Quiet books completed

So remember in April/May when I posted that I was trying to make quiet books for the girls..... well they are finally finished!!

They went with us to England and were great for keeping the girls entertained in restuarants and for short periods at my folks. The problem we had with them however was that Enya can't read/play with hers in the car as she gets car sick (poor kid gets it from me!). This of course meant that Ciara was not allowed to play with hers in the car either or tantrums ensue.

Without futher ado the pictures

The quilted front covers- my first attempts at free hand quilting
Enya spirals, Ciara hearts

Daisys we´re still practicing buttoning!

Shoes We haven't really started on these skills so not yet in use

Owls and Pigtails these pages are a huge favorite, clicking the leaves back onto the tree, tucking the owl back into his hole and playing with the girls hair

Clasps Ciara has conquored these 2 pages, Enya is still working on them

Cars Another huge favorite, probably the pages they play with the most for which I'm very grateful as these pages were very time consuming to make and personalise. My favorite pages too!

Letters Again not yet in use although they both recognise the first letters of their names as well those of my baby sisters and Z's.

If Z and I can just agree on the rules We'll start teaching them the rules for these games next: Noughts and Crosses (played with buttons instead) and Nine Mans Morris


A couple of friends have hinted they would like a quiet book for their kids for christmas, Given how long it's taken me and the fact I'm in the middle of knitting Ciara a jersey it certainly won't be happening this christmas!

PS had the 4 year old well child visit yesterday, need to go back in 6 weeks to get Enya's hearing tested again- they think she may have hearing problems, I think she just didn't want to co operate. She is great on non co operation!!

Beach shot

We've jsut come back from a wonderful visit to England and Wales (our first since the girls were born). Contrary to the image portrayed here we didn't have such great weather but when we did manage to get to the beach the girls had a blast running away from the waves.

Swimmimg, sleeping and other stuff

Warning: a heavy picture post follows!!

Now that the terrible two are no longer sleeping in cots they have gotten very possessive of their old travelling cot. We'd set it up for a visiting baby and our girls didn't want to give it up!



Peppa pig is absorbing even if you don't understand english (the sons of our best friends in Germany watched an entire 40+ min DVD and were fascinated)


Enya learnt how to put her jacket on all by herself (so what if it's on upside down)


Interesting surprise this morning walking into the bathroom

The mothering the doll phase has started, I love having daughters!


Last but not least we've had another weekend of yucky yucky weather so what did we do?


You got it, we went swimming ;0)

Cheers from the little one

Autumn is here

I love it when the leaves start to change colour and we wake up to crisp cool mornings. It's even better when we get a golden autumn when the sun shines and the blue of the cloudless sky is a striking contrast to the reds; yellows and oranges of the leaves. We've had a couple of days like that this week and now I'm getting the urge to snuggle in and prepare for winter. Winter coats are bought and the scarves are knitted, now I just need the winter boots to come in to the shops and we are all set.

Some shots from last weekend walking by the lake.
Family portrait

Running the autumn "beans" out




I love the running shots- the girls love to run and it shows!

the danger of baking with children.....

....is that they get hold of the ingredients....

.....and spread them all over the floor.....

....OOOPS!!....

...not us mommy, we are little angels

Fairy Tale Evening

Last week we had a fairytale evening at Kindergarten (fund raising for the Kindergarten). The kids have been hearing and learning about fairytales for the last month so it was the logical progression to have the autumn fund raising evening with the same theme.

The kids all came dressed up as their favorite characters (or in our case what we had in the closet!)as did many of the adults. As well as food and drinks we also got to do some crafting i.e. made hobby horses out of sticks and old socks. They even got some parents making elaborate wooden fence slats to replace the old rotten fence (engraved with the kids names on them), unfortunately Z and I ran out of time so we didn't get a slat with the girls' name on it.

So with out futher ado: photos from the evening
The only shot of a hobby horse

fairy princess Enya (plaster on Enya's face is from an accident at school)

Fairy witch Ciara

lots to say today

Most important news first- the girls had another preemie follow up assessment at the Social Paediatric Centre (SPZ) last Friday and ..........






WE'VE BEEN DISCHARGED!! We're going back to see our beloved play therapist once or twice more, just to tie up the last loose ends but the doc says she is happy with how the girls are looking, they are not showing any major delays so get out and enjoy ourselves! We had the 3 year well child assessment on Monday and our paediatrician said exactly the same thing (he ran the SPZ for many years before moving back into general paeds so he's more like a developmental paed really) so we're going with the flow and will be therapy and appointment free for the first time ever. Well, except for the opthalmologist but that is a life long follow up so it doesn't count. Talking about eyes, we were at the orthoptician on Friday as well and I happened to mention to her that Ciara had had a corneal injury a couple of weeks ago, next thing I knew the prof was being hauled out of surgery to come check Ciara's eyes out- everything has healed well but how is that for service? It would never have happened at the Eye Guy's practice!!

Yesterday after a horrendous morning (Ciara decorated our lounge wall with pen, shredded our banking file and scratched Enya's face to ribbons), the sun finally came out so we took the girls out for a walk with their "babies" (the dolls don't have a name, they are both just called baby).


We were hoping to walk some of the beans out of Ciara and it seemed to work, we detoured past the park which for once was quiet so the girls had a ball playing on all the playground equipment the bigger kids are usually occupying.



I know this is a baby swing but it is just so nice to see Enya smiling on a swing especially when it is going high! She goes just as high on the normal swings as well now!!


Today (Sunday) we decided to go into the city as Siegen is hosting the NRW Day (celebrating 65 years of Nord Rhein Westfalen- the state we live in). We'd been warned that there were over 300 000 people expected to visit over the weekend (For comparison about 60 000 people live in Siegen!) and to use public transport, so we did. Busing in this morning was tedious with lots of waiting (thank goodness we had fortified ourselves with delicious choc chip waffles for breakfast ;0) or the meltdowns would have started even earlier) but when we eventually arrived in Siegen we lots to do and see.
On the blue light mile (emergency and military exhibitors)
Army helicopter up close and personal

Safety first



THW (Technische Hilfswerk) Bobby Car race course




After this I stopped taking pictures but there were 16 sound stages scattered around the city centre with free musical or kiddies acts on throughout the day, various free activities (eg. climbing offered by the German alpine club), loads of food and info stalls as well as all the shops being open.

There was so much to look at that the girls couldn't nap so we landed up having to leave around 4pm (we caught the train home- I can't remember the last time I was in such an overfilled train- thankfully the other passengers were all still in really good spirits and no one was drunk or it could have been quite unpleasant). Quick dinner, shower and the girls were fast asleep by just after 6pm and I'm heading for bed too now, sorry can't keep my eyes open anymore :0).

Kettler Hof visit

Last weekend we took advantage of some (long overdue) late summer sunshine and visited an adventure play park of a different sort. It was huge park divided into various play areas with loads of slides, swings and jungle gyms- so much more suitable for 3 year olds than a huge theme park. I was amazed by how fearless and agile both Ciara and Enya were- climbing rope ladders and going down 3 storey high slides provoked only laughter and cries of "again again".

The Bollerwagen fully loaded

Daddy's girls

The above photo was taken in this "castle"

Riding the race car Enya loved this car

Woohoo WATER!!

Enya's naptime she wilts at around 1pm and will literally crawl into any possible nest to catch some zzz's

Woodland playground

Ponies Kiddies thought these were great, may have to try riding lessons at some stage in the future


More water you noticing a theme here?


Aaaaah, the end of a successful day! Although what is not evident in this photo is the 20 minute melt down Ciara had when we tried to get her in her car seat. Ciara does not do overtired very well!!