And So Ends a Lovely Visit from a Lovely Friend

I know two little Monkeys who are going to be mighty disappointed when they wake up to find that I wasn't kidding: this week's celebrity, Mattea, really has gone back to Italy.  

They were with me when we dropped her off at the airport yesterday, but I'm still quite certain that the first thing Lily will ask me when I walk into their bedroom is "Where's 'Teyah?"  Poor things.  See, Mattea's been with us all week.  (She's studying abroad in Italy for three months and decided to take her Spring Break at Hotel Aiduk.)  So we had a blast of course.

And she was amazing with the girls, of course.  So OF COURSE they're going to wake up and be in despair... "Where's our new BFF who reads us gobs of stories and lets both of us climb up into her lap and plays on castles with us and entertains us while Momma cooks dinner and plays dress up before bed?"

Yep.  It's gonna be a pretty boring Saturday at the Aiduk casa.  Especially for two little Monkeys adjusting to play-without-Teyah.

Mattea's a girl after my own heart.  Her friends at school were making all these grand travel plans for Spring Break and she decided that it would be best for her to chose a quieter corner of Europe (aka Otterberg) to get some true R&R before the semester started back up again.  I admire her courage to be herself in this.  The temptation to squeeze in more travel adventures must have been great.  But she really felt like she needed to pick a slower-paced destination.

She flew into Germany with her bud Mikaela and I got to host them both for about 36 hours... then Mik headed off to Ireland and Mattea was perfectly content to stay behind and take part in my slightly boring normal life here in Germany.

But don't worry, I tried to be cool.  We hit Trier together (Big thanks to My Love for staying home with the girls!) and we enjoyed many chats and many cups of coffee throughout the week.  She hung out with us at home and also ventured out to enjoy the Otterberg bakery and walk around the village.

I pray she was able to get in as much rest and thinking-time as she was hoping for!

We visited Burg Nanstein castle in Landsthul with Kirsten.  I got her a pass for the bases and dragged showed her all around while I ran errands giving her an extensive tour of Ramsten Air Base and Vogelweh Air Station.  We even worked in a stay-at-home-in-your-pjs kind of day.  And she also gave J and I a date night, which was splendid!

On her last morning with us we went to my favorite American-style diner for a big breakfast.  I always like going there when I'm missing the States.  Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat out and I just love that there's a little "taste of home."

So we were having so much fun that the week flew by and now our house guest(s) are heading back to school.  And I'll have to work extra hard to make it a fun day for Double Trouble so that they don't ask me where Teyah is every five minutes ;o)  I'm thinking homemade playdough, our first batch of Easter Eggy Bread, and a Pixar movie.  Should do the trick.

Enjoy the rest of your semester in Italy Mattea!  It was a pleasure having you stay with us this week!  Thanks for playing with the girls and making it a special week for them, too.  I'm sure they will be talking about their new BFF for weeks.  And I'm okay with that.