Playtime

Cora is digging toys these days. 

She loves rattles and things that make noise.  Every day for nap and bedtime she listens to her Kuschelbär sing before she goes to sleep.  She is loving to try to grasp and suck on everything.

The kids kept talking about these "biscuits" that they wanted.  It took us quite a while to figure out what they were talking about.  Turned out that they were Lidl "Stickees."

I think they got the name from vaguely remembering that I called them toys with "suction cups" last year...and they remembered it as "biscuits."   Scott even homemade American biscuits with them to make sure they knew what real biscuits are. :)

Robby - in case you are wondering - 

Yes, Timmy and Aaron did have a little help choosing that name for their Stickee. :)

Happy Easter!

 The Timmers had us all over for an Easter garden party.  The party was scheduled to start at 3.  Ironically, it rained from 2:45 until 4:45.   We had a great time anyway egg hunting in their home, and eating delicious cake outside under the porch roof.

There were also presents!  It was like Christmas!

Imagine this little cutey in her new Spring dress.  Darling!

There's a big to-do in Aachen these days.  The "Heiligtumsfahrt" will be in June this year.  This is the year (happens every 7) for the pilgrims to come and see the relics in the Aachen Dom, which are on display only every 7 years.  Normally they are in a gold shrine on the altar at the Dom.

"The Marienschrein contains the four great Aachen relics: St. Mary's cloak, Christ's swaddling clothes, St. John the Baptist's beheading cloth and Christ's loincloth. Following a custom begun in 1349, every seven years the relics are taken out of the shrine and put on display during the Great Aachen Pilgrimage." -Wikipedia

The Moss Bakery Display for "KarlsJahr"

Karl the Great, or Charlemagne, is the one who made Aachen famous, by retiring in Aachen and building his palace and Cathedral here.   His remains were buried here.  Now they are encased in a shrine in the choir.  94 of the 206 bones anyway, those that were kept, and not given away to other cathedrals to increase their fame, as the case most likely is.

The Barefoot Park in Bossum Netherlands with Macha