Our week

We had a lazy weekend since the weather has been rainy for days. We did go out for a traditional dinner at a brewery. On the way there we found some great places for Max to test out his bike - a cool curvy playground and a street ramp which scared Momma to death. In the brewery there was a group of guys on a bachelor party. In the video you can see a really tall tube which is filled with beer. They bring this to your table and you can serve yourself! After our dinner we came home and built our first fire since it was cold and rainy outside. Unfortunately we could not get the smoke to go up the chimney. We tried everything and ended up totally smoking up the house. Day later everything still smells like a campfire. We called the landlord on Sunday to figure out what was wrong and found out there is an exhaust fan for the chimney that has to be turned on so we made another fire and turned on the exhaust. unfortunately this time the exhaust didn't work. So we smoked up the place again. After checking breakers and getting into the wall where the exhaust switch is Stephan finally got it working and we enjoyed our first fire without smoke billowing into the room and burning our eyes!

Stephan's birthday was yesterday. He is traveling for work so we had a little celebration on Monday night before he left. I had planned on hidng a few gifts in his suitcase but Max told him that we had presents in his suitcase so we just opened them early.

Max stayed at school for 3 hours on his own yesterday and ate lunch with the kids. He said he didn't want to stay for lunch but when I got there he was happily eating his chicken nuggets and potato smiley faces. It was a good day for him to stay. Today they are having cauliflower soup. We'll see how that goes over!

I took the time to do a little shopping - it goes so much faster alone! I also finally set up hair appts for Stephan and myself. Stephan goes on Monday and I go on Weds so if Stephan's is terrible then I can cancel! I basically have just been looking at salons as I walk around town and seeing who is in there getting their hair cut. The place I picked looked kind of modern and had relatively young clients in there. So no real basis for the choice but it is all I have to go on.

Our car has arrived in Hamburg! Stephan is traveling this week so he will fly into Hamburg on Thurs evening. Max and I are going to make a big (6 hour)train adventure and arrive there Thurs afternoon. Stephan's dad is going to pick us up and then go get Stephan. On Friday Stephan and his dad are going to get the car (we are not really sure what all that involves) while Max, Oma Dagmar and I join Stephan's sister Sabine and her 2 boys at a circus! Sounds like we got the better end of that deal. Then we'll visit with Stephan's mom and on Sunday we will go with the cousins again to an indoor playground - probably something like the Jumping Bean. So we have a really great weekend planned and are really excited.

On another note, Max has started sleeping with the lights on so I bought a super cool night light for him and we tried it out last night. It is a little orange man. Will post a pic soon.