The MacDonalds

School Fun

2012-02-10T00:11:00.004+01:00

Here's a cute video of Kai singing the Months of the Year song they sing during circle time in the mornings at school!

Hailey's class has been working on composing a letter this week. In case you can't see it (or translate it!) here's what is says....

Dear Mom,
        How are you? I am happy. I love you Mom. We been lrne (learning) aboit chameleons. Mom I have been good.
                              Love,
                              Hailey

And nothing to do with school but just a random picture of the Princesses helping each other out! These are Kai's favorite dress up shoes which are waaaaayyyy too little....I felt like they were the Evil Stepsisters trying to cram her foot into the glass slipper!!!

Labor Day Camping

2012-02-08T19:05:00.000+01:00

I've been attempting to go through my computer and delete and sort pictures and realized that with the rush of our return from Virginia and the start of the school year I never got around to blogging about our Labor Day weekend camping trip. We drove down to the American campsite at the military resort Edelweiss and tagged along with the Doziers who had a company camping function.

The fields across from where we stopped for lunch. These flower gardens are everywhere in the Spring and Summer. You pick what you want and put your money into a box!

Leila girl made the trip with us....I'm not sure she has been camping since our days before kids when we camped on the beaches of Hawaii!!!

Gorgeous views on the ride down!!

I love how it seems that they have the same expression!

She feel asleep for the last 10 minutes of the 4 hour drive!

Our 10 person tent....it needed to be big enough for my air mattress! :)

Girls and DIRT!

The dirtiness of camping makes me cringe!

Smores!

Shortly before the hustle and bustle of the campsite woke her in the early morning

Snoopin...

Packed up and ready to head home

Leila had stuck her nose into some stinging nettle grass and had a hive reaction, so we drugged her up with Benedryll and she slept the entire ride home.

No Benedryll there just a long weekend!!!

Saving Money by Spending Money...

2012-02-03T10:58:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago the PX's had a ridiculous sale and put practically ALL of their winter clothing on sale for 75% off!!!! Since NOBODY really lives in Mannheim anymore, our PX was fully stocked! A ran into a few of my neighbors while shopping and we'd laugh at each others carts and a lot of people posted their receipts on Facebook of their crazy savings!

There were a few fancy holiday dresses that the girls have been eyeballing but I told them they needed to wait until they went on clearance. Hailey has it in her head that she needs to wear formal gowns to church each Sunday, so I was able to stock her closet with $6 and $7 dresses! Kai has been begging for a fancy dress that included a matching one for her baby and thankfully they still had her size (she wants to wear it EVERYday) I didn't buy too much for the girls because 1. they already have too much and 2. the older kid clothing doesn't have as many quality Carters and Oshkosh as the infants do. I got a few things for Hailey for next Winter but not much of a selection. Where I had to control myself was with the infant/toddlers Carter's complete outfits for $3! I wanted to buy every style in every size in both genders! And it really doesn't get too warm here in Germany for very long so I didn't have to think too much about the seasonal weather at least for a baby. I didn't cut off any tags, so whichever gender clothing I don't need for this baby will go into my "Gift Closet" and I will be stocked for baby shower presents for awhile! :) Unless, we decide that our family isn't done growing yet....... :) The talk of #4 comes up often...we'll see how much we talk about it as we adjust to a family of 3! :)

The "confession" picture text that I sent Leevi! :) I told him that I was trying really hard to control myself!

How Kailee occupied herself while I shopped...the lingerie section is right next to the children's clothing, so she kept bringing me "outfits"

Some of the final spread at home...I spent $160 BUT saved over $500!!! And that's saying a lot because the PX clothing is typically lower than a regular store (i.e. Carters!) And (not pictured) I bought two pairs of boots for myself...a $70 black pair for $17 and an $80 brown pair for $20.....CRAZY!!!!

Kailee picked these out for the baby! And at $2 each, how could I say no?!

30 weeks (Already?!?!?!)

