Stage Crew, Charades and Birthday Brunch

The weekend of my (51st ?!?!?) birthday was quite busy.  On Friday night we had friends over for lasagna.  I forgot to take any photos but we had a nice time with some old and new to us friends.  It is actually a funny story how we met the new to us friends.  The weekend we were moving out of our old apartment last June before going to Seattle for the summer, the kids were out in front walking (new to us) Mogli.  There was a woman with a dog who stopped to talk and let the dogs meet.  She then recognized the kids and asked if they had been on a show called House Hunters.  The kids said yes and they continued to talk for a bit.  Turns out the woman is from Bend, Oregon!  She had watched our show and then ended up moving literally RIGHT NEXT DOOR to us.  She was going to be teaching at BBIS the following year.  Our move out weekend, the weekend they had met, also happened to be the HOTTEST weekend of the year.  We were stressed and sweaty and tired so we heard the story but thought oh, nice.. now back to cleaning and moving and trying not to die.

Mogli and Frida with
the house to themselves..

The woman from Bend and I became facebook friends and shared a couple exchanges.  I introduced her to my good friend, Gillian, who has kids at BBIS.  The two of them become friends and their sons become best of friends.  So, it seemed fitting that we would actually meet this family from Bend in real life since we have met virtually and through a TV show.  Her family and Gillian's family and our family enjoyed a nice evening of Italian food, wine and dessert.  So sad though, Andrea - the woman from Bend, the one who initiated the entire sequence of events and friendships was ill and could not make it.  But it just gives us a good reason to meet up again.  The world really is so small!

Saturday night Josie had her final performance of the high school performance of Thoroughly Modern Millie.  She is on stage crew and has completely fallen in love with all things drama related.  She is the only 7th grader on crew and loves the responsibility and finally not being the oldest kid at something. She will also be on stage at the 7th/8th grade musical Annie and plans to be on stage crew for the high school musical in the Spring. We had gone to see the play the weekend before and were sad to not be able to make it to the final performance.

Luckily, Julie was available and happily took Benjamin to the play, took a pic of Josie on stage and then got the kids back home and in bed, meanwhile we were at a very fun Charades Party with some of our good friends.

On Sunday we celebrated my birthday with a very fancy brunch at a hotel in downtown Berlin.  The kids had won this brunch at Fun Day back in September 2018!! It was about to expire so we took advantage of a free brunch, got dressed up (which we NEVER do) and headed into town.  Yummy!!  We came back so unbelievably full we just hung out inside on a very rainy and wet weekend.

My birthday itself was Monday and Marty and I went to lunch at - yep, our favorite Asian place and I had left over lasagna for dinner so I didn't have to cook.  The kids gave me nice homemade gifts and Marty got me these really cool Seattle and Berlin maps to hang on our wall.

I also received a couple gifts from friends (THANK YOU, Kelli for the book!! I'm soooo excited to read it.  I rarely have an actual book these days as most of what I read is downloaded to my kindle from my Seattle Public Library account.  And Tami, for the Starbucks gift card!!  I LOVE their

Christmas blend and can't wait to get some for home) Also several friends here stopped by with beautiful bouquets of flowers (Thank you, Fiounnaula and Juli).  The flowers here are really quite remarkable.  I felt well loved.   FIFTY ONE!!  May it be my best year yet!!