Winter Fun

We have had some very wintery weather recently, snow and cold temperatures so we decided we'd better make sure our kids like winter sports. We went sledding last Monday which everyone really enjoyed except my feet were popsicles after about an hour and of course the kids were not nearly ready to stop. Then yesterday we all went ice skating. It has been several, if not many years since I have ice skated so I wasn't sure what to expect. Well it sort of comes back to you although I think balance may be one of those things that gets worse with age! Frankfurt has a great rink, both indoor and outdoor spaces to skate. Kids loved it and are itching to go back. The pictures tell the whole story!

Sophie's Birthday

doing the string maze

playing pass the parcel

getting ready to blow out the candles

Sophie celebrated her 9th birthday on Friday the 21st. Originally the party (an overnight) was planned for the 14th/15th but poor Sophie got the stomach bug so we had to delay it a week. She was very disappointed at the time but recovered when she realized it would prolong the celebrating of her birthday for a week! So she spent her actual birthday sick but had lots of fun when she finally had her party! Like last year we had "Happy birthday" sung in several languages- German, Italian and English. I can't believe she is nine!!

At last!

Although this could be my sentiment about the recent election results it is not. It is about an event much more important in the daily life of at least one resident of our house. Noah finally lost his first tooth! It has been wiggly for awhile and he was becoming discouraged that it would never come out. Tonight it did! He is very happy. I, on the other hand have mixed feelings. First of all I have to find out, for the tooth fairy of course, how much a tooth is worth in Euros. Secondly his cute little face is going to start to look older if all his little bitty teeth fall out and are replaced by big grown up ones.

Apple Baseball

So with the World Series over the Flott's decided to keep baseball alive a little longer. We invented a game called Apple Baseball. Just like stick ball but your hit is rated by how many little pieces the apple goes into when you smash it with the stick. If one little piece breaks off it's a single, two pieces a double and so on. If you smash it to smithereens it is called making applesauce and it is a home run. Lots of fun. Each base is made out of a pile of apples and the pitcher has a duffle bags with apples to pitch. (For those of you worried that we are wasting perfectly good apples, we have made over 100 liters of applesauce, apple bread, apple muffins and have a huge bin of them in our cellar to eat. It is a large tree!) We have collected a huge bag filled with apples to save in the garage so the kids can teach Jimmy and Ally how to play when they come see us at Christmas.
Who knew dogs liked apples? Peabody kept eating the ones that made up home plate. Gives new meaning to stealing home. Thomas "making applesauce!"
Noah ready to take a swing. He kept calling for larger apples.

Sophie ready to bat at what is left of home plate!