zauber-a

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Overdue Mother's Day Photos!

Yah, I'm way overdue for posting these!!! So I took some time today (time I should have been doing other things with) and edited some of the pics AND went ahead and created a quick layout with them (quick layout in that I used a multifoto quickpage template by Anna Aspnes to create it - choosing the colors and papers did NOT go quite as quickly).

Full credits will be up at Designer Digitals sometime next month. If you want to see the pages bigger, please click here: left page, right page (with journaling).

And for even more pictures of the trip to Poing, click HERE.

In current news: it's been a hot week - Georgia was out in her little kiddie pool three times (and if it had been up to her, she'd have been in it every day!). She loves the water so much, that you have to watch her. After she's done for the day (according to ME) and dressed again, she'll jump right back in the water and soak herself (did it twice). Monday was her first day in the pool, hot hot weather, but I couldn't get the water to start. Turns out, Dietmar had turned it off because it was dripping. When he came home, he turned it on, we filled the pool and I set Georgie in, not realizing how cold the water that comes from the hose is...Georgia did not sit, she stood and splashed!

Andrea has a pool as well (both of us went shopping together at Aldi) and she filled hers up early so that the sun would warm the water and then later that day (fivish) she came up and invited us down to play. As soon as we got outside, a thunderstorm rolled in. There was NO keeping Georgia away from that pool though - she ran out in the rain and splashed with her hands until I decided there was no sense in her standing out getting her clothes wet and undressed her and let her splash in the pool.

However, the highlight of the pool-days was Thursday, when Killian, Micha and Corvin came over. Killi and Georgia had the most fabulous time...The two of them started sitting across from each other in the pool, threw water over their heads (and sometimes direct in their own faces), looked at each other and giggled uncontrollably. This turned into actual splashing, and before we knew it, Killian was standing up and jumping as high as he could, letting himself fall down on his bottom in a big huge SPLASH. You better believe Georgia followed suit, and the for a while, the two of them were getting everyone and everything wet, including little 5-week old Corvin!

Later, they would get out of the pool, run to the sandbox, play in the sand and then go running back to the pool where they both dived over the edge head-first into the water. The pool was a mess by the end of the day - FULL of grass and sand...and Georgia was exhausted - so of course she didn't sleep. half an hour after she'd fallen asleep, she was awake and crying (that's 20:15, right in time for GNTM Finale...) so up she went until Sven was finished eating and ready to take her back, because I am a little bit addicted to GNTM and the Finale was one show I was not willing to miss. Glad I didn't - the one and only redheaded model won!

Shopping on Saturday: food (of course) mousse for Cara, a cooler for Holland to keep milk in for Georgia (because she still drinks about 2 and 1/4 bottles a day) that will also work in Greece (it comes with a strap for your shoulder and a replacement lid without the electric plugs to make it a normal cooler), disposable swimmy diapers (and of course as soon as we got home, the mail came and mom had sent a speedo swimmy diaper) and then off to Baby Walz for arm floaties. Weren't planning on grabbing any of that stuff so soon, but there is a pool at the hotel in Egmond and we hope to meet up with Cara and Family and go swimming on Friday evening, so G. needs that stuff earlier than expected!

Got home and for the life of me, could not figure out how to inflate those darn floatie things! Looked in the internet for help and finally just bit down on the dang thing and blew. Wow. that was it! Shortly after, had an Email from Cara asking if I'd bitten down while blowing? um. yah. the instructions COULD mention that you DO have to blow and that just 'pressing the valve' isn't going to make them pump up on their own!! Anyway.

When Georgia got up from her nap (shortly before five...) I told her that the 'grandma fairy' had come by and showed her the 'my little pony princess' that had come in the mail. She came running down the hall to grab it out of my hands, and wouldn't let go of it for a good five minutes (about the length of her attention-span).

G and Sven are off on a walk or something now. Heike just called and we're meeting up at Leiberheim tomorrow afternoon. That should please Sven! Now off to make dinner!

