Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. While grandma gifted Lyons Cub a day each at Legoland and SeaLife in the city of Oberhausen for Easter, mommy offered him…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Have you ever painted Easter eggs with terrible, electronic Christmas music in the background? No? Then, you absolutely need to try the…
It’s Easter Sunday and our second day of adventures… We have a double ticket for Legoland and SeaLife, and now, we’re doing the second part of it. Lyons Cub had been to the AquaZoo in Düsseldorf before when he was merely 1.5 years old, on our summer trip to Europe. I figured that at 4,…
Lyons Cub’s Easter present was a visit to Legoland and SeaLife in the city of Oberhausen in the Ruhr river area in Germany (a former coal mining district). My son is a big fan of LEGO. Like other little kids, he started out with Duplos (his dinosaur duplos, for example) and evolved to dinosaur skeletons…
Today was awesome! Lyons Cub went to GeckoFun, an indoor playground with inflatables and lots of climbing castles. We went with another family with two little girls and spent from noon through about 4 p.m. there. This adventure playground is in the city of Burscheid, where we had never been before. It was totally worthwhile!…
Yay, the circus is in town! No, not the big Moscow State Circus or Circus Krone, just a small family circus, but for my son, it was the first time ever to see one. I had read to him a book about a happy lion who finds his lioness at a circus, his favorite story…
Strictly speaking, “Jurassic LIVE Tour” is a misnomer, and my son knows that the dinosaurs have long been extinct because a meteorite hit Earth and killed them all. Still, he seemed to forget about that from time to time, asking me, “When will they fight? When are the real ones coming?” We’re at the dino…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. This year, like in the past two, there won’t be much of carnival going on, at least not in our city, because…
Oh no! We’ve read in the press that from May on, the Tonieboxes and Tonies will get more expensive! I can totally understand that added material and production and transport costs will cause a little price hike, but 20 bucks more for a Toniebox is quite a bit, and it’s not cheap as it is…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Lyons Cub grew up with two cats, Frankie (our rescue from a reptile show) and Felix (our stray that came with our…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Today, Germany is awaiting a major storm, so the government of our state, North Rhine-Westphalia, has ordered all schools closed tomorrow. Since…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. How can you spend your time when you have a cold and cannot go to kindergarten? Easy! Get out your playdough and…
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t JUST an art gallery, it was also a store for trading card collectors, and we took Leander’s Daddy’s baseball card albums from the 1960s and 70s there to have them appraised. But what we really wanted to do was to pick up his 4th birthday present, an awesome painting of Pikachu…
Today was one of those days…. I took my son to the city (we went to see his pediatrician to get a prescription for nose spray and cough syrup, and then, we ended up in a shoe store, because mommy needed new shoes for work and Lyons Cub needed Crocs for kindergarten). In the back…
No mommy wants to have her baby in the NICU on Valentine’s Day. No mommy expects to be widowed for Valentine’s Day, either. Both happened, so might as well make the best of it… Our biggest helper was our dear Nanny Nancy, who had secretly printed a preemie onesie with a red heart, saying, “Mommy’s…
Especially during the pandemic, you might have considered online educational programs and asked yourself: “Is ABCmouse worthwhile?” While there are other alternatives on the market, we have been happy with our ABCmouse subscription for two years now. We don’t use it regularly; my son goes to bed with two books every night (one in English,…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. My son just went through the stomach flu, a gift from his kindergarten. Now, he’s feeling better, but is still under the…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Oh sh**, it happened, Leander brought the stomach flu home from kindergarten, which means for the both of us tea, apple juice,…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Are you an artsy, crafty mommy? I love to do art projects with my son, but as a full-time working mom, I…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Do you have a bilingual child? Even if your child speaks only English or German, check out this awesome, relatively new toy…
We have the “2G rules” at the Christmas market (“geimpft und genesen,” which means “vaccinated or recovered,” and our immunization status is checked at the entrance with the CovPass-App that makes sure the digital records are not forged). And of course, we’re all wearing our FFP2 masks and keeping social distance. But the German Christmas…
To be honest, I wasn’t sure it would work a second time, but it did. Lyons Cub will be four years old in a month, but he still innocently and sweetly believes in Saint Nicholas and was so excited he came on December 6th! It was his uncle again, wearing the same outfit as last…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. The day before Saint Nicholas is coming to visit our place, Lyons Cub, grandma, and Lyoness are busy baking Christmas cookies. We’re…
Today, Lyons Cub built his gingerbread witch’s house–and not just any kind of house from an ALDI package, but one that mommy’s friend baked herself! Fresh, deliciously smelling gingerbread… We had to make the “glue” first, so my son got to hold the mixer and I had to open the eggs and put the “slime”…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Whether you have had a preemie or not, you’ll probably want to create some kind of memory of your hospital stay (or…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. There are so many cute porcupine children’s books out there, and guess what they’re teaching about? You’re right: befriending a special person…
As a fresh mommy, you are still healing from vaginal birth or your C-section. All you want is peace and quiet, and to be with your new baby. Also, you might not feel and look your best. (Unless you’re one of those Instagram and Pinterest mommies who have perfect hair, skin color, make-up, dress, and…
Bad things in life happen… Just when we were in pre-Christmas mood and had planned so many things (like going to the indoor swimming pool, visiting the animal park again, going Christmas shopping), the warning light in our car went on and said, “low tire pressure,” and the ride was a little more bumpy than…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Are you reading Llama Llama Red Pajama to your child, too? Of course, Lyons Cub had that book when he was younger,…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Lyons Cub believes in Saint Nicholas. (Just a hint: Here in Germany, Saint Nicholas comes on December 6th to bring presents for…