Grace at 16 months

Here's a pic I took of Grace a couple of weeks ago. She is already 16 months old and discovering new things every day. Her latest accomplishment was climbing to the top of her brothers' bunk bed. AHHHHHH!!!! Somebody STOP that lil girl!

But she is precious and sweet and LOVES a good book. When she is quiet and not in my view I worry and think she is into something or climbing somewhere she shouldn't be but I often find her sitting quietly with a book.... just looking at pictures.

Grace also enjoys wearing anyone and everyones shoes that are bigger than hers around the house. It seems to be a daily occurrence that someones shoe is missing as we try to get out the door.

She also loves necklaces and hats! She has some beads that she puts on and takes off all the time. (No one warned me that girls are pre-programmed for this kind of stuff). And she also enjoys hats! She has an assortment of winter hats (mostly hand-made from my Aunt Shirley) and she often puts on anywhere from 1 to 4 hats at a time. It keeps her busy and she often puts a giggle in our family's hearts.

We love our sweet and busy little girl!

One More Pic

It's not often that I get a decent pic of all three of the kids these days... all smiling... eyes all open, etc. So, I thought I'd post this pic of our three monkeys all looking pretty chipper.

As I mentioned in the previous blog entry, we he had trick or treating here the day before Halloween. This picture was taken shortly before bedtime on October 31. It was a pretty low key day at our house due to the onset of some sickies.

I think Grace was getting ready to read her brothers a book here... she's quite the story teller these days.

Happy Halloween (in November?)

I know Halloween is looooonngggg gone... but I thought I best post a few pics from our festivities before everyone is into the Christmas spirit!

We enjoyed a great October with lots of traveling (yet to post the pics) as well as some great fall and Halloween activities: we spent a long weekend in Italy, as well as a quick weekend trip to Brussels, we also did a lot of local things and visited a corn maze, carved pumpkins, went trick or treating and Benjamin had a class "Where the Wild Things Are" parade. Our month was a bit of a blur with one thing after another. But fun-filled nonetheless.

Since our October was so busy, it wasn't until right before Halloween that I took the kids to pick out pumpkins.

The commissary was down to some pretty slim pickins by then so we opted to try a German pumpkin stand. It worked out great and the kids really enjoyed picking out their pumpkins.

However, once we started carving I realized that we mistakenly bought a couple of pumpkins obviously NOT intended for carving. They were rock solid. And, um, as you can imagine, trying to carve a rock was NOT easy. But I was determined and made it through all three pumpkins.

Note to self: Beware of the variety of pumpkins at the German pumpkin stand next year.

October 31st fell on a Sunday this year so our military community had trick or treating on Saturday. We had black Spiderman, Captain America and a cute white lil bunny. Grace took a good long nap that afternoon and missed out on most of the trick or treating. Luckily, she didn't know what she was missing out on!

The boys and I walked around our neighborhood with their friend who was a cute lil lion. They all had a great time.

Although, Samuel started complaining that his stomach hurt about halfway through trick or treating.

He toughed it out though and made the rounds. In hind site, that was just the beginning of a whole lot of sickies in our house. ugh.

We had a rough start to November with one child or another sick for at least two weeks straight. I was starting to go stir crazy as I spent many days at home. I think we are finally on the mend here.

But, rest assured Kleenex, we still have plenty of runny noses and feel as if we solely support you.

Fall Soccer Season Comes to an End

Benjamin just wrapped up his fall soccer season with the Heidelberg Blue Hornets. He moved up a level this season and played with kids ages 6-8 which meant he was one of the younger kids. He really improved on some fundamental skills and enjoyed playing goalie. He made a couple of surprising yet impressive stops as goalie too!

Some of his highlights this season were not only learning to play goalie but also having one of his best buddies on his team and his dad as assistant coach.

Overall, it was a fun-filled season and it looks like our soccer player will look forward to playing again next year!

Eat Up

These pics were taken awhile back but since I haven't posted in forever I thought I might as well post them.

Grace has been eager to feed herself for sometime now. She's not always "graceful" about getting the job done but she sure is determined!

