4th of July

As it turns out they do have the 4th of July in Germany, the only thing is they don't celebrate America. I know weird right? So, a few of us American folk got together and invited a few Berliners to join us and headed to the park for the afternoon to celebrate the USA.
Maggie says a prayer for America while holding a sparkler...talented eh? (FYI she's not really praying just in case you thought she was truly that spiritual)
It's nearly impossible to find America flags here but a friend of ours made these little American flags on her computer and stuck them on top of all muffins she brought to the picnic. And here's the kicker she's German, isn't that awesome?
This was a playground we had never been to before and it was pretty sketchy looking complete with this incredibly steep slide. This is Henry riding it on a piece of cardboard, the little guy flew down and we thought he was going to be scarred for life, but as soon as he got to the bottom he shot up and ran back towards the top of the slide to go again with a huge grin on his face. Here he is taking it easy in the sand.

Maggie shows her patriotism.
Since I couldn't find any flags I made a cake flag with yummy blueberries and strawberries..

Finally here is a picture of my kiddos decked out in there American garb courtesy of Grandma Z. Thanks for the outfits...can you tell I got in front of the TV to take this pic?

Potsdam

Last Saturday we took a 45 minute train ride to a little place outside of Berlin called Potsdam. We really knew nothing about it except that it is a nice tourist spot with lots of castles and history. We arrived in Potsdam at around 9:30am and proceeded to get ourselves lost until about lunch time. After lunch we finally got the hang of it and were able to see the main street behind the Great gate, pictured above. It was a lot of fun, because as it turns out getting lost in Germany is a lot more exciting than getting lost in the US, because it is still culturally new and different to us.
We came across a nice refreshing fountain after lunch as well. It was hot and here you can get in all the fountains, there aren't any coins in the fountains and all you need is your birthday suit to join in on the fun. I also had some bubbles in my bag and that was fun to play with as well.
Happy to be in the fountain coolness.
Daddy and Henry enjoyed it too.
This is one of those main streets I was talking about earlier. It kind of reminds me of Charleston, the way everything is so quaint and clean and you can walk and walk and still experience the charm.
This is how Maggie and Henry roll.
One of many castles in Potsdam (but one of the only ones we saw thanks to our navigation skills).
One of the quaint little homes we saw on our tour before lunch.
The train ride home was a little crazy. We may have stayed just a bit too long in Potsdam. But, it was a fun day and we are glad we went.

World Cup Fever

We've got it...never really had it before in the US. But, here in Germany the fever is quite contagious. People go nuts for WM around here, and it's really fun to be a part of it. You can't really see it in the above picture, but if you look closely enough you can see we are all completely infected.
Last week we went for a walk around town and stumbled upon this lovely building. We thought to ourselves "hmm that looks pretty important," there was even a guard out front. So, we took a picture with it and made a mental note to ask someone what the building called "Bellevue" actually was. It turns out that this is the President's house, and if you are following German politics at all (which I hardly am sadly), then you may know that the old President resigned recently (which apparently never happens) and so elections took place yesterday for a new one. The President here is more like a Queen because he really has no power, that resides mostly with the Chancellor and Parliament. Why doesn't the president have much power, well if you'll recall in your history books there was once a president here that sort of got a little out of control. Well, he got a lot out of control. So, they decided limiting one mans power was a good idea. Uh yeah...good idea.
Henry and the giant foot.
This is the Victory Tower right beside Tiergarten. This is where most Berliners watch the WM on a big screen, with thousands of other excited fans.
Here we are back in our neighborhood. These are the gorgeous flowers blooming in the park across from our flat. I needed to get a picture before they are gone, so here it is. This pic really doesn't do justice to the magnitude of the blooming flowers that have taken over that park.
Leave it to Tyler to take a picture of a super cool manhole.
And finally here we are with the Interns enjoying some fine German cuisine and watching the world cup with some other excited patrons. The TV is in the top right hand corner, but if we couldn't see that one there were about a million TV's all around us, outside, inside, on sides of buildings. It's out of control, these Germans love them some fussball.

Cheers/Prost to Deutschland!

Be a Follower...

So I just added the Follower application to the blog, mostly because I'd love to know who is reading this. I know I've got my mom, sister, sister in law, mother in law, you get the picture. But, I'd love to know who the rest of you are out there. If you don't want to join then feel free to leave a comment, no pressure you can still read. It's just that every now and then someone I never expected to will tell me that they have read my blog and it is encouraging/a little strange. So, I'm just a tad curious who you are. I guess I should put it like this, "hello my name is Carrie, what is yours?"

