Henry turns 7!!!

Henry had a fantastic 7th birthday. Thank you to all for the cards, wishes and phone calls. Steve came back from Ireland this afternoon and he brought Henry the biggest chocolate bar he could find.




We were also happy to have Madalyn visit us as well. Maddy is here in Germany visiting Katrin, who was the exchange student who stayed with Joanna’s family this past spring. Katrin and her family live outside of Dusseldorf, but her mother drove Maddy the four hours to Frankfurt on Friday afternoon. Henry was happy to have another family member here with us for his birthday and he chose to go out for pizza and ice cream as his dinner selection.






On Saturday the five of us traveled out to Langen to go to the Appelwine Festival with Fabian, Almut and their girls. It was very much like a county fair- complete with rides and greasy truck food. One major difference, however, is that many people set up little pubs in their own gardens. Apparently, this is a once a year opportunity to open your home and make some money. After riding the Merry go round and the ferris wheel, we ate dinner in a lovely garden. The place was packed and the food was good. It wasn’t elaborate at all, but it was tasty.









Finally, on Sunday we put Maddy on a train back to Katrin’s family. Actually, we missed her train, but put her on another, faster train that got her to Cologne in time to catch her next train. Then, Steve the boys and I went to visit Susanne and Bernard, who are friends of my parents. The short story is that S and B lived in Doylestown for about 3 years and they were somehow part of my father’s German conversation group. They have since returned to Germany and had two children, but they have kept in touch with my parents. They invited us out to their house for a visit, so we took the train to Bad Neuheim for the afternoon. Their kids are a bit younger than ours, 2 and 3, so they didn’t play together too much. But, Bernard had a fantastic remote control VW beetle that can go up to 25 mph. He was kind enough to let the boys play with it out on the street in front of their house. Once they got it going men and boys from all over the neighborhood came out to see the action.






We have LOTS planned for our last two weeks!