Birthday Celebrations and Baseball

As I begin to type I have already uploaded all of the pictures that I want to use for this post. Initially I am concerned about the length of this entry, knowing everything that I want to say about these events. Well, here we go.

First off is my surprise birthday dinner this past Friday. Cindy did a lot of thinking and planning for different options to celebrate this milestone birthday for me. She looked into various destinations and events to send me to, but in the end knew that I would want to be home with my family. She first surprised me on Wednesday, the actual birthday, by being home as I arrived with the kids from school. She had a birthday cake and a card that had lots of thought and love hand written for me. The cake was a real German chocolate with cream cheese icing and some sort of little berries in the middle layers of frosting. It was different, but still really good. Sorry, we ate it before taking pictures. The real event was Friday night. She had someone coming over to watch the kids while we went to a mysterious dinner. That evening Cindy drove us towards Munich. I kind of knew the area that we were in, but had no idea what restaurants might be around. Sure enough we parked near the BMW Weld (world) and BMW Museum area right next to the Olympia Park area in Munich. As we exited the parking garage I immediately noticed the Olympic Tower near by and a sign pointing to the Restaurant 181. She had make reservations over a month ago to get into the "Restaurant 181 First" which is a handful of tables that receive personal service from the chef and a dedicated wait staff. Chef Otto Koch is a well known German Chef and owner of this restaurant. As we arrived at the base of the tower there was a well marked reception area for diners. They had a hostess walk us to the elevator and escort us to our table. This is a rotating restaurant like at Reunion Tower. The name represents how many meters high the restaurant sits. As we walked towards our table there were large tables, some with children and very open. Our hostess took us to a secluded area shielded from the rest of the tables. The chef was the first one to our table and allowed the waitress/sommelier to welcome us and introduce him. So far everyone spoke English really well. The chef did too, but he was very deliberate in his conversation. I am not sure if that is just how he spoke, or if it was because he was speaking English. He asked if we were familiar with the menu, we told him no. He said he would return later to go over it with us. They gave us some options for a pre-dinner drink. A few minutes later the chef returned to the table and probably spent ten minutes going over each course of the two menus available. It was really interesting to hear him talk about each dish, the rarity of some of the menu items being served, and how he came up with some of them. I took the menu 2 and Cindy took menu 1 so we could try everything together. I also opted for the wine selection with each course, Cindy was driving so she let me get my drink on.

The view was nice. It was a clear night. The Allianz Arena was in the distance and changing colors. It is the home of the Bayern Munchen soccer team. Above the windows there was a map legend showing what sites you could see in the distance. Being that it was dark we did not see much other than lights. Munich is a large city, but Dallas is more impressive at night, just seeing the the lights go on and on forever.

The first "welcome" dish arrived. It was three mini bites in various shapes. I didn't get a picture, but it was an impressive presentation. Below was the second welcome. I am going to do a terrible job remembering and/or describing these dishes, but I will do my best. This second welcome included langostinos with beets, we ate all of it.

Next came this welcome presented as a can of sardines. It was some sort of fish on a bed of something else, I don't remember. They were just getting started with the presentation skills. With all of these welcome dishes they were also serving fresh warm bread with a sole butter and a pumpkin spice spread.

Finally we get to the first course of the meal. Above was my presentation of Alaskan White Salmon. The chef described it as very rare and hand caught in Alaska. He said they only get about 30 kilos of it all year. The two pieces on the bottom have two varieties of caviar on top. The white round pieces were made to look like pearls and it was served with a creamy cucumber sauce in the middle.

Cindy's first course was oysters, fancy oysters. She debated about picking up the shell and sliding the oyster in her mouth Texas style, but in the end opted for her fork. Again, they made it look like pearls in the half shell, they were even better when you ate them.

This dish was one of my favorites of the night. The top middle was a filet of fish, he called it turbin, not sure on the spelling. It was on top of a hot rock out of the Isar river in Munich. On the right was mushroom made to look like other rocks, and the left was potato with a powder covering also looking like rocks. This was all served on a flat stone plate with a very good sauce. The dish tasted as good as it looked, maybe better. Below Cindy was served a lobster dish on a mini table. Again with the presentation.

