It may be Spring but some times it feels like Winter. Last weekend we had weather shifting from rain to hail to snow. We actually had a thin layer of snow on the ground one morning. Here the kids are playing in the hail that came down. You can see the kernals up close below. The weather did not help much when we were moving Anke and Ralf to their new house, but at least it did not rain on us. Since then the weather has warmed up again. The tulips are getting ready to bloom. The magnolias already started.

Is it puppy love or catatonic kitty? Binky and Mischa share the blanket we rescued from Anke and Ralf's attic. Mischa is sleepy here, but she has been even sleepier of late as she just came back from being spayed.

Kathryn is another year older! She celebrated her birthday earlier with just her family. She requested the mascapone-mandarin orange cake with ladyfingers. Then on Friday, she had four friends over for pizza and a sleepover. Saturday it was a pancake breakfast before everyone went home. We took it easy on Saturday, recovering from Friday night. Sunday Kathryn got to choose the restaurant for lunch and we went to the Indian Garden. There the girls had their favorite, lentil soup!

This week Ursula had her first guitar recital. Her teacher organized it with the local flute teacher. You can listen to a short snippet of her playing.

On the weekend we were visited by the Waitzmanns. We went to a medieval faire in Mannheim. The girls each got themselves something. Above, the three archers. Below a lady-in-waiting.

Ursula is now a white-yellow belt! She took her test on Friday night. In July, she and I will probably test for full yellow. Kati had to help out Mirriam by being her uke, that is, her punching dummy.

A few weeks back we went on a hike with Kathrin and Peter in Spechbach. Near the gun club there is an educational forest path. OK, there was not too much there in the way of signage, but it was a nice hike nonetheless. We encountered a group of hunters, who were out hunting wild boar. We also found some signs explaining an old Roman road, which had run through the area.

Peter

Kathrin

Watch out for mole hills!