W14 of Y2

Camera Strike!

I don't know why but I just couldn't bring myself to take a single picture this week. We were plenty busy and there were several opportunities to take some great pictures. I was just being lazy I guess! I will have to document our week without pictures this week.

Monday Jeremy's cousin Danny and his wife Stacy stayed with us before going back to the US. It was so fun to see them. We took them to my favorite Greek Restuarant. The weather was beautiful so we sat outside all night! We were the last ones to leave.

Tuesday Jeremy left to go to Portugal to test drive some Chrystler 4X4's. (more on that later.)

Wednesday Connor raced his raingutter regatta for scouts. We all went to cheer him on (except Jeremy of course) and had a BBQ afterwards for dinner.

Thursday night Jeremy got back from Portugal.

Friday Finally time to relax!!!

Saturday we were determined to pick strawberries. We've heard of several places you can go in this area to pick your own strawberries, but when we set off to find one we were not having any luck. We were getting very frustrated because it was such a beautiful day and I just couldn't stand being stuck inside of the car driving around! FINALLY we found Hegehof!

I stole this picture off their website

We were so excited to get out and start picking (eating) some strawberries but they said the strawberries weren't ready yet because they've had so much rain. We settled for buying a bunch of strawberries and strawberry jam.... yum! We'll go back in a few weeks to see if they're ready.

Other highlights this week:
Whitney got a belated birthday package from my Mom and sister. The package had a cute ballerina outfit (actually a couple of them) and Whitney has had soooo much wearing them all week.
We found out about a program you can download that allows you to use the internet just like you're in the US! There are several websites that are blocked if you are overseas. One of them is Netflicks. We get Netflicks movies in the mail but we can't watch instantly on our computer because we are outside the US, but NOW we can!! We can watch TV shows (that we can't see here) and movies instantly on the computer!!! We were really excited.

So...

What was Jeremy doing in Portugal?

Besides staying 20 minutes from the beautiful beaches of Portugal...
he was also "working"

Doesn't his job look rough!
He goes to the UK this week now to see how Land Rover compares.

W13 of Y2

Whitney is "3 of old!"

Whitney's birthday was during the week. Everyone was sick at our house all week which put a damper on things PLUS I was in Ramstein all week for work.
I was able to rush home Tuesday night for a quick little family party though.



My little princess!!

Here's some video footage of Whitney opening her 2 favorite gifts:




Saturday we had a small party with a few of our great German friends.

Of course, Whitney HAD to wear her Cinderella "dresser" again!

The Party!


Jeremy gave Whitney her one true wish.... "a big girl bed"!
We've been trying it out on the floor for the last few nights and she never gets up. Her crib is one of the 3-in-1 cribs that convert to a day bed and then a twin bed. So during the party he took off the railing of her crib and surprised her with her very own big girl bed!

She suddenly got very sleepy and said she had to lay down. lol! She just couldn't wait to test it out!

The Lorz gave Whitney a laufrad. It is a small trainer bike, without pedals. She was so excited to give it a try. We took it around the block which took about 1 hour! She's gonna need some practice. But she loved it!


Happy Birthday my sweet little princess!!

W12 of Y2

Jeremy's brother, Brian and his wife Abby came to visit! It was so fun to see them and to get to know Abby better.


We took off Saturday for Luxembourg. We wanted to see the WWII museum and the American Cemetery there.
Whitney was pretty much glued to Brian or Abby all weekend. She loves both of them so much!

We made our way to the Museum first.

German, Luxembourg, and American flags


I was surprised at how much WWII stuff they had in this museum. It was a pretty large building.
Of course the kids lost interest after 10 minutes and started using tanks as a jungle gym... so we had to hurry through it.

We told the kids the history of the Battle of the Bulge on the way there so it made it a lot more meaningful.

I loved this!

Outside there was an old US jeep. Jeremy was looking at it and practically climbed inside as he was looking at the maps in the seats, etc... when this man came out of the museum, took his keys out, started the jeep and drove away! HA HA!

We stopped for some lunch at Cafe du Luxembourg.

And took a little break.


We drove another 45 minutes or so to the American Cemetery


There were over 75,000 Americans that died here within a month and a half! Over 5,000 of them are buried here. The cemetery was beautiful!

I was so proud of my country as I walked through the cemetery and saw the monuments.

Some of those buried were unknown


The stars represented the Jewish Soldiers.


General Patton was also buried here. The installation where I work (Patton Barracks) is named after him. I was impressed that those were fresh roses!




After visiting Anne Frank's house last week and seeing that perspective and then seeing the museum and then the cemetery, I think the boys were even impressed after putting it all together.


Soon we were back on the road to get home in time for dinner... Taco Salad.

It was a great day!

W11 of Y2

Before

After

Poor Whitney chipped her tooth on a bathroom sink. :(

Aiden's Kindergarten class had the best Mother's Day program I've ever been too. They sang to us and gave us each a rose. Then they took turns reading this book that they colored themselves. Whitney came with me and Aiden was so proud to have her there. That is Aiden and Whitney in the back.
Aiden's turn to read

Then they presented us with a packet of "gifts" that they had made. Aiden was visibly in pain with embarrassment because I was taking pictures! lol!


Then we had a mountain of cookies and chocolate milk to eat


Then we just got to hang out! It was so fun.

Aiden and his awesome teacher!!!

MOTHER'S DAY!


I had a great Mother's Day, as usual! I feel so blessed to have 3 wonderful children that remind me what is really important in life every single day. I LOVE being a Mom!!