Great Friday...

Today was a fairly laid back day, for the kids and me at least. Today is a holiday in Germany so "our" bakery was closed. B reminded me that the gas station up the street would probably be open (and has a bakery). While there, I found out that the place stays open 24/7. In Germany, this is like hitting the lottery. Sicilian wine and Slim Jims at 2:00 am? No problem!

I bought some baguettes and croissants at least as good as the bakery across the street. Something tells me most of the bread in this area comes from the same supplier (like the truck I see unloading bread at our bakery!).

After breakfast, I took the kids to a park a few minutes from our house so B and Sandra could get the joint ready for lunch with our friends Thomas, Luciana and their kids João e Joana, as well as Luciana's brother Lúcio. The park is "just" a local public park with swings, sand boxes etc., but it has this wicked cool pyramid-like thing with rope webbing inside. Seeing Emily scamper up to the top in about 3 seconds flat reminded me of the squirrel monkeys we saw at the zoo yesterday (except for the pink cowboy boots). Later Sophia managed to remind me of the water buffalo. Note to self: potty train Sophia.
After we got back, I headed to the local watering hole (so as to be out of B's way, of course). By the time I got back, I barely had time to take a shower before our guests arrived. B, still considering herself Catholic, eschewed the typical meat-centric fare and served a shrimp dish. For desert we had strawberries and kiwi fruit with real whipped cream and too much Easter chocolate.

This lunch served as a forcing function for us to clean up some of the final, lingering mess from our move. I must admit, the apartment has never looked better. I cleaned the windows until a rag turned black. Turns out they're transparent! B tells me that with another 1,000 Euros our apartment will be perfect. Guess we'll never know! Just kidding B (kind of).

Sophia was decked out in Summer gear. The sandals were a stroke of genious on the part of her stylists (B and Sandra). Anyway, I took a panoramic shot to give you a better impression of our "wintergarten" (the plates only looked warped due to the stitching software). As you can see, this apartment has no shortage of natural light. There's something about this room that makes almost everyone who passes by on our street gawk. We'd like to think it's B's stylish, nouveau Latin aesthetic, but as paranoid foreigners, we're almost certain we've done something weird with this room.