Polish Pottery Trip

Friday,the 20th of November, me and a bunch of girls ( 10 to be exact) set off to go to Boleslawiec, Poland. This polish city is worldfamous for georgious handmade pottery. I wanted to go there so bad for the last 2 years, basically since I first got introduced to the beauty of polish pottery by a friend of mine. Finally, 3 weeks before the movers come to pack our stuff, I got to go.
It took us about 6,5 hours driving to get there.It was so nice just to have girlie conversations, giggles and laughs,which made the drive go by quick and set just the right mood for the weekend.When we arrived in Boleslawiec( it was still shopping time), we headed straight to the first pottery store and boy , we were overwhelmed by the variety, colours and patters of the pottery. It was perfect to get an idea what is out there. Unfortunately it made us sleepless that night aswell, just to try and figure out what to get. Cer Far closed and off we went to find our hotel The Blue Beetroot. It was such a nice and cozy place to stay. The rooms were great, the food delicious and the price was not to be beaten.( which made the trip even better)

We were such a fun group of girls. I have not met any of them( exept my friend Kimber)before, but it was so nice and easy to get to know eachother a little besides the main goal of pottery shopping.I had agreat time with them. Unfortunately we are leaving Germany in a little while, which will make it difficult to get together with them again :(
This was the crew

Nicole, Kathy, Kara, Lexi, Teina, Noelle, Heather
Vicky, Verena and Kimber
Saturday morning the serious shopping started. Some of those girls were definately pro´s in polish pottery.The pattern that I had seen online beforehand that I really liked didn´t come in dinner plates, which made me decide to go with random pieces in different patterns. It was so much fun to just mix and match everything. And everything looks so good together.
Here are just some pictures of different shops.There was sooo much to see( and buy ;) )

We all got some good shopping done and it was so interessting what everybody else bought and how different everyones taste is.

We were basically done shopping at 4 pm,went back to the hotel where we all had appointments for massages, pedicures, footmassages.....

I can´t say all of us made it back in time. One car decided to get a deeper impression of Poland by getting introduced to the polish police ;)
Lexi got back to the hotel, carrying a speeding ticket in her pocket, and was called "the polish road pirate "for the rest of the trip, which we all got a good laugh out of, thanks to Lexi!!!!

Road Pirate Lexi

We all enjoyed the massages, some wine and unwrapping the pottery. Felt a little like christmas.

We all went from room to oom to inspect what everyone else had gotten. There was some serious pottery talking going on til late that night.
It felt so good to have this girl trip. I got to meet new people, spend a bunch of time with my friend Kimber and bought beautiful pieces of pottery.

( They will always remind me of a great weekend) Eventhough we didn´t sleep a lot, we returned home Sunday refreshed, pampered and ready to take over the mommy job again.
Thanks to you Ricky, for letting me enjoy these 3 days and for doing a great job with the little ones. i missed you all but this was much needed to recharge my batteries. I´m going to be more relaxed, the house will be cleaner, the meals better..... for at least the next week or so ;)......

I love my pottery !!!!

Germs ;)

Ok, today is a very special day. Not only, cause I get to blog 2 nights in a row, no, finally, we are all feeling much better after a very long exhausting month of health problems in our family. As you all know, Stella ran 105 fever for a long time, up to the point where we had to take her to the hospital to get treated. It was one of those experiences that you don´t need more than once ( I´m sure stuff like this will happen again). Worrying about my little girl, finding babysitters for Lucien( feeling bad for leaving him the main part of the day), taking turns with Ricky at the hospital, the lack of sleep and a pile of other things waiting in line to do, made this actually one of our biggest challenges as a family so far.
I´m still amazed about what you are able to handle if you really need to.
On top of Stellas 1st infection, she caught 2 more while staying at the hospital. One was the famous Noro virus, which unfortunately got passed on to Ricky and then to me. Words can not describe how much we worried about Lucien getting it,knowing how rough it was on us. We were almost excited once we figured out that he had only come down with `just`a pretty bad cold and major teething problems.
This little man is 9 months old, today and still, there is no single tooth cut. Nevertheless he is chewing down whatever I feed him: Bread( the german kind), noodles, rice, bananas....and he loves it.While still at the hospital with Stella , we decided on Ricky taking the nightshifts there cause Lucien was still nursing at night and early mornings. Well, this is history aswell. Once I came down with the virus, we had to go cold turkey from nursing and had to whean him within 24 hours( Poor baby). I felt so bad about it, but there was no other way we could have done it.Thank god, I had given him his first bottle ever a couple days before, just to try it for an emergency at the hospital. Who would have known.....
We are still recovering from a crazy last month but we are felling better each day. We simply have to be better now, otherwise there is no way we can keep up with our tight schedule until the move( the movers are loading our stuff in only 30 days, AHHHHHHHH!!!!!)
That was definately enough sickness to talk about. Stay tuned for stories about the craziness of an international move, they will be on their way shortly.

St Martin

Traditionally, the 11th of November is St Martins Day in Germany.
All over Germany, reinactings of the story of St Martin, who shared his coat with a needy man in the midst of a snowstorm to save him from dying in a dark and cold winters night( Thanks Kimber, I stole some of your wording ;)), take place.

