I am back and starting off with Ivy's 2nd Birthday

Sorry I have been slacking on my blog.  One of my New Years Resolutions was to keep up with my blog and well I am off to an awful start. I have been learning how to better organize my time and schedule ( another resolution) so hopefully I can do more things like blog, knit, and read.  I apologize for the long delay but I promise I will do a better job.  Being  a stay at home mom is harder then one thinks. Yes, I hear it from a lot of people how hard can it be when Ivy goes to day care 3 days a week.  Think what you want, its only 6 hours a day, 3 days a week.  I don't have a car, and I am in a foreign city and doing my best and I am happy with how things are going and that is all that counts.
Enough excuses, lets get to the good stuff.  So as you all know Ivy turned 2 on February 13th.  I can't believe my little peanut is 2 already!!!  Where did the time go??  She had , well a 3 day celebration.  I tried to make her day special, but all it did was pour here as it does in the winters in Germany. We made the best of it and she had fun but we got soaked!!  Her and I spent the day in town doing some of what she loves.  If it were not raining we were to go to her favorite park.  Instead, we went to town and watched the fishes in the underground part of the market. She enjoyed a pretzel and had fun shopping with me.  Before getting on the bus we stopped and got a balloon for her.  Balloons are her favorite.  Then after her nap we painted and played until Kevin got home.  We had what I would call an Ivy hodgepodge dinner.  A hodgepodge of  all her favorite foods and we finished it off with chocolate  ( no cake since she was getting cake Friday and Saturday).  Then we opened gifts and played and let her stay up late.  I baked a cake for school.  Friday they had a little party for her.  Her tagesmutter made her a crown.  They sang songs, she blew out a candle , and they ate cake.  I got to see some pictures from it and she looked so happy and like she had so much fun.  Then on Saturday we had a little party at our house for her.  I have read that parties are not for the kids at 2 years old they are for the parents and family members.  I wanted to do something special for her and I wanted her to have a good time.  She loves being around other children and I knew that more then anything that is what would make her happy.  So Kevin and I decided we would brave it out and invite 5 children to our apartment.  We had a good turn out and had 4 out of 5.  We warned the other tenants of the building prior and I may be wrong but I think we were the only ones in the building that day.  There are only 3 other apartments but I think we scared everyone off for the day.  Any way, I didn't do the typical American theme party, or a structured party.  After all, it was a 2 yr old birthday.  I invited what I would call her best friend from school. Her name is Laya.  I hope to get some pictures from her mom and share them with you at a later date if possible.  Kevin and I were so busy we could only get a few pictures.  Any way, I let the kids have free play until 3 (party was 2-5).  I played kinder musik in the background.  At 3 we ate snacks. We did family style since they all ate at Ivy's little table. I had a plate of veggies and cheese, and a plate of fruit and butter crackers. Oddly, the veggies went first , then the cheese and crackers and only a little bit a fruit.  Smart kids!!!  Here are some pics of them sitting around the table eating!!! Ivy decided to wear her crown while she ate.

The little girl sitting next to Ivy is Laya.  They are just the cutest .  Her mother (Jen) and I are planning on getting together one afternoon with the girls and get coffee. Jen is going to show me some real German culture and I am very excited about this.  After snack , They had a few minutes of free time while everyone finished up eating. Then I decided to do a simple game with them to keep them busy.  The first game we did was dancing ( Tanzan) all the kids loved this and had a blast.  I would put on music and when I stopped it they were to freeze.  The kids who stopped and froze got stickers.  They all really enjoyed it and even the parents got in on the dancing.  Here are a few pics from that.  

Then we played one other final game.  I made some fish out of construction paper and put paperclips on the end of them.  I took a wooden dowel rod and attached a butterfly magnet we had to it.  They had to catch a fish. The fish had a number on it.  That number matched a prize.  They fished until they caught one and then their turn was over.  Everyone of course got a prize. They all really enjoyed it.  

Here is a picture of my little cutie taking a break from all the fun to get some water and some fruit!!

Sadly, Kevin and I were so busy during the cake time that we didn't get a picture of the cake ( I made it all from scratch even decorated it myself).  We also missed pics of her blowing out the candle as she went so fast she didn't give Kevin a chance.  Laya's mom says she has 2 ok pics from her phone and she would email them.  Assuming I get any videos/pics from her I will eventually post them.  Ok, well its late and I need to get to bed. I have decided one of the reasons I got so behind on posting was I wanted to keep you all up to date.  That was impossible when I just didn't post as much.  So if I get behind I will just move forward from that point instead of going backwards with things.  I think that will be easier. Since I started off with Ivy's birthday and I don't have anything at this point to share.  I will go back and post about Strasbourg next.  Before Ivy turned 2 we took a last minute trip to Split, Croatia.  I will post about that also.  I will try to get these two posts out in the next few days.  I hope you enjoyed this and I will do my best to stay on top of things this time. 

