Getting ready for school

Hi everybody,
we are getting ready for school here, which starts the 14th of September.
Linus will be entering first grade, which is the very first year in school for German kids.We have ordered his special backpack (=Schulranzen) and the matching little bag to carry his sneakers for PE. We were too unorganized (=late) to get it in a store on time, those Germans are so organized and fast. We got Linus some sneakers and "Hausschuhe". In elementary school the kids wear inside shoes (=Hausschuhe) in the classroom. We went and bought all the items on the list we got from school. He is very proud!

Leonie will be entering fifth grade which is a big step. She will be in the same school with 12th graders. She gets the list of things she will need on the first day of school. Leonie had some tutoring the past few weeks in German spelling, and she has learned a lot already. She has already written some of her sweet stories in German!

Before school starts we will make a short trip to visit friends in Bonn, one of the families we know from Santa Cruz. They moved back to Germany 1.5 years ago, we have not seen them since. The kids are very excited to see their old friends again.
We will then spend the weekend with my parents, sister and family. The kids love their cousins.

We will be back next week, and I will post more pictures.

Claudia