2017 NL: Ready for Takeoff!

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized by Kate

It’s time to go! This is our third year traveling to Germany and then driving to the Netherlands, so we kind of have it down. Go through customs, get the bags, get the rental car keys, go to the bathroom, pick up a few drinks, get in the car, and go!

I have a couple of tricks for the car to make the 4-hour drive a little easier. In one of our suitcases, I pack two things: busy bags and snacks! As PER sets up the car seats (well, this year, we graduated to backless boosters, so that was much easier!!) and loads the suitcases into the back of the car, I first open up the suitcase with my “magic tricks” and set up the boys!

20170717_160217

This is our smallest suitcase (carry-on sized). On the right is a car organizer filled with busy bags. There’s a diagonal divider, so I put the ones for Froggy on the right and the ones for Hippo on the left. I tried to color-code them, but alas! I didn’t have enough of the same colored bags 🙂

On the left side are three stainless steel food containers. (I had to order two sets of the 3 nesting containers, but I think they were worth it!) Two are for the boys, and one is for me 😉 They have an air-tight seal, which is great, but also makes them a little difficult for the kids to open. No one is very hungry when we land, after not getting much sleep on the plane. So the snacks for the road trip are important! Here’s what went into each of their boxes and how it all fit:

Homemade mini pumpkin muffins
Peanut butter crackers
Goldfish
A juice box
Raisins
Homemade blondies

I froze the juice boxes the night before!! So they should still be cold the next morning. I also put them in a zip-top bag, just in case there is too much condensation from them as they thaw. The first time we took this route, we tried getting drinks at the airport, but guess what? We could only find Apfelschorle – which has carbonation – but not plain apple juice (Apfelsaft). And of course, my kids aren’t going to drink that. So I’ve learned to pack a beverage, too. I also put their empty water bottles in their backpacks and fill those up with bottled water before we get off the plane.

And so, we’re all packed and ready to go!

UPDATE:

After a relatively uneventful flight (except when Hippo spilled apple juice down his pajamas, so he had to sleep in his clothes!), we went through our usual steps, made it to the rental car, and headed on our way. This year, though, as we were about to take our first exit, Froggy all of a sudden announced he was going to be sick!! The one thing I forgot to pack was some extra bags! Yikes! I scrambled for a pastry bag (PER and I decided to get something extra at the bakery in the airport), but knew it wouldn’t be enough. Luckily, Froggy hadn’t really eaten anything on the plane, so there really was nothing to come up. Phew! Sweet little guy, though, was not feeling well. He fell asleep almost right away, as did Hippo. They slept almost half the way to Huizen. Then they weren’t too hungry, so they didn’t really eat anything from the snack boxes. And there was enough to see that they didn’t really need the busy bags! Well, the intentions were good! And on another trip, who knows?!

Notes for next time: pack a grocery bag or two … just in case! And some paper towels or napkins would have been a good idea, too … if they had eaten anything!

12Jul2017

Travel Food: Pumpkin Muffins

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized by Kate

No matter where we are going, I always bake up a big batch of pumpkin muffins before we travel. My boys love them, and they are relatively healthy and easy to pack. Well, they may get a little squished, but they still taste good! Sometimes I make mini muffins, and sometimes the regular size. The recipe makes a lot, too – about 3 dozen regular or 6 dozen minis! If there are leftovers, I freeze them.

My mom used to make these muffins with her first-graders ages and ages ago. Since I started making them, I’ve been updating the recipe. I now use wheat flour instead of all-purpose. And I’ve swapped out coconut oil for vegetable oil. I don’t care for the taste of coconut, but I never notice it interfering in the recipe!

Not only do I make these for travel and just any old time to have in the house, I also bake about three batches at the holidays to give as gifts to all my kids’ teachers and people who work at their school. I bake them in paper loaf pans, wrap them up, and tie off with a pretty ribbon. It makes a great gift!

2014-11-22 21.15.08

Ingredients

3 cups wheat flour (or 3 1/2 c all-purpose flour)

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg (about 1/3 fresh clove freshly grated)

1 15-oz can pumpkin

1/2 cup water

4 eggs

3/4 cup coconut oil (or 1c vegetable oil)

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour pans.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg).

3. In the bowl of your standing mixer (or in a large bowl), mix pumpkin and water on a low speed. Add in eggs one at a time. Slowly drizzle in melted coconut oil. Add vanilla.
4. Slowly blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. (I like to do it in three batches.)
5. Bake in the preheated oven.

Loaf pan: 50-60 minutes
Mini loaves: 30 minutes
Muffins: 20-25 minutes
Mini muffins: 17-23 minutes

Notes

– I like to melt the coconut oil, but then you need to be careful adding it in to the wet ingredients, so you don’t scramble your eggs!

– You can make it in a standing mixer. I used to do it all by hand, but it’s a lot of batter and gets pretty tiring!

– You can freeze the muffins for 3 months.

– If making a half batch, use these measurements:

1 1/3 c wheat flour (1 1/2 c all-purpose flour), 1 c sugar, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/3 c oil, 1/4 c water, 2 eggs, 1 c pumpkin, 1/2 tsp vanilla

You can download the recipe as a PDF here: Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

Guten Appetit!

