Adventures

So I´ve been MIA, right?
I´m sorry, but summer is just such a busy, wide alive time, that my only internet time seems to be the very late hours, when all the kids/guests sleep, and then I only catch my short pinterest round.
Now, there just seems to be a very small time window to give you a quick update on what we´ve been up to:

I accompanied my class on a three day trip. Ronnie´s class, too. We went to a small hostel in a very rural area, where we watched cows, checked out all the tiny critters,

splashed in the river and caught fish, watched them and set them free. 

We found a circus, an awesome playground, did lots of crafts, read stories, sang songs, watched the football match, had some sick kids, some kids falling out of their bunk beds, some kids missing their parents and some teachers getting far too little sleep, but it was so much fun, and very bonding for all of us. And we had an awesome disco at night, when I got out my black light body paint and painted all 150 kids. 

Then Ronnie and I got home, cuddled up for a few hours to catch some sleep, and then...

...met Artem and Khrystina from Russia, two very intelligent students from Russia with whom we shared a long, long breakfast with inspiring political debates and exchange of literature. I like people from Russia. But, oh well, I like people from everywhere. I want to meet them all, incorporate everybody in this life, soak it all up. 

At some point during those last days, I turned 32. 

Tim made me a sweet, sweet chocolate cake, and gave me a new camera for my birthday! Yay! My first super cool camera that is more than a simple point and shoot, and I now have to get used to it.

I also got a treasure boy from Eva, a makeshift guitar from Mehmet made out of an empty tea box and some elastics, a painted board from Miro, and a personalized handwritten novel from Ronja. 

And in the afternoon, all my friends came, brought me books and flowers, and we had barbecue out in the sun and talked books while our many, many children played so hard on our swingset that I was almost scared it could fall over. 

And then I had birthday guests from Taiwan: 

A little family of three, who stayed with us until just right now. The mom had been writing to me for quite some while, and, though she had some OCD tendencies that seemed to crash with our chaotic way of life, we came along just fine. They brought paper airplanes and straw crafts (I´ll show you later!), and since they were both architects, they loved drawing and constructing, and we really got along well. We checked out Cologne together, 

...and our boys had a blast running around all the time. 

Their son was quite cute, and I babysat him yesterday, so his parents had the chance to go to an exhibition without him. 

It was so much fun having him here, him talking Chinese, me talking German, and we still understood each other, somehow. Going through town with him and my kids, it felt as if we had just adopted a small number 5, and he fit in so well with my kids. 

We got really close, all of us, since this family wasn´t interested in the touristic sights, but in joining us in our daily life. They came to kindergarten with us, and to football, and we went shopping together and did laundry and I explained every kitchen gadget I own in thorough detail, because they were fascinated by all of it. I, on the other hand, was fascinated by their baby-training chopsticks: 

Probably the only chopsticks I´ll ever be able to use :)

And of course we made music together, several times, sometimes even with Evas friends over: 

(though Vernon is only faking to play the harp ;) )

Now they just left - to go to the Netherlands, surfing with Eva´s penfriend´s family, and that makes me feel like I´m part of a sweet network.

So... yeah, that´s why I´ve been missing in the internet. Because I was so occupied offline, being in so many lives, learning so much, talking so much, sharing so much. 

There´s a party this afternoon, in Ronnie´s school, and I´m hosting the international-mommie café tomorrow morning, and we´ll have games night and three friends over at the weekend, and there´s the Christopher Street Day in Cologne which we´d love to attend, and there is just SO MUCH - and on Thursday we´ll finally, finally go home on vacation to South England, and, oh my, there´s so much to prepare, still. 

So, as for music for today...

This is all just a merry go round, right?