Gingerbread House

A friend gifted us this gingerbread house kit when it was Joshua's birthday. I just had to make up the 'glue' icing with egg white and powdered sugar.

I waited until I had some backup and made this with Dad and the kids at the end of last week.

It was surprisingly easy - even Joshua got involved and it was fun. The only problem is that they are not eating it as fast as we made it.

Isabella was extra excited having made a house at Kindergarten so she knew what to do.

It was a fun little family project.

Christmas!

At the weekend we got our Christmas decorations up.  It's an event that I usually look forward to and really enjoy.  Usually...  This year I struggled a bit.  We were (are) running late with everything Christmas-related.  It feels like time is flying, I haven't started my Christmas cards and I ordered the first Christmas presents yesterday.  Isabella was very upset when the neighbours had their decorations up and we didn't.  I just wanted to get past Joshua's birthday first.

As promised, we went up in the loft and brought down the boxes.  I always forget how much we have.  The tree is packed and I wasn't too upset when a couple of ornaments were dropped on the tiles - although trying to stop a two year old running through glass splinters while you run for the vac, is an impossible task.  Stress levels went through the roof.

I also forget we always have new decorations from gifts the year before so it is nice to rediscover them and find them a home.

On the whole, I was glad we did it and I love the cosy Christmas lights on an evening.  I'll be happier when we have gotten everything ready (so that'll be about midnight on Christmas Eve...) but I'm starting to enjoy this not-so-slow slide towards the holidays.

Into the green

Lately we've been trying to make the most of the mild weather and the nice green spaces we have so close by.  Here are some photos.

Weekly Wisdom

Children are not a distraction from more important work.  They are the most important work.

Conkers

Last week I used the new trailer with the kids for the first time to talk the kids conker collecting.

It really takes me back to my childhood when we used to try and knock conkers out of the tree in the park, long before they were ready so that we could play conkers.

The game is unkown here and the popularity of conkers among children correspondingly low. I've only really seen people collect them for decoration which is much more popular here.

I'm planning on using some of our swag for decorations both at home, and at upcoming Gonis presentations but today we used some for a bit of family craft time which proved fun for us all.

We made some little animals, here are some pictures, if you'd like to see.

Family Fun

We watched this at the weekend and absolutely loved it!

Recipe: Burgers

Ingredients:

• 550g minced beef
• 2 eggs
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• Seasoning
• Bread, ketchup, cheese slices

Instructions:
1. Combine the mince, eggs, onion, sauce and garlic in a bowl and form six large patties.
2. Bake in the oven at 200 for 30 minutes.
3. Serve with the bread, ketchup and cheese to taste!

Garden Harvest

Despite our like of time and energy to really work in the garden this year, we have had quite a successful harvest.

It started with the fruit - we had so many raspberries that we have snacked on them, baked with them and even prepared raspberry rum.  

We had our first cherry, a couple of apples and lots of grapes so that Nico was able to make grape juice and turn it into smooth jam.

So far we have had one pumpkin which Nico turned into a roast dinner on Monday.

Yesterday I enjoyed my first caprese salad of the year, almost entirely from the garden, with our own tomatoes and basil.

These are our staples in the garden.  I finally feel like we are emerging from the mist of those newborn months and I am looking forward to working more in the garden next year, partly with the kids, to get back to some of our other staples like potatoes, carrots, courgette and beans.

Camping!

At the weekend we put up our new tent. It's much bigger than the old one but was manageable between the two of us and I think it will be even quicker work now that we've done it once.

This one has three 'rooms' and we're hoping to plan some camping holidays, starting with the Harz in October.

Isabella likes camping but Joshua hasn't slept in a tent yet so we are looking forward to trying it out at the weekend. I'm so excited!

England!

As promised, here are some photos from our trip to England last week.  We arrived in Manchester late on Thursday and spent the night in an apartment right outside Piccadilly station.  This coffee was much needed on Friday morning.

We spent the morning looking around Manchester.  It was hard for me to get my bearings after so long away but we went to Affleck's Palace for a late breakfast and really enjoyed it.  We also saw several of the bee statues that are taking over the city at the moment and will be used to raise funds for victims of the Manchester bombing.

On Saturday we were at my sister's wedding.  Above is the beautiful couple.  The weather had cooled off a little but stayed fine for them and we had a wonderful day celebrating their marriage.

Here's a picture of me at the evening reception with the beautiful bride, our mother (far right) and her friend (my sister's Godmother, Kathy).

Sunday was a quieter day.  The weather was terrible so I raided my sister's wardrobe, we showed my mother-in-law around my hometown of Morley, had lunch at Wetherspoons, bought long clothes from the charity shop and took her to Morrisons on a Sunday (the supermarkets in Germany are different and also don't open on Sundays).

Excuse the finger in the next couple of shots.  On Monday we drove to York for the day.  Dad took Isabella and her cousin on the train for an extra adventure.  We walked around the city and saw a lot.  The weather started off a bit dull but really brightened up for us.