2012-02-02T10:22:00.000+01:00

For all of you (5 readers) out there begging for belly pics...here they are!!! I didn't like any of them and considered retaking them and then reconsidered my brief moment of insanity. I said last time that I wasn't going to do them with the timer again but Leevi is still out of town. I think I look the same as with the girls...I have two specific belly pics of Kai at 32 weeks that I'll recreate so we can compare. Really, really, really thinking it's a girl! :) The only thing I'm holding onto that is drastically different from my pregnancies with the girls is that my initial pregnancy test had a SUPER strong line instantly where as with both girls, it was the faintest of a line where that maybe if you held it at a certain angle in a certain light I could trick my eyes into believing that I was pregnant! :)

I'm still feeling great but am having some ligment pains in my back that come and go...hoping it will eventually stretch out and I won't have to put up with it for the last 10 weeks. I can't believe how fast the time is flying! I'm still slowly checking things off my To-Do list before the baby comes and while of course we are super excited to meet this little one, let's hope it's in no rush to get here! The girls were right on time and I hope this one is just as considerate! :) My next doctor appt is on the 8th so maybe we'll get some cute ultrasound pictures to add.

The girl can sleep!!!

2012-01-27T18:07:00.000+01:00

We seriously wonder if Kai is going to be one of those teenagers who sleep until 2 pm (or do all teenagers do that?!) Since birth, she has been a great sleeper and will nap just about anywhere you put her down. The carseat is still an instant knockout and she knows to ask if she's allowed to take a nap! :) Sometimes yes, usually no....we stopped napping her around age 2 when she would fight us at bedtime. Now that she's old enough to know better than to get out of bed at bedtime, the occasional nap doesn't seem to mess her up too much and she's just look at books a little longer at night.

She'll usually stay asleep getting out of the car and into the house or on what ever errand we are running...

Fish shopping...

I can't even remember where this is??

Playing one minute...out the next!

She fell asleep on the way to the bowling alley and stayed asleep with all of the chaos around her

Hailey Hailey Hailey

2012-01-23T17:23:00.000+01:00

Hailey has made amazing progress in Awanas and will complete her entire book this week almost a whole semester early!!! We are so proud of her! Her memory is amazing and she flew through her book memorizing multiple verses each week! Below is a video of her reciting the 27 books of the New Testament in order!

She also had another school project which she put together all by herself....picked out the photos, cut them out, typed the phrases, etc. She had a vision in her head and I thought it came together lovely and I'm so proud of her independence...she's definitely a woman who knows what she wants which will be super handy later in life! :)

Facebook...

2012-01-22T21:42:00.002+01:00

A lot of the time some Facebook uploads don't make it to the blog...I pulled some below to have documented on here for my blog books (which I'm soooo far behind on!!!!!!!)

I walked in and thought there was a scary part in their movie but they were just snuggling! Love!!

Princess Pumpkin Potato head from the Iversons

Creating her own manipulatives!

Not sure if she's a barbie ballerina or a drag queen

The girls found a ladybug in the house...hailey is drawing her a landscape to try and get her to think she is outside ;) (she's in the middle next to the tall tree)

Matching dresses from the Kownacks!

The monkeys before Awanas

Movie Theatre playdoh from the Reeds

I love when I find them like this!

Hailey's self portrait from school

Scrooge counting her money!

Special dinner and movie night for good behavior

Jumpy house fun!

Guess my belly makes a good pillow during bedtime stories!

And a few Status' that didn't make it to the Tidbits...

While driving home from a fabulous day with a newborn and her wonderful big sisters( Allison Arrington ), Hailey explains to me the art of getting a baby to sleep "just in case she's at school and not here to help me when our new baby is crying" :) She's going to take her awesome big sister role to a whole new level come April! :)

The girls got a Princess SingALong DVD for Christmas and one of the songs from Mulan 2 says something like "just to be like other girls..." but Kai is singing "Justin Bieber other girls"

Happy New Year! Our 2011 was great...here's to hoping our 2012 will be just as wonderful! It's full of many changes: new baby, new house, new job, new schools, new friends!

