World Cup Fever

A new favourite, world cup appropriate toy for Wilder is the ball. He is pretty good at throwing too. And Bluet and Ilona are into the World Cup - Ilona wants to be England when she grows up whilst Bluet likes collecting the stickers - we had fun at Werdinsel watching England thrash Panama, where the kids cheered most of England's goals.

Simon & Angela & Della & Gus

We had some visitors at the beginning of June, all the way from York. A long weekend was spent doing:

Holding the baby


Recycling


Standing on rocks


Having 80s hair


and walking in the woods


(also not pictured, visiting the junk fair)

Randoms

Ilona and Hugo, the neighbour, out for a walk near Viadukt



Sometimes Veronika even manages to get Ilona to help with the housework


Baby at Werdinsel (not the only time this has happened)


Baby at home; we've only had the paddling pool out once this year, even though it has been VERY hot. I guess we've been going places at the weekend





Baby in the garden; check out the teeth

A video from Simon

A video Simon made of their visit here at the weekend

Dadadada

First thing every morning, we hear Wilder cry 'mamamama' from his bed. A signal for Emily to come get him. However, occasionally when Emily is not around, he will say 'dadadada' instead. Like last Saturday, when I was watching him by myself.

New York New York

The day after Bluet's birthday party we headed to Connecticut. Of course, one advantage of Connecticut is that it is but a short train ride from Manhattan. With Emily at work and Wilder and Ilona in daycare, Bluet and I headed to the city for the day. Bluet's big obsession is tall buildings and whether or not they are taller than the Eiffel Tower. So first stop was the Empire State Building, sadly shrouded in fog, followed by the much shorter and more visible Flat Iron Building. We then checked out the nearby Lego Store.



Next we headed out to the Brooklyn Museum to check out the David Bowie exhibition - obviously this was something I really wanted to go see, but also Bluet had enjoyed watching his videos on Youtube ('It's a lady who sings like a man', she said of the life on mars video), so I thought/hoped she might enjoy it. And she did - you get to wear headphones and listen to music as you walk around, there are his old costumes, and lots of music videos, and she did not want to leave. In fact, once we were back in Connecticut she would let me listen to nothing but Bowie in the car driving around. I even bought her a 7" single from the shop, as it had a picture of the cover of 'Aladdin Sane' which she really likes. So that was a success. There were no photos allowed in the exhibition, but here she is on the way there and just after.

Bluet's Birthday Party

Then, of course, it was Bluet's birthday - on the day she took lemon cupcakes to school, then we had a cupcake based birthday cake for dinner. Then for her actual birthday we rented out the local Gemeinschaftzentrum, invited some friends, and even had a pinata.

1. I don't know why they have their hands over their ears. Maybe a balloon just burst?
2. Bluet decided one of the birthday carrot cakes should be decorated with slices of strawberry



Pinata, imported from the US in my suitcase