11Jul2017

Reisetagebuch – Travel Journal

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized by Kate

We’re gearing up for our next summer trip. This is the big one! We’re going to the Netherlands and Germany for a whole month!!

I never even completely unpacked from our trip to Oregon! Well, of course, we pulled out the packing cubes and did all the laundry! But the suitcases are still in the family room. (That’s another good things about the packing cubes: we don’t have to pack the suitcases upstairs and then lug them all the way downstairs!)

Now, when I get ready for a trip, I don’t just make packing lists of clothes and toiletries. Part of having great travelers is great preparation and having a diversity of activities to keep the boys occupied (more on that later). I also like to plan a little for while we are away.

For this trip, I wanted to create a travel journal. There are a number of components to it that I’m working on (thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration!). But I wanted to share the most important part right away: the daily journal! I love the way it came out! I kept it black-and-white, since we’ll need about 30 copies of it (one for each day we’re away). It’s really meant for Froggy (age 7), but I think I’ll try it with Hippo (age 4), too. There is a place to record the weather (including high and low temperatures), how he felt, what we did, what we saw, the best part of the day, what he ate, and something extra.

Tagebuch 2017 GitA

I left a margin on the left, so you can punch holes and put it in a folder or binder. I can’t wait to see how it works out! I hope Froggy is as excited about it as I am 🙂 I’m curious to see how much he can do in German. And how much writing he’ll be able to do. Well, really, I’m hoping we really do it every day!! Daumen drücken!

Here is where you can download the PDF: Tagebuch 2017 GitA

Let me know how it goes for you!

Gute Reise!

26Jun2017

Koffer packen: Staying Organized

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized by Kate

Last year, I posted some printable packing lists for kids in German. As we prepared for our first summer trip, I printed them out for Froggie & Hippo.

You would think with all the travel we’ve done as a family — and all the travel I did when I was single — that I’d have this whole packing thing down to a science. But I don’t! Every time we go somewhere, I forget something. And often when we pack up to come home, something gets left behind – or almost does.

So for our coast-to-coast trip, I decided to use the kids’ packing lists to try to stay extra organized. The German packing lists were a great place to start. We gathered everything on them and checked the boxes as they went into the suitcase. But of course, there were other things we needed for this trip that weren’t on those basic lists. So I scribbled them down on the papers. Everything that went into their suitcase is on those lists somewhere!

And when it was all zipped up, I slipped the lists into the outside pocket. Now when we are ready to pack for home, I’ll know exactly what came with us and what has to go back into those suitcases. It sounds very simple, but it’s one extra little step that I’m hoping will make a huge difference!

20170625_200657

You can see what I mean when I say I scribbled the items on the papers! You might not be able to read it at all 🙂 If you can read some of it, you’ll see that I forgot to stick to German on some of them. I also used a “W” on the clothing list if they were going to wear an item on the plane. Hm, I guess that should have been a “T” for tragen instead! Well, it’s always a work in progress!

Gute Reise!

25Jun2017

Summertime = Traveltime!

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized by Kate

Summer’s here! For our family this year, that means it’s time to take to the air and hit the road! So I’ll be sharing some of my travel experiences and tips we pick up along the way – from traveling with kids to places to go.

Our first trip keeps us Stateside to visit family. But we are traveling coast to coast. So while I don’t expect to get much German work done this week, I can still share some of my favorite travel tips.

Do you use packing cubes? I love these things! We each get a set of 3, in different sizes, and they are color-coded for each member of the family!!

For the kiddos, the large one holds tops & bottoms, socks & underwear. The medium cube is for pajamas, raincoat, and hat. This time, I used one of the small ones for shoes and the other for a mini diaper bag with pull-up, wipes, and change of clothes. Luckily we didn’t need it!

The other thing I like about packing cubes is that I can start packing days ahead of time and then just throw the cubes into the suitcases. Sometimes I’ll admit, they can be tricky to fit. It’s kind of like a mini game of Tetris! There might be other versions out there that have solved this problem, but I don’t know.

Happy travels!

17Jun2017

Playground Games

Posted in Games, Story hour, Uncategorized by Kate

Yesterday was our last story hour before our summer break, and we met at a playground.

We played a quick but fun game of Feuer, Wasser, Sturm. The children run around the playground. When they hear the word Feuer called out, they have to lie down flat. If they hear Wasser, they have to climb up on something high to avoid the rising waters. And if they hear Sturm, they have to hold on tight! It’s a fun, easy game!

Since it was still a story hour session, I did read a book and lead a song. The children sat up on the playground equipment.

IMG-20170616-WA0001-1

We read Kleiner weißer Fisch by Guido van Genechten (Ars Edition, 2015).

Then we sang “Fünf kleine Fische.”

Fünf kleine Fische, die schwammen im Meer (blub blub blub blub)
Da sagte der eine, ich kann nicht mehr (blub blub blub blub)
Ich wär viel lieber in einem kleinen Teich (blub blub blub blub)
Hier gibt es Haie, die fressen mich gleich (blub blub blub blub)