Ribbons Undone

Now that we’re about to head to America for the summer again, maybe I should finally do some posts from last summer? Ah, the life of a lazy blogger!

While packing, we made sure we had the essentials (German chocolate for friends and family). A whole suitcase full!

Waiting to board our plane- the girls were SO excited to be going back to the States again. Unfortunately, it ended up being the trip from hell. Two hours into the flight it became apparent that I had a very bad case of the stomach flu. I was vomiting about every 15 minutes or so, stuck in a tiny airplane seat, feeling MISERABLE.

I had to keep it together though since I was travelling with the girls alone. When we finally made it to baggage claim (at 2 am our time), it took another hour for our luggage to come out. I had no energy at this point and had to sit on the floor. Kiera had to go to the bathroom, and was forced to have an accident in her pants because there were no bathrooms in the baggage claim area. They told us we couldn’t leave to find a bathroom without our luggage (we wouldn’t be allowed back in).

Keep in mind, this whole time I’m trying not to vomit since there’s no bathroom. Both of the girls were crying. Then I spiked a fever and broke out in hives all over my body. Our luggage finally arrived, and after meeting up with my parents, we had another 2 1/2 hour drive to NH to get through. See what I mean about flight from hell? Let’s hope it goes smoother this year!

Yes! We finally made it!! We all LOVE our summers at Grandma and Grandpa’s place– we always have so much fun…

squirt guns!

ganging up on Grandpa

we ate LOTS of fresh farm-stand corn (luckily the girls love shucking it)

farm-stand down the road where my Mom buys fruits and veggies

Grandpa making his special cheeseburgers

We usually arrive just after the 4th of July, so there are still flags around the house. The girls have always loved playing with them.

S’mores! One of their favorite American traditions.

We went to the Old Home Week parade in Freedom, NH again..

LOTS of ice cream was eaten. That’s one of the best things about summer, right?!

But the summer didn’t really begin for them until their cousins Madeline and Audrey arrived. The four of them LOVE to go down to the river across the street and explore. We did lots of fun, interesting things last summer, but when I asked what their favorite thing about summer in America was, they both said, “Playing at the river with our cousins.” It’s the simple things in life…

pretty walk through the woods to get to the river

they even made their own fishing poles..

lots of creatures to find

love those happy faces!

treasures

another summer tradition- sparklers!

and more ice cream!

every summer they decorate these round pieces of paper that Grandma sends in to get made into plates

water balloons!

bathing Barley (Madeline and Audrey’s dog). They added another dog to their family this year, so it’ll be double the fun this summer! All four girls are animal crazy 🙂

Quinnie’s face! We are so mean for not letting her have a dog.

Lobster dinner for Grandma’s birthday (probably one of Simon’s favorite things about New England- all the amazing lobster and seafood).

singing “Happy Birthday” to Grandma. Wish I’d gotten better pictures..

The Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Köln is a fine art museum that opened in 1861. They have art from the medieval period through to the twentieth century. Each period had it’s own floor- Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Impressionist.

I was surprised how well the girls did here. Just last year, there would have been a lot more complaining.

Quinnie was especially into it. She would listen to the audio for almost all of the paintings and then educate anybody who would listen about them..

She took lots of photos also. When I looked at them later I noticed that almost all them were close-ups of insects or animals 🙂

(even if they were dead)

Grandma and Quinnie

I love this sculpture of Diana

and we thought it was hard to dress our kids these days?!

Unfortunately, there were lots of paintings of women being groped that Kiera was fascinated with..

Halfway through the museum, there was a relaxation room where you could rest and take a break- just what we needed!

window view from the room

Baby Jesus with Köln in the background!

Then things took a darker turn. The girls (especially Kiera) were fascinated with these disturbing religious paintings. Many of them depicting hell and all of the horrible things that can happen to you there. I tried to rush them through, but Kiera wasn’t having it. She wanted to study every inch of every painting. Examples below..

Why is the top of his head sliced off? I grew up going to Sunday school and don’t remember any of these gruesome stories from the bible. Did I get the sanitized version, or are these just the artists’ disturbed interpretations of the stories?

Kiera asked why that man was sticking his fingers in Jesus. I had no idea..

Who’d have thought you could traumatize your kids by going to a classical fine art museum? And yes, I later found a close-up photo of that frog on the woman’s breast on my phone (taken by one of the girls).

Before leaving we always stop by the gift shop to buy postcards of our favorite paintings from the museum (not the messed-up ones though). That’s Grandpa in the background- I think he was ready to leave hours earlier, but was a good sport.

museum gift shops always have such interesting toys and books

and sometimes cool socks too!