Day 1264. It was a typical morning with Emmy being the first one up. Once they were all awake, they all joined us in bed, and the kids started singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Daddy. They wanted to give him their birthday presents right away, and so we went downstairs to get the drawings they had made, and they handed them to Daddy with much pride. So I decided to give him my gift too; it was 3 new shirts, two of which fit. We also had two cakes, one from my Mom that she brought yesterday, and one that Randy had bought at the store. And so everyone had some cake with their breakfast.
After breakfast I cleaned them up and dressed them and then had to get ready for my 10 am student. Randy took them downstairs, while I started teaching. I was done just before 11 am and then continued working. I put yesterday's soup on the stove, and then the kids were already coming upstairs to play and watch videos. Just after noon we sat down to eat. Everyone ate well and then had cake and icecream. Then they continued watching and playing, while I lay down to close my eyes for a few minutes, as I had a 2 pm student already. At 1:15 pm I put them to bed for their nap; I was very tired myself. After a few minutes I asked Randy to take my place so I could lie down. I was thankful, when that worked out well. The kids were quiet and soon went to sleep, and so did I, and so did Randy.
When my alarm went off ten minutes before my class, I quickly turned it off so no one else would get woken up. I grabbed my computer and went downstairs to teach there, away from where the kids were sleeping. That worked out well. While I was teaching I could her Sammy wake up and Randy getting him out of bed, then Emmy joining them. When I walked back upstairs just after 3 pm, the boys were all right there at the play workbench. I started dressing them, and Tammy woke up in the process. Once they were all dressed, we all put our coats on and left the house together. It was just before 4 pm.
We only had a stroller for Sammy. Tammy was walking, and Emmy was on the board. We took the subway and rode it to the end, then we took a tram for one stop. We then had to still walk a bit, crossing the park in front of Town Hall and walking right by the ice-skating rink we went to a few days ago. We walked into Town Hall and parked our stroller in the designated area. We all took our coats off and left them there, then walked on and up the stairs to get to the event.
We had been to a similar event during the Christmas holidays, but it was not the same. When we reached the top of the stairs and walked into a room, there were crafts stations like last time and then there was a clown. Emmy didn't like it but seemed scared, so we walked on. We went to the information desk, where they told us where the area for small kids was, then we walked that direction.
They had two tables set up there for painting kids' faces. Of course the kids wanted to do that. And so Randy ended up standing in line, while I first sat down by the building blocks with the kids. They started playing with them, but they were not very exciting, so we didn't stay long. Instead we walked over to the other area, where they had set up a house and a tunnel/caterpillar. The kids started climbing on top of it right away, while Sammy ended up kneeling there and looking inside and having lots of fun there. Later he also crawled through the whole thing one time. The other kids were everywhere - on top, inside, on the side... From time to time I looked to see where Randy was in the line that was slowly moving forward. Just before 5:30, which is when we should have left, we joined Randy in the line to wait for our turn. There were only two people left before us. And then it was Tammy's turn. She wanted to be a princess, and so the lady painted her face that way. Emmy wanted to be a prince, so his face looked pretty similar. They were excited.
It was already 5:45 and high time for us to leave. We had a restaurant reservation for 6 pm. We went back downstairs, put our coats back on, and went back outside, leaving the Town Hall on the other end of the building, as we had to go a different direction. I told Tammy that it was Emmy's turn to sit on my shoulders and hers to be on the board, but she didn't want that. I put Emmy on my shoulders anyway, and she ended up walking right next to me, holding my hand. We had a good bit of walking ahead of us. We finally reached the subway and were waiting for the elevator, when a tram arrived. I made a quick decision for us to get on that tram instead of the subway, as it was the alternative route to go and just as fast. We rode it for two stops, then got off and still had a good walk ahead of us. Both kids were walking next to me. By 6:20 we reached the restaurant.
A week ago I had seen that restaurant on TV and immediately decided that it was the perfect place to take Randy for his birthday. It was an American "smokehouse", an Austrian who had imported a smoker from Texas and was now offering slowly cooked meat. It was gonna be a taste of home for Randy. Even though they emailed me that they did not have a high chair, I told them we were still coming. However, the table they wanted to give us had only chairs. I asked for one with a bench, and they gave us a different table.
Tammy and Emmy sat down on the bench. I first put Sammy on a chair of his own, but he slides off. I then picked him up and he sat on my lap during the whole meal. We ordered some brisket, pulled pork, fries and sweet potato fries and mac'n'cheese. The kids were hungry and impatient for the food that got to our table really quickly. I put some food on their plates, and it was delicious. Only the mac'n'cheese was nothing like what you get in the States. However, the kids were loud and could not sit still. The people right next to us left to sit at another table. I kept asking the kids to sit down and not be so loud, but to no avail, even when threatening consequences. It was somewhat aggravating. The restaurant seemed fine with it, but some other customers looked our way. I was glad, when we were all done eating. We paid quickly and got up to put our coats back on. At 7:20 we left the restaurant to go home.
We walked to the subway, rode it to the end, got some chestnuts and did not have to wait at all for our train. We got on, and by that time the kids had understood that there was not gonna be any videos because of their behavior. After we got off the train, we still had some walking to do to get home.
Just after 8 pm we were back home. Randy had promised them more cake and ice-cream, so we got that out right away and sat down to eat. Once again we sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Daddy, for the who knows hom manieth time. Randy said he'd never been sung to that much on a birthday. After they were done eating, I cleaned them up, and we got them ready for bed. We read Bible stories, I prayed for them, then I put them to bed. It was about 8:45 pm. I sat down by them, but Sammy nearly immediately started asking for Daddy. That was just fine with me, and I was glad the other two didn't protest, when Randy took my place. I was able to walk away and turn my computer on. I downloaded today's pictures and started working on them. I was so very tired, though, that I was falling asleep. I forced myself to stay awake and keep going. Now it's nearly 2 am, and I cannot keep my eyes open any longer. Time for bed.
