Grandma Irmgard Celebrates Birthday

Irmgard celbrated her 71st birthday last week, but we were not able to all get togther to celebrate it. Ian was able to get four days off, and was able to come and join us to celebrate the Easter holidays. (He is on assignment here in Germany) That was a perfect time to celebrate Irmgard's birthday.


Since not everyone could be there, we took a couple of pictures so everyone could enjoy the celebration.

Anja and Irmgard sharing a little joke.

Grandma with the grandchildren.

Of course, what would a family event be without a picture of the grandchildren together (at least those that were present)

And the snow continues

As you might expect, as the snow continues the snow man increases in size. As you can see in this picture, he made a real jump in height.





To put it in perspective, take a look at Annabella next to him. That on Easter Sunday 2008!

Sometimes there is too much of a good thing....

The snow continues. We woke up this morning and found 5 new inches of snow on the ground. As my neighbor told me yesterday, sometimes you think we are in the Rocky Mountains of southern Germany. The other neighbor also reminded me that the two ski slopes within 5 miles are not there without a reason.

At least Annabella got to enjoy the snow. Here you can see the results of her building her first snowman alone.

A Weather Surprise

With Easter approaching on Sunday and April showers around the corner, one would expect warm weather and sunshine to be controlling the weather front. This is especially true, after the rather mild winter we had this year. When we moved here last summer we were told to prepare ourselves for the heavy snows in winter. A small ski slope is just on the other side of the mountain. The result was just a few inches lasting a couple of days.

The last few days the weather has again gotten very cold. On Wednesday and Thurday morning we woke to snow flurries. It covered the grass, but the streets and sidewalks were just wet. This morning we woke up to this surprise:

At the time I took this picture, we already had five inches of snow. In the following two and one-half hours we got another two inches. I think I shoveled more snow today than I did for the whole winter.

The snow is only falling at altitudes above 1,000 feet (we are at almost two thousand feet) above sea level. The temperatures will not go above freezing until either Saturday night or Sunday. At least we are getting a chance to catch up on the winter we missed. Hopefully the tulip bulbs and other flowers with survive the cold the weather and snow.