Can't I just bottle this up and keep it forever?

I always relish at the differences that Mia is experiencing in her childhood. It is such a different life than Bryan, Bailey, Camden or I experienced when we were her age. The little things always make me smile. My conversation with her this morning went something like this...

Mia: Mommy, did you know that my friend _____ goes to a cafe by herself between school and her after school activities?

Me: What does she do there?

Mia: She orders lunch and then does her homework at the table. Afterwards, when she is finished with everything, she walks to her afternoon activity.

Me:  Wow! (and then I was a little speechless)

Mia: Do you think my friend and I could do that between our activities one day?

This is where the difference is. At 8, I was still helping Camden tie his shoes. Bailey was quite responsible, but this would never have even been an option in our culture, as I would be arrested for child neglect. Not to mention the fact that I just never would have felt comfortable allowing this with either of them at that age. My, how times have changed! And my response was ...

Me: Sure, that sounds like fun

I LOVE the fact that an 8 year old, can go to a cafe with her friend and people will watch out for them and smile. No judgement on bad parenting, but instead smiling that these children are growing up to be so capable and responsible. Can't I just bottle this up and keep it forever???

Chinese Class

Mia does quite well with her Chinese writing...much better than me :-)

Mia and I have begun taking a weekly Chinese class. I have a wonderful friend from China who is a Chinese instructor to adults, but so graciously volunteered to teach a children's version of her class. It is just for kids, but because I would be there waiting for Mia anyway, I have meandered my way into the class too!  The kicker to the class is that we are learning Chinese through German instruction! Easy for Mia, but not always for me. They use a great little workbook, and it is really fun to learn basic words and sayings. It is really amusing to me too, because the kids seem to pick it up MUCH faster than I do.   We've learned to write a few words and we've learned the different tones (there are 4, and depending on the way the accent mark is positioned, the tone you speak is quite different). As Mia gets older, she has many more questions about China, and where she came from. My friend has been a great source for us whenever we have questions. Hopefully, we will get back to China one of these days, and then we can attempt to interact a little bit in Chinese :-)

Nǐ hǎo! (of course it means means Hello, but interestingly "Ni" means "you" and "hau" means "good")


Zàijiàn!  (Goodbye)

Our week in photos...

Bailey was one of the speakers at Camden's National Junior Honor Society induction

Cam lighting his Candle

Way to go Cam - we are so proud of you!!!

As a late birthday gift for my 40th, our friends took us out to Brunch at a restaurant that I have been wanting to go to for a long time. It literally sits on top of the water - it is in the part that sticks out in the building on the left. What a fantastic morning... to wake up to beautiful weather and then walk to brunch - oh I am so going to miss this place!!!!

Cams Band concert

Doesn't he look thrilled :-) Definitely not his favorite thing :-) He did a good job though with the drums!

Some friends of ours had extra tickets to the Brose Baskets game (they are the current National Champions)

The intensity of the crowd is that of a Lakers game or something - the fans are so supportive to this local team!!! 

Here is the guy that Mia and I met - he was super nice to her! It is fun to see so many American players on these German teams. "We" (O.K. - I make it sound like it "my" team :-) have a new point guard who is awesome - he is American too.

The game was Nationally televised. I get a kick out of the fact that they put the microphone right in the middle of the huddle. I don't remember ever seeing this in College or Professional Basketball in the U.S. -  I may just not remember though.  I can imagine it is quite annoying :-)

This is just too cute not to post :-) We always say that if we had to come back reincarnated, we would definitely want to be a German dog!!!!

On Thursday, we had to deviate from "Schnitzel Thursday". It was a really busy day - so we ended up with fast food - McDonalds. I swore off McDonalds in the U.S.  - but I have to say .... here they do a pretty good job. I laugh at the picture of the Cheeseburger - it is always perfect (not smushed  with the toppings falling out :-)).  It looks just like the advertisement!

This was taken a few weeks ago. It made me laugh. I backed in to the spot, and kept thinking that surely, I had more space to move back (especially seeing where the end of the car beside me was). Nope - instead, I just came to the realization that our car is a monstrosity!!! 

A bustling bridge on a day where everything is closed - It always makes me smile!!!

Fasching

This is the "Fasching" (Mardis Gras) Season right now, with LOTS of celebrations, parties and parades. In Mia's school they don't wear costumes on Halloween, but it instead they wear them the day before school gets out for Fashing Ferien (their week off from school). On both Sunday and Tuesday, we went to local Fasching Parades, and they were a lot of fun. The traditions and silliness make for a great time.

All I can say is that this picture will forever bring laughter and a smile to my face :-) This is Bryan getting ready for the parade :-). He even had a long lost twin in the parade (some random guy with the same costume). It was hysterical!!!!

Lots of floats with lots of candy

These two were adorable!

And these two - not so much!!!

Throwing Bananas instead of Candy - really?

And of course, your political floats

Each float had a beer wagon ( this is Germany of course)

And the Breweries were also handing out Beer

And then you have the Old lady with the Sekt bottle

Lots of loot to bring home (included was fresh bread from a bakery and a Weiner from a Butcher :-) Yes - they were handing out Weiners!!

And then, as we were heading home, this guy starts handing out candy - so funny!!!

Amberg

Yesterday, we went on a day trip to Amberg (not Bamberb, but Amberg :-)) It s a really cute walled city, a little over an hour from here. It is a city of only about 40,000 people, but it has oodles of character and seemed like a really neat little place. Of course it helped by the fact that it was sunny out (a constant in the summer, but a rarity in the winter). The weather seems to make everything good! Everyone seemed to like this town - always a plus! It reminded me a lot of Bamberg - a really nice day :-)

Amberg!

Outside the walled city was a nice park area.

Heading into the city...

This was hilarious. It is Fasching (Mardis Gras) around here, and this is what we saw when we turned the corner. The "policeman" even yelled on his loud speaker for me to hold my pocketbook extra tight :-)

So quaint!

This reminded me a little of Venice...

We had to take a minute to check out this old place. I love old places like this. The only problem is, that because they are so old, they are probably on a historical order to renovate / keep things in a certain way.... translation = 10 times the cost of a normal renovation...

Outside the city wall again...

This is called the "Stadtbrille" - translation = City Glasses. If you look at the reflection in the water, you can see they circular shape of an old pair of spectacles :-)

lots of cute bridges

and of course, lots of beautiful churches...