When I walked in for dinner tonight Hailey said, "Daddy gave us jello with dinner!" I didn't say anything bc there was an assortment of fruits/veggies on their plate (AND I didn't have to make dinner!) but Kai saw my face and shook her head and said,"Leevi, Leevi, Leevi!"

I can't believe how many presents under the tree that Hailey has correctly guessed what's inside! I haven't told her she is right, but man she is good! Definitely going to have to be a little more sly in my wrapping next year!

I opened the door coming out of a bathroom today and smacked it pretty hard into a man (he was fine) and after apologizing profusely Kai said, "It's ok Mom. He's still alive"

I refuse to read The Rescuers again for bedtime tomorrow (although I said that last night!!) I'm going on strike! Leevi gets home in 4 days...he can take over Rescuer duty!

I LOVE the infectious giggles I hear coming from upstairs (I would just prefer them NOT to be at bedtime!) :)

Just had to use tweezers to remove a piece of wadded tissue from Kai's nose (when they are supposed to be asleep!!!!) Thought we were going to have our first trip to the ER! Hailey said they tried blowing her nose, making her sneeze, and picking it out before they decided to call for help! Ughh!!!

You know you have a house full of girls when your two year old (can't say that for much longer!) comes running in so excited from another room because she can smell you painting your nails!!!

I called Hailey to the table for breakfast and she replied, "Can I finish this show? I'm learning about Inertia." What?! :) Gotta love Syd the Science Kid!

St. Nikolaus

2012-01-17T16:29:00.000+01:00

I'm finally on my final Christmas post! For the first time we celebrated the German holiday, St. Nikolaus Day....

I got this from Wikipedia...

In Northern Germany, Nikolaus is usually celebrated on a small scale. Many children put a boot called Nikolaus-Stiefel (Nikolaus boot) outside the front door on the night of 5 December. St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts and sweets overnight, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good, polite and helpful the last year. If they were not, they will have a tree branch (Rute) in their boots instead. (I should add that in some legends it says that the tree branch is for the parents to beat their bad children with! Oh my! I'm glad we just get coal in the States!) Sometimes a Nikolaus impersonator also visits the children at school or in their homes and asks them if they have been good (sometimes ostensibly checking his golden book for their record), handing out presents on the basis of their behavior. (Click here to read more in depth about St. Nikolaus) The rest of the article is pretty interesting considering St. Nikolaus is where the modern day Santa Claus stemmed from...

I decided to do this last minute and since we hadn't really talked much about it, I explained to the girls at dinner the night before that we'll celebrate it since we live in Germany, but since we aren't German, then I'm going to be the one to fill their boots. I hate all of the lies tied into Christmas and like I said earlier, we tried to not emphasize Santa too much this year. An American friend of ours who lives here does ONLY St. Nikolaus on the 6th and not Santa at all, keeping Christmas Day about Christmas and not Santa! I love that idea but I'm not sure I can cave in that much! :) Me telling them kind of backfired though because kids in their classes talked about the real St. Nikolaus coming to their house which in turn, I just had to make up more lies! :)

Kai dug right into the Kisses! I'm glad I only put a handful in! Chocolate at 7am would brighten anyone's day! :)

They got some glitter foundation, books, Pollys, Kisses, and a Princess Lollipop.

Happy St. Nikolaus Day!

Four day weekend in Grafenwoehr

2012-01-16T09:43:00.000+01:00

EVERY single month here in Europe the Army gets a four day weekend (tied into whatever holiday is that month) We haven't been able to take advantage of all of them because of Leevi's current job....when he travels he doesn't get those four days. Over these next few months he is gone so much that we decided to drive to stay with him over this four day weekend for Martin Luther King's Day. He still had to work, but since he's the boss of this exercise, he was able to sneak away for long stretches during the day. His hotel room has a separate bedroom so we were able to get the girls to bed and hang out without tiptoeing around. The girls and I found things to do around Graf on Friday and Saturday and then we left Sunday around noon when Leevi went into work. It's nice to be back home on Monday with one more day of break to relax and regroup before the week starts!