Posted at 05:08 pm by zauber-a
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Monday, May 21, 2007

Männertag and Pickles

I do have a good reason for not posting - we were off to Lübbenau for Männertag because it's just one of those holidays Sven can't miss...We took off last Wednesday afternoon and only got back last night. AND, to make things worse, I got very sick on Tuesday and spent the day as much in bed as possible (except when I was babysitting Killian and entertaining Georgia of course...).

So here's the thing I should be ashamed of. ONE picture for all of May? ONE picture?! Thankfully, I have taken a few more than one, but there is only one online. So I need to remedy that immediately.

It may not look like it - but she was enjoying that pickle - a Gewürzgurke staright from the wooden bucket on the Hafen in Lübbenau. We got two pickles and one senf-gurke (for Sven). I thought Georgia would share the pickle with me, but she refused to give that baby up and it was so big, she needed both hands to eat it! I wish I'd thought to take pictures of the pickle-stand but I wasn't feeling 100% and it was hotter than we expected...so. Excuses. When will I ever learn?! We actually wished, after walking down to the hafen that morning, that we could go on a kahnfahrt ourselves, but don't think that Georgia would sit still long enough. I don't know. Maybe we should try and get up there in July with Mom and Kylene and beg Alex for a ride.

Speaking of July, summer plans are almost taken care of. Looks like we are headed to the island of Kos in Greece for a week. We'll have full-pention, air-conditioning, a beach within walking distance and at least two freshwater swimming pools in the resort, plus daily and evening entertainment. Ah yes, and the flight is only 2.5 hours.

It all sounds good.

Okay. Now that I'm back online after 4 days without, I've got a million things to catch up on and don't know where to start first. Plus, as Cara so kindly reminded me, only 12 days until we take off for SAG in Holland! I think we are looking forward to the trip mostly just to see each other without being responsible for four kids the whole time...!

All right then, moving onward. I should probably edit some pictures to share!

Posted at 01:44 pm by zauber-a
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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Happy Mother's Day!

Posted at 04:36 pm by zauber-a
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Saturday, May 12, 2007

Saturday Scraplifts

Take a peek here: Saturday Scraplifts, and tell me if you know what that means? You'll have to scroll down a bit to about the 5th layout (I think, maybe the 4th if you don't count the first one twice).

Thanks for the names help...if it can be called help in some of your cases! Keep them coming please. And just a note: Alexander is out. That is Zane's name. Zephyr is a cool name, it has a lovely meaning, but impossible for Germans, and I think it would be cruel to name your child that, especially a SON, as Zephyr is not a boy name!! But I got a laugh out of the suggestion and am very curious to know where in the WORLD you came up with that?!

Going to try and update more often. Could be boring stuff though. Topic of the moment is vacation this summer, as I more or less promised the family a sunny beach vacation that they won't let me go back on now. The whole thing is giving me anxiety dreams...but I have a fabulous travel agent who will get the whole thing going for me...I think we're learning towards Menorca right now (if I get the okay from the girls), though we were looking at Tenneriffe and the Greek Islands. Any opinions from blog-readers? I know I've got a few German-readers who must have been to one of those places before...!

Posted at 09:41 am by zauber-a
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Friday, May 11, 2007

Names

I am clueless. How does one find the perfect name? I didn't have to find Georgia's, I knew from the very beginning, it felt right, it was right, it was her name. We had trouble with Zane, but at least we had a few options, a few ideas. This time around, I am coming up with such a blank. I can't think of anything, I don't like anything I think of. Nothing is speaking to my heart, this baby remains genderless and nameless. Poor little thing.

So here's where we come to the question: Can you help? Do you have a favorite name, or a good source where we can find names? Any help at all?

Posted at 01:03 pm by zauber-a
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Monday, April 23, 2007

News!

Well, not really, but just for you, Cynthia...I don't know what was up with the past week. I have been so exhausted and then got sick and then Georgia got sick and we even went to the doctor, but she just had a nasty flu bug that gave her a never-ending fever and made her just want to sit miserably on the couch and do nothing - NOTHING.

