Life Lately

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind for the Chapman family lately...

Don took two plus weeks of leave during the month of August and we enjoyed a ton of activities and day trips with the kiddos then we spend a week on the island of Mallorca, Spain and now returned to school and soccer starting up.

So, I have a ton of photos to post but thought I'd just drop in quickly and post my favorite picture from our trip to Mallorca.

The majority of our vacation we spent at the resort we stayed at or the beach which was a short walk away from the resort. On our last day there, we took one boat excursion on a glass bottom boat to another part of the island. It was great and the kids really enjoyed the boat and we enjoyed seeing other parts of the island and the view from the sea.

When we stopped for a little bit over an hour at a port area of the island. We did a little shopping and Samuel fell in love with this little guitar. He had to have it so before we boarded the boat again we stopped in and bought it for him. He strums it quite nicely but breaks out into a rowdy song and dance on occasion. It's just so Samuel! And I just love this picture of our boy and his little guitar on the boat.

The Kids in Our Neighborhood

Here are a few photos of the kids out and about in the grassy area in front of our building. There is no shortage of kids in our neighborhood and the boys have made some good friends.

There is a sidewalk along our grassy quad that the kids love to ride their bikes and scooters on but there are plenty of other things to keep them busy while we're outside. The boys spend the majority of their time at the rope swing near our building. There is a plastic climbing structure under it and they spend endless hours there. Samuel has not yet figured out how to swing on the rope swing by himself... but I'm sure it's only a matter of time (and courage!)

We also have a water table and a sand table that attract many of the kids in the neighborhood. And the nice thing about those activities are that Grace enjoys them just as much as the bigger kids.

The bad thing is that we've already gone through four 50 pound bags of sand! There are also a couple of playgrounds close to our building which we frequent often.

Our community also offers a fair amount of shade which is nice. But one thing about living near older trees is that there are sticks everywhere! And it only takes a good rainstorm (which there are plenty here) for there to be all kinds of NEW sticks in the yard. The boys LOVE sticks. At first I made an effort to keep them from playing with them. "You'll poke your eye out..." comes to mind when I see kids with sticks. But there is really no stopping it around here. All the kids play with sticks... one day they're swords the next they're magic wands or axes or guns or whatever their lil imaginations decide they are. I grew up in an area without any mature trees, and we've previously lived in neighborhoods with very few mature trees. So, this whole fascination with sticks is new to me. But I think I may have come to terms with the fact that they are boys and they are going to play with sticks whether that excites me or not.

Our neighborhood is fenced in and gated and we generally feel safe in our lil community. Everyone knows everyone and usually there is at least one Mom out there with the kids... if not more. I tend to be outside a lot with the kids especially now that Grace is running all over the place. It seems like there is a lot less mischief for her to get into outside than inside!

Overall, I think the community where we live is somewhat of a kids' paradise for the lil ones.

Grace Exploring the Neighborhood

Here are a couple video clips of Grace on the move in the neighborhood. She was still a little unsteady on her feet in these, but that was a couple of weeks ago... watch out nowadays, she is really moving out and climbing on everything!

Benjamin Entertaining Grace

For the most part, the boys really adore their little sister and they love to make her smile and laugh. I took this video clip about a month ago of Grace and Benjamin. Benjamin had just finished up a bath and was curled up in his towel when Grace approached him and they started playing...

Grace's First Birthday

Wow! Where does time go? Our sweet lil Grace recently turned a year old! I feel like it was only yesterday that I was posting pictures of our newborn baby girl.

Well, it's taken me a couple of weeks to post pics but we enjoyed a cookout with friends and neighbors as she celebrated her first birthday.

She was a trooper the entire party and enjoyed her cake, bouncy castle and being spoiled with lots of attention.

It's hard to believe it's been a year now since the day we welcomed Grace into the world. She continues to be such a joy and has turned into a busy but happy little girl.

Some of Grace's favorite things as she turns 1 year old:

Grace loves to climb... into, onto, out of, on top of, etc. She's an active lil one year old!

She loves bath time and comes running when she hears the bathtub water running.

Grace LOVES good old Kraft American cheese slices.

She loves bottled water. (Odd, yes, I know, but she loves to carry the bottles around and loves to drink from them).

Grace loves the nearby playground and is often running in that direction as soon as we head outside.

She loves to dance.

And these are just a few things that make our Grace the lil character that she is these days. We are so blessed to have her in our lives each and every day.

4th of July in Heidelberg

We had a great Fourth of July here! We went to the other housing base across town to enjoy some family fun, food and fireworks. It had been a couple years since the boys had seen fireworks up close so they were thrilled to see the show.

But before the firework show there was an obstacle moon bounce that the kids enjoyed, games, music, balloons and lots of yummy food.

Even Grace had a good time running around and enjoying the playground. Then she enjoyed her first ice cream cone... life will never be the same now! She LOVED it!

It doesn't get dark here until around 10 p.m. this time of year so we weren't sure if we would make it until fireworks. Grace fell asleep in Don's arms shortly before fireworks started but she managed to sleep right through them.

They put on a good show but it wasn't a loud show which was nice. The boys enjoyed every minute... and Benjamin was thrilled that they played music from Star Wars and Indiana Jones during the fire work show.

Our Sun Bather?

Grace rarely sits stills these days... unless of course, she's sleeping! So, amazingly enough while we were outside one day not too long ago I managed to snap these pics of her snuggled up on her beach towel.

We were out enjoying the kiddy pool and water table when she snuck over to her towel and pretended to be a lil sunbather. The minute after these pics were taken, I'm sure she was running around, climbing, or getting into something else... she's such a busy lil girl!