This was our least favorite course. Above was a fish dish that Cindy was served and below was mine. The fish was good and fell off of the bone, but it was not great. I ate the truffles out of mine, and the soup/sauce was not bad, but the crunchy looking noodle things were not pleasing to my palate.

We both had the same main course. It was a Grouse, a type of bird. It was very tasty. The plate was a piece of glass over a box that was full of.......well.....the ground. We ate the bird in it's natural habitat I guess.

Cindy's dessert was interesting. When they brought it out it was a sphere with a glowing light, like the moon. They poured a thin warm honey over the white chocolate moon and we watched it fall in to what you see in the picture, revealing the ice cream underneath. I thought Cindy was nuts when she started saying that there were Pop Rocks in her dessert. Remember Pop Rocks, the candy? I tried a bite and sure enough got the same sensation. When Cindy asked the waitress about it she brought out a sample. Little chocolate covered carbonated pop rocks. I had fun eating them after having about two bottles of wine. Did I mention that I figured out after my first glass of wine that they would fill it up again if it started to get too low? Free refills baby! You can take the boy out of west Texas......

How was that for a dinner description? Sorry of that was too long and boring for anyone. It was a four plus hour dinner for us. I think I missed a few of the other things they brought to the table, like the sorbet and maybe a couple more welcomes. After dessert they brought several more sweet bites of various things. Stop it already!! Although the French Room in Dallas still tops our list for our favorite restaurant, the presentation and experience of Restaurant 181 will not be forgotten soon.

Next topic, BASEBALL:

Further down I am going to talk about Katherine's big birthday party and sleep over. The day of the party David was saved by his friend Drew and scored an invitation to spend the night at his house. When I picked him up the next morning I talked to Drew's parents for a while. We were talking sports and soon realized that Drew also played baseball prior to them moving here from California. They told me they had heard about a baseball organization in a nearby town. I made a mental note and took David home.

We have loved being here in Germany and the opportunities and exposure that our kids are getting to the larger world are too many to mention. There is an opportunity cost to this adventure. Missing family and friends, adjustments to a new country, comfort foods of home, etc. Believe it or not one of my main disappointments in being away from home is leaving the sports teams that David and Katherine were a part of. Katherine is young enough that she will be fine, but David is missing some prime development and fun age time for his baseball career. I was really sad about leaving the great group of kids and parents we had with his team in Allen. Yes, the other benefits of moving here are far better, but that is one thing I hate to give up.

I think we found the next best thing though. I reached out to the general information email of the Garching Atomics baseball organization. The next day I got a reply from the coach of the 9-11 year old age group. This group practices twice a week year round and plays games on the weekends April through July and a crazy indoor thing in the winter. I was still very skeptical and did not have high expectations, but we attended the practice the next evening. The coach was waiting at the door for us to direct us where to be. He spoke perfect English and was very welcoming. This time of year they practice indoors in a brand new gymnasium that has a total of four basketball courts that can be separated by electric walls. For the first thirty minutes the fifteen or so kids started doing strength agility and endurance exercises. This was a pitchers and catchers practice so they started on drills for proper throwing techniques. I am pretty sure there is a strong stereotype related to Germans and their attention to detail. This coach seems to fit that if it does exist. The coach is a pretty young guy, says the 40 year old, and played baseball in the USA in college. He grew up in Bavaria but definitely has a passion for the American pastime. He will explain a concept or technique to the boys to help with their throwing motion, for example. If they have trouble understanding he opens up a notebook full of pictures from MLB players as a visual aid. He has pictures for every arm angle, leg position, weight distribution, etc. Anything that he wants to convey he can back it up with these pictures. He has notes from his very first coach and mentor that he references. If nothing else David will learn proper mechanics for throwing, fielding, and hitting. I can't say enough about how excited I am to find this organization. The coaches are great and some of the kids will be able to push David to get better.

We have already been to a second practice where they focused more on fielding and hitting. I was again impressed with the detail and actual coaching taking place. So far David has been up to bat about eight times during a little scrimmage they do at the end of each practice. Each time he has ripped line drives off the back wall of the gym. He was not hitting too well at the end of last season in Allen. The time off has seemed to help his hitting. We will see if it keeps up. For now, Daddy is happy to have this alternative to our team in Allen. David seems to really enjoy getting back into it and is excited that his friend from school, Drew, is also working out with the team.