She is also not so good about sitting still at the table. Much like her big brother Samuel was at this age,

Grace is always on the move and rarely in one place for very long... it can make meal time rather challenging.

Our Monster Jam Fans

Here we are in Europe... Monster Jam Monster Trucks is NOT the rage here. It's probably barely heard of... but when Don got wind of the fact that Monster Jam was coming to put on a show in Holland and it was the weekend before Benjamin's birthday, he was not going to let our boys miss out on the action.

So, Don got online and figured that he could make the Saturday afternoon show in Holland (a few hours away from us) and drive there in back in one day.

I opted to stay home with Grace as the shows are VERY LOUD and our Grace doesn't sit still for much these days anyway so the thought of wrestling her for the entire show didn't seem appealing to me.

They got up and moving early that Saturday morning as all three of the boys were excited about their adventure. However, we couldn't find the Dramamine that morning and it has been proven that our Benjamin does get car sick.

We hoped he'd be fine and off they went. About two ours after they left I received a message from Don that Benjamin had gotten sick in the car. ugh. I felt bad for all of them. However, it didn't stop the fun of their outing.

That night upon their return the boys came bursting in the door rambling with excitement about their day. They LOVED Monster Jam and Daddy totally spoiled them with souvenirs (I asked if there were anything left their for the other fans!) Even Daddy got a Monster Jam World Tour shirt and confessed that "Everyone has a little redneck in 'em."

Overall, a very memorable day in the lives of our young monster truck lovers' lives.

There is a 6 YEAR OLD in the HOUSE!

AHHHHH!!! I'm so behind on my blog posts! Life has been keeping us crazy busy. I feel like we've been in a bit of a whirlwind since we returned from Spain at the beginning of September. And I thought I'd have extra time on my hands with Benjamin in all day kindergarten and Samuel in German kindergarten five days a week, if even for a few hours. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm running around more than ever.

Well, we've had some BIG events going on here! One of which is that we now have a 6 year old in our house! Yes, 6! I can't believe our big guy is 6!

So, his actual birthday fell during the week this year so I went to school to help him celebrate with his classmates. They are allowed to bring a treat for snack time for their classmates. I figured I would make cupcakes and he'd be delighted. But when I told him I was going to bring cupcakes he had other plans in mind. He wanted to bring strawberry ice cream cones!

(Yes, Ms. Katie, I know you're laughing... ICE CREAM! He's just like his Mom, huh? Although, I wouldn't have chosen strawberry.) So, I contacted his teacher the week before to work out the logistics and make sure I wouldn't have a melty mess on my hands and she gave me the go ahead. So, the kids were delighted to share an ice cream treat that day with our birthday boy... although, I did add an additional flavor for those that didn't want Strawberry... AND it did in fact, end up being a bit of a melty mess but not one kindergarten complained!

I also let him pick what we would have for dinner that night... and he chose.... BREAKFAST for dinner! That's my boy! (I remember loving when my mom would make French toast for dinner when I was a kid... there is nothing like my mom's french toast!)

We celebrated with a lovely Belgian funny face waffle dinner... a candle for the nose for the occasion. Then he enjoyed ripping opening his birthday gifts while Grandma Pat and Pappa Harry joined us via skype (video conferencing).

The weekend following his birthday we joined efforts with one of his best buddies here and their family and all of our friends... including a couple of boys from his kindergarten class... and celebrated his birthday with food, games, presents, a bouncy castle and his requested Monster Jam Monster Truck cake. The party went well and he had a great time!

Sa'Coma Beach, Mallorca, Spain

As one might imagine, I have a ton of photos from our trip to Mallorca last month. We had an incredible family vacation that involved a lot of time in pools and at the beach.

Where do I start with posting pictures?

Well, I 'm just posting some of my favorites from our time spent on the actual beach.

Our resort was just a short walk to the Sa'Coma beach front.

The island itself is quite large and we chose to stay away from the big city and on the more quiet family friendly end of the island. It was definitely the right choice for our family as we found that we didn't leave the resort much... besides heading down to the beach.

