Paige's Return to Deutschland!: In-person school is cool

Again, my title, not Crosby's. Crosby still says school is "boring" and Hugo also says Kita is "boring". I take this to mean that both schools are teaching them patience.

The highlight of returning to physical school has been our carpool with Crosby's schoolfriend, Ella, who lives by Hugo's Kita. The two solidified their friendship when we by chance ran into her family sledding at Mauerpark not once but twice. Her parents both have full time jobs which means that she usually stays later than Crosby at school. However, after school care is only available to single parents and those with in-demand jobs. As such, have been trading off morning and afternoon pick-ups. This is the first day:

You'd think the kid had never ridden in a car before. But actually, I can count on one hand how many car rides we have taken in the last year.

My pick-ups are always an adventure because the littles always add a certain amount of chaos. Also, I often in my head think things like "Why bring three kids to the grocery store/hardware store/park, when you can bring four?" ha!

Our most recent adventure included me giving into 7 year-old peer pressure. We rode home from school to the hardware store like this:

As you can see, Ella's baby handling skills are on point. Yes, it was a little tight, but when I wondered aloud if I could also fit a ladder on the bike, both 7 year-olds exclaimed, "Do it!".

Gratuitous cute baby picture of Carmen trying out ladders. I managed to fall off a ladder at this age and break my leg, but don't worry, she's wearing a helmet. Also, we got an even higher ladder. #highceilings

The big kids earned their keep by carrying the ladder. Also, the boys were in awe of the hardware store. "Is this Ikea?" I realized Crosby hasn't been to a big store since he was Hugo's age. Ella was like, "This isn't Ikea, it's a hardware store." Very polite and probably thinking to herself "who are these boys?".

All three were paid in ice cream. I can't remember if hardware stores in the US also have ice cream at the check-out. But most do here.

I'm not going to say I'm bribing Ella with sweets into thinking we're cool. But, I need to bring something other than baby chaos because in addition to having a car, her dad also has real swords and shields like this.