I like donair...

It's been nearly four years now. So much for the one to two year sojourn to improve my skills.

Reese would like to say, "When your birthday comes, have a good birthday!"

Reese and Erika are both really good at German now, and Jodi is coming along too. I am lagging far behind. I think I am too behind to even start. How's that for a two-year update?

Jeff

Hmmm....

Well, the baby actually came. Over a year ago. Rachel Eva. La la la...

So much for the poorly titled 'European Vacation', or 'Three Year' for that matter. We have now committed to staying here, at least until a job that is better than what I have comes up. Erika is heading to Grade 1 in the fall in the big school, Reese had his first year of kindergarten and learning German, and Rachel has been trying to figure out where to fit in the mess.

A couple of highlights over the past year:

1. Rachel wearing a full body brace for 6 months for her hips (of course her birth was pretty special too).

2. Trips to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Budapest, Normandy, and Malaga (seems like a lot now)

3. We moved. To a smaller place than the previous small place, about 20 meters from the old one. And added another mess maker to the mix. But we have a backyard now (quasi-backyard / shared community garden). It is actually a nice benefit and the reason we moved.

4. Erika is teaching us German. No problems for her.

5. Reese has some eye problems. Something like -10 prescription in both. Needless to say, he needed glasses. Maybe it should have been more apparent with him needing the book about 2 cm away while we read to him.

We are gearing up for Mom G and Bailey's visit next week, and in the summer (July/August) we are thinking about a trip back to Canada (Jodi's first time back). If I do start to actually update this thing, I'll start in on some smaller stuff later...

Jeff

+4

Hmmm. Nothing yet. Tomorrow, Jodi will be the same overdueness as she was with Reese. We're having burgers for supper on Christmas Eve. I even bought the "American style mega-burger" buns. Definitely traditional. I think duck is the traditional Christmasy meal here.

Jodi and Jeff

Back to the Present

Well, I think we will do some present time stuff as well as recapping some of our previous adventures in-line, just to make things more confusing. We are currently at the baby's due date +3, so we are a little antsy at the moment. We were hoping that the baby would be born already, and we could enjoy some time at Christmas and get sort of used to having another one before we move (that's right) on the 29th. So, it is almost Christmas Eve, and no baby. Five and a half days until the move.

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: January 27, 2009 - Erika's 4th birthday

It was good. Jodi remembers that it was nothing special and Erika seemed less than happy. Sounds kind of sad. To put it in perspective, she was really struggling with school at the time. We were thinking of pulling her out for good - she was being very quiet and didn't seem to be playing very much with the other kids. Also, her ears were really bugging her. We took her to a bunch of specialists and almost got the adenoids out. Only one of her ears kind of worked and you really had to talk loud or pretty much yell into it. So all in all, maybe she didn't even know it was her birthday. The highlight was her laufrad (running bike) and going for a spin.

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: January 2009, Bern CH

In January, we went on a great trip to Switzerland with my Mom.  We stayed a couple of nights in Bern, and took a drive to Interlaken.  Here goes:

This one I think is kind of funny (in a bad sort of way).  It looks like she is about to slip through the fence and roll off the cliff.  Now there is quality parenting.  Actually, it wasn't that sheer...  These first three are on the walk into the downtown part of Bern:

 

  Downtown Bern:

In Interlaken, amid the Alps:

 

Back in Bern, us at the start of 2009:

 

We spent most of our money on drinks to keep warm and Swiss chocolate.  Mmmm...  One thing that stands out is the Swiss restaurants, that still allow smoking inside throughout.  Nothing like ravioli a la 2nd hand.  Unbearable.  All in all, Bern remains one of our favourite spots.  Bye for now,

Jeff and Jodi 

Recap: Christmas Day (Dec. 25, 2008)

Here we are opening all the presents, that's about it for the description:

,

Not sure what the next post will be about,

Jeff and Jodi 

Recap: Christmas Eve (Dec. 24, 2008)

Oh dear. So, we are trying to recap until the present, although we are definitely not keeping up. Nothing like a six month break when we were already six months behind. Apparently this is Christmas Eve, 2008. Reese running for some reason...
Bunch of Christmas pictures, all special with their own stories:

Here's Reesey holding up the catch of the day (a nice walleye):

Christmas Day 2008 up next!

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Christmas Activities (Dec. 7-23, 2008)

The two weeks before Christmas we went to the Freiburg Weinachtsmarkt, made lots of cookies, and tried our hands at plenty of Christmas crafts (thanks Mom S. and Lesley). So, we thought we would detail some of the highlights. First up, completely unrelated to Christmas - fingerpainting. Well, actually fingerpainting cleanup. The soupy pictures the kids made took a few days to dry on the wintergarten. Reese liked his sink bath:

Now on to the cookies. Check out the intense concentration from Reese. He is very proficient at dusting a Russian teacake with icing sugar:

Jodi saw a picture of Jolayne E.'s little girl Emma with a cute little craft that we had to copy. It was a hit and Erika enjoyed her fluffy big snowman:

At the Freiburg Christmas market, Heitzmann (the local bakery we spend half of my pay cheque at) had a booth set up and in the back you could pay three euros to decorate and bake gingerbread cookies. They did a really good job and Erika had so much fun. We really got our money's worth (no joke) with this one:

Reese enjoyed Erika's finished products (and he got a hat too):Erika really loved the foam gingerbread house that Lesley sent over. It was a really neat craft, although required a huge amount of patience and persistence on Jodi's part to get the thing to stand up, but the decorating was fun. It even had a musical pushbutton that played non-stop Jingle Bells thanks to Erika:

My Mom sent over a gingerbread house with all the candies and icing to decorate it. Jodi decided this year to just let the kids do what they wanted to do with the decorating:

Voila, the end product of a 3-year-old's imagination and the hands of a mother holding back the tides of two sugar-infused kids while trying to ice the house. The back side was Reese's, and it was equally as cute.

Jodi had an idea (or flashback) of a craft - the foam ball snowman. So, we brought out the pipecleaners and threw together some pretty handsome snowmen. Erika needed to have a backpack and purse on hers:

Reese didn't have any major requests for accessories, but, boy was he proud of his snow man:

You can see in the background in the above picture too that we hung some lights out on the wintergarten. I wanted to ducktape them everywhere but was constrained to the wintergarten windows only. Baby steps, next year the invasion begins...

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: St. Nicolaus (Dec. 12, 2008)

There is a tradition in Germany about St. Nick. He doesn't come at Christmas, but he comes on the 12th (at least he did this year). Kids clean their shoes and put them outside and St. Nick fills them with walnuts and chocolate. He also visited the kindergartens where they had stockings and received walnuts and chocolate. It's a really cute tradition that I think we will try to keep up on even after we come back. Erika really enjoyed it, Reesey didn't quite get it, but enjoyed the chocolate in the morning. Here's old Mr. Double Dipper and sister sitting by their shoes just outside our door (the lovely blue door):

This movie correctly displays Reese's state of mind over the whole procedure (especially the last ten seconds):

The only thing we will change for next year is we will get a nutcracker rather than have Jodi smash the walnuts with a hammer. Worked fine, but perhaps a touch dangerous for the kids holding the walnuts.

Jodi and Jeff