All three of the kids enjoyed playing in the sand and building sandcastles and splashing in the water.

Grace made several attempts to eat the sand and I'm not sure she ever figured out that it's not that tasty.

Benjamin enjoyed riding the waves in and spent more time actually in the water than anyone in our family. While Samuel and Grace both enjoyed time in the water,

I think they enjoyed the endless amounts of sand to play in more than anything else at the beach.

Benjamin's First Day of American Kindergarten

Benjamin started school right after Labor Day. He was excited about starting American Kindergarten but a little reluctant to riding the bus. Unfortunately, it was a dreary rainy and windy morning on September 7 here and we were running a little late. I seriously didn't think he was going to catch his 7:38 a.m. bus but somehow we made it out the door and he made it and I even managed to get in a few pictures.

So, here's our big kindergartener, Benjamin on his first day at Patrick Henry Village Elementary School.

The first couple of pics are from the lobby of our building before he geared up with his rain jacket and umbrella.

He looked so big and so ready for his big adventure but shortly before the bus came so did the realization that he was getting on a big bus... WITHOUT Mommy!

He teared up and fought back the tears as I explained to him that someone would be on the bus to help him know what to do, where to sit and what to do when he arrived at school. And his buddy, Edward, would be with him.... they could sit together and all would be good.

So, off he went onto the bus and out of the wind and rain. He came home tired and VERY hungry (apparently their lunch is at 10:40 a.m.)

He said the kid from his class that sat next to him on the bus ride home actually fell asleep. But overall his day was "SUPER AWESOME!" and the bus ride was "Awesome!" as well.

They learned about raccoons the first week of school and he shared interesting facts about the nocturnal creatures with us nightly at the dinner table. He is such a sponge and just soaks up everything they're learning about. I love hearing about every little thing he learns. It's all so new and such an adventure.

However, he is not so fond of rest time at school and doesn't particularly like getting up before the sun to get ready for school.

Week two of school they learned about coconuts and he is now a wealth of information about coconuts as well!

Samuel's First Day of German Kindergarten

I am soooo backlogged on photos that I had hoped to post... but in effort to catch up with some of life's recent happenings in our world I will try to make some more posts...

On September 1, Samuel started German

Kindergarten at Markushaus, the nearby kindergarten that Benjamin attended last year. His best buddy in the neighborhood, Eli, also started there this year. The two of them are very eager and excited to be following in their big brothers footsteps.

We were actually just returning from our week in Spain when I realized the following day was September first and the beginning of the school year for our little man. I hadn't been mentally prepared for this big step or been preparing Samuel for this event either.

So, I was a little nervous to spring this on him. But he was excited and ready to go on his big day. He couldn't wait to take his backpack and lunch box (for morning snack), find his cubbie, wear his house shoes at school and play with the marble run he had longed to stay and play with last year daily as we dropped his brother off.

So, off we went on September 1 and he was grinning from ear to ear. He was happy to find that he has the same cubbie that his brother had last year and he seemed to know exactly what to do when we arrived. He took off his backpack, hung up his jacket and lunch box, then sat down to change into his house shoes.

Then he and his buddy were off to explore the marble run.

Overall, these first couple of weeks for him have gone great! He generally reports that his school days are "Super Awesome!" and he has been learning a "Guten Morgen" (Good Morning) song and "Elefant" game. The teacher reports that he doesn't say too much but participates... claps, sings, dances, colors, etc. His favorite part of the day is going outside on the playground (which, with the amount of rainy days here isn't always a daily happening). He was so excited the first time he colored a picture and couldn't wait to bring it home; however, they don't generally bring their pictures home right away.

They hang them and put them on display. So, we took a picture of it with my iPhone so he could show Daddy and Benjamin his big accomplishment. He was good with that.

Most days he comes home hungry and tired. There have been quite a few days that he has fallen asleep on the couch shortly after lunch. It's a lot for a lil guy but he seems to be loving it and is constantly asking "How do you say [something] in German?"