A Puppy & A Cake

This weekend was quite exciting for the girls. Dagmar, Leena, Larissa, & I took a 5-hour car ride to Neuss, just outside of Dusseldorf to visit Jurgen's younger brother & sister-in-law & their 2 sons. The weekend was loads of fun, but very frustrating at times because the oldest boy (7), Yannicke, didn't want to play with Leena (6) because she wasn't a "big" kid. We told Yannicke that Leena is actually bigger than him, physically, so she was a big kid. Hauke, who is 3, is absolutely adorable! I wanted to take him home with me because he is SO well-behaved, unlike his older brother who can act the part of the bully quite well.

On Sunday, Dagmar had promised the girls we would pick up a puppy, as their Doberman Venta passed away from a heart attack right before they left to visit the US. Dagmar had already picked out an 11-week old, female Doberman. The breeders lived about an hour away from Neuss, so we went & picked the puppy up & brought her back to the house to surprise the girls.

After much debate, we named the puppy: Brandy. And for those of you who remember how my cats, Tia & Bailey, got their names ... well, that's how it was decided.



So Brandy came home with us - slept all the way thankfully as it took us 5.5 hours to get home - & quickly made herself at home in the Seegemann's household.

While we were at Gant & Katia's, the girls found a really awesome kid's cookback with easy recipes that Yannicke had made. Katia allowed us to take it back to Osterbruch with us so we could try some of them. Because Leena was being picked on over the weekend, I had promised her that the 2 of us would have a pajama party, without Larissa if she wanted, in my room. We would watch whatever movie she wanted, I would make dinner or dessert, & she could sleep with me. Well, the girls decided they wanted to make this chocolate cake that looked like a bat.


Larissa is on the left & Leena is on the right.

I did most of the work. Dagmar had Larissa translate the ingredients & directions for me as it was written in German. Leena helped me dump ingredients into the bowl. Once the cake was cooled, they helped layer it with fruit (cherries & plums they had to pick out of the garden, though the recipes called for strawberries). The cake turned out surprisingly tasty as we used hot chocolate powder mix instead of cocoa powder.

The pajama party was loads of fun for all of us. We watched Kim Possible, Larissa's choice, in the living room because it was a DVD, then we migrated north to my room to watch The Swan Princess because I have an American VHS player & a large tv. Luckily, I have a big bed (queen, 7' wide) because all 3 of us slept in it. I was in the middle & didn't get pummeled death as Dagmar said the girls can be pretty wild sleepers. At 11:30, the movie was finally over & I was relieved 'cause I was tired! Sadly enough, we all woke up 9am today!