Black burgers

Unsure whether McD are peddling these black and white burgers back in Australia - but they sure are strange. Haven't tried one yet.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Back in the school routine

Kids acting up

Looks a bit small when I publish it on the blog - but you can click "full screen" in the bottom right hand corner of the video.

First day of school - Grade 1 - Zara

It was a big day yesterday. The school put on quite a performance for the new Grade One'ers. The parents were assembled on one side of the piazza watching as the Grade 2-4 kids were on the other side and sang the school song and put on a few performance numbers. The names of the Grade 1 kids were read out and each was invited to receive a sunflower from their new teacher, then proceed with the teacher down to their new classroom. After an hour or so the parents were allowed to enter the classroom. Zara is carrying a cone called a schultüte - a gift from the parents - a long held German tradition containing some school supplies, sweets and surprises.

Last day of school holidays

China follows the northern hemisphere school dates, meaning the year runs from August to June. Tomorrow the school year starts for the kids - Zara to start Grade 1 and Max to Kindergarten (the same group he was in last year). We celebrated the end of holidays with a pikelet making session and a cup of milk.

Messy eating

Max is a big 4 years old now but it's impossible for him to eat ice cream without leaving evidence on his face, shirt, pants or on the person nearest him. Today his mouth gave him away.

Slacklining

Slacklining is apparently a real sport. It involves stringing a flat rope between two anchor points and walking on it. A bit like tight rope walking but the rope isn't tight. Anyway the kids got to have a go when our friend Jeff came over with his slackline.

Dogs

We saw this pup recently and unanimously decided that if we ever get a dog that it would look just like this.

Back to Shanghai - end of holiday pictures

All good things come to an end. We reluctantly boarded the plane in Hamburg, connecting in Frankfurt back to Shanghai. When we landed in Pudong airport the kids were invited into the cockpit of the Lufthansa Airbus 340-600 - a real treat for Max who declared afterwards that he wants to be a pilot when he grows up so that he can be in charge of that big machine.

Lüneburg

Lüneburg was quite a charming little town.

Hamburg wheels

Clever parking in Hamburg

Barfuß (barefoot) park - 2

Barfuß (barefoot) park - 1

We spent our last week in Germany in the little town of Lüneburg. Here we visited some friends from Shanghai who had moved back to Germany over the summer. Their daughter was in the same class as Zara at school. During the week our kids were invited to a birthday party that was hosted at a "barefoot park". Here kids (and adults!) go exploring the forest without shoes - and discover a bit of nature as well as various obstacles such as walking over broken glass (purple safety glass above) and troughs of sloppy mud.

A day out in the Netherlands

Dutch houses

Up the windmill - Netherlands

On the road again... Netherlands

We slipped into the Netherlands for a couple of days to visit an old friend of Tanja's, and her family. They have a spectacularly beautiful house as you can see above. Also a pic of our car loaded up, and another couple of a miniature village we visited in The Hague.