We went to this park last summer when we were here visting Leevi.

Her name in the snow.....it dusted a few times that we were there but didn't amount to being able to "play" in it.

The girls had a blast feeding the ducks and swans when we were here a few months ago but this time they absolutely refused our bread! Maybe they sensed we were Americans! :) There were about 30 ducks and 2 swans and NOT ONE came to eat from us!!!

We were able to take Leila with us at the hotel (which is always the number one reason for not getting out and about Europe more often!) Dogs aren't allowed in the front seat in Germany (I think they aren't even supposed to be in the back without rails up) so I scooted the passenger seat up as far as it could go and made Leila a "bed" at Kailee's feet. She was a great traveler and slept at Kai's feet the whole time and made a comfy foot rest for her.

I don't know how our parents survived traveling with us when we were kids! This 3 hour trip was bearable because of DVD players, iPhone, iPad, and the Leapster. And for me, the GPS! There is no way I would have attempted this trip alone in a foreign country without a cell phone and the GPS. I think even printed Map Quest directions would have failed me. Such a security relief!

How are we supposed to fit another kid back there?! I guess someone has to go! :)

Speaking of no room....I scored one of the two narrow based carseats that we'll need once the baby comes (Sunshine Kids (I guess now called Diono) Radian....it's about $225 new and I found it on Bookoo (like Craigslist) for only $50. I have no idea why she was selling it so cheap! It's in perfect condition!

Grant Circle Field Trip

2012-01-12T09:38:00.000+01:00

Our neighborhood got an invitation to bake traditional German Christmas cookies at a local bakery. Each year, this specific bakery closes early and lets in a select group of Americans. When Leevi is out of town we are always looking for something extra to do to pass the time and this seemed like a really neat experience for the girls to see the back of a bakery and all of the big equipment.

Huge sheets of rolled out sugar cookie dough

Sprinkles galore!!!!

After at least 400 cookies were cut, the kids started to get creative with the extra dough

Everything that was baked, we were able to take home (free of charge)

We were there from 4-6pm, so we had COOKIES for dinner that night!! They did come home and eat some apples, carrots and yogurt and then they were off to bed!

The group of kids who participated along with Chef Peter! Such fun!!!!

I think we came home with 5 containers of cookies!!!! BUT, not a single kid washed their hands and quite a few were coughing and sniffling (mine included)! The germs bake off, right?! Hailey insisted on bringing a box the next day to her teachers at school so I sent Mrs. Winter a quick email saying just to toss them at the end of the day but lie and say how wonderful they were!!! :) We ate quite a few over the week and didn't get sick but I would have felt horrible if her teachers had!

Christmas Traditions

2012-01-11T16:46:00.001+01:00

I've been tackling a LONG list of things I'd like to get done before the baby comes in JUST three more months! The blog is somewhere on that list and hopefully I'll eventually get caught up! Leevi is in and out of town (mostly OUT) until 3 days before my due date, so I shouldn't have any excuses of not having any free time in the evenings. We had a relaxing holiday without too many plans knowing that we'd be Daddyless over the next few months. I'm having such a hard time getting things accomplished now that I can't imagine how far behind I'll get with a newborn! A lot of the things have to do with the upcoming move at the end of the school year and sorting through things now while I'm free and before the 3rd trimester exhaustion kicks in!!!

Christmas traditions are something that I can't say we've done every Christmas since Hailey has been born but now that she is old enough to remember years past I'd like to develop that nogstalgic feeling of the holidays!!!! There were a lot of ooo's and ahhh's when we unpacked the Christmas boxes and a lot of "I remember this!!!"