I haven't felt like doing anything, just have the blahs I guess.

How about a story?

There was this gal who really wanted to BBQ hamburgers on the grill, right? She wanted to last weekend and couldn't convince her family that it was a good idea so she gave up. She still wanted to this past weekend and so she just bought the goods to make the food and hoped. She told her family that the BBQ Grill needed to get started by 4pm so that it would be hot enough to grill and they could eat by 6pm and the baby could go to bed at her regular bedtime...

At 3:30, her family took off for a walk and a play on the playground (the far-away, couldn't get farther walking, playground) and left her at home. Around 4pm, they were NOT home. The BBQ had NOT been dragged out of the basement, nothing had been prepared...but this girl WANTED a BBQ hamburger! So she got the food all ready to grill and at 4:45pm, her family finally arrived home.

It took until around 5pm for them to get down to the basement and start looking for the grill and charcoal and then the bad news. Despite having ASKED at the grocery store on Saturday (because they are closed on Sundays) whether they had everythign necessary to grill with...it turns out they had no charcoal fluid to light the grill. So they dug up an old bottle of POTT, which is about 50proof and took it along with the grill and charcoal out to the backyard.

It wasn't until 5:30 or later, that the BBQ grill was successfully in one piece and the charcoal could be lit. You might have guessed...that the POTT wasn't strong enough to catch the charcoal on fire...by this time, the girl was getting irritated, tired, and hungry. So she went upstairs and set up the raclette on the balcony and once it was hot, she called down to find out whether the grill was working and got a resounding 'no!' in return. So she threw the hamburgers on the raclette (which basically means they started frying in their own fat, as the raclette has no place for the fat to drip off) and got the table ready.

At some point, she called down again to say the burgers were half-done and to come upstairs, and that is when she heard: "The grill is working! Bring the meat down!" Frustrated, she removed the burgers from the Raclette, gathered the baby up for the 4th time, and trekked downstairs, only to discover that the charcoal was lit, but not hot, and it was not getting hot anytime soon (remember her saying to start the process at 4pm?). So eventually, she took the meat back upstairs, turned the raclette back on and finished cooking the burgers, and not without a number of 'i told you so's'.

The meat was terrible, but the girl needs iron, so she ate it, trying to cover the taste in plenty of ketchup and avocados...and in the end, she wasn't even hungry for the brownies they had for dessert.

End of Story.

Now, just so you don't think this family is all terrible - I will say they had the most delicious Sate with peanutsauce on Saturday, with all parties helping. She made the sauce, and he did the marinade and meat and rice and they feasted so well on Saturday, she slept through the night for the first time since being pregnant, without waking up hungry!

Next weekend, assuming good weather, the family is going to try again...and they are looking into getting an electric BBQ...

Currently reading:
The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3)
By Philip Pullman

Posted at 08:00 am by zauber-a
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Saturday, April 14, 2007

Chocolate

My daughter may look nothing like me, but she certainly shares my love for chocolate...

credits can be seen HERE. The layout was done for the Saturday Scraplift Challenge at Designer Digitals. yup, that was today. This time around, I was all speedy gonzales!

Posted at 12:08 pm by zauber-a
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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Easter Monday

just a few days late!!! not a lot to say - we went to the zoo, along with every other family of at least 1 in Munich...it was insane. Pictures HERE

And a layout I did especially for Sven and that succeeded in making him laugh over and over. He even read the journaling (which has some mistakes I need to fix, I know) and another one I did today of the same event (petting zoo). Plus, two of Easter Sunday, just because she's so cute:

click to view larger. Credits can be seen HERE

Posted at 03:07 pm by zauber-a
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Sunday, April 08, 2007

Happy Easter - for real!

