mila's birthday

Hooray, I'm 11 years old today! For days my Mom has been talking about a surprise-trip we are going to go on, but she did not talk about any details (...okay, I know it wouldn't have been a surprise then...). So we set out in the morning and after a short breakfast 'on the road', we found ourselves driving on the 'autobahn' out of Berlin. After quite some time going through the woods and Emil talking about visiting the elves there, we took an exit and ended up at a huge kind of hall were in earlier times zeppelins were parked. Now it is a fun park called 'tropical island' and I couldn't believe our luck. I was a bit worried about Emil, because he was always afraid of water outside a bath tub. (There were times when he was afraid of that too...) After an initial refusal to change into his swim trunks, he changed his mind soon and with his little swimmies (or water wings?) he started to love the water. After a while we even had to watch him like eagles because he went into the deep water on his own. We had sooo much fun with a big ring we borrowed and we spent hours paddling through the waters. At midday Mom made us lie down for half an hour and after every 5 minutes we asked if nap time is over yet. In the afternoon we attended a treasure hunt, which included feeding sea turtles (it is hard to recognize them in the last pic...) and huge koi carp and later on we watched a circus show on a big stage. On the way back home Emil fell asleep immediately and he was really cross when we woke him up upon arrival. We had such a great day though and I got so many presents, and our answering machine was full of good wishes in the evening and Grandpa Don wrote an e-mail, thank you all so much!
Dear Grandpa Don: I (we all) hope that you will have a great birthday too tomorrow and we will think of you! All the best!!!!

And all the best to Dexy's parents in London - it is their 6th wedding anniversary today! Mom and me still remember their great wedding day (and my 5th birthday) 6 years ago in Bristol, when I fell in the pond and all the wedding guests sang 'Happy Birthday' to me. We had such an amazing time and it was great to see Connie and Drew THAT happy!!!!