Halloween

In our family, Halloween ranks right up there with Christmas.  The girls have been counting down the days and have been very excited to resurrect their ballet recital costumes from last May.  To make things more fun, Greg’s sister, Wendy, and her family (husband Josh and boys Connor-11 and Hayden-10) came down for the weekend for some good ‘ol American trick-or-treating fun (they just moved to Köln, Germany about 2 ½ hours north of us).  The community on base hosted trick-or-treating on Saturday night (vice Monday night, the 31^st).  On base, the kids walked around and collected candy along with hundreds of other kids.  It was a total zoo and the kids had to line up in a queue at many of the houses.  After about 1 ½ hours, we had hit all the Colonel’s houses (we were going for quality and not quantity on this night!) and many were already out of candy.  The girls had a great time trick-or-treating with their cousins and even ran into a few friends!

 Leena, Hayden, Connor and Taryn ready for trick-or-treating!

Collecting some pirate booty! 

Taryn runs into a couple of her good friends, Elle and Maddie!

A couple of nights later (on the 31^st), we had as Taryn called it “another Halloween after the Halloween where we were collecting candy”.  The girls dressed up in their ballet costumes once again and literally sat by our front door starting around 4:45pm and waited, hoping and praying that we would get some trick-or-treaters at our door.  We had heard that some German kids will trick-or-treat and know where the Americans live so we were sure to be armed with candy just in case.  The girl’s prayers were answered when we got our first real German trick-or-treaters at 5:30.  Instead of saying “trick-or-treat”, they say something that means “sweet or sour”.  I am not sure why they say this.  Anyway, the traffic at our house was very sporadic and the girls were literally standing on our front porch, waving candy to whoever they could find, enticing them to come to our house!  All in all, we got about a dozen groups of kids to our house and the girls had a blast filling their bags! 

Semi-pro soccer game, screaming fans, and….. storm troopers, oh my!

Greg finally succeeded into talking the girls and me into attending our first European soccer game last weekend.  There is a semi-pro team in the town of Sandhausen which is only about 15 minutes from our house.  This game happened to coincide with our first official visitors since the girls and I have been here.  Greg’s sister, Wendy, and her family (husband Josh, and boys Connor-11 and Hayden-10) came down from Köln for the weekend and graciously agreed to attend the game with us.  On the day of the game, we all piled into the car and as we got close to the stadium, we noticed that the car in front of us had a Sandhausen flag flying out of the back window.  We decided to follow the car to the stadium as we were not quite sure where we were going.  As we approached the parking area, we noticed what looked like a “home” parking lot and a “guest” parking lot.  We all decided that it would be wise to park in the “home” team parking lot.  So, we parked and started making our way to the stadium.  Halfway there, we encountered several party buses (presumably those of the opposing team) with crates and crates full of empties.  It was obvious they had been there a while.  They were keeping company with at least two dozen of Germany’s finest and having a good time.  We safely made our way past the party buses and soon ran into our first check point.  In order to even approach the stadium, we had to go through security and have all of our bags, purses, etc checked.  Okay.  Up ahead at the perimeter of the stadium, we could see a wall (read:  hundreds) of security including Polizei, private security guards, and what can only be described as storm troopers.  At this point, I checked with Greg to confirm that this is only a regular season game and not a play-off game.  Correct.  I also confirmed that this was a semi-pro team and not a big professional team.  Correct.  This made me feel a little uncomfortable.  Why would so much security be needed for a regular season, semi-pro soccer team?  I began to feel that Europeans are literally insane over soccer and that this may not be the best place to entertain a 6 year-old and a 4 year-old for the afternoon.  We continued on and made our way through all of the security and approached a ticket booth.  We noticed that there was a sign on the booth that said “Gast” which we assumed to mean that only “guest” tickets were sold at that booth.  So, we kept walking until we saw another booth with a sign that said “Heim” and we assumed that this was where we could buy tickets in the “home” team’s section.  The guy working in the booth did not speak much (if any) English, so it took quite a bit of back-and-forth until we had all of the tickets that we needed.  We left the ticket booth and proceeded toward the turn styles in order to enter the stadium.  There we were all given a complete patdown!  For a soccer game?  Fortunately, there was a female security officer to patdown myself and Wendy and I was very happy that she did not patdown the girls.  My fears are now confirmed… Europeans must be flat out crazy in order for there to be this much security.  I did not go through security like this prior to my overseas flight over here!   We made our way to our seats and Greg quickly realized that we did, in fact, buy tickets in the opposing team’s section.  He knows this because the opposing team’s seats are in a section of the stadium that is literally caged-off from the rest of the stadium.  And that is where our seats were.  OMG!   He does not want us to be caged in with the opposing team’s fans (and neither do I, especially after seeing their condition at the party buses) so he collected everyone’s ticket and headed back to the ticket booth.  The rest of us wait.  He returned a few minutes later with our money refunded and instructions to go to the other side of the stadium to get the home team’s tickets.  Really?  Apparently, these fans are so crazy that they can’t even buy game tickets at the same ticket booth!!  So, we head over toward the other side of the stadium.  I am not surprised to encounter a locked gate (actually two locked gates!) that must be unlocked by a police officer after we explain to him why we are on the wrong side of the stadium and need to get to the other side.  We might as well be wearing t-shirts that say “Stupid Americans”.  That would explain a lot but I have a feeling that they know this already.   We are now on the correct side.  Hurray!  So, to sum this up… the fans at European soccer games are completely segregated – separate parking lots, separate ticket booths, separate concession stands and separate restrooms.  And I thought the Florida/FSU fans were bad!  The game turned out to be very exciting and we saw a lot of great footwork on the field.  After surveying the crowd, I discovered that I was right and that this was not a good place for young children as Leena and Taryn looked to be the youngest kids in the stadium.  Also, there were not many women which was reinforced at the restrooms were I found a wall lined with three different men restrooms and only one ladies restroom (and no line!).  The score at the end of the game was 1-1, so no winner and no loser which probably kept the crazies at bay.  Outside the stadium, the storm troopers were displaying quite an impressive show of force.  Fortunately, they loosened up a little in order for Wendy to get a couple of shots in (sorry, pics are blurry but you can get the idea).  After all of this, turns out that we parked in the guest team’s parking lot. Guess we didn’t do anything right!