Helsinki

Well, I figured it would only be appropriate for me to go ahead and post about Helsinki as we just got back from Strasbourg France tonight.  I did download all my pictures this evening so I should have no excuse but to keep up on my posts.  Well, Kevin had a holiday the first weekend of October so we went to Helsinki for 3 nights.  We had a wonderful time.  The first day we arrived at our Hotel a little after 4pm.  We stayed in the radisson blu plaza hotel.  It was a great location and it was very close to the train station.  We had breakfast included and our room was very nice, very modern.

 So we only had time to walk around for a few hours and find dinner.  It was a long day so we were all tired.  They only really cute shot I got from our first day was a picture of Ivy on this turtle statue in the harbor.

The second day we took a ferry over to the Island where the castle was and toured that for the better part of the day.  Some of my pictures are from the boat and some are on the Island.  

Then we went to The Lutheran Church 

While Kevin and I carried Ivy in the stroller up the many stairs, mine phone fell out of my pocket and fell down on one stair.  The screen is destroyed.  We thought it was ironic as Nokia is made in Helsinki!!!

Then we just walked around the town and found a quick place to eat.  The next day was quite busy.  Next to the hotel was (if I remember correctly as its been a month now) the national theater. I think it was originally the opera house and when they built the new one it became the national theater.  They were closed but some nice gentlemen was very nice and gave us a private tour. The first picture is of Ivy at the hotel before we left.

Then we went to the amazing rock church.  If you ever go to Helsinki you have to see this.  My pictures just don't even come close to how beautiful this church is!!!

Then We went to the Helsinki National Museum and learned a lot about Finland history which we found very interesting!!!  

 We stopped by the current Opera house but there was a show going on so we really couldn't get pictures.

 One of my favorite things we did was visit the Olympic stadium.  I loved the track and field since I did that in highschool.  

These pictures are taken at the top of the tower where the Olympic torch was.

 The Olympic torch 

At the end of the day we went to this fabulous restaurant that served Lappi food , which is a region in the northern part of Finland.  If you ever go to Helsinki its a must.  Send me a message and I will look up the restaurant.  I can't remember the name at this moment but I have the maps and its listed on there. Well, I will try to post in the next few days. I have a lot to get you up to date on!!!!

Just a little cuteness!!!

Well I apologize for not posting in 3 weeks.  Things have been very busy here on my end.  We went to Helsinki and right before our trip I spent 3 days running around getting all the things Ivy needed for daycare.  Here they play outside even when its wet, not raining but yes wet.  So I had to buy her rubber pants, rain boots, and coat.  A few other items we did not already own that the daycare required. Then we went to Helsinki and had a fabulous time.  We got back and she started daycare.  They required that she go a few hours every day to start for 2 weeks until she was comfortable with them and her surroundings , plus they required I come for a few days and sit in a chair and be there for her if she needed me.  Needless to say, this ate up some of my time and any free time was spent running around doing my errands, grocery shopping etc.  In addition to this Ivy got sick at the end of her first week then this week I was sick.  So we have been busy but things should be settling down and I should be able to catch up over the next few days before we take our next small trip this weekend to Strasbourg France.  Kevin has a holiday on Friday so we are going for a nice short relaxing visit to France.  Before Helsinki I had said I was going to do a post on some really cute pictures of Ivy.  Since I haven't even thought about downloading my Helsinki pictures just yet, I will go ahead and start with this post.  In the next day or two you can expect a post on Helsinki followed by a post on what we have been up too.  We have had a lot of fun times and fun activities I am sorry to that I am behind on sharing but I will share and you will not miss out.  I promise!! So I bought a robe for myself when I went shopping a few weeks ago. It was the same time when I bought Ivy her clothes.  Well, she decided she liked my robe a lot and it reminded me that we have a robe for her.  It was a hand me down from a girl at work.  Its almost too small now, but Ivy loves it.  She has to have it on right after her bath and she wears it with her pajama pants until bed time when we put her top on.  She is just the cutest and is so proud of her robe!!!

Kevin and Ivy frequently get on the Nation Geographic site and look at lions.  It is one of her favorite evening activities.  They don't do it every night but she does look forward to looking at lions with her daddy. Here are two really cute pictures of them on the computer watching the Serengeti  lions./

Right before we went to Helsinki, I finally got up the nerve to get a few highlights and a new haircut.  I like the style and the color.  I only had them do a few foils in the top nothing too crazy but I do like how it turned out. 

 Finally, it was a cool day outside, but Kevin was determined to sit outside to do some work. He wore his chef pants from Phillips, his polish slippers, his cardigan in which we refer to as the grandpa sweater, and his Scottish looking hat from LandsEnd.  I just had to share with you his style!!!!

If all goes well tomorrow and Ivy isn't still sick, she isn't eating much, is congested and has a low grade fever, Then I will post either tomorrow or Tuesday about our Helsinki trip!!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I will be in touch soon!!!