Weekend trip to Berlin

Hello all, I hope everyone is fine?

We were just coming home from a mini-break to Berlin. Unfortunately the weather was very terrible, I cannot remember had I ever had experienced such a strong wind. There are plenty of open spaces and large alleys in Berlin and the wind was blowing and howling through those. We did what we could and tried to stay warm. Not so easy, when queuing 1.5 h for tickets to the Reichstag in the middle of an open field… By that time we were all pretty frozen.

We stayed with our safe and sure habit of splitting the days in “something for the parents” and “something for the kids”. And still I was very impressed how much fun Helena had in the Pergamon museum, when she got her very own audio guide and went herself looking for the numbers to type in and listened to the texts. She was also very impressed by the Berlin wall and its history. I am afraid I had to check on the classic web sources to brush up my history on those events so I could explain her how union went. After all, I was only eight years old when that happened.

Matilda was her usual happy self and did not complain much. She was happy being allowed to eat French fries :-) 

 

Our trip ended with a visit to the Legoland Berlin, of course, that the kids liked a lot. It was fairly nice for the adults, too.

 Enjoying the view from the Reichstag-Kuppel. Or was it enjoying the wind protection?

 Helena in front of a wall piece at Checkpoint Charlie.

 Some more queuing... and Matildas way to avoid the wind.

 They had strollers to borrow at the museum. Needless to say, Matilda wasn't impressed by the exhibition and took a daynap.
Uh, it was great to push her for a while after carrying her around whole day. Those 14 kg can get HEAVY.

Matilda made a new friend at Legoland.

 Every girl should stand once next to BATMAN!!!

More wall... next to Potsdamer Platz here.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, too!

A warm spring day

We had such an unbelievable great weekend weather!
Yesterday the temperature hit the 20s degrees Celsius and sunshine during the whole day. What a day to get outside, enjoy the sun and play around. We were able to take the thick winter clothes of!

The kids made a piknik, while the parents did some gardening. It was just the thing I needed to lift up my spirit and my energy.

We also decided to wake up the turtle from hibernation and did a spring cleaning in its outside compound for the summer. It did not take long until she crawled around having a look around, of course, in the evening it went back inside, it still gets too cold during nights.

I hope you all had a nice weekend, too!

Karneval

It is the fifth season in Germany, the Karneval season.
Having myself been one of the "actives", I have had a great time celebrating Karneval, though only in the small village of Moselkern :-) Helena enjoyed it, too, while Matilda fell asleep waiting for the procession to start. The kids got such a huge bag full of sweets and goods and we all had a good time.

Helena had decided she wanted to be a mermaid, her wish is my order, but Matilda's costume choice could still be manipulated by myself ;-), me, performing a cat and Teemu got some "real man"- ascessoirs.

 Getting ready to go front....

 ... and back!

 How does one paint a skunk face???

 Half cat, half batman's joker...

 ... and ... the REAL MAN.

 Uh, yummi, free candy!

The ice-princess

What an exciting day!
Today was the big day of the internal competition ("Vereinsmeisterschaften") of Helena's figure skating club. Four little girls were waiting anxiously for this day, each of them counting the days. We agreed, there would be two first places and two second places for them.
Only a small competition, but with the feeling of the "real" thing. There were microphones, glitter, glitz and glamour all around. I still believe, that the mommies were more nervous than the girls.
Here's a look:

 Yes, it was fun!
Helena's first comment at home: "I want more of these medals!"
:-)

indoor playground

Another hello again.
It has been a while, and a very busy one, indeed.
Last weekend however we made a cut and had some fun with the girls. No work, no worries, just quality time and new places to find out.
On saturday we visited the local swimming pool, which is absolutely exquisite for playing with little ones. It has a very low water area with a water slide for children. That is the place we spend most of our time. But there is also a variety of four more pools with depth of upto 135 cm. So an adult can easily stand and hold the kids over water or they could wear swimming aids.
Two of these pools contains natural salt water and is therefore benefitial for skin deseases and it is clear that Matildas skin greatly improved after visiting there.

Sunday we went to the indoor playground with a collegue and it was a great time. The pictures say all :-)

 Sisters fun going down the slide.

 There was no age or weight limit!

Squeezing through the parcour...
















Slowly we our thoughts drift to our return to Finland. We are all looking forward to be back home and see you all again!

Christmas Dinner with Sibblings and Cousins

It is a long tradition that on one of the christmas dinner we sibblings gather at my parents' with spouses and offspring.
With all the small children around we had to extend the dinner table with an extra table.
After food, we didnt see the older children anymore, Feli, Caya and Helena set off for adventures around the house. Marleen and Matilda found their shared interests, a shared way to communicate and where playing together soooo soooo cutely.

Us older children played Munchkin and had fun, too.
The evening ended no earlier than midnight and all kids fell asleep extremely quickly.

Teemus Birthday

Help, there were even more packets to unwrap today for Teemu. And the garbage bin is flowing over from wrapping paper! A new car radio to replace the antique one (it has a cassett deck!) in our car.

We didn't celebrate Teemu's birthday in any more special way. I went with the girls to swim, almost a tradition already for boxing day. We'll have quiet evening today and start watching our new DVD's. :-)