We walked the city walls and met my sister and brother-in-law from their mini-moon.  At the minster was a tent with some Summer - kids - crafts going on and we kept the kids busy there while the rain blew over.

Here's Isabella's rock.  Looking forward to more crafts with her at home.  She had fun making this and playing in the tent.

We had a brief look into York Minster.  I'm always amazed at the scale of the building.

Afterwards we had lunch, said goodbye to the others, visited the castle, carousel and railway station.  We could have spent much longer there but we had to get back to visit friends.

On Tuesday we met some of my friends at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.  I'd been before with my Gran but only visited the indoor area.  This time, with the kids and my friends' dogs in tow, we explored the grounds in the beautiful weather.

There was an area with sculptures of the different Chinese years.  We posed in front of ours - the ox.

Here are my two best friends from my high school days.  It's always nice to catch up.  The last two years, we've met up at their weddings and this year was more relaxed but also nice that we were all celebrating anniversaries close together.

Afterwards, we had lunch at Blacker Hall Farm and bought some gluten free cake.

Our last day was very special as we drove to Scarborough.  I didn't think I would get quite as emotional as I did but it brought back lots of childhood memories and it was nice to experience this special place with my own children.  It was also new to both Nico and his Mum.

We spent a good hour on the beach, where we met my Mum, step-dad, nephew and nieces.  The kids played and we went in the sea!

Afterwards we went for fish and chips, bought some souvenirs, visited the 2p machines in the arcades (which both kids loved!), bought books on Bar Street and had coffee / ice cream before heading back.  It was a wonderful day and we drove along the coast before heading back.  It was nice to see Yorkshire as a tourist again for the week and while it was exhausting, we had a really fun week.

Hannover Zoo

Yesterday we spent the day at Hannover Zoo as a very late birthday present to my father-in-law.  It was a fun day and the weather was basically too hot but at least it was nice!

The kids weren't as excited as I expected but I think they were tired early and the heat didn't help matters but fairly early in the day we went to feed the goats. I took Joshua, my brother-in-law took Isabella and Nico took the camera.

It ended up being just the adults doing the feeding as the goats were rather aggressive.  The rest of the visit was smooth. The elephants were the highlight for me but the gorillas were also interesting as well as the water section.

The worst of the trip was the journey due to roadworks and to be honest it wasn't the nicest zoo I've visited in Germany but it was fun and it tired the kids out.

Harbour Boat Trip

Last week we took the kids out of daycare to travel to Bremen and take them on their first boat tour.  We were lucky to have glorious weather that day and a lovely breeze from the river.  We took water and snacks and had a wonderful family day out.

Sometimes, it's easy to forget that you don't have to go far to get that holiday feeling.  I love these day trips and I hope we'll manage a few more.  This one is still one of my favourite memories from last Summer.

I wasn't sure how the kids would react but they both loved it.  They sat and looked for a while and then they ran around and played a bit but all within limits and they were not a bit of trouble.  Isabella was very proud to tell her Grandma all about it on the telephone.  She loved spotting other ships and some of the industrial areas, especially the 'broken down pirate ships'.  They both slept well afterwards too!

For me, it was a sign that we can do more with the kids and it's wonderful to enter this new stage as a family where we can do more and the kids are a little more independent. 

Liverpool

As I mentioned, we celebrated my sister's hen do in Liverpool at the weekend.  I had never been to the city itself before and I really loved it.  The glorious weather helped and the seagulls also gave it a seaside feeling.

On Saturday we had a wander to the docks, searching for a boat trip.  We didn't find one but there was so much to do and see.  Here's the bride posing on the docks.

Here we both are posing with Liverpool's most famous export.  We had also visited the Cavern Club the night before which was a lot of fun and we met a lot of lovely, fun people there.

It was Armed Forces Day and we passed through the recruitment drive on the docks.  They were also very good sports with so many hen dos on tour there.

Here, an example of some crazy sculptures from when Liverpool was City of Culture.

The Liver Building down on the front where we got a drink.  I can't wait to explore this city more with Nico in a few years.

Here's a photo of my sister and me in our gorgeous apartment.  Can't wait to see her get married at the end of the month.  (P.S. I'm starting to understand why my Gran cut her legs off all her photos!)

Weekly Wisdom

Sisters are different flowers from the same garden.

Weekly Wisdom

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'til tomorrow
For babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow
So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.

Wedding Anniversaries

Here in Germany tradition and family are celebrated in a big way. At the weekend we were at a silver wedding anniversary party for Nico's aunt and uncle. The family had met in the week before to prepare a garland and that was hung over their front door on Sunday morning. Their daughters had prepared a big party and invited family and friends. The weather was glorious and it was lovely to help them celebrate such a special occasion.

The year after I met Nico we attended his grandparents' golden wedding anniversary with a blessing at the church and a reception afterwards. At our own wedding, we met a couple celebrating their golden anniversary at the same church which was special.

Germans even celebrate a parsley wedding anniversary at twelve and a half years but I haven't attended one yet.

The first 'big' one is wood at five years, which we happen to have in July, so I am excited to see what happens!