Wendy poses with one group of security guards.

A wall of storm troopers keep the opposing team's fans from coming over to the home team side.

Wendy and the storm troopers!  Notice the helmuts and chin guards.  Is this really necessary??  I probably don't want to know the answer to that question!

Security stays lined up like this in front of the opposing team's fans for the entire game. 

 Josh, Hayden, and Taryn enjoy the game.  But I think Taryn is enjoying sitting next to Hayden more!

Some action from the game.

Fancy Nancy Mother/Daughter Tea Party!

This year, Leena decided that she wanted to try Girl Scouts.  So, she is now a member of Daisy Troop 222 and has been enjoying it so far.  This afternoon, the Heidelberg Girl Scouts put on a “Fancy Nancy Mother/Daughter Tea Party”.  So, the girls and I dressed up in our Fancy Nancy finest and enjoyed a girls day out.  The girls and I had fun picking out some “fancy” accessories at the local Kik store which is similar to the Dollar Store in the U.S.  Fortunately, all the Christmas decorations were out, so we were able to get pretty creative.  We had a lot of fun putting together our outfits and the girls had quite a bit of input as to what I got to wear. 

The tea party included activities where the girls could make their own placemats, name tags, and fancy hats.  The “tea” tasted a lot like orange punch and was served in real teacups that we all got to take home.  At the end, we all got to make our own parfaits.  To top everything off, Leena’s Daisy Troop entered the table centerpiece contest and her troop won the top prize!  Ooooh la la!  It was exquisite! 

The girls make their placemats

 

Leena with the winning centerpiece

 

 

The whole troop!

 

Fun in Heidelberg

We are finally starting to settle into a routine and this weekend began with more Saturday soccer games.  Both the girls played and we are continually amazed at how unbelievably great the European kids (which are 98% boys in our neighborhood club) are at soccer.  Even the kids in Taryn’s group (4 and 5 year-olds) manage to put out a hard fought, well organized game that we would swear was being played by high school kids.  It’s so strange to see such good play coming front these little pint sized players!  I hope our girls will pick up on some on this! 

Taryn waits her turn!

On Sunday morning, Greg wanted the whole family to go into a bar in downtown Heidelberg to watch the Rugby championship game between Australia and New Zealand  - which is just really an excuse to throw back a few beers at 10:00am because I don’t know if Greg has ever really watched a rugby game in his life.  But I digress.  What he really meant was “why don’t you and the girls come with me downtown and you can keep the kids entertained during a two hour rugby game while I watch the game with my buddy from work”.  I’ve been burned by this one before, so I decided to take the kids to Märchen Paradies which is a park designed for younger kids (under 10) and is located on top of the hill in Heidelberg.  I told Greg that we would meet up with him after the game.  So, I plugged the address of the park into my GPS and drove by it twice before actually seeing it (this has become a common theme over here for various reasons).  The park is located in a very wooded area and there was no sign.  Or maybe there was, but I just couldn’t read it.  This is also a common theme.  We finally saw a woman and a little boy get out of a car and decided to follow them.  Success!  We easily killed two hours in the park while Greg watched his game.  The best part was that we got there 20 minutes after the park opened and we practically had the whole place to ourselves!   The kids had a great time and on the way out, we saw another section of the park that we did not know was there.  The kids begged to stay, but Greg was waiting for us downtown, so I promised that we would come back another day.