Prague Blog

One of the highlights of our Summer was going to Prague two weekends ago to visit our dear ole pals the Hunts. As you recall our friends moved to Prague five or six months ago to be missionaries with World Harvest. We have missed them greatly and it was such a blessing to be able to share a weekend with them and see there new European lives. And to say that Maggie was excited to reunite with her pal Sam may be the biggest understatement I can muster. But, the rest of our excitement levels were right there too.
Our weekend trip started with a Friday train ride. It was a beautiful trip filled with amazing country side views, lakes, rivers, castles, fields, old villages and just cool European type things that I'm not used to (including a 70ish yr. old man gardening in his briefs). I could/should dedicate a post just to the trip because it was just so fun.
This is one of a few castles we saw while on the train. Upper right hand corner on the hill.
Family shot of us in our seats right before we got to our final destination.

Reunited and it feels so good...Jake met us at the station and then drove us back to there place. Immediately the kids started playing dress up, Maggie looked desperately for the Princess outfit but came up empty handed. She was content with this dragon suit and Sam in his high-water elephant garb. In this pic it looks like Sam is trying to peer pressure Henry into dressing up too, "come on Henry all the cool kids are doing it."
We had lots of reunion type stuff to take care of off the bat. Maggie insisted on holding Foard as soon as he woke up from his nap, and of course anything big sister does Henry wants to do too. So here is a picture I like to call "little guy holds little guy."
Maggie and Sam were pretty darn cute and aside from a couple of age appropriate injury related incidents they were very excited to be together again.
When we weren't out sightseeing pretend was the name of the game. They played "puppet show," cars, built pillow forts and here they are pretending to take a bath (note the hair washing).
We spent most of Saturday checking out the sights. Before we went to Prague everyone gave me the same response when I told them I was going there for the weekend. They'd say "oh Prague is beautiful." I really thought they just couldn't think of a better description, but it's true the place is beautiful.
We went to old towne square first and ran into these guys. And I think Sam's response was most fitting he said "look those guys are pretending to be animals."
Here's a panoramic of the square with a cute little Sam to the right.
And, here we are on the Charles bridge getting our picture taken by a complete stranger who clearly had issues with babies/toddlers because Foard barely made it in and Henry got cut out altogether. Geesh...he did however capture our amazing hosts and so we'll keep it. (P.S. Melissa didn't get the memo that we would all be wearing "Euro Gray.")
After we had done quite a bit of walking around we thought a nice boat ride through the city would be fun. So, we bought our tickets from some guy dressed like a sailor (who clearly knew the waters) and followed him down a dark ally to (thankfully) this cute little place, complete with live accordion music, ice cream and beer for the whole family.
Henry had just woken up from a stroller nap, I think this picture shows just how confused he may have been feeling.
Enjoying the boat ride.This is Sunday morning tea and movie time. The kids watched Pinocchio for the first time and the two big kids were quite enthralled with it, I think we lost Henry after Jimney Crickets "When you wish upon a star."
Sadly the weekend came to a close and we had to leave. We had such a great time and even though the Hunts now only speak fluent Czech we felt like it went well. The good news is that they are coming to Berlin next weekend to visit us Berliners. So, the fun isn't over and perhaps that's why it wasn't nearly as hard to say good-bye this time. Stay tuned...

Family fun

We're still here in Berlin, but our time here is getting shorter and shorter. This makes me sad in a lot of ways. I will miss my quick walks to the neighborhood grocery store (Rewe), the beautiful weather (which yes even includes the sun that shines from 4am-10pm), the beautiful buildings, the quiet atmosphere, our European flat/home with the playground and fountains across the street, the bakery below us with delicious fresh pastries and breads baked to German perfection. The organic ice cream shop that beckons us at least twice a week will leave and ache in my sweet tooth. And, I will absolutely miss our Saturday family days where we tour around the city and discover all the perks that come with being in such an historical, eccentric, bustling place. My new German friends have made a permanent place in my heart and I will miss seeing them as well (this is something I don't even want to write about yet). Yes I will miss it here, but I still have a few more weeks and I plan on enjoying every little piece of this place that I can. And, of course I do miss you USA but that's for another posting...Two weekends ago we headed to the East side Gallery and checked out the wall art that resides on some of the last remains of the wall.
The gallery sits directly beside this little river, and the view is pretty fab. This picture was taken on the bridge that connects East to West.
And across the bridge we found a quaint little "farm," situated in the middle of some random place in East Berlin. We never would have found it without the recommendation of our local pals.

And right behind the farm was a park the kids indulged in after we ate our picnic lunch.And, of course no trip is complete without riding a train or several throughout the city. This is one of Henry's favorite parts of Berlin. It never gets old for that kid.
Here's Henry enjoying a late afternoon snack of milk and cookies. I had to get a picture of his little black/chocolate tooth, it was even funnier in person.

Dance Fest on HufelandstraBe!