Chicken Costume

This chicken is a neighbor of ours. here he his hanging out with a wicked witch and Garfield.

Pirates on a Ship

There is a REAL pirate ship at William's Kindergarten! This morning we collected treasure.

Ho Narro!

"Ho Narro! " is the local Fasnacht greeting. It means something like " Hello, Fool!". Here are pictures of some of the fools we saw this morning.






















Katy and William pirates.














Christof is a cowboy.




























Sean and William pirates!

Margaret-lion eats a pretzel.
Hannas is a lion, too. His mother, Beate was in my birth-preparation course.

Margaret lion.

Beate in a traditional Konstanz "hen" constume.

der Narrenbaum

The Narrenbaum is erected in the playground of William's Kindergarten.

Schmotzger Dunschtig

Today is Schmotzger Dunschtig! It is the Thursday before Ash Wednesday - and the festivities leading up to Lent have reached their peak!

This morning, the children went to school in costume at the regular time. Then a costumed marching band came and "freed" all the children from school. A parade formed behind them as they went from school to school in the neighborhood, freeing the children. In the back of the parade wass the Narrenbaum, the tree with ribbons on it. Once the parade made it back to William's Kindergarten, the tall, thin Narrenbaum was erected in the playground.

USA Pictures: Excuses Part 2

Well, William , Margaret, and I had a grand adventure and came to Bloomington for two weeks in January. Heck, I didn't even remember the camera. I never remember the camera. Sean takes the pictures, but we didn't even bring him! Luckily, everyone else has pictures which they send to me without delay. (:^) ) For excellent blogging of our Bloomington visit, please see entries on Ebee's blog : www.bloomingtonautica.blogspot.com. Thank you, Ebee, for the blogging.

Mallorca Pictures : Excuses

Yes, we vacationed with Sean's parents, Uncle Mike, and Claire in Mallorca over the Christmas holidays. We really were there. It really was very pretty. But Sean uploaded the pictures onto his laptop computer - which he then takes with him every day to work. Then, every day he comes home with the computer but by then I have already forgotten about blogging until the next day when the computer is already gone. See?

Hurry Up, Springtime!

Sean's parents sent us a tent for Sean's Birthday!

We set it up in our living room, but had to take it down because we couldn't get to and from the kitchen! Now we are looking forward to going camping once it gets warmer- it will be just like our old life, before children, when we used to go camping....right?

American Football

GO COLTS! We watched the superbowl together when it was replayed for our timezone on the Monday evening after THE INDIANAPOLIS COLTS WON.

William was a little confused about the word "football" (see picture).

I went grocery shopping during the game, but made sure I was around for the halftime show. I must say that I appreciated Prince's shadow show, although our laughter was somewhat difficult to explain to a 3 year old. My explanation went something like this :" Well, Prince really likes his body. He is playing a song on his guitar about how much he likes his body."

Margaret's Milestones

Margaret, at 10 months, is in her "Tupperware phase". I don't understand it. Buy all the toys you want... but give any baby their choice between a Baby Einstein toy and a low drawer filled to the brim with Tupperware.... They'll go for the Tupperware.

This baby girl can now wave, say "mama", pull herself to standing, feed herself, and make motor noises when playing with her brother's car collection. She also has two teeth. Wow!

Fasnacht is Here!

This year, William wanted to be a "mean pirate" for Fasnacht. But this very mean pirate also wanted to have a "mama pirate", a "dada pirate", and a "baby Margaret pirate"...so several pirate outfits were purchased!

The Fasnacht celebrations here are somewhat equivalent to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The celebrations last several days, with lots of parades, lots of music, and lots of people wandering around the town in costume! At midnight, before Ash Wednesday begins, the parties - which officially begin on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11:11am and reach their frenzied peak on "Schmotzger Dunschtig" ( Fat Thursday) -stop.

Speaking of "Schmotzger Dunschtig"...this is a time of year when our language comprehension plummets. Everyone starts speaking dialect and for us, well, we might as well forget it and have another drink.