Christmas cards....these are definitely a MUST every year (we have one saved from the last 10 Christmas's since we've been married that I hang up each year...the MAIN reason why I do them!) I also added this year a string of Holiday Artwork from years past from the girls that get packed away in the Christmas boxes...

I also do a photo ornament each year of the girls...they get a special alone picture from their first Christmas and the following years, a together shot! On the right pictured below is a Hallmark Memory Album that we've done since Hailey was 2 and Kai was a newborn. It's 10 years worth of a memory page about the holidays and a 15 sec recording. I make a collage of about 15 favorite pics from the holidays to glue to one side and write specifics about that holiday season on the other. It's really cute to hear the change in their voice from year to year. They must have played Hailey's first recording from 2008 at least 100 times...she said "Happy Christmas Pretty Princess" I don't know why she said that! But it's really cute!

We started the Gingerbread House tradition last year.....

We started the tradition of making "Christmas Trash" (aka Puppy Chow or Garbage) at least 5 years ago when we moved into our new house in Hawaii...a lot of the neighbors exchanged goodies! This mix of Crispix, Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Powdered Sugar has to be saved for a special occasion otherwise we'd make it all of the time and be huge!

Her eyes are closed intentionally on the picture on the right as she was savoring her bite! :)

We didn't make it to see Santa this year!!!! He doesn't come to Germany...they do St. Nickolas on the 6th (a post to come eventually on that!!!!) We could have driven to Heidelberg one day to see a Santa that come to their post, but Hailey didn't want to go. She said that he's not the real Santa and since we have our own personal elf (Snowy) then she didn't need to tell him what she wanted! :) Ha!!! I only wanted to go to have a picture for my collection! :) The picture we had last year was pretty lame anyway....nothing like the Mall Santa's in the States! We tried not to put a lot of emphasize on Santa this year anyway. We talked a lot about the Reason of the Season and did an Angel Tree and donated old toys to an orphanage and things that revolved more around family and Jesus than PRESENTS! Hailey made a couple of comments over the holidays that shows she's really getting it! As we were putting the tree topper on the tree she explained to Kailee the significance of the star!!! My heart was proud! :)

Our tree stumps from each of our first Christmas's (guess we'll need to go back to a real tree next year!), the yearly Santa pic (and Snowy, our elf!), and this year's advent calendars!

Each year they also get matching Christmas pajamas...this year I opted for more of a Winter theme to get more bang for my buck! They wear them throughout the holidays but specifically on Christmas Eve/Morning! And they also get matching Christmas dresses (which for the past two years I've been lucky enough to find on clearance now for next year...still looking, but it's a bit trickier this year considering I have to coordinate an infant without knowing the gender!!!)

Our First Snow of the Season!

2011-12-30T11:23:00.000+01:00

We had an inch or two of snow overnight on 12/20. We had errands to run that morning and hoped that the snow would still be there when we got home that afternoon! Thankfully, it was and Hailey and I whipped up a snowman in record time while Leevi was trying to coax Kai awake from falling asleep on the car ride home.

The weather has been 40's and rainy all December unlike last December when it was 30's and snowy! Apparently, this Winter is more of the norm. We'll see what the New Year has in store for us! We are hoping for at least a few more snowfalls!

Christmas Day

2011-12-29T11:56:00.000+01:00

Our first present of the morning was the girls sleeping in! Hailey came in around 8:00 and waited patiently (playing on my iphone) until we finally woke Kai up at 8:30! The video was in an earlier post but you see the reaction to the dollhouse....they have played with it constantly since then! I think we are going to keep it downstairs and get more use out of it since the girls don't like playing upstairs by themselves.

A goodbye letter from Snowy, our elf and stuffed stockings! Snowy said he's excited to find us in our new house next year. Sniff, sniff, I'm really going to miss this neighborhood!!! No clue where we'll be going yet other than somewhere else in Germany...this post is closing in August!

