Cozy Sunday

On Sunday we had a nice breakfast here at the house with one of Marty's cousin who had not seen in 20 years.  Charlotte came with her 3 year old son, Janosch and we all enjoyed a leisurely breakfast together.  Josie LOVES little kids and after breakfast took both Benjamin and Janosch upstairs to play blocks and build towers.

Marty and I had an appointment to go and view a townhouse for rent which is literally RIGHT next door to our favorite ice cream shop (the one with the enormous ice cream concoctions and just steps away from our favorite Italian restaurant... this could mean big trouble as it would be far to easy to over indulge.
We ended up loving the little townhouse and rode home happily feeling like we finally found another place to live come February.
Charlotte and Janosch stayed until well into the afternoon, Janosch taking a little nap on our couch and Charlotte comfortably being just one of the family. 
"home"

Two of Josie's friends came over for the afternoon and Benjamin's "did in the sand" buddy, Clayton came over.  The house was full and warm and lovely.  It felt a lot like
Josie and I had gone shopping a few days prior because all of her pants are getting too short for her.  She is growing like a weed.  When her friend Mila showed up they were dressed identically, Josie in her new H&M outfit and Mila apparently had just gone shopping days before and bought the exact same outfit.  Too funny!

After Josie's friends left, the four of us along with Clayton headed toward Clayton's house because his family had invited us over for dinner.  It was great because Clayton, a newly turned 8 year old, was able to navigate us to his house without using my phone.  We took the sbahn to a train station near his house and then we had the option of several different buses.  Clayton ran through the different pros and cons with each bus and as we were waiting another bus pulled up and Clayton said "Oh, we can take that one too" so we all hopped on. 

I absolutely LOVE the fact that kids, Josie and Benjamin included, are able to navigate the public transportation system so easily. It is a life skill that you simply cannot teach (or at least not to this degree) if you live in an area that doesn't have a system like Berlin. 
We had fabulous dinner and even better conversations.  It is super comfortable with his family.  I'm SO thankful that Benjamin's best friend here has cool parents!!
We made our way back home via a bus, train and another bus and went to bed feeling satisfied with our potential new place to live, a full day of friends, family and food.