Looking forward...

I'm struggling a little with this new month, new year. While I'm sticking to my two main goals, I'm having a hard time finding a balance with the usual healthy eating, more activity, less stress side of things. Maybe it will settle more when I get back to work full time. In the meantime I thought I'd jump on Amy Liz's bandwagon and describe what I'm looking forward to this year.

Getting back to work!

I know it will be stressful and bring on a new wave of working mum guilt but I am looking forward to getting into a new challenge, taking my career in a different direction and bringing a bit more financial stability to our family. I'm especially looking forward to meeting new people and enjoying conversation with other adults!

My sister's hen do and wedding.

This Summer I'll be heading to England twice for these wonderful events. The first should be a fun, girly weekend and the second is especially exciting as we're taking my mother-in-law with us and I'm excited to show her my home country and get all the family together again.

The kids' birthdays.

While Isabella's incessant talk of her birthday party and the guest list is incredibly annoying right now (she turns four in June), I am looking forward to it. As with Christmas, birthdays with children just seem more magical and both of the kids are a joy to watch as they grow and learn.

Completing some ongoing projects.

I'm really hoping this will be the year I finish my biggest crossstitch yet.

I'm carrying on apace with my crochet course and looking forward to finishing the blanket project.

I'm also really excited to see how the one second every day video turns out. I'm backing up weekly and week one had both of us grinning ear to ear.

My Great Grandmother

Recently I've been delving into my family history again and, as those of you following my 40 things list may have noticed, lately my Mum and I have made some real progress.

As long as anyone in our family can remember, there has been a big mystery about my great-grandmother - Isabella Allan. We knew she came from up towards Jarrow and left her family there to move to Yorkshire in the twenties. There she met my great-grandfather and started another family.

We never knew why she moved or what happened until recently. With the help of my Dad's cousin who is a semi-professional genealogist, we have found some long lost cousins - the descendents of the children Isabella left up north.

Here's what we can piece together. She married Joseph Patterson at the age of seventeen and had two sons. Joseph went of to fight in World War One. When he came home on leave he discovered that Isabella was having an affair resulting in a third pregnancy. He took their two sons to live with his parents and returned to war where he was killed in Belgium.

Isabella gave her third son up for adoption but he did make contact later in life.

The next years are still a bit of a mystery but at some point she moved to Thorner and once settled, sent for her fourth (!) son to join her.

In Thorner she met my Great-Grandfather Willie and had three children with him before she passed away in the late 1950s.

It is a story full of scandal and shame and we've certainly had mixed feelings while learning all of this but I do believe it's the right time for this to come out. We're so over the moon to find that we have more cousins and that Isabella's older sons had good lives despite the tragic start.

I don't judge Isabella for what she did. We will never know why she had an affair but she was young and alone with two children in very unstable times. I never knew her so I can't say what kind of person she was. Plus, if she hadn't had this background, I wouldn't be here! Families and family histories are full of this kind of 'scandal'.

I'm so glad we finally know more about her and now we can start to look further back too.

Make it Monday - Project Life Update

It's been a while since I've blogged about Project Life but that's really because I like to have photos for my posts, I don't like to post photos of our children online and my Project Life is basically all about the children now.

I first started this project back in 2012 and I loved it. I'm not really sure why I stopped at the end of 2014 but I am so glad I got back into it this year.

I update my album weekly and I love flicking through from January each week. Seeing the story and development makes it so worthwhile.

I was in England for my friend's wedding at the start of last week so I can finally share a page in this space! While the average week tells its own kind of story, I love when we have something special going on as we tend to have better photos and it's generally easier to make the colours work.

That was really true this week as I could get in some of my favourites from the Seafoam edition to brighten up a really happy day.

If I can keep up the energy on this project, the kids are going to have something really special to look back on one day.

My process:

- Go to Rossmann and print out my favourite photos from the week (phone and camera)
- Place the photos into the layout, cropping where necessary.
- Pick a colour idea for the week and select cards that work, starting with the big date card.
- Journal on the appropriate cards.

Walsrode Bird Park

This week we had a lovely, family day out a bird park in Walsrode. The weather was fantastic.

We were there nice and early when the park opened and stayed until the early evening because it was so nice and the kids were great.

First we headed to the penguin enclosure for feeding time and Isabella was delighted to throw a fish in!

 We then wandered round the biggest bird park in Europe and visited everything from hummingbirds to the osterich. There were owls, eagles, hawks, parrots,... anything you could imagine, and a few you couldn't.

 There were also two shows, an indoor one with some tricks and comedy as well as information on illegal animal trade. The second was outdoors and a real spectacle with vultures and a bald eagle swooping over our heads. Amazing.

 When we'd seen enough birds we took the kids to the play area. There were lots of huge slides and nets for older kids. The highlight was a cross between a bouncy castle and a trampoline which we let both children loose on. They loved it!

 We took snacks and drinks with us. The kids were free and thanks to Nico's forward planning we got 10% off our tickets. It was great value and we'll definitely be going again.