Berlin: Birthday, Breakfast, and Basketball.

Thursday was Casey's birthday. We started the day going out to breakfast at a cute little café called Schwartz's. Ellie was a riot! She was absolutely insistent that she have a tea party!

One of the highlights of the morning was when we were singing a little kiddie song where we had to say each person's name and how old they were. We went around the table and sang the song for each person until we got to Katie. Ellie calls Katie "Aunt Kat." So when we started to sing the song we said, "Katie" and then Britt explained to Ellie that Aunt Kat's name was Katie. I wish I had had my camera ready to snap a picture of Ellie's face. She was so incredibly confused! We all had a good laugh.

I had eggs with tomatoes, feta cheese, onions. The meal was just about the best scrambled egg mixture on toast that I have ever had in my life! Katie had to take a picture because she said it just looked like "something Emery would eat." I think it was the feta. SO delish!

Later that day we went to KaDeWe, which is widely accepted as the largest department store in all of continental Europe. It is really quite amazing. A bit of sensory overload. It's seven floors with boutique stores on the ground floor like Gucci, Cartier, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, and the like. We rode the elevator to the sixth floor, where there is a full grocery store, and the equivalent of a food court, although it looks like nothing like a food court you'd find in a regular American mall. It's very high end, more gourmet foods. We all got crepes. I ordered mine with strawberries and vanilla cream. Yum!

That night we went to Casey's game at the O2 World Arena. At the very beginning the announcer wished Casey "Happy Birsday!" It was great. Although they won, the game itself was pretty intense.

After the game, we celebrated Casey's birthday with Adam and Tori and the rest of the team and their families. Brittney had made a delicious vanilla cake with fresh strawberries. We had balloons, which we'd purchased at KaDeWe earlier in the day. And then of course the buffet (provided by the arena in the VIP lounge).

As we left, there were a few fans waiting to wish Casey a Happy Birsday with flowers, cards, and a song!

Once again, another fun day!