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6/7/2001 9:20:00 PM
Boulder Creek, CA
In the Santa Cruz mountains and the redwood forrest

May 2001

The first Saturday of the month I had a moms day out and went up to San Francisco with my friends Hemma, Huberta and Britta. We left at noon, had a delicious antipasti lunch in the car

Hallo everybody,

Hard to believe but only 2 days behind my German report I am "already" sending the English one - YEAH! I am actually by myself again - NO! Robert is not out at a ice-hockey game, he is at a conference in Orlando the whole week. The kids are finally in bed an hour later as expected and I had some serious thoughts whether I should sit down behind the computer or the video movie (but maybe I can have both today?) Since my last report was so extremely long I thought I should spare you those enormous reading sessions and decided to get it done with.

The first Saturday of the month I had a moms day out and went up to San Francisco with my friends Hemma, Huberta and Britta. We left at noon, had a delicious antipasti lunch in the car on our way up and went to the matinee for the musical "Saturday Nightfever". The performance wasn't all that great but the music put us back in our teenage years and definitely into a dance mood, unfortunately it was way too early for that. After a nice walk around Union Square we had a marvelous dinner at one of the most popular and best restaurants in town. We took it really at leisure, ordered every course separately and for once could SIT through a meal and without a child pulling on us. At last we had a good night drink at a very cute champagne bar and decided to do a "girls date" on a regular bases, starting in fall since the other three will be spending their summer in Austria - SNIFF!

On Tuesday May 8th my mom and aunt Barbie came back from their trip to Mount Shasta. Barbie only could stay overnight and had to leave very early the next day, even though we are in the same state we are 10 hours apart! We were very happy to see her again, specially the kids since they had just spent the weekend before with them alone. My mom stayed for 3 weeks and we really had a very relaxed time this year. Luckily her ruptured disc pain had almost gone, but we still did not want to force it and took it easy. We did little trips here and there, but also spent a day or two in-between at home enjoying the porch and garden. We had wonderful weather throughout and some days were even too hot (up in the high 80's and 90's!)

Pretty much in the beginning we went with Hemma and Lucas to San Francisco to a Teddy bear factory. For everybody who might come and visit us with children, definitely a cute thing to do. There is a short introduction about how the Teddy bear got invented (Question: Who knows the real story? - every right answer will get a personal  mail back!) and a tour through the making of a bear. Afterwards everybody can fill their own (after paying certainly!) and dress it. The kids get to use the machines themselves and make THEIR OWN bear, they have a big collection of different types and cute clothing. Our kids had a wonderful time and even us adults enjoyed it a lot. This year my mom for once was here on Mothers day and we took advantage of it, going shopping by ourselves! Going around for hours from store to store and having a coffee break just isn't the right children's program anymore! One weekend my mom spent with her youth friend in Carmel and that is when we started with our (mostly Roberts) long summer project: The swimming pond!

Since it already was full of algae in spring we knew that "we" had to do something. Robert, as always quick and on top of things, gathered all the information for  improvements, material  and  plans and on May 19th the whole old pond including rocks, liner, wooden walls were taken out by a huge bulldozer, who needed two full days to dig a new "hole", one that we hopefully can swim in now. There will be 3 different levels - the kids corner about knee height - the standing level approx. hip height and the deep level (gulp, gulp) 7ft. He also made the river bed wider, added a biofilter, .... I am not really paying too much attention to the whole project, since Robert is handling it so well and will only be here to assist and help on little things. We hope that it will be ready early September so we can still enjoy the nice fall months, specially since Sebastian has just started to swim without any floating device and Benjamin (our little deir devil) jumps into any water regardless if he can swim or not...

I was very happy my mom and I had decorated the porch quite nicely with flowers, since we won't be able to use much of our garden and pond area now. We spent a lot of time outside and for mothers day I got a heating lamp so that we can now also enjoy the evenings under the stars! My mom and I had a few try out  nights and it really works and keeps you warm - wonderful! (we are spoiled since the European summer nights are really warm) Well and on May 31st my mom had to leave for good old Vienna after being here in total of 7 weeks. We really had a good time and the boys a lot of fun with her. It is always hard and sad to say goodbye, Benjamin is asking about 10 times a day for Omi, but on the other hand it is also a wonderful experience and lots of memories when you get to live together for a few weeks. Robert and I did not go out that much this year but took her up  for a babysitter a couple of times, so she could also spent some time alone with her grandchildren. Sebastian already said that he wants to go to Vienna in a big airplane really soon!....

Well, this is it for May... Enclosed a few up to date pictures (only kids) - Benjamin is a real clown and copies everything that Sebastian does - sometimes he does have his own ideas though as you can see on picture # 1. He really is a fast little guy and for me sometimes to quick of a learner (how to turn on the TV, the water for the bath tub, climbs high ladders, drive a scooter...) He even can ride the big tricycle already and would also take over Sebastian's bike if we wouldn't have taken off the training wheels last weekend (now it is too heavy for him to pick up...!)  He does a lot of things I think Sebastian had no clue of at that age - not even 2 years old! - and I wonder what he will do at 10?!?!?!? They both play very nicely together now and the little Lego is nothing new for Benjamin - I still have to build it for him though so that he can destroy it right afterwards. He is also learning a lot of words, at least 1-2 every day, and I guess it is right: The second ones learn much faster!

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer start, great plans for vacations and a few minutes to write back and let us know what's going on at your ends. For today I send many big hugs and kisses from

The 4 Schmids

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