Grammy's Coming to Town!

In exactly one week, Grammy will be here for two weeks! We are THRILLED! Everyday around 11:30am (our time) and 5:30am (EST) we talk to my Mom on Skype. Savannah knows who she is and gets very excited every time she sees her face and hears her voice. This will be my Mom's first visit to Europe, "Biggest vacation of her life" I believe she said last week! We have lots of things planned, but most importantly spending as much time together is what I'm most excited about.

We will be visiting Brussels, Belgium Saturday, July 2nd through Monday, July 4th and staying at a vacation rental right in the Grand Place, the heart of Brussels. There is supposed to be a spectacular light show every night at the Grand Place!

We will also take Grammy to a few well-know castles within driving distance and enjoy shopping in the little towns. We'll visit the Rhine River which is about 10 minutes away and enjoy lunch at the Biebrich Palace. We'll show her our soon to be old house and take her on the walk/hike we do every day and look at the unbelievable view we had. Bring good walking shoes Mom! :)

We'll take her to the famous Farmer's Market in Downtown Wiesbaden on Saturday morning and make her try Bratwurst with Curry and Pommes aka french fries! We'll enjoy Savannah's favorite gelato several times so she can try lots of different flavors. We'll visit the pool a few days too. There is a really nice indoor pool just in case the weather doesn't cooperate! I'll introduce her to all our wonderful friends and their children. I'll take her to the Commissary, not that it will be that exciting but she can see where we grocery shop sometimes! :) We'll take her to Italian alley in Downtown Wiesbaden and enjoy delicious pizza and pasta dishes. We'll visit her ancestors winery, the Pfanabecker Winery, about 45 minutes away. Riesling is popular here, this is perfect because she really enjoys this type of wine! I'll teach her the few German phrases I know and have her practice! We'll get fresh chocolate croissants and pretzels at the bakery. Savannah will show her all her tricks. The latest is her dancing to Beyonce's new song, "Run the World"! Absolutely precious. The second the music starts she runs to her "stage" our ottoman, climbs on top and starts bouncing. And if there is anything in her way or one top of the ottoman it gets thrown to the side with no reservation.

We're ready for you Mom!!! I LOVE YOU and can't wait to hug you!!!
XOXOXO
Elizabeth

Savannah's Show!

Bite-sized

In Germany or maybe all of Europe everything is smaller, from the cars to the kitchen sink! All things are done in moderation and conserving energy is key; using less is more is the motto. Even our trash can is small so we have to take our extra trash bags to a dumpster on Base because they won’t all fit and you can’t pile them up next to the trash can like at home. The trash men won’t take them if they aren’t in the can and you will get fined. Hotel rooms are small. Our hotel room in Paris was lovely and cozy just a bit small. The lawn mower looks like a toy for Savannah that plugs into the electrical outlet. Our kitchen sink is unbelievable small with no garbage disposal, which I don’t think exist in Germany. I was literally shocked when I realized this! The refrigerator only fits food for a few days, which is nice because everything you buy is always super fresh and this makes for delicious meals. Although cooking in the small kitchen is different from cooking in a big American kitchen. The ovens are very tiny, I'm still trying to figure out how I’m going cook Thanksgiving dinner! Washer and dryers are very compact and take an extremely LONG time. For example, it takes about 5 hours to dry one load of laundry. This is no exaggeration, I promise. This is why all our friends take their laundry to the Base once a week and do like 7 loads at once using the American laundry machines. Right now we have an American washer and dryer but when we move we’ll have a German washer and dryer. Yikes! 

Seems like the only thing that is super-sized here is BEER! :) Something Rocky has enjoyed!

I have seen some of the smallest cars here too. One was so small it looked like the caboose that belongs on a child's train ride at the mall! This is also not an exaggeration.

There are no super big grocery stores like Giant or Safeway. They are all very small, like Trader Joe sized. I love this part about Germany. Big grocery stores are overwhelming to me, so our grocery, the Rewe is perfect and completely manageable. I have only seen one “all-in-one” store here, the Real, aka Wal-mart. They did build a Wal-mart here but it failed and went of business. There is a specific store for everything it seems.

Germany is very eco-friendly and energy conscious. They recently decided that all of their nuclear power plants will be shutdown by 2022. Renewable energy like wind and solar power is the future.

Gas is measured in liters not gallons, centimeters are used instead of inches, mileage is calculated in kilometers, and the temperature is read in Celsius not Fahrenheit. We’ve learned a few tricks to do the conversions faster.

We’ve been here a little over four months. Some days I love it and other days are more challenging. Everything is different from home, luckily we have access to the Base and that keeps us grounded. We’ve thankfully made great friends that we can trust and count on. That’s all for now!

Chow! XO

Elizabeth

Summer Vacation is Booked!

