My Once Upon a Time...

Last weekend, my friend Julia visited us from Tucson with her two kids. We had so much fun! After they arrived on Saturday, we headed to the Butterfly Wonderland. One of our three kids actually enjoyed the butterflies, one was only interested in climbing stairs (Mr. Fox) and the other was deathly afraid of the butterflies. Aww! This melts my heart! Both of Julia's kids loved Fox, they were so incredibly sweet to him and I loved seeing them interact with each other. Three babies in jammies, ready for bed! Funny story: Lexi wanted to take a bath with Fox, so I told her she needed to ask her mom if that's okay. She came back and told me her mom said yes, so I put her in the tub with Fox. One minute later, Julia comes in and asks what she's doing in the tub...lol. I got tricked by a 2-year old...haha. The next day, we went to the train park. Ready to ride the train! Mr. Independent They have a really cool (and free) train museum at ...

14 years ago, I traveled to the US for the very first time to start my adventure as an au pair. For the next year, I lived with a family in Rhode Island and watched their three children. It was without a doubt, one of the best years of my life. Sure, it was stressful (after all, I had three children under the age of 3!), but it allowed me to grow so much as a person and after all these years, I'm still in contact with the family and call them my second family!  Fast forward 6 years and I'm back in the US, this time in California, working as a Community Counselor for an au pair agency, helping families find au pairs and taking the au pairs out for activities once a month. I worked for them for 7 years and just recently stopped when we had Fox, because my evenings and weekends with him were too precious. So here we are, about to have an au pair of our own. Talk about full circle!  We always thought that Fox would go to daycare once the time came. Until we toured abo...

 After each Home Show, we get a 3-day weekend. Of course, it went by just as fast as any other weekend, but we had a lot of fun! On Friday, my friend Julia came up from Tucson for the day. We met 13 years ago, when we were both au pairs in Rhode Island, taking care of other people's children. And here we are, once again living in the same state, with our own children playing together. Surreal! It's always great to see her and I'm so glad to still call her my friend after all these years!  We went to lunch and then to the train park, where Fox had his very first train ride.    Followed by the first time on a carrousel.      The next day, we went to a first birthday party for Fox's friend Braxdon.    Fox and London were cuddling for a split second.    A few of the boys and their Mamas!    Today, we dropped off Fox for a few hours at Aunt Ashlie's house and Katie and I ventu...

Dear 16-year old Nadine, It's me, twice as old as you and hopefully twice as wise!  If I think about my future daughter being just like you, I smile and cringe at the same time. We had some fun times (maybe a little too much fun), but sometimes I wish somebody had given me this advice when I was as innocent (yeah right) and naive as you are.  - Do not ride your bicycle at 3am by yourself through the middle of the woods! Are you crazy? Has nobody ever warned you about rapists and killers? What are you thinking?  Let me just tell you, it won't help you to have a small can of hairspray ready to go in your hands... if someone wants to knock you of your bike, they will! Stop being so cheap and spend your hard-earned money on a taxi or make that loser boyfriend of yours ride home with you. You should count your blessings that nothing has ever happened to you!  - Speaking of loser boyfriends, don't waste another minute crying about that idiot you think you're...

My friend Julia, who is also from Germany, and I met when we were both au pairs in Rhode Island in 2002. I remember countless nights just hanging out at Johnny Rockets on Thayer Street in Providence  with her  and to this day, I will always think about her when I see a Johnny Rockets.  Meine Freundin Julia, die auch urspruenglich aus Deutschland kommt, und ich haben uns als Au Pairs im Jahre 2002 in Rhode Island kennengelernt. Ich erinnere mich an viele Abende, wo wir einfach nur bei Johnny Rockets auf Thayer Street abhingen und auch nach so vielen Jahren denke ich jedesmal an sie, wenn ich irgendwo ein Johnny Rockets sehe.  Yep, here we are again, at our favorite place with her boyfriend (now husband) Erik. The funny thing is, I didn't even like the food there, but I guess the entertainment was worth every stomach ache I got. Whenever a certain song came on (I believe it was RESPECT from Aretha Franklin), all of the waiters would stop what they were d...