Dane is in German school. This year both Tess and Cole are in American school. This means two completely different schedules, both daily and yearly, with little overlap. Dane is coming up on his last day of an almost-two-week Osterferien (or Easter holidays).  On the one hand, I’ve totally enjoyed our one-on-one time and sleeping in every morning.  On the other hand… I’m so exhausted!

Dane is not just eight.  He is 8 3. He is a triple threat.  Smart. Energetic. Inventive. Last night,  while I was scrubbing boots after an afternoon at the Pony (Chin Chin), he googled YouTube and discovered how to turn water into ice without a freezer.  I finished just in time to see him dragging supplies up to the bathtub to try his own hand at waterbending. I love him to pieces.  My heart is bigger, my life is fuller, my body is more tired than it has ever been since I had Dane. I am ready for schule to start back up.

We spent all of Easter weekend in our pajamas.  Mine are a little older, and they don’t match anymore.  Really, it’s just a favorite hoodie and some flannel pants.  It’s pretty appropriate when I spent most of the time cleaning, coloring eggs with Dane, cooking, eating and playing games with Dane and our guests.  While I don’t always mind a mass said in German, I do mind at Easter, when I can’t understand the homily. I feel the Easter homily is a very important one and I need to really understand the meaning. I haven’t been since the 4-hour Easter vigil we attended in 2013 (Our Sparschwein).

I have zero photo’s of Easter this year. Because of my old, mis-matched pajamas.  I did make an amazing brunch, see I’m not even humble bragging, I’m outright bragging! I highly recommend two new pinterest-found recipes: Asparagus Tart and Carrot Coconut Bread (cake).  Both were simple, on the healthier side, and simply delicious and beautiful on any table.

Monday Dane and I worked together to get the house back in order. As long as we are side-by-side he’s an amazing little cleaner.  If I turn my back, even for just a second, he turns the whole house upside down.  No lie. I have no idea how he does it that fast, that efficiently, that thoroughly. To stop him, and because I had an new-quilt-pattern-idea that would not get out of my head, I decided it was quilting day.

I’d seen a post on a quick, fun, easy charm-pack quilt on pinterest: Home Sweet Home. I had two free charm packs from Missouri Quilt Co. in a big order recently, in colors that aren’t me, that I wasn’t sure what to do with, that I thought would be perfect for this pattern.

Then I realized, I wanted a bigger quilt. So I changed the pattern to be pinwheels using Jenny’s, yes we are on a first name basis, Fast and Easy Pinwheels tutorial, but on my huge 14″ blocks. It turned out wonderfully!  And Dane couldn’t have been a bigger help with ironing, cutting, counting & math (there is a LOT of math in quilting) and, sigh, seam-ripping-outing when I made a mistake. It was actually a super wonderful day AND we have a brandnew quilt top ready for the long-arm:

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Dane & our quilt: Spinning Boxes

I have no photo’s from Tuesday.  We went swimming at our local indoor pool. I thought I’d taken photo’s before, but all I could find was this video from 2014, when Dane first learned to swim.  Can you see it? Isn’t he adorable?

Wednesday we tried out the brandnew Sprungbude (trampoline place) in Stuttgart. Stuttgart is not that far. Sprungbude was on the other side of Stuttgart and my navi (GPS?) took me straight through Stuttgart. In my little bus.  That was some white knuckled driving in the middle of the day!  On the way home I drove around Stuttgart, much more relaxed and much faster.  Lesson learned.

Sprungbude itself was amazing! Trampolines everywhere!  Trampolines with basketball hoops. Trampoline arenas to play dodgeball in. Bungee cord trampolines.  Jump-off-a-ledge into an airbag “trampoline”.  Dane was exhausted in 15 minutes. Then he learned to pace himself, lasted almost two hours, and then.. then! Talked till after midnight about how great it was.  The exhaustion started creeping in on Wednesday.

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Dane can get air!

On Thursday we rounded up our friends and took them to our favorite Freizeitpark (free time park).  It has so much to do!  There’s mini golf, pitpat, a playground, kid-size ATVs, segways, bow-and-arrow shooting, geo-caching, more bungee-cord trampoline, a biergarten (YAY!) and our very favorite… a ropes course!  We have been coming here since our move to Germany in 2009, and we are well-known to the staff. I feel like Norm walking into a bar.

We climbed, jumped & zip-lined for four hours.  My poor friend can barely lift her arms today. Klettering (climbing) is a work out! But it is so fun you have no idea what a work out till you try to lift your heavy, sore, body out of bed the next morning.  I feel slightly bad I forgot to warn her. Slightly.

Dane getting ready to zipline down. His favorite part!

Friday, as always, was pony day. I again forgot my camera, but I took another little video of Dane closing up the stall as we were leaving. Ponies are hard work, but Chin Chin is so easy to love that all the hard work is beyond worth it.  We’ve never left without every fiber of our being happy, and every muscle sore and ready for a hot bath. And a book. And a glass of wine (or hot chocolate).

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