Karin's Life in America

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Spring is here!

We finally have been getting some beautiful days. The temperatures have been climbing into the 60s and it is time to de-hair and paint the toenails. It is fun to be outside and do stuff. Last weekend I played in a kickball tournament. Its called old lady sports and the moms from the elementary schools in our cluster get together twice a year for a kickball tournament. It was a lot of fun. We had a great turnout from John Rogers. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. The next day I definitely felt, what I had done, and going out for drinks afterwards did not help the situation.
Everything in the yard is blooming. Our noses are running and the car is constantly covered in yellow pollen. We have been able to eat outside, which is beautiful, but can get nasty if the flower trees are smelling too much.
Then on Monday Amelia and I drove up to Mt Vernon and met with Jen and Zoey to see the tulips. Even thou it was late April the tulips were not all out. They said that this is the latest the tulips have been blooming in decades. But we had a great day, it was warm without wind, and the kids got to play on the playground.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter in Seattle

Once again the weather has reverted to winter. To all the longtime Seattle-ites: has is always been like this? I think the calender was wrong and Easter with all its glory was actually the week before. I have been trying to snap some nice Easter pics, but I missed my window at the beginning of the week, so here is just a "backyard-2 minutes of sunshine-better than nothing" picture. Saturday we went to the Easter Egg Hunt (or Spring Egg hunt, as they are called now, which probably is closer to the pagan roots) at Annie's playground. They actually held it on the Nathan Hale football field this year, due to various baseball games on the other side. We met several friends from Marlene's school. It is amazing how kids can clean up a football field in 90 seconds, but you can not get them to clean up the floor in a room. Maybe they need to play with candy?!?
Sunday morning, after a good Easter breakfast, we went to church. Luckily the Easter Bunny hid the eggs mostly inside this year, so we did not freeze while looking for them. I made a German Charlotte Torte for desert, but my family agreed on the fact, that yogurt should not be in a torte and did not eat it. Well, more for me. Later we spent the afternoon walking in the pouring rain. Happy Easter in Seattle!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Spring(?) Break

Last week was spring break for the Seattle school district. It might as well have been winter break; we had snow and rain and it was wet and cold the whole week. Like everyone else we worked our way through Seattle's indoor attractions. On Monday we went to the aquarium. This was probably the last visit for a while since our pass expired and I decided not to renew it. It s always hard to get to the waterfront, then you have to find and pay for parking, just to be squeezed inside the aquarium with hundreds of people. Marlene likes the coral reef exhibit best, I am fascinated by the basket sea star, and Amelia likes the "rainbow fish" (I think she means the parrot fish.
Tuesday, after waiting the whole morning for the electrical inspection, we went to the zoo in the afternoon. We focused on birds and waterfowl, which is slightly different from our usual round. There are so many different kinds of ducks and geese. Marlene can actually name many of them, school seems to be paying off in that department.
Wednesday can only be described as insane. We drove through rain and snow to the Science Center, where we met up with Marlene's friend Grayson and family. I have never seen so many people in one place, well, maybe the stadium, but there everyone sits and watches the game. First we learnt about the science of bubbles, then we made butterfly masks and mainly played in the water area. You could not get even close to many of the exhibits, because there were so many people clustered around them. In the afternoon we saw the "Beaver" movie at the IMAX theater, which was very calming, before we headed home.
Thursday was "First Thursday", which means that many Seattle museums offer free admission. We took advantage of that, by visiting the Burke Museum in the morning and the EMP in the evening. Both, off course where overrun with people again. At the EMP we learnt a lot about Science Fiction and the girls loved the Tornado of guitars.
Friday started without rain and we decided to go hiking. Great idea, but we had not taken the snowfall of the last few days into consideration and we were simply not prepared for a snow day. We just walked for a little bit and took the girls to see "Monsters vs. Aliens" in the afternoon. As fun as 3D movies are, I don't think it is worth the extra $2 per person.
Friday afternoon it started to be nice and everything warmed up considerably. We had a beautiful weekend with lots of sunshine and outdoor time.