Sunday in Germany

Today is Mom's birthday. Happy 50th birthday, Mom! We started the day going to church. It was on base and was in English. Jasmine was relieved to find that out. Once she found out, she was excited to go to their children's sunday school. Cliff was not feeling well the night before or that morning, so he stayed home. (He felt better by the time we returned, so all is well, there.) Alex and Christian were both in the nursery. Christian did quite well even with his nap schedule a bit off. Alex cried when we dropped him off, but cheered up quickly. I peeked in and saw him happily eating a snack at the table. When we picked him up he was excited to tell us about playing with a ball...evidently bouncing and throwing it against a wall. He also colored a picture he was proud of. Jasmine went to the big church with us. They gather the kids there in the beginning of the service and the pastor told them a funny story that involved him twisting around upside down on a chair. She loved it. Then she, without hesitation, followed the kids out the door to the children's church. She also had a great time. She came home with a toy airplane and some gold rocks that she was excited about. Then we came home and watched the end of the parade as it went through town. Alex was able to wave bye to them. Then lunch and naps for the kids. At that point Jennifer and I started mom's birthday cake from scratch. It took a bit longer than expected. We were supposed to finish early and take mom to ride a steam engine for her birthday, but things were pushed out a bit. Instead of going to the train in the early afternoon, we barely made the final 5:30 departure. Anyway, during the cake baking, we realized we needed baking powder and didn't have any. Cliff asked his Canadian neighbors for some, but they didn't have any. Then, as a family, the Jackson went to ask their German neighbors, where they were successful. The gentleman of the family is in the town marching band, and explained that the parade was for the King's Feast Festival. The band marches through town and kidnaps the prince, then they go back through town and kidnap the king and queen and then escort them to the festival where there is singing and dancing and beer drinking. There is a new king and queen picked each year, and that king and queen must pay for the beer for the entire town! They save up all year for that. We went to the second half of the parade and watched the entire king, queen and ensemble procession with the marching band. Then we walked a couple of miles to the next town through fields to the steam engine. Jasmine walked the entire way and didn't complain! I was proud of her. I was proud of all of us for making it. We didn't give mom any notice, and by the time we got there both she and I had to use the restroom. They delayed the entire train while we found a nearby water closet. Then we had the train ride during which both Christian and Jasmine fell asleep. Alex loved the train, however. He kept shouting, "Whoo whoo!" to make the train whistle. We think he thought he was making the train whistle blow. It was fun. I think it was about a 50 minute round trip. Unfortunately, at the end of the lovely trip was the couple mile return hike. :) When we arrived at the Jacksons everyone was pretty tired. Jennifer assembled the cake and Cliff made spaghetti. I sat on the couch and then decorated for mom's very late tea party. Jennifer put Christian to bed while the rest of us ate. By the time she returned downstairs, she was not feeling well. We persevered and set out the cake and had hot water ready for tea. Jennifer couldn't make it much further and excused herself early for bed. (She, too, felt better in the morning, so no worries.) Everyone had cake and no sugar added ice cream (in honor of the newly diabetic). Ironically, no one had tea. Around 10:30 the kids finally went to bed. We called it a night shortly thereafter. Jasmine woke up sick, but she, too, seemed better the next day.


This is the Jackson Family borrowing 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. You can see the guy partially in his marching band uniform.


This is everyone congregating just after the parade went by. We are about to begin our hike to the steam engine.

Ths is part of the hike to the steam engine. You can kind of see how far we have come, but not how far we have to go.

Jennifer and Christian on the steam engine before he fell asleep.

Mom and Alex on the steam engine after Jasmine and Alexander fell asleep. He is watching the train engineer, I think.