Finn is 3!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was the big day - Finn's third birthday! His Oma and Opa came to celebrate with him, and more party guests arrived in the afternoon. It was a full house, and the kids all had lots of fun.

Good morning, birthday boy!

Three candles for Finn.

What a cool penguin, and a movie too! (Recognize it, K&K? :-)

Beware the chainsaw man!

Claudia's artistic contribution :-)

Time for birthday cake!

This was harder than it looks.

Finn loved his present from us: a playhouse! Bought on ebay by Claudia and fixed up in the garage by Neil.

A picnic with Oma.

Party time in the garden, with Neil BBQing.

Finn, Jana and Veronica.

Oma and Opa entertaining hordes of kids so the stressed-out parents could enjoy steak, beer and a chat inside.

Fun in the sun

Sharing a popsicle with his little sister - but only because I made him to.

Lily reclaiming her old baby swing at Philip's house. She couldn't understand that now the new baby gets to use it. "I still fit in here - look mama!"

Finn and Lily both love love love sand. Finn to play with ...

... and Lily thinks it doesn't taste so bad either!

Finn was the Blue Knight at a birthday party today. His little pal Philip turned 3 and we were invited. It's Neil's first day of vacation (he has one week off), so we could all go. It was great fun. Philip's dad had made cardboard shields and swords and matching shirts, plus a cardboard castle. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so we were all out in the (really big) garden. Here is a video of Neil and Finn honing their sword-fighting skills. And in case you wonder what Finn is trying to say to Philip: he is telling him in his (ahem, rudimentary) German that the tractor on the farm next door is really big. :-)

Our little busy-bee

Got honey? Put it in this bag, please.

Ooooh, yummy cookies!

What a girl needs...

Hey! Exactly what part of "my" and "chocolate cookie" don't you understand, lady?

You know what the difference between raising your first versus later children is? Look at the last picture. Now, if that had been Finn drinking from the garden hose I would have screeched "Eeeek!! FINN!!! There's a gazillion germs in there! Stop that RIGHT NOW!" etc. Now, when Lily did it all I thought was "Geez, how convenient. Should have thought of that a long time ago."

(Just for the record: I did go inside and got her her water cup. Did she want to drink from it? Of course not. The water from the hose tasted way better.)

And last but not least a little video of Lily. It's crazy how fast she is growing up. Sometimes she does things and I think, "Now, when did she learn how to do THAT?!". Like riding her little bike and actually steering. Here we had just finished visiting with Charlie (the neighbors' cat) and were on our way to say Hi to Jimmy.

Big boy

Finn is officially a big boy now. A few weeks ago we told him he didn't need diapers anymore and he potty-trained really easily. This time he was ready! (We tried last summer but it was hopeless.) He had a couple accidents the first few days, but that was it. So Neil, Finn and Lily took the changing table in Finn's room apart and made it into a normal chest of drawers. More room to play!

Now Finn uses the toilet all by himself, which - as we learned the hard way last night - is not always a good thing. All I want to say is: plugged toilet, missing underwear, two giggling toddlers flushing and flushing and flushing ...

Oh the joys of parenthood :-)

A message from Finn to his favourite uncle!