The kids walk through the streets singing St Martins songs, carrying their laterns to bring light in the dark.
Stella got to make her own little lantern this year at kindergarten.She was so proud of it cause she had only one day to finish the job , due to her absence from kindergarten for such a long time ( I´m so thanksful that my little Stellamaus is finally feeling better) and it turned out pretty good.

I had a battery operated light stick for her, but no, Ms Stella wanted a REAL candle and she did great. We watched the Martins play in Neulussheim with lots and lots of people. Stella was mainly interested in the horse, which was part of the play. Afterwards the kids had Martinsbrezeln and enjoyed playing in the dark with their friends

Stella with her friends Lelia and Linea

This is the song telling the story of St Martin:
St. Martin

St. Martin, St. Martin, St. Martin ritt durch Schnee und Wind,
sein Roß, das trug ihn fort geschwind.
St. Martin ritt mit leichtem Mut,
sein Mantel deckt ihn warm und gut.

Im Schnee, da saß ein armer Mann,
hatt' Kleider nicht, hatt' Lumpen an:
"Oh helft mir doch in meiner Not, sonst ist der bitt're Frost mein Tod!"

St. Martin, St. Martin, St. Martin zieht die Zügel an,
sein Roß steht still beim braven Mann.
St. Martin mit dem Schwerte teilt
den warmen Mantel unverweilt.

St. Martin, St. Martin, St. Martin gibt den halben still,
der Bettler rasch ihm danken will.
St. Martin aber ritt in Eil
hinweg mit seinem Mantelteil.

INFO

Ok I DID post something new last night. You just need to scroll down a bit, cause when I started working on it,it was still October 26th. That´s why things are not in order here. Sorry about that.

Bath Tub Fun

just too cute

I love IKEA

Tonight, Stella and I had a girls night out and we went to IKEA. We had such a good time and it was so nice to get a chance just to focus on my little girl for a little while. First we checked out the new stuff they had and bought all kind of christmasy things, which we can´t use this year, due to the move. But we both agreed, it would be fun to have them next year .Then we will remember our shopping trip. I love the pre christmas season and it makes me a little nervous right now, that every day, our house gets more chaotic, instead of the usual coziness around this time of the year. I can´t decorate!!!!!!And that is a big thing for me. Ok, back to IKEA. After rolling together in beds, smelling all the different flavors of smelly candles, we found Lilly, the perfect match for her stuffed animal cat Rocky,which also came from IKEA at some point. It only cost 3 € and was so worth it seeing those cute blue eyes glow. We were heading to check out , when she said: Mami, we forgot to eat hotdogs. Fear in her face!!!!! I reminded her the food would be after the check out. We ate hotdogs and icecream and Stella made sure Mami would not forget to bring a hotdog for Daddy back home, oh, and we brought Lucien a tiny little stuffed mouse which can go with the cat of course!. While eating her icecream we headed to one of their kids corners and played memory for a long time.
That´s why I love IKEA, everything is in one place:
Exercise, we walked a long way( no shortcut), shopping( got everything I needed and more ;), entertainment, perfect kids food . Even when we waited in line to check out, which is usually bad,Stella found a little seat right next to me and had a ball watching the people.
We both had a ton of fun, no fussing needed. When we got in the car she said : Let´s hurry home to tell Lulu and Daddy all about it.
I really need to do this more often, not that she is missing any attention, but I guess sometimes it´s nice to be the center of attention, for all of us, right?
Good night

Luciens Baptism

OK, this event took place over a month ago. To be precise on the 11th of October. Those pics have been uploaded for weeks now, but all of us got so sick over the past weeks, there was not even time to think about blogging. We are still not 100% back in shape, but I thought I´ll give it a try tonight. So here we are. This was the crew after church. But lets start in order.Stella and I were busy decorating the house and baking Lucien and Daddy cakes, since it was Ricky´s birthday aswell. We had so much fun and were very pleased with our hard work

buttering the pan

our table decoration

Luciens candle, handmade at a convent in Speyer. Those nuns made our wedding candle and Stellas candle aswell. They did such a great job!

Lucien looked so handsome in his little outfit and didn´t mind wearing it at all.
Thanks to Flynni, he gave this outfit to Lulu after he wore it for his baptism and he is Rickys godchild, which puts a little extra meaning to it

Some of the crew met at our place and off we went to church

Waiting for the ceremony to start

I love this picture of Stella and Liam



5 kids got baptised and it was a little wild in church. Lucien just took it all in and actually had a real good time. He was being sooooo good

Lucien with his godparents Regine and Rainer
We spent the rest of the day with celebrating this great day and Rickys birthday by having a delicious lunch and coffee and lots of cake at our place with great people. Thanks to you all, you made it very special to us.

Yummy cake

Some party people

The kids had fun opening Luciens presents ( which, of course, he did´t mind either) and jumping one last time on the trampolin before we packed it for our move.
It was another and one of the last good parties at the Carmouche house, here in Neulussheim.