Christmas morning mayhem! Actually, it wasn't bad...Kai took her time, like last year, wanting each present completely unwrapped AND opened. And the girls probably played with the dollhouse and opened stockings for the first half an hour. I need to make a note of the headache I went through to get that dollhouse shipped here. Actually, not that dollhouse but the one I really wanted. It was from the same company (Kidkraft, which makes wooden toys which I was really pushing for verse the plastic true Barbie dollhouse that Mattel makes) There are about 10 models of this size dollhouse but the one I wanted had one more story (baby's nursery) and an attached garage. I couldn't find anyone to ship it here, couldn't find an international company that sold it here and even went the route of buying one and shipping it to Tiffany who then tried to ship it USPS or UPS and they wouldn't ship it. Amazon.com said they'd ship it to my German address........for $600!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After a month of leads, I gave up and settled for this one. I wish I could have looked at them at a store verses online but I'm really happy with the one we picked (it had to have an elevator like the true Barbie house and it also has bunk beds which the girls really like) They love it and don't know what they could have had! :)

The girls got a lot of Barbies (and our first boy barbies...a few Kens, Prince Adam and Prince Eric...Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid) and Squinkies. Kai got quite a few Belle things and Hailey got lots of Ariel Jewelry. Leevi got his annual photo mug and calendar for the office and a bunch of Cowboy gear including a golfbag and I got a completely unexpected iPad!!!!

The girls giving Leevi one of his gifts from them...they each made a Butterfly Garden Stone for him (since he's the one who does the yardwork, he can think of them when he waters the flowers!) :)

By the time we got through the presents and made breakfast it was after 11am and we needed to get ready for Christmas dinner at our house. Thankfully, we had cleaned the day before because it took me FOREVER to sort through all of the presents and packaging and get the new things in their place before our friends came over at 3:30. We had a great dinner with two families from our neighborhood (Doziers and Harris') and one guy from Leevi's work. After dinner we headed down the street to the Roberts who had people over for dessert and eggnog.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-28T11:26:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure where I am going with all of the backwards posts, but here is Christmas Eve! We went to church at 5:30 for a service that we as a community threw together ourselves. I think they wanted us to join the Heidelberg chapel for Christmas Eve and only offered a Christmas Day service. The ladies of PWOC bible study were able to "sponsor" a Christmas Eve service, so we threw together some songs, had the older kids do readings from Luke, and closed with a Candle Lighting to Silent Night.

Christmas Eve Service

The girls hammed it up during the service...it could have easily gone the other way depending on Kailee's mood. I told Hailey that if Kai started doing something wrong then she should just ignore her instead of trying to correct her because there surely would have been a scene! :)

Before I could adjust my camera settings for this picture of Kai, Hailey's wax dripped on her hand and she started panicking! Thankfully she wasn't burned!

Christmas Eve present and Hailey's list to Santa

Once we got home from church, the girls spread out their reindeer food, opened their present and played with them for a bit while I made dinner (Kai opened Snow White Squinkies and Hailey opened a long-haired Barbie). We set out milk and cookies for Santa and Hailey even found a few leftover carrots from our garden when they played outside that afternoon so she added them on the plate. They surprisingly went to bed very quickly and Leevi was able to get to work on the dollhouse.

So much to do before bed!

All ready for Christmas morning!!!

We weren't up late at all...Leevi finished the dollhouse in record time and then stayed up to watch the Cowboys game.

Tidbits from Hailey

2011-12-27T10:52:00.000+01:00

And finally Hailey's tidbits!!!! We can't believe that she is going to turn SIX in a few months! She is planning a Beauty Spa Sleepover with a few close friends!

Hailey's first ever grading period ending in November and I had a parent-teacher conference with Mrs. Winter (whom we absolutely LOVE!) She had great things to say about Hailey and had many samples of her work to show me (Leevi was in Spain...boo) One thing she pointed out was that Hailey was the only one in her class to get a perfect score on the Listening Comprehension part of their assessment testing. I mentioned this to Hailey and when she talked to Leevi on the phone that night I told her to tell him what Mrs. Winter said about her and she said, "Mrs. Winter said I was the best student in the whole school!" Ha! I love the interpretation...guess we need to do a little lesson on being humble!

