Week 52: Year 1

Fasching

We participated in the Fasching parade in Huttenfeld this weekend even though it was freezing!!


Grumpy Elmo: Whitney was NOT happy about having to wear hats, gloves, boots etc... with her Elmo costume.


She quickly got over it though! (This picture was literally taken 2 minutes later)

My scary monsters!


We met up with some of the kids and parents from Whitney's play group


Waiting for the parade to start


Here we go!


Elmo had a hard time keeping up


People threw candy outside their windows for the kids to pick up.
Someone even threw popsicles! lol!

One-Year Anniversary

February 18 was our 1-year anniversary! I can't believe it's already been a year. To celebrate we went back to our boarding house, Platanenhof.

Our first day there we slept all day and then woke up around 5pm (I DO NOT recommend that move!) We were starving so we ventured out of our boarding house in search of food. We found this little park along the way that became a daily stop for us over the next 3 months.

Then....

And now...

After re-living the moment at the park we went to the Soccer Center where we had our first German meal.

It was closed!!! We were all very disappointed!

We found a really nice German Restaurant that is really close to our house and went there instead.

I promise that is just Apfelschorle

The kids all wanted pizza (not schnitzel fans!)
I got the Cordon Bleu Schnitzel
Jeremy had the Paprika Schnitzel (mit Pommes of course!!)

It ended up being a great night still.
Here's to our first year!!

Week 51

I didn't take a lot of pictures this week for 2 reasons...
(1) we didn't really do a lot (2) everyone was kind-of sick this week.

It seems like if I don't take a picture of something then I don't include it in the blog so a lot of things get left out. I think I'll use this weeks post to "talk" about some of those things...

Last week I went to the boys school to have lunch with them. Aiden's teacher asked me to come in and talk with her so I just went early to see the boys at lunch. I love seeing them with their friends. That morning Aiden was very serious and told me "Mommy, don't talk to anyone unless someone asks you a question." He was very nervous about me embarrassing him. He made me practice how I would talk and what I would say and then he would critique it and say "good" or "not good".

The talk with his teacher was about Aiden's laid-back personality. She said that Aiden has never once raised his hand to answer a question but when she calls on him he always knows the answer. Sometimes when no one raises their hand she will call on Aiden because she knows that he will always know the answer. She said that she even been using Aiden to help the other students because he's always done before everyone else. She wants to put him into an Advanced Reading program but Aiden needs to be pushed more. I think he is afraid of not being "cool" if he is so smart. He's always worried about not being cool ... in Kindergarten!!! But she thinks that he is bored in class and is not using his full potential. So we talked to Aiden and he agreed to try the Advanced Reading program out.

Here is a picture of my little superhero getting ready for Fashing. All the Germans have the entire week off to celebrate Fashing. It is a pretty big deal here.

It was fun to see Connor at lunch too. He has become really close to a little boy in his class named Cameron. It's funny because Connor is the tallest kid in class and Cameron is the shortest. Camerons Dad was just deployed in January for a year in Iraq and he's been having a hard time with it. He goes to see the school counselor and invited Connor to go to a session with him. The kids are allowed to take their other parent, a teacher, relative, etc... well, he chose to take Connor. He really looks up to Connor and Connor has helped him get through this hard time. It's so neat to see God using our son to help someone in need. We invited Cameron to go to Kid's World with us this weekend. My camera battery died so I only got a couple of pictures but enough to see how cute they are!!

And then there is Whitney. Our sweet little pill!

She is doing so good with potty training (#1 and #2).

She keeps us all laughing. The other day we were all going somewhere in the van. Well, getting everyone and everything loaded into the van to be somewhere at a set time can sometimes be a stressful task. This time we were all a little grouchy with each other and no one was talking. Whitney must have sensed this and just started singing... 'Hey, Jude... don't be so sad. Take a sad song and make it better....' We all just started laughing! I didn't even know she knew that song. Later that night I made her do it again with the camera. Enjoy!

