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. :-)

Christmas 2013 in Moselkern

Two wonderful days lay behind us. Full of anticipation, christmas joy and family time.
We spent the christmas eve as everyone else, helping the kids to wait for Christkindchen. Helena was so excited, I am sure she almost collapsed. Nevertheless there was little complaining, even though the actual gift giving part took place no earlier then 19 o'clock and only after a trip to the lutheranian chapel in Karden with Grandpa, Grandma, Helena and me. Helena was behaving extremely well in church and except one little trip to the loo and her falling asleep during the sermon, I am quite proud of her :-)

The mountain of presents under the christmas tree has been increadible, as always.
Helena got a walking furreal dog and Matilda a huge HABA ball track. We had lots of fun playing with it already, also nice for the "older children". Teemu and me exchange only "reasonable" gifts, I got a pretty new silver chain (Matilda destroyed my old one) and Teemu a couple of DVDs we were planning to watch. Couldnt resist the temptation and bought myself a little present, too. A quilting book about the tentmakers of Cairo.

I wish everybody a joyfull Christmas.

The start of the christmas season

So here we are, back in Moselkern at my parents' for the holidays.
The otherwise sometimes annoying thing that here is absolutly NOTHING to do during winter times is well appreciated now. We are looking forward to some quite family time and days spend resting, going for a walk and playing with the kids.
Behind us are weeks so full of program, that many days a week I was on tour 12 h a day, with hardly time to grap a bite in between. Much of the family responsibility had laid on me for a while, as Teemu was ordered to bedrest to recover from pneumonia. He is much better now but still not on 100%, also still suffers from pain in the lungs and muscles around.

There were plenty of happy occasions too. Helena participated in the Skating Gala "Winterzauber" and not only did she perform fairly well, she had so much fun. This girl really likes to be applauded to :-) Helena is well integrated in the skating club now and the year ended with a little "test" where they earned their "stars" (little Swarovski gems to be glued to the skate) and a trip to the local cinema. It really started to make me think that Helena is growing up!

Matilda got very much used to the nanny and we couldn't be more happier with Anna. She is incredible flexible and doesnt hesitate to do extra favours. We are deep indepted to her.

Work has been quite fun, too. There is plenty of responsibility and pressure but it is acquainted with a lot of humor and fun. In the end, we brought the kids to the xmas celebration and it was all ok. (In fact I hope, the grumpy old professor now apologizes my absence to the weekly seminar at 18.oo!!!)

There will be more posts again during the next days as time permits, but I wish everyone a joyful holiday season with a picture I received from our senior lab engineer:

The force is strong in this one 08.11.2013

The force is strong in this one.

Working on her lightsaber skills.

The pictures speak for themselves...

We are afraight, she leans to the dark side...

Gardening in Moselkern

What a nice late autumn day. Autumn time means leaves falling down time and therefore time to do some serious gardening.
It is so great to have a place where the kids can wander freely around and discover the nature, cook mudsoup and play with leaves, berries, twigs and stones. No need to worry about neighbours or cars.

Funny enough, the kids don't look quite as dirty on the pictures as how they looked in real. From the rubber boots out and straight to the bathtube.

A wonderful surprise from Finland

Ok, I am terrible behind the actual happenings on the blog. We are really busy at work and the evenings fly by so quickly.
Anyway. Last week we found a cute little package in the mailbox, in it Matilda's birthday present from our friend Maaret from Finland.

She has sewn the dress by herself and the fabric is so cute and the colours so vivid and bright, it is just wonderful. It fits Matilda absolutely PERFECTLY. Many thanks, Maaret.

Unfortunately, Matilda is of different opinion:

14.10. Key madnes

Getting up in the morning, bringing the kids to the Nanny and then sitting for half an hour in the morning rush hour traffic jam starts to become a routine. Anytime now we might even switch of the navigator to find our way through Remscheid. Could there be a more durcheinandergewürfelte Stadt in Germany?

One thing that doesn’t seem to get routine is how to open doors at the University.

Probably any expat going to Finland, or at least the german ones, can relate to the feeling, that Finnish doors are kind of locked the wrong way. And they are opened by “locking” them. At the end, I thought I got a hang on the trick and the doors unopenable to me were only a mere few anymore. One might think that now, back in Germany the doors would finally open conveniently to me. But no. First I got so much used to “locking” the door, when opening them, that I seriously have to concentrate on which way to turn the key.  Secondly, the doors at the University are from before the middle ages and require a certain amount of fine-feeling to open them. You kind of pull the lock out a bit with the key before turning them. So, we are back at standing in front of the door, swearing and sweetening…

We got a card for the local library and borrowed some books and DvD’s. They do have a nice collection and it is fun to read all the contemporary German belletristic books. Unfortunately the kids section is only one box of books, but that will be enough, too.

13.10.2013 Lukas Markt

We were just in time in Moselkern to visit the annual fair "Lukas Markt" in Mayen.
By coincidence we met Feli there, too. What a fun we had!
Helena found courage to go to the large karussel as soon as Feli wanted to go there and Matilda had such a good time at the meremaid track. So cute.

12.10.2013 Matildas Birthday

We celebrated Matilda’s Birthday at Grandma and Grandpa. At the same day the dolls I ordered for the girls from my uncle’s money arrived, so we had a huge pile of presents for Matilda. There were so many postcards and packages also from Finland arriving, I almost had tears in my eyes about how many were thinking about our little girl. Thank you all so much, aunts and uncles, mummi and vaari, friends and all *kiss*