Moving!!!!!

This Saturday I packed up all my worldly possessions and moved them to the Varners. It was strange to see everything in boxes again, but I will be sure to get some pictures of the new place. In the meantime I am now at Master Works Festival in Winona Lake!! I am really excited to be here. I got through the first day well and am getting to know many new people. I will let you all know which orchestra I will be playing in in case anyone would like to come see me! There was definitely no reason to be nervous. Everyone here is very nice and the faculty and staff are very helpful. I can´t wait to see what God will do in the next few weeks!
And I will try to get some pictures while I am here and keep you updated.

When the Cats go away...

This is a bit delayed, but I felt the experience deserved some pictures. When Freya and Steve went to do some shopping, I was asked to watch out of the kids for the day. A little bit nervous, but equipped with a very detailed schedule I started the day off with some fun activities.
Play-dooh. I don´t really know how they spell that.

We even made Brownies. As you may know, my culinary skills are not anywhere close to some of yours, so I was a little scared about this part. Luckily we had fun doing it, the boys were good helpers and nobody got poisoned.

Cuties :)

Bingo

And the end to a fun filled day at the Varners. Most definitely a learning experience. I am happy to repeat it anytime you guys need me :)

School is out and the weather is beautiful, so Kirsten and I decided to try out a new little ice cream place in town. It is self-serve and extremely delicious.

And then Erika and I headed out to Columbus for Memorial Day Weekend. Erika, Daniel and Elizabeth had to train for their race and I decided to demonstrate motivation and go with them to the park. This is what I did while thay were running.

Mature trees in the park!

Look at these happy runners after a practice run in the blistering heat and scorching sun! Now that the race is actually over (pictures on the other blogs) I am really proud of you guys for doing it in spite of limited training!!

In Columbus we also met up with the Rudy Gang for some Greek food!! (Daniel felt like being patriotic)

Good food and fun times! Thanks for hanging out :)

And on the road again... to Marion with Erika.

Fun times at Erika´s school finishing up the school year. Congrats Erika for finishing year 2!!! Judging by this picture, the school and the kids have definitely made a lsting impression on you!

Food Fun with Freya!!

Today is an exciting day at the Varner's! While the basement continues to be worked on, Freya baked four German cakes. One of the boys from church needs them for a 4-H project and so we had to taste some to make sure they were good. I decided to document the endeavour so as to have something to post on my blog. This first one is a chocolate and cherry cake.

Getting started with recipes and prepping the doughs.

Lena liked looking into the camera. And Henry and I were making pirate faces. Pirates have been very popular recently, due to one of the books we were reading.

And here is the cherry cake with the cherries and the Streusel. We decided Freya deserved the name "Master Crumble."

And here the Zitronenkuchen (lemon cake). It tasted very good.

And now to my personal favourite: the Zwiebelkuchen!!! (onion cake). First step was chopping onions. It definitely helps to be able to chop fast. Hut ab to Freya!

And finally the apricot cake. With parts containing chocolate and hazelnuts this was a very tasty treat!

Chopping more onions.

And the three "desert" cakes all baked and ready for consumption!

Henry had recieved a red balloon at the bank and so Freya had to take a little break to blow it up for him.

And back to the onions... (I'm sorry these are all a little out of order)

Lena liked to help as well and figured out how to avoid getting burnt by the pans. She also decided it would be fun to sit in the middle of the kitchen floor and read a book.

Finishing touches and the first cake is ready to be tested. Lena was eager to get some, too. And rightly so, since it tasted wonderful!

And now the Zwiebelkuchen is ready, too! It took me back to the Schwabenland and to memories of fun times!

An excited Max before the cake testing.

Needless to say, all the cakes tasted great! They were very German and it was so nice to have a good treat like that, so thank you Freya for putting your skills to use for us to enjoy as well!!