Go to School Drunk Day

It was the last day of school for all the seniors at school yesterday... they now have a couple of months to "study" then they come back and take some tests.


So of course their last day of school (Thursday) was a big party. The school hosted a catered dinner for them that night; complete with wine and champagne. :)

Here in Germany the drinking laws are interesting...
- Age 14: You can drink if your parents buy it for you and if they are there when you drink it.
- Age 16: You can buy and drink beer and wine.
- Age 18: You can buy and drink whatever you want.

Sure, the school just fed kids alcohol, but this isn't the crazy part.

After the school-hosted-dinner these teenagers are then released out into Hamburg ...and off they go to the Reeperbahn. I'll just let you google Reeperbahn to get the full description. The kids are now on their own to party all night long...

P.S. My senior year of high school we went to Disneyland all night and ate churros and chicken nuggets. We rode it's a small world and took our picture with Mickey Mouse.

Anyways, we haven't gotten to the crazy part yet.

The following morning the kids, who have been out all night long drinking, return to school with the rest of the sober students who are going to class. Now you have loud, hung over teenagers acting stupid, "cool", and obnoxious in the sames halls that my kindergartner is going through.

It was pretty dumb. I don't get it. I'm just glad Michaela has a few more years before I have to tell her that there is no way on earth she's going to the Reeperbahn. :)

Fur meine Deutsch Ingrid...

Ich bin am Kurs zwei mit meine Deutsch stunde. Jetzt ich bin awesome!

Das wetter hier is mere varm.. Das ist gut weil ich gern in die sonne schlafen. :) Ich nur schalfe fur ein klein moment weil ich vier kinde habe.

Wie gehts ist Sophie und Buddy? Sind hubschr hunden. Ich bin glucklich fur deine hunden.

Mochtest du lebensmittle auf Deutchland? Spaghetti? Kein fleish bitte. Ich darf nicht fleish nach Kalifornia habe. Der hund auf die flughafen ist sehr intelligent!!

Fur mir schriebe ist nicht einfach. Ich brauchte immer frage, "Wie schribt man das?" Aber Ich weiB klein worten

Wann ich spreche ich frage, "Wieherholen Bitte, Langzon, und meine lieblings ist, "Entschulagen meine Deutch ist hasslich. Wie ist deine English?"

Ich habe Deutch stunde morgen am morgen. :)

Tschus! Schon tag!

Sushi Sundays

Our family is going through a Sushi phase.

We even involved Scotty's friend who also loves sushi. (PS. Scotty is the only one who does NOT eat sushi. We even tried to make hot dog sushi for him... nope)

We've made sushi a few times now (on Sundays) and we are getting pretty good at it. :)

We have even found a "Sushi Bar" that we call the Sushi Train because the sushi goes around on little plates that are on a little conveyor belt. It's cute... and yummy. :)

Happy is the only one who eats the slobbery sushi, the rest of us are happy with fake crab, avocados, and cucumbers. :) It's cute that the girls like it so much, maybe due to their "international life"... I can't image eating sushi in our little town of Tracy, California.

Are there any "Sushi Trains" in Tracy yet mom?

Green Day...

A little late for St. Patrick's Day...

...but here it is.

Our Green Dinner.

Again, nobody celebrated St. Patrick's Day here, but again, I made the kids wear green to school. :)

Then I was told that Americans will make a party out of anything.

Yep ...but I'm okay with that. :)

Here is Andrea with her green dinner. See her cucumbers? This is how she eats them... She's crazy... cute, but a little crazy. :)

April Fools Day

I'm sorry to disappoint this year. I didn't try and do anything mean on the blog, but I was too busy and more worried about trying to pull off tricking my kids.

I've seriously used up every super awesome trick I had and this year I went to bed on March 31st NOT knowing how I was going to trick my kids the next day. It was a little stressful!

I decided to trick Scotty with plastic, fake food in his lunch like I did to Sierra once. Scotty was not impressed. He was irritated at me because, "I used a minute up of his eating time." Sorry Scott. :)

I was really quite stressed about dinner. I ALWAYS make food that really isn't what it looks like. I was so desperate I searched online for hours about what I could do to my poor kids. I really had done everything I read about. :(

Then I came up with a great idea. Candy Hot Dogs. :)

I got the Danish hot dog buns that are like long cups... I filled them with candy and put a small piece of hot dog in the top. :)

I had envisioned the kids finding the candy and dumping it out onto their plates and THEN eating it, but they actually left the candy in the bun and ate it with the bread... just like it was a regular hot dog. Ewww..... I didn't think tic-tacs, pez, smarties, baby m&ms, gummy bears, and nerds would taste very good with the bread.

I also colored some water red and they thought it was kool-aid.

The kool-aid trick made Scotty 10% happy.
The hot dog trick made Scotty 100% happy.

Scotty is learning about percentages in class and so he always tells me what percentage happy something makes him... :)

For anyone wanting to trick their kids: If something looks yummy and sugar filled and ends up being boring and healthy it's not as fun as if it's the other way around. :)

So we ate candy hot dogs and drank red water. Paul missed out, he was away... :(

Sierra tricked Michaela by ringing the doorbell and making her get it. Sierra also made an "fried egg" out of melting a piece of cheese. :) I'm creating little monsters. :)

Recycle Queen

This is just for Ingrid... Not German Ingrid in California, but Swedish Ingrid in England... :) (I'll do one just for you later German Ingrid...)

I have started recycling ...everything!! :)

They do have glass and paper bins along the side of some roads, but then you have to squish your paper into a tiny hole which drives me insane because my hands freeze before I'm half way done. ...so I have been driving 15 minutes out of my way so I can go to the recycling center and throw my paper and glass in the appropriate dumpsters.

I have been very good at recycling paper and glass, but that's it. I haven't recycled plastic anythings... However, I don't ever use disposable paper plates, cups or utensils so I figured I was about even. :)

BUT I had a my American neighbor over and she told me about these great yellow bags you can fill with all your plastic recyclables and someone will come pick them up every two weeks. I thought I'd try it because I AM going through five liters of recyclable milk containers a day, and my plan was to just do milk and juice containers... and it sounded easy enough.

Then I went to a friends house and saw that their entire garbage can was for recycling and they had a smaller one for the "non recyclables". I doubted it would work, but I tried.

I put a big yellow plastic recyclable bag in our main trash can and started yelling at everyone every time they put regular garbage in it. Sierra made me a sign to help. :) (It's not broccoli, it's a tree)

It worked! I was surprised that I have such a small amount of "trash". ...mostly food and diapers. :)

Then I asked the lady downstairs to help me order a paper recycling container so I don't have to haul that anywhere either! WHOO HOOO! I told you I'm a recycling QUEEN!

I have even changed our small downstairs bathroom into the "Recycling Center" of the house. I keep all the paper and plastic bags in there until it's time to take them to the curb. It's not as bad as loading it all in my car. Now the only thing I need to take into the recycling center is glass, and I can handle that. :)

So Ingrid? Are you super proud of me??! You should come over and we'll go out to dinner to celebrate how environmentally friendly I am.

Tomorrow...

I've been a pretty bad blog writer this last week... again. Who reads this anyways? :)

I have been rocking under the table this past week, but today is supposed to be 20 degrees C; not sure what that is in F, but whatever it is it's sunny and warm so I'll write tomorrow when the rain comes...