Well, Georgia was awake just before 7am this morning, to an unexpected dreary, grey morning...and we had to keep her in bed until after I'd finished baking the muffins for our Brunch at 9:30am....! Left her in her sleeping bag and Sven stayed in bed with her as long as possible. He was going through the cassettes for the video recorder to see if there was a blank one we could use as we finally, after 1.5 years of off-and-on-filming, used up the first one!

I wanted Sven in the living room before her to catch the first look on her face with the camera, so had to shut the door to keep her out. She busied herself in the kitchen, I think she was curious where all her colored eggs had gone, as the egg carton was empty! Turns out, the whole thing was a farce, as there was some sort of security thing on the new cassette and Sven missed pretty much the whole easter-basket event. He did get the egg-hunt on camera though plus some (hopefully) great shots of her showing off in her sunglasses. As soon as he hooks the camera back up to the computer, I'll see what I can do to share some footage with you.

Let me point out one thing - check out her right arm in the middle photo. See the red streaks? That's from dyeing eggs yesterday...she insisted on sticking her hand in the glass of vinegar water to get the egg out herself...

I think we can safely say that Georgia is a camera ham. Sven was videoing, and I was taking pictures while she modeled her new sunglasses (which she loves). That girl was dressed to the nines this morning (and within 1 minute of being dressed, she was already full of chocolate) with cinderella dress, purse, shoes and sunglasses, which she wore all the way to Sandy's...no seriously, check this out:

We've just arrived at Emma's and Sandy put them both up on the couch for pictures. Look at Georgia, purse in hands, sunglasses perched on her nose. Neither Sven nor I are sure exactly where she got that from - must be a little girl thing!

Brunch was lovely, sooooooo much good food. We're talking typical German fare (rolls, cheese, sliced sausage and of course, Easter Eggs!) plus a veggie tray with cherry tomatoes that were generously dribbled with the most deliciously creamy balsamico ever and topped with fresh basil and mozarella (is your mouth watering yet?) two homemade dips Kylene wouldn't have touched, to eat with the red peppers, cucumbers, kohlrabi and carrots, a fuit tray with fresh strawberries and pineapples, and for the fish-eaters, smoked salmon with another homemade dip of some sort. And that was just the stuff Sandy provided. I showed up with lemon-poppyseed muffins and a very yummy strawberry-spinach salad, both of which I'd made for Easter last year, but with some practice behind my belt - they turned out much better this year. Heavenly.

And then we sent Daddy's and girls upstairs while we played the Easter Bunny and hid Emma's gifts around the backyard. Sandy was a sweetie and had some chocolate for Georgia as well. Plus, I hid some of the hard-boiled eggs because she got a kick out of finding those this morning at home...

The Easter Bunny in Germany (and maybe in America too sometimes?) hides not only eggs, but the easter baskets as well. So Emma ran around the yard looking for presents (no actual basket, just scattered goodies and chocolate) and Georgia wandered a bit lost to and fro...

No matter, she still had a fabulous time (i think) and when I pointed something out to her, she hurried to get it. I thinks he wa sa bit overwhelmed by the new surroundings (she'd never been in Emma's backyard before) and the next-door neighbor's dog. She couldn't stop staring at the dog! And after everything had been found, and Emma had gone inside to play with her new toys, Georgia refused, she wanted to watch the dog and ride Emma's tricycle around the yard...

Eventually though, she did come in to check Emma's toys and then we all tried to finish as much of the food as possible before taking off so that the girls could have much-needed naps. In fact, Georgia slept nearly 3 hours, and is right this minute, whining in bed because she doesn't know just what she wants. Maybe she's hungry. I'd better go see.

And for my dear blog readers who want to see more pics than the ones I shared (including egg dyeing pics which are not on the blog) then please run over to my Easter 2007 set at flickr, where you will be overwhelmed with the sheer number of photos (we took 192 photos over the past two days, no worries though, I did NOT upload all of them!).

Happy Easter!!!

Posted at 03:56 pm by zauber-a
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Saturday, April 07, 2007

Happy Easter!

Posted at 11:01 pm by zauber-a
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