Yes, I'll admit it, our family planning isn't the ideal. We have three of our four kids' birthdays within one week. Needless to say it is like Christmas in July (well, May and June). Lucky for me Hanna is the only one so far who has to have a "friend party". The coming years will just get crazier!

Anyway, Heidi is lucky birthday number one on May 23rd. She turned 2 and we took her to her favorite place, a little town called Gernrode, where the world's largest cuckoo clock is located. She could stay there all day if we let her. Just to prove her excitement for the this place, here are a few videos...

(For a fun little effect, start the first video and then 27 seconds in, start the second video.)

Heidi was also thrilled about the bubbles she got from Oma and Opa. She even had a delicious princess cake to look forward to when we got home from our little outing. I guess it just wasn't meant to be her perfect birthday because on our down from a big lookout tower in the area she got a huge sliver in her hand. We had to take her to the emergency room. They wanted to operate, so we decided to come back to Halle so we wouldn't have to pay for a hotel. In Halle, we waited a while and after two attempts, a scalpel, some blood and lots of screaming and tears the doctor got it out without having to operate. Whew! We decided to have the princess cake the next day. ha ha!