Nu har våren kommit

Efter en väldigt hektisk dag med shopping på aldi, Toys r us och Obi kan jag till slut endast konstatera att det blir en tidig kväll för min del. Jag är helt slut! Imorgon får det bli några fina bilder på det härliga vädret vi har - 22 grader! Inte helt fel för att vara mars.

Hello long weekend

When we rang in 2014 there was only one thing I wished for 2014 - more sleep. Obviously I should have wished for health. No health no sleep. 3 down one to go in this family, the one left obviously being me. The sickies are in the mend though. Bronchitis is nasty!

Four quick ones before we are hitting the long weekend,

• Barre concept - folks, do you remeber this great ballet, yoga/pilates workout from OC? I have finally found a course here in Cologne. Not bad but no where near as hard as in Cali. I will keep on taking it for a while though. Just down the road, very convenient.

• Tomorrow is my last Friday off before I am back to fulltime again. Feeling a little sad? Yes.  Stressed? YES.

• We are all in a spring mood here. We are expecting temperatures around 18-19 degrees here over the weekend. Everything is in full bloom and we´re loving it. Summer - hurry up, we cannot wait. We are going to the zoo tomorrow - did you know that when you give birth in Cologne you get a welcome package from the council which among others include a free yearly pass for one adult to the zoo? Pretty great huh.

• We finally found a child minder for Olivia. FINALLY. You have no idea how messed up the system is here when it comes to childcare. I will blog about this separately. We still have a lot of question marks and we have nearly two months during July and August where we have no childcare but we´ll sort something out.

Sötsug

Hilfe, jag har ett fruktansvärt sötsug för tillfället. Kan i princip vräka mig i godis hela tiden. USCH.
Sedan hjälper det inte att vara ledig på fredagar och bo väldigt nära IKEA. Ni fattar va? SMÅGODIS!!
Det är ju bara så mycket svenskt fredagsmys som det går. Och jag hade en väldigt svensk fredag. Tittade på Let´s dance, Nja, var ok. Kollade lite på Babsan. Men usch. Verkligen uruselt. Sen var det dags för Skavlan. YAY! Sannerligen en favorit.

Och till detta, ja, då var det bubbelvatten och smågodis som gällde.

Shop til`you drop

Yay, Saturday turned out to be a day I had been waiting for. Me. Shopping. In town. Alone.
First time in I don't know how long.

Ya!

I had the nerve to stay out for nearly four hours. You hear me, FOUR. And didn't phone home once.
(why should I? They have a great dad).

I had kind of an emergency. I was down to only one per of trousers for work. Fat pants are too big, my normal old collection - still a little tight.  So that was my mission yesterday.

Managed to pay my favourite shop a little visit too. Prego. They have the best, BEST shoes. Expensive, yes, but comfortable and last forever. Seriously, I buy 90% of my shoes there and even after a couple of winters they look new. Now THAT is good (Italian) quality.

The shopping experience is improving in the city. More individual shops popping up again. For a while all I could see was Zara, H&M, Esprit... Yesterday I noticed there is a Vagabond shop, popped in to COS, Urban Outfitters..Scotch & Soda..Variety is the key!

Last time we managed to squeeze in a date night too. When to this fancy new Japanese place and enjoyed some yummy food. You order the food via an ipad. Japanese is definitely a favourite. Seems like I can eat enormous amounts of it without ending up in a food coma.

Runt Bayerkorset i Leverkusen

Ja, i söndags gjorde jag något så galet som att springa stafett. STAFETT. Ja hörrni, ni läste rätt.
 Vi var fyra lag, varje lag bestående av fyra medlemmar, och vi sprang 2,5 km vardera. Puh.

Nu kanske någon sitter och tänker, 2,5 km är inte så farligt?

Ha. Försök och spring - inte jogga -  2,5 km så snabbt du kan. Ojoj vad det var jobbigt. Jag tror att jag har varit ute och sprungit 3 ggr sedan Olivia föddes. En av de tre gångerna var i lördags. Jag var ju tvungen att se till att jag verkligen kunde springa 2,5 km, inte en självklarhet nu för tiden.

Men nu är det avklarat.  Jag sprang i mål med pinnen i handen. Blev visserligen omsprungen hur många gånger som helst av BARN men ja, lagets resultat låg under en timme så vi får väl godkänt:)

Recovering

...from carnival. Imaging that huh! Can`t see another doughnut for a while Yep, doughnuts are traditional carnival snack.Had way too may this year.

One day after the official end and exactly one week after the official kick off - carnival is now over.

We went as cowboys, I have to remember to sort out more than one costume next year. The third time I had to put that western dress on and I was a tad fed up with it. Just a bit. Did I tell you that everyone dresses up? Yes. even at the supermarket. Everyone.
Emily went as Pippi to the carnival party at the kindergarten. She was Pippi and a cowgirl every second day.

On carnival Saturday we went to watch the parade in Bensberg. We were lucky -just as it was over it started raining. The Sunday turned out to be THE highlight, in Brück. A friend lives on the street where the parade starts and the weather turned out to be pretty gorgeous, nice and sunny. We ended up with about 5 bags full of sweets, flowers and soft toys. We gave our neighbours a bag each. Gave away more next day to friends. And brought some to work. After watching the third parade this year, our local one on Rosenmontag, we felt both tired and sore Tuesday morning. Dancing, catching sweets, being busy bees in general.

Here we have a bit of a photo bomb

Emily as Pippi - she had SO much fun


  Waiting for the parade in Bensberg to start




Olivia got to dress up too!


Last wagon with the "Dreigestirn" - the farmer, the virgin and the prince 




 Strüssje


Caught all the soft toys (not the big white one). Emily gave each of them a kiss.
Plenty of sweets!


We are enjoying the parade in Brück


Our wagon with supplies; pretzels, beer, sparkling wine, Emily and also a pink horse:)

Below is the main street in our village. Waiting for the parade to start.