We're moving!

Our blog that is.

Some of you might have noticed that an important member of our family was missing from the blog title. We finally fixed this and moved the blog to this address:

http://agermancanadianadventure.blogspot.com

See you over there! (And note we chose a title that allows for further additions to the family. You never know, right?)

A surprise from Canada!

After only 10 days in the mail we got yummy peppernuts today. We already ate half of them! :)

Thank you!!!

Sunday afternoon fun

Here are some pictures from today. It was sunny, about -2°C, and we had a lot of fun in the forest and on a frozen pond. Now all we need is some more snow, please!

Prince Charming

I just have to write this down before I forget. Finn says the funniest things sometimes. Here are some examples:

We're driving in the car.
Finn: "Where are we going? I don't wanna come!"
Neil: "You're coming because we're a family."
Finn: "But WHY do I have to come?"
Neil: "Because families stick together!"
Finn: "I DON'T WANNA STICK TOGETHER!!!"

Or this:
"Mama, STOP SINGING, you'll scare the people!" (Um, thanks, buddy.)

And then last night he was chilling in the bathtub and casually said to Neil:
"You're so ugly you make my eyes kaput." :-0

And while his little sister might not be as eloquent as big bro yet, she sure isn't boring either. I think I've mentioned that she has trouble staying in her bed lately. Well, she decided she really really likes Finn's bed. The other night Finn stood crying in the hallway, saying Lily had come into his room. She had kicked Finn out and we found her snuggled up under his blankets! Maybe we should just let them switch bedrooms?

February already!

And we can't wait for spring! I miss spending most of our day outside, and I think the kids do to. Whenever I say to Finn that it's not as cold out there today he asks me if we can set up his swimming pool! Lily doesn't like the cold and is not a big fan of snow either. Whenever I get her jacket on she yells "Mitts! Mitts!". She hates to be cold. Not that we have much snow though - right now it's windy and rainy out. At least Finn gets to play outside almost every day with his kindergarten class. He loves to roll around in the mud. He puts on a snowsuit or a mud suit for going outside and yesterday his mud suit and boots were COVERED in the stuff. Little boy heaven.

We are all healthy right now and I hope it will stay that way for a while. Finn really enjoys being a preschooler. It is AMAZING how quickly his German is improving. He is even picking up some Bavarian expressions like "pfiad di"(good bye) or "sapperlot!" (something like "goodness!"), which sounds hilarious coming from him.


Today we had to stay inside because it was VERY windy out, so we played dress-up. Next week both kids will have carnival parties (Finn at preschool and Lily at playschool), so we had a little practice run here at home. Finn is going to be a knight and Lily will be a bee, and they were very good about getting their faces painted. Lily is fascinated by mirrors anyway and she LOVES looking at herself in one, making faces and smiling (she is SO girly!) - so this was perfect for her. Here are some pictures I took:

Finn the knight wielding his dangerous sword (I hope it will survive until next week):

Lily trying to squeeze into the picture, pre face-paint (by the way, I tried to paint a helmet on Finn's face, it looked better/darker in real life):



Cutest bee around:

Lily put her arms inside her costume every now and then and got mad when she couldn't get them back out - it was so funny!

What else is new?

Lily has discovered that she can come out of her bed. It's not really a novelty, but somehow she just stayed put - until last week. Naptimes and bedtimes were a crazy hours-long battle for a few days, with her shuffling around in her sleeping bag like Maggie Simpson, opening her door and saying "helloooo?" in her sweetest voice or stomping into her (sleeping) brother's room to throw his wooden toys around. So I had to resort to this: when she can't seem to settle down but I know she is tired I lock her door from the outside. She will come to the door one more time to see if it really is locked, and then she'll climb into her bed and go to sleep. Then I unlock her door to see if she really is in her bed (yes, she is). Goofy girl. But this too shall pass I guess.

I'm still working out at the gym regularly and am thinking about participating in a few shorter races this spring. I started an 8-week-training program for a 10k (6.25 miles) yesterday. I was so bored with running on the treadmill at the gym that I needed something to keep me going. It's kind of nice to be told what to do, like a little speedwork today and an easy 4 mile run tomorrow etc. The 10k distance is not a problem, but I'd like to be able to do it in 50min or less eventually. I'm not sure I will be able to follow through with the program (we're sick a lot these days), but it's fun and something different. It calls for 5 runs per week, plus I'm also doing weight training two times, so I'll be spending quite a bit of time at the gym, at least until it's nice enough to run outside again.