W9 of Y2

Spring Time in Germany!!

In Germany, there are fields of beautiful flowers where you can cut as many flowers as you like and drop some change into a box.

The kids had fun picking out all their favorite colors and we all enjoyed the colorful display all week long!

One thing we haven't been able to find here in Germany is Sushi. I've been craving it for a while so I decided to try to make it on my own. Doesn't it look pretty?

Unfortunately, It looked better than it tasted....

Uncle Johnny

Jeremy's old college buddy came all the way from Texas to see us for a couple of weeks. The kids only know him as "Uncle Johnny".

We took him to our favorite Pizzaria on the corner. It is owned by Italians and the pizza tastes just like the ones we had when we were in Italy. It's soooo good!

Saturday Connor had a photo scavenger hunt for scouts. We took all the kids and made a day of it. I love being able to observe the kids in this kind of environment. I always learn a lot about them when they are around their friends or just other people!

Whitney

Whitney is very social. She saw this girl right away and immediately started playing with her.

Then this girl shows up and Whitney drops her younger friend like a hot potato. She was mesmerized by this older girl who wore "pretty shoes" (she was very impressed with her shoes and kept talking about how pretty they were!)

This girl was so sweet to Whitney and they held hands during the long walk. I was really glad that she was there so Whitney didn't want me to hold her the whole way.

Aiden

I realized I had lost Aiden and started looking around for him. I was so surprised to find he was far away watching some kids play basketball. He just stood there watching them. He would watch them really close and mimic the way the dribbled and when one kid would start running with the ball Aiden would follow him and do everything that the kid did. He stayed right with them and would hurry to get out of the way if they got too close to him. I'm sure he wanted them to ask him to play but they never did. He watched them for the longest time.

When everyone left they let him play with the ball and he stayed down there by himself trying out all the things he saw the older kids do. I thought he would like someone to play with so I went down there to play with him but he said "I want someone gooder to play with, not like a Mom or a girl!" (I had to hold back the tears.)

Connor

Connor is such a leader with his friends. As soon as he gets there he starts organizing what games everyone is going to play and who's on what team, what the rules are, where the bases are, etc... All the kids love it too!

We are so grateful for the good friends the boys have made here.

Johnny bought presents for everyone and we couldn't wait to show it all off at church on Sunday! He picked out church clothes for each kid. The clothes all fit perfect and they looked so great! Whitney was the talk of the ward in her new dress. He even thought to buy tights to go with it! I was very impressed. I think these are the nicest clothes that the kids own. (yes, that's the same spot we took our Easter pics just a couple weeks ago!!)

After church we walked around Luisenpark with Johnny. It was SO beautiful! Flowers everywhere, birds singing, kids laughing. A perfect Sunday afternoon!

W8 of Y2

Spring Break!!!

This week was spring break for the boys. Jeremy was in Leibsig, Germany for most of the week and I had to work so I kind of felt bad that we didn't do much. However, we still managed to have a great time!

We went bowling one night

Dinner at the bowling alley. Yum.... ?

Our dear "Oma Lorz" (German for Grandma) came and picked the boys up and took them to the Heidelberg Zoo one day! The Lorz are so sweet and really are like adopted Grandparents for the kids. We truly love them both!

Aiden got this idea in his head that he wants to take pictures of animals and insects to make a book. So when he found out he was going to the zoo it really made his day! I was really impressed with his pictures. Here are just a few that he took.

Over the weekend we went to Tripsdrill. Jeremy had to attend an activity at church and couldn't come but we had a blast anyway! This was our first time being here so I was a little worried that the rides would be age-appropriate for my crew but they totally were! We spent the entire day there and then slept like babies that night.

The atmosphere was so charming! Little things like clothes hanging on the line overhead just gave it the right touch.

The surrounding area was just breathtaking. I was worried I was going to get in a wreck on the way down there because the scenery was so beautiful! Of course, it never looks as good on camera. But you get the idea.

A mechanical man spitting on the boys. They loved it!

There was hardly anyone there which made it really nice. Poor Connor had to go by himself on a couple of rides though since Aiden could only go with an Adult and I had to stay with Whitney.

This was probably Whitney's favorite part. She kept saying "Mommy, look at the kitties!!"

This was her next favorite part! She was smiling so big and waving at everyone. She really thought she was really driving!!

These chicks just hatched! There were 2 more that were starting to peek out of their shells too.

I think they're starting to get sick of me taking so many pictures!!

Connor had to beg Aiden to go on the Tousendfussler (Thousand-footer: AKA - millipede). Aiden was really scared but when the roller coaster came around you can see him yelling at me saying "Mommy, it's not that scary!"

We watched a very interesting mechanical skit/musical while we ate lunch here. The Germans seem to really like these mechanical people and animals.

Here was have a lovely view of Adam and a topless Eve. The boys immediately ran up to get a better look but as soon as you get to the fence the serpent in the tree to the right spits water on you!

Snack time!

They had an adorable Kinder Toilette. Here Whitney is sitting on a little-girl potty....

.....And here's Connor washing his hands. It was an open bathroom for girls and boys. Whitney didn't care but the boys were just not down with that! They got stage fright.

I have to say I wasn't too disappointed for having to miss this ride. They were a little wet!

Whitney's big accomplishment for the week is learning how to do this:


I think it's time for a big girl bed!!!

W7 of Y2

I have the world's best husband!
He gave me two BIG surprises this week....

My blog book!!! It is finally done!!! The whole reason why I started this blog over 2 years ago was to have all my posts put into a nice book so I didn't have to feel bad about not scrapbooking. Jeremy did all the work. He downloaded the software and put all the pages of the book together. It is very nicely put together... much nicer than I expected. It is 172 pages and cost around $130 for everything. Totally worth it!

Here are a few pictures of the inside:

This was just 2008. He's working on 2009 now so we can get caught up.


My second surprise... He took my unorganized collection of recipes created this!

I print most of my recipes off the internet and then add my own comments after making it so that I can remember how I did or how I want to do it for the next time. I only keep the recipes that are "keepers". He even put them all in page protectors so I can just wipe off the inevitable spills when I'm done. I only wish I had a picture of what I was using before. This is such an incredible improvement!!!

For the recipes that are written the "old-fashioned" way... on cards. He photo copied the backs of them and taped them onto a piece of paper so that I could keep them in the book. I had 102 recipes that he organized!!!

We didn't go to church on Easter Sunday because it was Conference Sunday and the hours are weird here. So we took our annual family Easter picture this week instead.

I thought it was interesting to compare last year's Easter picture with this year. We took the picture in the same spot outside our church by the same tree. You can tell we were much farther into Spring this time last year. The kids all look a lot older too.

Easter 2009

Easter 2010