She is learning so much this year and it's very interesting to hear her talk about the things she is learning at school when I know it's not something that we've taught her. She asked me the other day if the book I was reading was Fiction or Non-Fiction. :)

I took the girls swimming at the Ramstein pool recently and you have to be 6 to be able to go down the big slide by yourself. If another adult isn't with us, then the girls can't go down the slide because I can't leave Kai by herself at the bottom while I take Hailey. I told Hailey we would just say that she's 6 so we could all slide. In my defense, she is just two months shy from turning 6, AND she can swim, AND the deepest part of the pool is only up to her shoulders. :) But then Hailey replies, "You mean we are going to LIE?!? But that will be disobeying GOD!" :) Yes, it will and please remember that when you think about getting your first fake ID! :)

Hailey helped unpack all of the groceries without being asked and when I thanked her she said, "I'm just helping a pregnant lady out!" :)

Our Christmas Elf arrived this season and after a few arguments with her sister I asked our Elf, Snowy, if he had witnessed that naughty behavior and Hailey said, "Mom, it's kind of like you are tattling!"

I don't remember exactly how the conversion came up but we were talking in the car about Heaven and how Heaven will be better than your best day on Earth. Then Hailey added that Heaven will even be better than being the line leader at school! :)

Showing off her monkey skills

She set up a beauty salon outside...

Trying to have patience with Leila! :)

She was so happy at their physicals this past summer to be offered a gown to wear like a big girl! :)

Her Rudolph performance at school

Giving Kailee the present she bought for her with her own Awana money she had earned...she had enough shares to get a gift for each of us!

Happy Birthday, Leila!!!

2011-12-27T10:18:00.001+01:00

Happy 8th Birthday to the spunkiest "old lady" that we know! She'll always be our first baby!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-26T20:39:00.003+01:00

Where did December go???? I'm so far behind I guess I'll just start with Christmas and then eventually get to what led up to it! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! The video is from our Christmas Eve Service at Church and then Christmas morning!

Tidbits from Kailee

2011-12-12T13:09:00.000+01:00

I've been jotting down little things that Kai says for awhile now but just now am finally getting to this post. Hailey has a bunch too and there were so many between the two of them that I decided to separate them into two different posts. Not to mention I had a ton of pictures from my phone that usually make it to Facebook but not to the blog....PURGE BELOW!

Kailee really cracks us up and is just a laid back kid. We passed the Terrible Twos with really only "climbing" issues and we are still waiting on the Terrible Threes to kick in (which I think is is definitely the HARDEST age...they are old enough to know better but still learning how to balance their independence!) So far, she's cake!!! When she does have a "three year old moment" I have to remind myself that she spoils us rotten 95% of the time and that this behavior is normal! My memory could be failing me but I'm pretty sure that a certain other family member had me taking deep breaths and counting to 10 a lot at this age! :)

Here are some funny tidbits...

She will sometimes speak "Germaly" to me or play store and ask if I speak "Eng-a-lish".

We babysat a family with 3 girls, ages 10 months to 7 years, and my girls were just in heaven with the baby. Kai said at dinner the next night, "I really like babysitting Katie!" and then almost in the same breath "and I really like Cheetos."

In the bathroom:
Kai: "I thought a shark was coming so I had put my bum up like this."
Me: "You silly girl...there aren't sharks in the potty!"
Kai: "Yes, because it's too stinky!"

Hailey is afraid to go upstairs by herself (no matter the time of day), but Kai will go as long as you reassure her that there aren't any "monsters, ghosts, or bears" up there.

Kai's favorite Christmas decor this year has been the nutcrackers (they hang out with the Princesses and the Pollys often) except she forgets and refers to them as the Graham Crackers.

If I bump into Kai or hurt her she'll say, "that's ok. You're a mom, it was an accident!" Implying if a kid did the same thing she would think it was on purpose!

