excited but patient about not heading home just yet while I looked at a few things too. Thanks to our late breakfast, we hadn't really had lunch so I scrounged up literally nearly every coin I had to buy each of them an ice cream cone. They knew it was all the cash I had, and so they were so so thankful that I spent "all my money" on them. Each of them gave me a big bite of theirs.
We came home and the kids were all so excited to check out their new stuff. So the boys did their reading time and got to playing some Trap Team but poor Easton: two of the three new things he just bought wouldn't work without having a few much more expensive guys. His little face. :( He handled it so well but compared to the excitement he'd had when he found them in the store and watching him and Dalton sit a few seats over checking them out on the train, it was just heartbreaking. Poor fella. However, while I was making our falafel for dinner, they came up with some idea and got it to work after all! Hooray!
On Thursday we really needed to get groceries. Easter here includes a few public holidays: Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday. Of course, we're all used to everything being closed on Sundays, but those extra days made for madness at the grocery stores. For fun, first, I decided to walk the kids over to Bikini Berlin: a nearby mall which includes a large window with seats overlooking part of the Berlin Zoo. We monkey-watched for a bit and then wandered around the mall and up to the terrace where you can see even more habitats. I even saw my favorite elephants off in the distance.
It's not a typical mall with the stores we typically have in malls here, but it also didn't really carry anything we wanted as a result. So we moved on heading for the Bio market. I wanted to catch a particular train but I was confusing myself as to whether I could catch it from the zoo station or not (there's a LOT of trains through the zoo but only 2 U-bahns). Never fear, I had Easton-the-City-Kid with me and he was all, "Yes, the U9 goes through here." We rode down to the store and stocked up for several days worth of organic groceries, Dalton and Autumn both pushing tiny kid-sized carts through the aisles as I loaded them up. Jason went out for beers with some friends from work...they went to the place me and my friend went the previous Friday and one of J's friend's is the husband of MY friend. Anyway.....
I'll leave it here for now. We'll see when (or if!) I ever get to the rest of our break. :D
