Prepping for Easter

It's been an adventurous time since I last wrote. I won't bore you with all the details - hee hee - but here's some highlights:
-Germany seems to love Easter with many neat decorations and Easter Fests! We expereinced many ornate and amazing booths of painted eggs of many kinds on Sunday while at a place called Luisenpark in Mannheim. This place was amazing and filled with gorgeous flowers, birds, owls, boat rides, music amphitheater, and great big playgrounds. All of this for a cost of FREE for kids and only 6 Euro for adults - amazing!
-also discovered a good 'ol Mall (Zentrum) only 15 mins from our apt!!! They, too, had many large egg & Bunny displays. We just wandered around looking at the amazing art work and enjoyed pizza and STARBUCKS!! Yep - only 2nd one I've seen in the while country but boy was it great to have a my white chocolate mocha!!
-people here are amazingly friendly!! We've spent time with 2 English-speaking moms and their kids at some neat parks - and are currently sitting at the home of 2 locals who offered to let us use their wireless connection!! HE (Gunter) is a stay-at-home Dad and she (Tatiana) works at SAP ironically. I met him at a local park. Yep, people have been very nice and willing to include us in on their lives
-Girls are doing great! We're looking into possibly putting Rylee (or maybe both) in school just for something more to do and learn more. They are both beginning to pick up some Germany words already and Rylee, especially, finds it super cool to pick up on a german word! Chloe is still acting like a baby at times but we're working through it! They have been talking about their playmates back home and are missing them for sure. Every day includes some talk about Akeeva, Zaylah, Cash and Katie AND Shep and Taboo (the dogs)!! Papa and Grandma also make almost daily appearances - and everyone is included in prayers at night (that's a long process)
Future plans...
*hoping to head to to Lake Constance on the German / Switzerland border with friends this weekend for our long Easter holiday (Tim has Friday and Monday off of work - which also means EVERYTHING is closed from Friday-Monday -- time to get groceries!!
*Going to an Easter Fest in Heidelberg tomorrow at the Deutsch-American Institute - they are doing all of the "American" traditions - Easter Bunny, egg hunt, stories, etc... Should be fun
*Meeting with my new friend, Ellie, and her daughter Hannah Thursday for some playtime! Hoping to also reconnect with Gracie (Rylee's favorite new playmate)

Greatest Achievement this week: BUYING A STROLLER for Chloe at the All-Germany Toys-R-Us!!! This will SAVE me from being so stuck at home on days without the car!!!!

Today was a gorgeous day with the afternoon spent at a very neat playground and water park in Heidelberg with one of Tim's colleagues and her child - actually the same place I discovered while we were staying at the Marriott our first week!!

Ok - need to stop bugging these new friends and let our kids get to bed! Hope to update more soon. Just in case I don't email before Sunday - HAPPY EASTER to all of you!!!
Love you
Linda