W36 of Y2

This week was all about Halloween!!! Lots of goodies from Grandma Sheri and Grandpa Brad in the mail! (Including a giant spider!!!) It really started the week off great!

Then we had a visit from our German "Grandparents" from church, the Lorz. They are so special to us and the kids love them so much. We always look forward to their visits!


The kids helped me make and decorate 53 cupcakes for their school parties. The sad part though was that Connor threw up at school within the first hour after getting there that day and had to go home and miss the Halloween party. I already volunteered to help at the party so I still went even though Connor wasn't there. :( I was also helping at Aiden's party too, during the same time, so it was ok.







The party really wore him out! He actually fell asleep on the way home from school!!

Herbst (Fall)

It is so beautiful in Germany right now. I have really looked forward to Fall this year... first time I can ever remember doing that. It doesn't matter where we are going, spontaneous leaf fights just "happen" everywhere we go. I love it!



I really don't remember what was so funny in this picture but I just loved it. It's so rare to get real, TRUE smiles out of the boys. They look so happy here. It makes me smile just looking at this picture.

HALLOWEEN

We stuck to tradition again this year and all went to see the movie on base before trick or treating. We saw Nanny McPhee Returns... in costume. Connor is Jason, from the movie 'Friday the 13th'. Connor has no idea who that even is but it was one of the last costumes available at the PX. (Yes, I am a bad Mom and put off buying costumes until the last minute!), I'm not really sure what Aiden is but I think it's something between Justin Bieber and the Fonz - Jeremy says he looks like one of the Village People. All I know is that Aiden begged for this costume and wanted it so bad... so we got it! Whitney is Cinderella. I had a Tinkerbell costume for her but she threw the mother of all fits when I wouldn't let her wear this old, dirty, stained Cinderella dress that she has outworn. So, Cinderella it was!


Smile Jeremy! LOL!! (The theater was dark and he had no idea I was taking this pic!)




We had our German friends come trick or treating with us after the movie (like we did last year). This little boy was so cute. He just stared at the costumes and decorations. He didn't seem scared though... just curious and intrigued. Too funny!

Another great Halloween come and gone. Next year I MIGHT be more prepared in the costume department. Maybe I'll even MAKE a costume like a good Mom would.... we'll see. :)

W35 of Y2

I got home from my week in Ramstein just in time for the boys music program at school. I even had time to stop and pick up Whitney!















BURG FRANKENSTEIN


We decided to get into the Halloween spirit and take a quick trip to Burg Frankenstein near Darmstadt. The story is that this castle was the inspiration for Mary Shelly, author of the book Frankenstein. Apparently there was a chemist who was rumored to have tried to raise the dead by experimenting with human corpses in the castle when it was being used as a prison. The castle has been abandoned since the 1600's because it was said to be haunted. Whether or not all of this is true, it helped create an exhilarating setting for Halloween.

It was like walking through a haunted house but there was much more physical contact than haunted houses in the US. I was worried that Whitney would be scared but she came up with a great technique whenever she was scared that proved to be very effective. Anyone that looked scary she would blow them kisses and wave to them. The scarier they were the more kisses she would blow and she told all of them "I love you". All the monsters waved or blew kisses back. Connor and Aiden loved the scary monsters though and would get right in front of them so they would scare them, tickle them, and even pick them up and put them in a box and wouldn't let them out!


























We also got a Halloween package with lots of goodies from my sister this week. The kids loved these cool lollipops! :) Wishing you all a Happy Halloween!!!

W34 of Y2

This week was spent recovering from our trip to Austria and preparing for me going to Ramstein all next week for work. We planned to go to a pumpkin farm to pick out some pumpkins and spend the day there but it was cold and rainy all weekend. We settled for buying the last 3 at the commissary and brought them home to carve. I have to mention that Connor insisted on doing his from start to finish all by himself. He did a really good job! We rewarded our hard work by roasting miniature marshmallows on a candle and eating the pumpkin seeds before we got to light up the pumpkins and watch them glow!!

W33 of Y2

We decided to explore Austria over Columbus Day weekend. It was a quick trip and jam-packed! We left in the wee hours of the morning and drove a few hours before the sun came up. All the kids woke up while the sun was rising and the beautiful golden arches were calling our names!!

First stop: Wien (Vienna)

Wow! This city is amazing! So much to see and so little time... especially with 3 kids in tow whose little legs just don't run as fast. I decided you really need a minimum of 3 days in this city to really appreciate everything there is to see here. But, we hit a lot of the main sites and had a great day! A little side note that wasn't so great though... Jeremy accidently booked a 6-bed hostel instead of a hotel for us. 6 bunk beds for 6 people (including our aupair!). The kids thought it was awesome though that we all got to sleep in bunk beds in the same room. lol! They also had some type of a Nazi vs. Muslim protest going on downtown... there were a lot of polizei there and everything seemed peaceful enough but it was not the highlight of the day. The highlight of Vienna for me was dinner and the orchestra/opera at the Schönbrunn Palace. The music was Mozart and Strauss who both used to play here. It was magnificent! We also enjoyed the hop-on, hop-off bus tours (after we finally figured out how they work!)

Second Stop: Salzburg

Jeremy did MUCH better on the hotel in Salzburg!!! It's hard trying to figure out where to stay and what the hotels are like over here. It's usually all done online and in another language to it's not really clear what you're getting. You can't always tell by price either. One night at the hotel in Salburg for 2 huge rooms (our aupair had her own room and all 5 of us fit in 1!) cost the same night at one room with 6 bunk beds in Vienna. You just never know what you're going to get. The boys loved the jacuzzi tub with color changing lights, the free breakfast was all organic and really good, and we had a swimming pool to ourselves during our stay. Daddy did good! :)

Other highlights of Salzburg... our hotel was in a great location. A short 10-15 minute walk and we were downtown. There just so happened to be a fest going on the day we were there so that was lots of fun! We also toured the Hohensalzburg Fortress. It has a very interesting history and the boys loved seeing the torture chamber and dungeon, and walking through the catacombs and cemetery. It was interesting to learn about how salt allowed these people to survive from ever being seiged since it preserved their food for so long. Jeremy and I enjoyed an interesting and hilarious dinner at a very locals-only type "restaurant". It is in an old Monestary and wasn't exactly like any restuarant that I've ever been too. We sat at the same table with some Austrian men and had so much fun talking with them for hours. By the end of the night we were all friends!

Last stop: Hallstat and the Salzkammergut Lakes

Oh. My. Gosh. That is all I can say about this place. This was an unexpected "side trip" that we decided to do at the last minute. It is just 45 minutes outside of Salzburg and we read about the salt mine tour here so that was the reason we made the drive. However, after getting there we found out that Whitney couldn't go (only 4 and up) and the tour was a minimum of 4 hours and we still had to drive home. It was ok though - this was my absolute favorite part of our entire trip! This is what I think of when I think of Austria and the Alps (vs. big cities), it was more "sound of music"-ish. We had to pull over several times along the way because the drive was so breathtaking. I was worried we would actually get into an accident! The history for this area dates back 4500 years ago! We drove through the Alps and past many charming villages and lakes until we reached Hallstat. We had a quick lunch and shopped for some souvenirs and then it was time to head back home.

I have to say that I think we really lucked out with the weather. It was beautiful, perfect weather every single day. Blue skies and sunny but a nice, cool breeze. I think it was in the upper 60's the whole time. This has to be the best time of year to visit Austria with the trees changing colors. It was just so unreal how beautiful everything was. I really had to hold myself back from taking too many pictures and not posting ALL Of them! Of course, you can never truly capture the beauty with the camera anyway... I know I will never forget it though!