bremen...

today was a good day.

we had took a morning train to bremen, up near the north sea. 

as soon as we arrived, we stopped for lunch. 

the boys and i had GIANT cheeseburgers. seriously.

as big as cajus' head, and he ate 3/4.

i should have taken a picture, but we were so starved, that we jumped in.

afterwards we walked around and explored the city.

it lies on a river, which was beautiful.

there is a famous 'artsy' street.

and even though it was muggy and overcast,

it turned out to be a really gorgeous city.

 babushkas, babushkas, everywhere!

the old world architecture was fantastic.

i love some old city charm.

 love this cute family.

the entrance to 'kunst schau' or 'art show'.

 yours truly + the boys in front of the famous 'bremen musicians' statue.

   

 cute boy.

 easy peasy lemon squeezy

+++

the boys all sucking on limes, with their cute silly faces.

which one is the mannequin?

a golden birthday...

we've got a lot going on this month.

first up:

esra and elias turned 10 on the 10th

and celebrated with an olympic themed birthday party

we of course started with the opening ceremonies

with germany, serbia, poland, thailand,

south africa, italy, and albania all represented

they battled in ice hockey:

maneuvered a bobsled race:

and competed in figure skating

[all performed to a lady gaga song]

watching a group of 10 year old boys pretend to figure skate to lady gaga

was one of the funniest things i have ever seen.

they were awesome.

wolfgang, cousin jana and i were the judges

and it was difficult to not give them all perfect scores.

during one performance, i think elias', to "Love Game"

the audience of boys were pelvic thrusting so hard and shakin' it to:

"let's have some fun this beat is sick, i wanna take a ride on your disco stick..."

[of course having no idea what that means]

and you could not help but crack up.

fun stuff. for reals

+

+

+

happy birthday esra and elias

i'm so glad i know the coolest 10 year olds in the world

happy nikolaustag...

today is nikolaustag.

sankt nikolaus day.

last night, we sang christmas songs

[loudly]

in hopes that sankt nikolaus would hear us and come visit.

he came to visit

and asked if we had been good during the year.

i think we all had.

because this morning

our boots were filled with chocolate!

***

++lecker++

[yummy]

more halloween+ a birthday!

::this boy has officially been 3 since the 1st::

esra and elias

[skeletons]

with friends ready to go trick-or-treating

and another little monster!

photos are wolfgang's.

awesome, huh?!

yay for fall :)

my favorite season, by far.

[if you noticed the new design]

not going to lie, i'm in love with germany, but i am a wee bit sad that i am missing traditional american things.

like,

halloween

thanksgiving

pumpkins

starbucks pumpkin spice latte

pumpkin pie

roasted pumpkin seeds

...see a pattern?

however, while walking cajus to kindergarten yesterday i saw one lonely pumpkin in front of someones home.

should have taken a picture.

+++

in italy we drew some awesome halloween/fall decorations.

probably hard to tell which are mine, or elias'.

and esra and his monster, ROCK!

and how cute is elias' frankenstein?!

[second one from top, below the pumpkin...]