 

This ride was the favorite! The horses actually "galloped" on a track that took them out of the stall and through the woods and back.

 

We met up with Greg on the Hauptstraβe in downtown Heidelberg (this is the main street which is pedestrian only) and had lunch at a famous restaurant called The Red Ox.  It has been at the same location since 1703.  Apparently, it is a big student hangout, but there were not very many students there at 1:00 on a Sunday afternoon. 

 

We then walked around and took in the beautiful sights that Heidelberg has to offer and enjoyed what is probably one of the last somewhat warm days before winter shows up.  What a great city!

 The girls and I with the famous Heidelberg monkey at the Old Bridge.

 

Schloss Ludwigsburg

We had grand plans over the long Columbus Day weekend of going down to Bavaria and seeing the fairy tale castles down there.  Unfortunately, the weather in that area had other plans for us, so we canceled and stayed closer to home.  We heard about the world’s largest pumpkin festival in Ludwigsburg which is about an hour drive from our place and decided to check it out.  After surviving the hour drive on the autobahn, we arrived at the pumpkin fest which was taking place in the gardens of the Ludwigsburg Schloss (castle).  We stumbled upon the castle first and were not disappointed.  

We wanted to tour it, but discovered that the tour was 1 ½ hours long and we did not think Taryn would survive it especially without lunch.  The tour shows over 60 rooms and I would really like to get back for it one day soon.  Bypassing the tour, we decided to see what the pumpkin hype was about.  Good thing we skipped the tour because we spent the next five hours exploring the castle garden grounds and could have easily stayed longer!  There were over 450,000 pumpkins and all 450 different types of pumpkins (who knew?) were represented.  Each year they have a different theme and this year’s theme was dinosaurs. 

In addition to all the pumpkins, there was a boat and train ride through the garden grounds.  The girls even found some baby goats ripe for petting.

Also, there were many miniature houses scattered all over the gardens.  Each one represented a different children’s story.  Most of them contained moving parts and a recording that, with the push of a button, told the story that corresponded to that house.   Some of them were a little disturbing by American standards and definitely a far cry from Disney, but the kids enjoyed them for the most part (even though the stories were told in German).

Taryn looks at the wolf inside Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother's house

The gardens were so big, that we managed to get somewhat lost in them, but that only allowed us to discover all kinds of treasures including Rapunzel’s tower!  What a great day.  We will be back!

Taryn – the European soccer star!

Not to be outdone by her bigger sister, Taryn joined the ranks of European soccer players in the family with her first game with the Bambinis (4 and 5 year olds).  After three weeks of practice, she was ready to play!  However, getting her on the field involved some finagling on our part.  After each Wednesday practice, the coach hands out a sheet of paper to some of the kids.  The paper contains the information for the game to be played the following Saturday.  After three weeks of Taryn not receiving a piece of paper, I asked one of the other moms who speak English why some kids get the paper and some don’t.  She told me that they give the papers to the kids who will play in the game on the following Saturday.  If the kid gets a sheet of paper, they can play, if they don’t get a sheet of paper, then they don’t play.  They do this because there are too many kids.  Well, I thought it was unfair (to put it nicely) that Taryn did not receive a piece of the almighty paper three weeks in a row.  Leena did receive her paper for the upcoming week, so we brought Taryn along and played the dumb Americans.  It worked!  Taryn had a great time playing soccer which was really more like “skipping around the field and getting out of the way when the ball came her way”.  At any rate, she provided great moral support for her fellow players. Surprisingly, the other kids on her team were REALLY good.  Unfortunately, the kids on the other team were even better!  I have a feeling Taryn’s game will be improving dramatically over the coming year.

Leena gets some bling!

