Mommy's Birthday

This week was pretty quiet after my parents left on Tuesday. Henry was very disappointed on Tuesday morning when he woke up to just me and Beatrice in the house. He is still on Spring Break, so we kept busy by going out to lunch and then spent the afternoon at the park. Actually, we spent a couple of afternoons at the park this week - and then took really long naps when we returned home (yeah!).

On Friday we celebrated my birthday. Henry, Bea and I met John at work for lunch, although Henry skipped lunch entirely and played on the tractors, and later, we had planned on going out for dinner. Since we have a three year old and a newborn, we opted to eat at Pizza Hut, plus it is a nice reminder of home. When we arrived at the restaurant, I was surprised to see "Happy Birthday" banners and another John Deere family there to help us celebrate. The Keelers are a wonderful family who moved to Germany shortly after we did - I have talked about their daughters before, Samantha and Abigail, Henry's friends. I am very happy to announce that there is a new little Keeler for Beatrice to be friends with! Eliana Keeler was born just one day before Beatrice - in the same hospital and by the same doctor! It was wonderful sharing such a special memory with them and we look forward to sharing many more great times in the future.

On Saturday, we went over to another John Deere family’s house for a cookout, Luann and Bruce Rickert. Luann decided to have a small cookout at 11 o’clock the night before and emailed us. She made a very funny and true point at dinner – back in the States, it would have been impossible to call three couples at 11 o’clock the night before for a cookout the next day and have them all show up. Life here in Germany is certainly much less hectic and a lot less scheduled.

We had a wonderful time, Bruce did a great job grilling and during dessert, everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and Bea. Below are a couple of pictures of Bea meeting her “John Deere Family”.

After church on Sunday, we visited the local fire station for an open house. Children were given the opportunity sit in the fire trucks, spray the fire hose, observe a fire being extinguished, and play various games. In addition to the kids’ activities, there was a cookout and a band playing. John and I exchanged smiles when the first song they played was John Denver's "Country Road". Henry often sings this song, only he changes the words to "Bumpy Road", how funny they played that song first.

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes, have a great week!!