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SO MONDAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY! Hooray. I'm 21 now. That means I'm old because I can no longer say I was a teenager last year. Weird.

We had a relaxing day on Monday. It wasn't the best weather in the world, but it was okay because birthdays are usually happy days no matter what! I woke up to some beautiful red roses in the kitchen with candles and a present : ) The present was an Isegrim-Hof sweatshirt, which is pretty cool, actually. The other present was skiing in Schwarzwald on Sunday! Later, Klaus returned home with a box of Lindt chocolates! Ah, they know me all too well already. We had a family dinner at night and then just hung out together. I pulled out my gigantic map of Germany that my brother gave me for Christmas, and I planned out the rest of my stay here and the places I'll go and when I'll go to them. So much to do...so little time! It seems like a lot of time, but it's actually going by really quickly. And since I want to do everything possible, I feel like it's a small amount of time. In the grand scheme of things, I guess it really is. Afterward, I focused out of the window and saw it was snowing! What?! My first white birthday. I stepped out in it for a minute, and the flakes were big, but the snow wasn't very strong, so none of it stayed. It was falling really quickly, though!

Tuesday morning was gymnastics again. They started to do themes for each meeting, so this day was lots of colorful balls. Okay? Apparently, that just means we'll play with every ball they have for an hour and not actually do gymnastics, haha. The kids seemed to enjoy it, though. It was raining when it was over, so Benji and I hurried up the street to Obermarkt, W.TH. We ate our bananas regardless of the weather, though! I'm so glad we have the same favorite fruit.

When we got up to W.TH, we played with the cat that lives there. Sib thinks she's pregnant and said I could have one of the kittens. YES. Best after birthday present news ever! I stayed with the cat while Sib took Benji to get his first real haircut. He looks so grown up, and it was only like an inch or so cut off! Klaus likes it long, and when we were talking about it, he says, "Yes, I like the long hair...but I'm just the dad." Hahaha. Owned.

Opa picked up Benji from W.TH and drove me back to Isegrim-Hof (from now on, I-H). I had lunch with Klaus and then got ready for class. The weather was even worse with really strong winds and lots of rain, so I decided I'd take the bus to class instead of riding my bike. I've never taken the bus before, so I went to ask Mira for the times. She told me one comes at 10 after 2, so I had just enough time...headed down to both bus stops...turns out this bus at 10 after 2 only comes on Saturdays. Ah! I walked back home and was already soaked when I got there. Klaus wasn't home to drive me into town, so I just stayed there at I-H. I was actually bummed about missing class since we didn't have it at all last week, but at least I get to go tomorrow. Instead, I stayed at home and Skyped with Valaree, finally! It's been TOO long since we've done that.

I made a potato and leek soup for dinner with a lemon dressed salad. Pretty delicious! Then, Benji, Sib, and I watched 10 more minutes of Elmo in Grouchland. That movie is seriously the best, and Benji is even more infatuated with Elmo now!

This morning was BEAUTIFUL! Benji and I immediately went outside after breakfast and took a long walk around Ungstein and up close to Erpolzheim. We took our time enjoying the nature and the brightly shining sun. I was almost warm for a minute as I stood there in the sunbeams! On the way back from just outside of Erpolzheim, we stopped at the Kinderspielplatz (the playground) and played for a while since it was finally dry enough to enjoy. That boy sure does love the hut/house there!

We came back home and had lunch with Klaus again. Always a pleasure. We built a couple of towers out of blocks and then headed to bed for nap time. I actually ended up taking a nap for an hour or so today, too, and it was awesome. I layed in the sunbeams coming through my windows : )

Once he woke up, we had a snack of apple, kiwi, muffin, and peanuts. I've gotten him to love peanuts and even say the word, haha. Klaus thinks this is so American that it's ridiculous. We went back outside and climbed the mountain to catch the sunset. It was sooo windy up there! We couldn't stay for long because Benji was getting too cold, so we trekked back down to the house...peanuts and all.

We read some books, and then Klaus took Benji over at 6. He ordered pizzas for dinner from the Italian man. Apparently, pizza isn't that big here, and when you have it, it's really real Italian only from really real Italian people. Nonetheless, that makes it all the more better, so it was quite enjoyable.

Now, it's time to retire to bed after another fun-filled day with little Benji.

DISCLAIMER: I promise I'll update all about Sunday tomorrow. There was just SO MUCH that happened that I need time to figure out how to describe it all! But I bet the list of things to remember is keeping you all intrigued...