Ever since my girls were born, people have asked me "when are you going to get their ears pierced?".  To which I have always replied "when they ask".  About 9 months ago, Leena asked if it hurt to get your ears pierced. I did not sugar coat it.  I told her that it hurt for just a second and then it was over.  Kind of like getting a shot.  She thought about that for a few seconds and then responded "I don't think I want to get my ears pierced".  Then, at the beginning of last week, Leena came home from school and told me that she was ready to get her ears pierced.  I reminded her what I had told her in the past and she said that she was ready.  I added that having your ears pierced means being responsible for keeping your ears and earrings clean.  She convinced me that she was up for the challenge.  I asked her what changed her mind and she said "I saw a KINDERGARTNER with her ears pierced!".  Well, we can't have that!  Just to be fair, I asked Taryn if she would also like to have her ears pierced and she replied "uh, no way!".  So, today was a teacher planning day at school, so Leena, Taryn and I set out on a German ear piercing adventure.  When I first got to Heidelberg, I took a culture class and at the end of the class, we got to go on a field trip around Heidelberg.  While we were on the field trip, I discovered that there was a Claire's Boutique in downtown Heidelberg.  Go figure!  Now, I needed to figure out how to get there as Claire's is located on the pedestrian only part of downtown.  I punched the address in my GPS anyway, hoping to get close and get lucky on a parking spot.  After some careful maneuvering through the narrow streets of downtown (including a 180 degree turn around in an alley) in what Greg calls the "Hummer of Europe", I found a parking garage.  I have been intimidated by the European parking garages because I have heard horror stories from other Americans about getting their American sized vehicles stuck or damaged.   I decided to chance it and down I went into the garage.  The top of my car cleared by 1/8 of an inch and I found a standard "smart car" size parking spot and was able to shimmy my way out of the car.  I would have to figure out how to get my car out of the garage later.  The girls and I were then able to find our way to Claire's.  Once in the store, I was relieved that the employees spoke English.  So, I told the two ladies behind the counter that we were there to get Leena's ears pierced.  They looked at each other and had a small conversation in German.  So rude!  I can't wait for some of my German lessons to sink in!  Finally, one of the girls looked at me and said "uh, we don't like piercing kids ears".  Really?  There was no way I was going home now!  So, I pointed at Leena and told the woman "this is her idea".  They warmed up after that and explained that a lot of times the parents make the kids get their ears pierced.  Leena was being really quiet in the store, but was happy to pick out what would be her first earrings.  After that, she took her seat, folded her hands in her lap, and looked down while waiting for the woman to get everything ready.  The woman then asked Leena if she wanted to know when she was going to punch the hole or if she wanted the woman to just do it.  Leena replied that "she just wanted the woman to do it".  A few seconds later, this was the scene....

And then it was done!  However, Leena was looking a little white, so I went over to her and asked if she was okay.  She only nodded yes.  She was not crying, but I could tell that she was on the verge.  I grabbed her hands and told her that she did not need to do the other ear if she did not want to.  She nodded again to indicate that she did want the other ear pierced.  Then, I told her that it was okay to cry.  She only nodded again, but no tears.  Then, I turned to the woman and mouthed "let's hurry up".  And bam!  The other ear was done.  I was so relieved that it was over!   Leena was still looking pale, but did brighten up a little when she got to see the final product.  A few minutes later, she was walking around the store saying, "that didn't really hurt.  I don't know why you said that would hurt".  Yeah, okay tough guy! 

Leena's first soccer game

Since Leena is attending school at the DOD on base, we thought she should do as many extracurricular activities as possible with the local kids.  Every town has their own Fußball (soccer) club.  Leena loves soccer and Taryn is anxious to play, so we wanted to sign them up.  It took us three attempts to show up at the soccer field on the correct day and time.  This was because we misread or simply could not read the website correctly.  At any rate, we finally did it right and I managed to get the girls to their respective groups (Greg had to work on this particular night and I was stuck at the soccer field solo).  Nothing comes easy!  Naturally, none of the soccer coaches speak English, so I managed to tell them that the girls did not speak German and away they went.  After 15 minutes, Leena motioned me over to her spot on the field.  Thinking that she needed her water bottle, I ran out there only to find her in tears.  She was crying because she was the only girl (out of about 15 kids) on the field and she could not understand her coach.  I let her sit out the rest of the practice.  In the meantime, Taryn ran around with all of the "Bambinis" and had a great time.  At one point, she did come over and tell me "Mom, I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing" to which I replied "just do what the other kids are doing". That night, Greg talked Leena into returning the next week by promising that he would stay out on the field with her.  Fortunately, Leena's coach agreed to have Greg "assist".  To my relief, a girl showed up on the second week to join Leena on her all boy team.  As a bonus, she is American and has been living here for three years and she speaks both German and English! 

Leena participated in her first European tournament this weekend.  When we arrived at the host soccer field in a neighboring town, this is the first thing we saw....

I thought it was a little odd that they would be roasting a pig at a children's soccer tournament and the kids were a little disturbed by it (as you can tell from Leena's face and honestly, I don't like looking at them either).  But hey, this is Europe, so I guess this is how they do it.  Come to find out, the town was hosting a fest (surprise!) later that afternoon and that is what the pig was for. Anyway, I digress... Leena's team ended up winning all four of their games!  We never figured out why Taryn's team did not participate in this tournament.  As you can tell from the pictures, the weather was fantastic.  No need to go to New England to see the change in seasons.... you can just come to Germany!