July 30, 1998

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Today was the day for Stephen's birthday party. Although it is a few weeks early. But he heads back to the states in 8 days and this is the last day that Sandra is going to be in town before starting her holidays. Here the kids are watching a video waiting for the cake to be cut. If you look closely, you'll see the camcorder on top of the television set.

We put streamers up from the ceiling. Days later the streamers are still up on the ceiling. I guess I'll need to pull them down at some point in time.

The kids had cold cuts, hard salami, mozzarella, tomatoes, humus, breadsticks, fruit salad and lemon/lime still water. This is all before the cake comes out.

They waited patiently for the cake and presents. It didn't hurt that we had rented some videos for today. I'm getting hungry again just seeing this picture!

We ordered the cake the day before from the local bakerei. Originally, I was hoping to get a 'fever pitch' cake from Marks and Spencer but since World Cup '98 finished a couple of weeks ago I haven't seen the cake there. So we tried the local backerei to see if they could cook up a soccer theme cake. They could.

We bought the party favors at the Kaufhalle up Schildergasse from Marks and Spencer. Stephen picked out the 'Borussia Dortmund' football team as the basis for the plates, cups and napkins.

Stephen finally got a chance to blow out the candles. He got them all in one try!

The kids pulled the candles out of the cake. Then we opened the kids presents.

Stephen's presents were based on an emergency vehicle theme. I thought it'd be a good idea considering it'd give both the kids a way to remember their trip to Germany. And we see the polizei cars quite often, usually with the lights and sirens going.

Kristie got a couple of stuffed animals and both of them got bubble sets to blow bubbles.

One thing I didn't let Stephen play with in the house was the waterballoon slingshot kit!

I just hope we have enough room in the backpacks for all the toys the kids got on their stay here.

The kids played until the late hours in the evening. I let them stay up a little later than usual and watch a video. They finally went to bed around 23h00.

I think I finally got to sleep around 03h00! Oh well.

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