(From Rob) A Good Day to Turn Ten, a Rough Day to Stay Seven

Maddie enjoyed her birthday today. We made sure she had presents, cards, a cake, candles, a lighter for the candles, and all fo the logistics that go along with these things in a hotel room in a foreign country. She kept saying " I don't feel different now, but I am a double digit!Will helped me to sneak around and get everything wrapped, signed, etc. If only I could report that teh weather had played along. Instead, it was raining every other five minutes, with a few blessed but short lived sunny minutes. The swimming pool was closed for inclement weather.
The pool closure was the beginning of a streak of bad luck for Will (here seen with his patented corkscrew lollypop holder). It is hard under the best of circumstances to be the brother of the birthday girl. He held it together admirably until he fell and split his lip (see the mention of the skating ramp from yesterday, only add more rain so that it got slippery). Then his Kinder-Egg had a girlie toy in it, he spilled his lunch on his pants, his consolation present turned out to be a book he already had, he got a serious case of the trots and he pulled a leg muscle.
Poor Will-O had just about had it at lunch time, so I let him veg for an hour in front of the tube.
Later, We convinced Will to come on a treasure hunt that involved a cemetary, a gardening supply store, two old churches, and oversized ice cream cone and a huge chess set.
As you can see, this did not quite finish off the bad mood. But Maddie and I had a great time, and Will joined us eventually.
We stayed on and played a great game of chess, which both kids agree would have been even better without my helpful hints.
Somehow we all got out on the road for another bike tour, this one about 5 Kilometers round trip. It was freezing cold and somewhat rainy, but we managed to get back alive.
We had gulash for dinner, and then opened presents and lit up the cake.








Maddie made a good haul of books and a nice charm bracelet and HSM2 Barette from Will. She was gracious, cheerful and excited, and even Will had a great time this evening. We finished things off by watching "Mr. Bean." The kids were asleep in about 4 minutes flat.

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