Fall Break Fun

I am a big fan of the Berlin public school break system:

• Two week fall break (sometime around our anniversary)
• 10 day +/- Christmas break 
• One week winter break (sometime around Crosby's birthday)
• Two week Easter break
• Six week summer break

All German schools have time around Easter and Christmas/New Years off. Some schools start earlier or go later for those holiday breaks. The other breaks, including summer, are staggered. I imagine the staggering is annoying for families spread across German states. But for me, it just minimizes crowds.  

In the USA, we would call this year-round school. The big difference is that German schools offer childcare for working parents during the breaks. Care is free until the third grade and then a maximum 243 Euros/$275 a month per child. Because I don't "work", fall breaks are my time to do some bonding with Crosby while the littles are still at Kita.

Well, theoretically the littles are at Kita. This break, Hugo came back from Greece looking like this:

Monday he had a fever most of the day. On Tuesday, he had an appointment with a specialist to check on his asthma. The good news is he doesn't appear to have asthma. However,  he does have some allergies contributing to the coughing. Specifically birch (April), mugwort (August), and dust mites (now). 

Allergy testing like a boss.

This being Germany, my insurance will be buying us some special mattress protector for the disgusting dust mites. I already change the sheets more than any person I know so the only real change is I'm now washing everyone's sheets on hot.

Me being the mom I am, I then subjected him, as well as his siblings, to more torture the next day - with flu shots. Ok, before you think I'm a total monster, we did take them trick-or-treating in between all the pokes. Paul came down the stairs to take the kids trick-or-treating looking like this:

Carmen started out her day like this:

Understandably it was a little chilly, so she went princess mode:

 The pizza place down the street was the perfect way to end the night with a non-candy trick-or-treat.

Mr Shark and Hugo's "just another Tuesday" look did well for themselves:

After a big night of trick-or-treating and flu shots the next morning - I let Carmen also stay home with the boys. I lay down on a bench at one of my favorite parks while the kids played. 

I enjoyed the scenery for about a minute and then...

Because I was at a park, I couldn't fall back on Papa's Pizza motto 'If you're leaning, you're cleaning." Instead, I put Crosby to work making a grocery list. I am teaching him to cook - one entree at a time. The first thing he wanted to cook was chili. This is our general process:

1. Cook together

2. Crosby cooks unassisted while I offer assistance as needed

3. Crosby writes a grocery list, goes to the store, and cooks

4. Repeat step three every school break

I knew of a family who tasked their son with being responsible for a dinner once a week since he was nine years-old. Long story short, the man is a great cook. His wife would bring in some delicious baked goods to the office where we worked. It was lovely for all parties involved. I've found teaching Crosby to cook during the school year is too much. As such, staycations are another win for family harmony. 

Onion goggles are a must

While Hugo has titled himself "the best cook in our house". His follow-through is still a little limited. He cut half of the apples for this batch of apple sauce before needing a break.

For those of you keeping track at home, Crosby and I only had one day together without any other littles. I was planning on taking him to the Berlin Wall Memorial to get a leg-up on learning about Berlin this year at school. But then I remembered that right next to the memorial is this cool climbing structure.

Mount Mitte is amazing. Also, it is a work-out. The weather was perfect to scare off most Germans but not Pacific Northwesterners. We had the entire climbing structure to ourselves.

While up in the climbing structure I spotted some paddle tennis courts. Paul and I were a little late to get a reservation for our anniversary date so instead we decided to get some culture.

P is for poodle did not disappoint

It's only a little bit of a bummer that we are staying so close to home because after a little round of food poisoning from our anniversary date - we are swimsuit season ready again. Sigh. You don't have to travel far from home to get some exotic unsafe food. Always an adventure around here.