Eight Years Old

Ben turned 8 last month and to celebrate, we had an epic weekend of activities.

Being a lover of bagels, books and Coca-Cola, we took the boys to brunch at Fine Bagels located in Shakespeare and Sons book store in the Friedrichshain neighborhood. http://www.finebagels.com/# The Bagels were great, but so were the rugelach and cinnamon bulkas. Yum.

{Ben’s faves: bagels, books and Coca-Cola}

A fifteen minute walk from there brought us to the Computer Game Museum, http://www.computerspielemuseum.de/, a museum that features original, playable classic video games as well as displays.

{TV Tower in the background along Karl-Marx-Allee}

{outside the Computer Spiele Museum}

{Isaac and Ben playing Pong}

{Ben loved playing Space Invaders, Centipede and Tetras}

{Isaac and daddy curled up on a bean bag playing video games}

After we went home, Ben opened his presents. A London Lego set and a Cozmo robot. He was thrilled!

That night, per Ben’s request, we went to one of two Hibachi restaurants in the city that we could find (someone should open more here, they’d be a hit), TokyoHaus, http://tokyohaus.de/. {Hibachi time}

The next day, we hosted a birthday party for a few of Ben’s classmates. He chose three girls and three boys to come. We started with donuts from Brammibal’s, https://www.brammibalsdonuts.com/.

{Donut Time}

It’s a vegan donut and coffee shop that rivals Revolution Donuts back in Decatur. Super yum.{Donut Time}

Next, Dave and I took the eight kids on the U2 to Potsdamer Platz to see the new Wreck it Ralph Movie at the Sony Center, so it would be in English.

{Off to Potsdamer Platz for a movie}

As I was ordering the popcorn and drinks, Dave found out that the movie had started an hour earlier. When we checked my tickets, I had mistakenly bought them at the theater across the street, which unfortunately showed the movie in German. After feeling like the worst mom on earth, we rallied and quickly shuffled the kids to the next theater. Since the other kids either were fluent or had a better grasp of the language, none of the guests complained. Ben was upset, but went along. And Dave let Isaac play on his iPhone during the movie. Once we got the kids in their assigned seats (you pick your seats ahead of time in movie theaters in Germany), I hustled out to the concession stand to order the popcorn and Apfelschorle (fizzy apple juice).

{Heading home after the movie}

After the movie, we headed to our apartment where Ben opened his presents and we waited for the kids to get picked up.

All in all, we think it was an epic weekend.