Week 50

We finally celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We had to postpone it for a month due to changing Au Pairs right during the time we reserved for our anniversary. It was probably better that we went later because we had perfect weather and were outside walking a lot!

I think the best part of the whole trip was the drive. I can't remember the last time Jeremy and I were able to talk, uninterrupted, for hours at a time. It was also a very pretty drive.

The first clue that we were in France.

The man and woman silhouettes on the public restrooms were way more classy!

The inside was even more interesting...

It took me a while to figure out how to use this toilet.

Every gas station we stopped at had a very impressive selection of food. We spent about $60 on this lunch at a gas station which we thought was crazy! We wouldn't even spend that much at a nice restaurant for the 2 of us let alone at a gas station. The food was great though!

Getting to our hotel. Jeremy found a great hotel for us that was perfectly located!

Jeremy used his Hilton points to book the room. Thank goodness! We were shocked when we saw this sign indicating the price per night on the back of the door in our room.

Our room. My sexy husband! lol!

Walking around Paris

They are very efficient and save time by using the bathroom and talking on the phone at the same time. Why don't we do this in America???

We were surprised to see a huge statue in the middle of a large intersection of George Washington.

These bikes are all over the city. You pay money to unlock them and then can turn them in somewhere else. We were tempted to try it but did I mention how SCARY it was driving in Paris!?! Wow.... it was worse than what you see on TV. I think riding a bike would have been worse than driving in a car. We stuck to our own 2 feet.

The Arc de Triomphe

American influence. This Hamburger Restaurant looks sooo out of place here.



Shopping on the famous Champs d'Elysees

The Eiffel Tower from a distance

We made it! We walked up 343 steps just to get to the first level!

The view was spectacular. Paris really is a beautiful city.





The view from all 4 sides of the Eiffel Tower

Our dinner cruise:

We took a cruise around the city seeing 12 different historical sites while enjoying an EXCELLENT dinner. My new love: foie gras!

The view of the Eiffel Tower at night. The lights were so beautiful but unfortunately I could not do them justice with my camera.

AND... to top it all off (as if it wasn't enough already) Jeremy surprised me with a new wedding ring. Most of you already know, but when Connor was almost 1 I was giving him a bath in the kitchen sink. I took my ring off and put it in the window sill above the sink because I was always worried about scratching his soft baby skin. He must have pulled my ring into the sink at some point and I didn't see it because of all the bubbles. After I got him out, I drained the sink and put him to bed. Then I came back down and was cleaning up the kitchen. I put some food down the sink and turned on the disposal. I heard my ring and quickly turned it off but it was too late. My ring was damaged beyond repair. We were in between moves at the time and had just canceled our renters insurance. Jeremy always said he would get me a new one for our 10 year anniversary. At the time it seemed so far away. The last 10 years seemed to have flown by! I guess that's what happens when you're spending those years with your best friend.
Thanks for a dream-like anniversary and for the best 10 years of my life!

Week 49

Saying Good Bye

This week we had to finally good bye to Elder Jenkins. :( He's been here almost as long as we have! We had one last big dinner/party the night before he left. The boys had a 30 minute crying session after he left. We're sad he's gone but I'm know he's going to be back before we leave!!

Pine Wood Derby

The big event of the week was the Pine Wood Derby. Every night of the week Connor and/or Jeremy were working on their car. It weighed in at just under 5.0 ounces so they had to put a quarter on the back of it. It was definitely not the best looking out of the bunch.

Connor's is the skinny, flat black one with the quarter on the back.

Aiden and Whitney waiting for everything to start

Connor was chosen to help with the flag ceremony

First time racing Connor's car...

In the meantime...

Whitney found another girl wearing a pink "dresser"... they were instantly friends!

Such a good little cheerleader for her brother!! :)

Many, many races later....

The last and final race to determine the winner

I'm not sure who is happier in this video, Connor or Jeremy!!

Connor was FIRST place!!!

doesn't he look thrilled??

Good job Connor!!!!!!!

One of the parents took a couple of videos of the event and posted them on You Tube so that all the kids whose Dads are deployed could watch it from Iraq. The video's are really cute!