Multiple Celebrations for the Birthday Girl:

On Katherine's actual birthday she got to open presents from Mommy, Daddy and David.

She wanted a stuffed dog and also a dog that she could walk, we think because of the one her cousin Lauren had last time we visited them. She also wanted to replace the Barbie house that we sold prior to leaving Allen. As usual she got everything that she requested.

 She got the specially requested chocolate mouse pie all to herself too. 

The next event was a birthday party with friends. She was given several options like bowling, movie theater, Sea Life aquarium, indoor water slide place, etc. Katherine wanted to simply have a couple of friends from school over to her house. Somehow this turned into five friends that spent the night. I have to admit this was an interesting event for many reasons. 

First of all, we had it more than a week after her birthday. The wife of one of the guys that works with Cindy at TI was going to come over and help with the hair and nails part of the party. She was out of town the visiting her native Holland the weekend before so we pushed it out to the next weekend. We have gotten to know Bernhard and Madelon over the past few weeks. They came over to our house for dinner and they are the friends that took us to the Greek restaurant that I talked about last time. They are in their mid to late twenties and we are not really sure why they are hanging out with us old people. She is from Holland and he is German. They met at University and married in 2013. 

The girls started arriving around 3pm on this Saturday. They immediately started playing dress up and playing in Katherine's room. We were missing one of the girls and Madelon was coming directly from a class to help out with the party. Before the last girl arrived the girls wanted to do a fashion show. They asked for loud music and put on a show consisting of dancing and jumping on the furniture, in dresses. 

Our last guest arrived and so had Madelon. It was time to start the manicures and hair styling. We kept them entertained by a large TV playing a Disney movie. They did pretty good sitting there to let the nails dry.

So the most interesting part for me was how these girls were going to get along. Just seeing them at school for a short time in the mornings and afternoons I knew we had some strong personalities. Katherine was claiming in the days leading up to the party that she would be the boss since it was her party. A lot of these girls ride a bus to school so getting to meet some parents at drop off was also an experience. None of these girls are wanting for anything as far as I can tell. We had two that are from the UK, one from Austria, one fellow American, and one more from Jordan. I have to admit that the perfect British accent coming out of a six year old little girl was really cute. Not that I could understand it, but it was cute. I kept thinking about the scene from Finding Nemo when Nemo's father Marlin is getting instructions from Squirt on how to exit the "swirling vortex of terror".

So we had birthday cupcakes, opened presents, ate mini pizzas for dinner and let the girls play.

They all brushed their teeth and got pajamas on. In addition to Katherine's bed we had four air mattresses ready for sleepovers and future visits from family, HINT HINT.

We were sending out photos to the parents during the party so they knew their girls were doing okay. Not quite live tweeting, but I thought we did pretty good. Around 10:30 we got them to at least go into the room and take a pretend photo of them being tired.

Alright, everyone is in bed.

A little wind down time.

Ahhh,,,,peace at last. 3pm to 11:15. Time to rest.

Five minutes later, not so much.

Ten minutes later Katherine and two other friends are complaining about the other two that are talking and won't let them sleep.

A few minutes later, they have escaped.

This is not going well.

Now these three want to sleep in the same bed and the other two want to move their mattresses to the other room. It was well after midnight but we finally got the drama calmed down and girls asleep. It was a little before 7am before we heard squeals of little girls that morning. They were up and going early. Who's idea was it to let them stay until 11 that morning?

We did get them to eat breakfast and tried to get them to watch another movie. It was clear that some did not get enough rest. We finally made it to pick up time. All of the girls I think had a good time and the parents survived. Sunday was a day of rest after the group left. We had already done a lot of picking up and the rest could wait.

Here is a five minute video with segments of the fashion show, manicures, and Happy Birthday.
Katherine's Birthday Party Video

I think it was a big success, Katherine really enjoyed it. David got to avoid it and spend the night at a friend's house so he was happy. Mummy (got that from the British girls) and Daddy were happy that we survived as did the house. Next sleepover I think will be limited to one friend.