We are headed to the Canary Islands with our good friends Dieter, Tia and their two children Joseph who is four and Benjamin who is two. Our vacation will span 10 days over Labor Day weekend. The Canaries as they are called are a group of Spanish islands located off the coast of Africa, which is about a four hour flight. We will be staying on the Tenerife Island and renting the El Veril Del Duque villa with a pool and both sea and mountain views. We'll have our own kitchen and have more space rather than staying in a hotel.

I'm so excited to put my toes in the sand and see Savannah enjoy the beach!

Happy Birthday Savannah

We survived the first year, and Savannah has turned 1-year old! I feel like we are graduating and should be receiving some sort of award! Hehe :) This past year has been the most spectacular year of our lives. There have been highs and lows learning the ropes in our new life and now I think we have a handle on this parenting thing, well for now at least! :)

Savannah is a very happy and healthy 1-year old toddler! She is walking well and trying to talk by repeating everything we ask. She says, Mama, Dada, and even says “ruff, ruff, ruff” when we ask her what a doggy says. She loves ham, strawberries, peas, and avocado. She started at 8lbs 10.5 oz. and 22 1/4” long; now at 12 months she weighs 20.5lbs and is 31” long. Her hair has turned to a gorgeous strawberry blonde, just like Nonnie predicted! Lilly is her best buddy, she chases her everywhere. She has six teeth and counting. She is extremely curious and thrives on exploring new objects! When in a group of children she is very kind and gentle and even gives hugs to her friends. She loves her dolly named Lala, and pushes her around in her stroller. Dancing is her favorite activity! She starts wiggling that tiny tushy the minute the music starts! I could go on for hours about her first year and the memories we have. I decided to start a birthday book for her that will include one picture of her on her birthday and a special birthday letter that talks about her developments over that year. This way when she is older she can look back and see how she changed from year to year and read about everything she accomplished.

Savannah's birthday was lovely! We spent the day enjoying her smile and took her to our favorite playground where we had lunch in the park, and then enjoyed gelato (what flavor? Erdebeer, strawberry, of course!). We spoke to all of our family and Savannah's cousins, Cary, Cooper and Carter sung her happy birthday. It was precious!

The next day we had her big birthday party with our friends. This party was our first party without having help from the family. We surprisingly pulled it off without a hitch! The menu was extremely tricky to plan. It had to be both vegetarian and meat friendly, free of peanuts, wheat, gluten and eggs. Savannah is allergic to eggs. We had it confirmed last week, so no eggs or nothing with eggs for the next year until we test again. We didn't have a grill so that eliminated any options there. Also it was Sunday so everything was closed, meaning any ideas of purchasing platters from a German deli were nixed. Then to top it all off, the E.Coli scare just broke out so I was not serving any raw vegetables!!! Never have I planned a party with this many restrictions. I was stressed! :) What did I finally decide to serve you may ask. Well here it goes, and this was all homemade and free of wheat, gluten, peanuts and egg. Everyone loved everything, and raved about our "spread"!

Italian Beef Drip sandwiches

Roasted Veggie Orzo Salad

Baked Beans with peppers

Black Bean Dip

Hummus

Guacamole

Macaroni & Cheese

Pigs and a blanket

Last but not least a huge bowl of fresh strawberries!

Savannah's cake was the most fabulous of it all! I really enjoyed making her cake. The icing was absolutely delicious; I used a buttercream recipe from Allrecipes.com. I'm so proud that I made this cake! Decorating it was my favorite part. Rocky and I stayed up late Saturday night, he was a tremendous help and decorated the cupcakes while I focused on the cake. I had purchased all the decorating tools so I was ready! :) Three batches of icing later we had the cake and cupcakes decorated beautifully. Now that I have made and decorated my first cake I've learned a few tricks especially with the icing! I'm so excited to make my next one. I think I will make one for Father's Day!

I also made Savannah's birthday hat. Since I didn't get it together in time to order a fancy birthday hat online, I committed to making her one. Little did I know how fun this would be and I think I'll make her a birthday hat every year! Her hat was so cute, and I was so proud too, I didn't even use any online instructions!

My inner Martha Stewart really shined over the weekend! :) Savannah was given many exciting presents that she loves to play with. We are very lucky to have such a great group of friends here. Everyone has been wonderful in helping us feel comfortable and get adjusted in Germany.

The next few weeks I’ll have more posts, pictures and videos. Sorry the updates have been slower than usual, I promise to work on this!

Hugs and kisses,

Elizabeth

P.s. Here are pictures that my friend Sandie and her husband took at our party. My pictures are already posted in two posts below this one.

Savannah's Birthday Song

Savannah loved every single second during her birthday song!

Savannah's Birthday Photos

Hello Everyone! Here are a few photos from Savannah's 1st birthday. We had a wonderful weekend with beautiful weather. Savannah is a happy, healthy and extremely social little 1 year old! More from the weekend and a special birthday note about Savannah soon!

XO
Elizabeth