Anika's Kinderland Birthday!

On February 25th we celebrated our little Miss Anika's 2nd birthday at Kinderland with her friends. Kinderland is a super place for children of all ages. Anika and her friends had a great time playing and climbing on anything they could possibly climb and play on. There were ride on toys, a giant maze, a climbing wall, giant Legos and many other fun filled activities and toys. Lexi brought her friend EV and they were quite daring and went on the bungee ride. We had a great time, oh and so did the kids:) The pictures tell most of the story.

Anika towards the end of the party, completely exhausted. The party theme was centered around Elmo, of course! It is all about Elmo and Dora the Explorer follows closely behind. John made the Elmo cake. Great job Dad!

Lexi and her friend EV. EV is Ellie's sister, who is Anika's buddy.

Daddy and the Birthday Girl. Alexander was exhausted just from watching.




Our daring young girl on the flying trapeze!


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Anika with her friend Lily! Lots of fun play time.
Beth and Irene!


Deborah and Ellie! Ellie overwhelmed. Lily climbing away. Beth & Gabi.



Let's eat cake! Jeff, Irene, Lily and Brian. Gabi enjoying the cake.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! After some time of playing we fed the girls some sugar, I mean cake. Anika opened her presents and received some wonderful gifts. Beautiful outfits, puzzles and even an Elmo Magna Doodle Water Mat. Very cool. After presents we sent the girls off to work of that sugar rush, before going home. We had so much fun and are so glad our friends could join us in celebrating such a special occasion. Thanks so much Deborah, EV, Ellie, Irene, Jeff, Lily, Beth, Gabi and Brian for sharing Anika's special day with us. Berni, Jon and Caiti we know you were their with Anika in spirit and you were greatly missed. Thanks Guys!

A visit from MomMom and PopPop

Today we sadly said our good-bye's to my Mom and Dad. We had such a great visit with them. My Mom was out for 2 weeks and my Dad joined us a week after my Moms arrival. My Dad had a very long and tiring 7 day conference in Saarbrucken. Hours of listening to someone monotonously translating through headphones, so needless to say my Dad was glad to join us. It was the first time my Dad met his one and only Grandson so it was very exciting for all.

The first week of my Mom's visit we just relaxed. We went for some walks when the weather was behaving and even when it wasn't. We played board games, a lot of Phase 10. I took my Mom to play with my Bunco group and we had a great time. She said it was very different from her group and how they play. It is interesting how each group does things differently. I always like getting new ideas. Lexi and MomMom spent a lot of time playing "beauty salon" styling each others hair. Lexi AKA; Linda the hair stylist.

When my Dad arrived we did pretty much the same as week one and just hung out with the kids, played cards and went on a few walks. On Anika's Birthday we went down to the Bodensee, but it was raining pretty much nonstop so we walked around a little bit had lunch and drove home. We were able to get a few good photos with the fabric streamers in the background in preparation for Fasching .

My Mom and Dad also helped out with our itinerary for our home leave back to the States. We knew we were going back for our 10 year anniversary in Cabo. Nearly 10 years ago on May 26th we were married in Cabo San Lucas and agreed that we would spend our 10 year anniversary in Cabo. It is also my parents 6oth birthday, they were both born on May 25th of the same year. My parents will also be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in June. At the end of April I will be celebrating my 40th. So the next couple of months will be about celebrations. Cabo is the place to do it since we will have many family members and friends their to join us. We will be their for 2 weeks and can't wait for some warm weather and sunshine.

In May my cousin Christina will be getting married and she is Greek and from the South so we will spend a week in Charleston for the, "Big, Fat, Greek, Southern Wedding". We can't wait to see the rest of the family. After that we will spend a few days in Pittsburgh and off to Cabo and a few more days in Pittsburgh and off to Baltimore. In Baltimore we will spend a week with John's family and can't wait to see everyone. We look forward to our visits. We are definitely going to keep busy and hope and pray that Anika and Alexander like to fly. We are so excited about our plans.

Thanks for the great visit Mom and Dad and with helping us out with our complicated itinerary which doesn't seem so stressful now. We can't wait to see you again. May will be here before we know it.

Celebrating Anika's Birthday with MomMom & PopPop

Happy Birthday Anika! Today Anika celebrated her 2nd birthday and how lucky were we to have MomMom and PopPop Rusling in town to celebrate such a special occasion. This is the first time we were able to celebrate one of our children's birthday's with any of the Grandparents or even a relative. It was a very nice and relatively quite birthday. I made Anika her traditional heart-shaped, chocolate birthday cake and we sang Happy Birthday, ate cake and opened some presents. Anika got a ride-on truck from MomMom and PopPop and the adorable Valentine's outfit that she is wearing in the picture above. PaPaw and MaMaw Waskiewicz gave her a Dora the Explorer big wheel and Great GrandMom Gehrman and Ed gave her an adorable Elmo outfit. We gave her an Elmo Barbie that came with a mini Elmo that sings. Mommy and Daddy also gave her some wooden food for her kitchenette. Big sister Lexi spent her own money on a puzzle for her little sister.


We took a couple of nice family photos. We tried to get a few photos sans the LBD's (little black doggies), but they just couldn't help being hams and wanting to be included. Happy Birthday to our precious little Anika, our little mousle!