Happy Easter!!

Here in Germany, Easter is a 4 day weekend because both Friday and Monday are observed holidays. Since Esther and Olaf don't work on those days, I don't have to either. In fact, Esther was absolutely surprised to see that I was even awake on Friday morning. I set my alarm as usual, got up, and walked Amelie in the field just like any other day. We hadn't really discussed it, and I wasn't sure what they were going to be expecting of me, so I figured it would be best to stay on the safe side and pretend it was a typical Friday.

Since there really wasn't anything for me to do (I had no work and there was no place to go because everything was closed for the holiday) I spent the afternoon in the garden with Esther and the kids. At first I was just playing with Amelie and helping the kids clean up the 3 million toys they have in their sandbox, but when they decided they wanted to ride their bikes instead I started helping Esther with the weeding. I love gardening, and I really look forward to helping Esther with it this spring and summer.

Günther and Silke showed up Friday afternoon as well and stayed until about 3 this afternoon to celebrate Easter with us. They were responsible for Amelie most of the weekend, and since they didn't have much to do and sometimes get bored, Amelie got a lot of outdoor time over the past few days. Right now she's limping from her right front limb, so hopefully that will go away soon. We'll see over the next few days how she's doing.

Yesterday was kind of a busy day. There wasn't necessarily anything important going on, it was just activity filled. Esther had bought a new waffle iron in January to make what they call Piepkuchen, which is the thin wafer-like waffles used to make waffle cones. She opened it up and we made those for the first time yesterday. The recipe she used was one from her great aunt, who she used to make Piepkuchen with regularly (but that was over 20 years ago), and Esther quickly recalled how her aunt used to spend all day making these things. The recipe produces like a gallon of batter. It was fun, even though it was a lot of work and time, and we all sat around to eat them with vanilla ice cream, cherries, and whipped cream. The kids especially loved it. Later in the afternoon, Olaf and the kids dyed Easter eggs together. They only made 14 eggs, and nothing fancy (the kids are too young to care about anything more than the basic old-school egg dyeing method). Gustav was really excited about it, though. Pauline didn't seem to care too much, but Gustav watched the eggs intently and was really impatient to take them out and look at them. I haven't dyed Easter eggs in over 3 years, so I had a good time with it, too.

This morning, after the kids were all dressed and ready, Olaf brought them upstairs to play while "the Easter Bunny" hid the eggs in the garden. Silke and Esther scattered the eggs about, along with chocolates, amongst the flowers and plants in the garden while I wrapped a couple of gifts for the kids. They each got a book and a Playmobil figure. It started to rain just as I was about to put the gifts in the garden, so I had to hide them on the patio instead so they would stay dry. I finished just as the kids came downstairs and saw that the Easter Bunny had been there. We put their shoes and jackets on them, gave them each a basket, and sent them into the garden to find the eggs. At first Pauline didn't even recognize that there were chocolates with the eggs; she was taking eggs and leaving the chocolate behind. What was really nice is that neither of them fought over who had more, or who saw what first. In fact, Gustav found 2 eggs right next to each other (one under the flower he planted on Friday and one under the flower Pauline planted yesterday) and called Pauline over to make sure that she got the one that was meant for her. It was so cute.

Once all of the eggs had been collected and the gifts opened, we sat down for a nice Easter breakfast featuring the beautifully dyed eggs. Pauline dove right into the chocolate, of course, but luckily they both ate real food along with their candy. After breakfast everyone kind of just relaxed and did their own thing (except for the cooking and cleaning up that Esther and Olaf had to do) until around 2 or 3 when we sat down for lunch. Esther made a delicious lamb roast with potatoes and a salad. And, since we start our fast first thing tomorrow morning, we made sure we ate everything today. I laid down on the sofa after lunch, and Pauline came over and sat next to me on my pillow. She rolled my head over toward her while saying, "Komm mal hier," (come here) and then she started petting my head. It was so adorable and sweet, I wish someone else had seen it.

After Silke and Günther left we all headed into the woods to take Amelie for a walk. We took the kids' little bikes with us so they would be entertained (not to mention faster). It started to rain pretty hard while we were there, so we didn't stay too long. It was nice to get the fresh air and get out of the house a little, though.

Tomorrow is still a holiday, and I'm pretty sure Esther and Olaf will both be at home, so it should be another easy day. That's good, since it's the first day of our fast and I'm not really sure what to expect since I've never done one before. We'll soon find out just how horribly my body will react to this.