There is a little boy in her class who apparently (according to Kai) is pretty naughty most of the time. She thinks that "he needs a sticker chart at home!" :) (We use a very basic one here for rewarding positive behavior.)

And not a tidbit but a quirk of Kailee's...she is constantly playing with something and for some reason (only known in her brain) she will put a toy in a random place but 9 times out of 10 if you (or Hailey) asks her where it is, she'll be able to find it.

Sometime Kailee will ask if a cashier (or random person) is a boy or a girl. Innocent enough, but I'll tell her that it is rude if that person hears her say that and they might get their feelings hurt. Recently a friend of ours had a baby and Kai asked if it was a girl or boy baby and then she stopped herself and said, "I'm sorry...that's not appropriate" :)

And my favorite from this bunch....I chuckled about it all day (how mature of me!) When she coughed and passed gas at the same time: "If you pooter, when you cough you don't have to say excuse me because it was only an accident!" :)

And finally a picture catch up from my phone....some of these are from the beginning of summer!

Never too young for a pedicure!

Kai and Coconut out for a scooter ride...the hat that Coconut is wearing is his helmet

Absolutely no fear!

Poor girl

Of course that is a comfy place to put your babies to bed

Biking to school

Kai's Dinosaur

Such a good dog!!!

Was finally able to get a few Thanksgiving Feast pics from her school off of my phone

And a video of the Pledge of Allegiance...

Trimming the Tree

2011-12-09T17:21:00.001+01:00

We pulled out the decorations a bit early since we were going to be out of town over the Thanksgiving weekend but we waited until Leevi returned from his trip to decorate the tree!

On the bottom left the girls are pretending to be presents...

The final touch!

Will it ever not be torture?

Merry Christmas

I got the lights up outside the week after Thanksgiving. We got a new tree this year because our old one had several strings of lights that are out...we moved that one outside and just added a string of lights.

Paris!!!!!

2011-12-08T10:26:00.001+01:00

Our trip to Paris for the long weekend reminded me of when we'd fly over to Maui or Kauai for the weekend when living in Hawaii...again, we are sooooooooo grateful for the opportunities we are given because of our duty stations! After the long day at Disney, we took our time getting ready the next morning and linked up with the Doziers to take the 30 minute train ride into Paris. My favorite quote from the whole weekend came from Hailey while on the train...

Leevi: "Hailey, what do you think of getting to ride the train?!?!"

Hailey: "It's kind of like timeout...you just have to sit here."

OMG, these spoiled, rotten children! :) Our adventure really began when we arrived at our stop and we should have seen this as a warning of how the rest of our day was going to go! It took us some time to figure out how to get up out of the train station. We had the double stroller, a single stroller and 9 people and there was only ONE elevator that could hold about 5 people at a time with about 20 people in line in front of us. We broke off from the Doziers to look for a different way up and did find our way out after climbing 3-4 different sets of stairs...Leevi carrying the double stroller and our bags and me carrying Kai (we have no idea why we were that deep underground!) Apparently that was the reason for the long elevator line...it was a straight shot to the top but it was quite irritating that people without strollers or wheelchairs or even without children were waiting in that line. Once we emerged, we had no way of getting ahold of the Doziers (we had our German cell phones off) We decided to head off on our own which was probably the best idea considering the amount of walking we had to do and the many temperments/opinions of our large group.

Our first stop while we were getting our bearings...Kai had to use the bathroom, hence the face in the picture, but I made her pose first!

We really only cared about seeing Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower...any other things we passed along that route came as a bonus. It was cold but sunny so the girls were even out of their hats and gloves for part of the day. Paris is a lot like New York City but with amazing architecture and much older buildings!

Notre Dame! We didn't go inside....Leevi and I didn't have too much of an interest in that and having two young kids with us was way more than a legitmate excuse!

Cute park on the walk to the Eiffel Tower...this contraption spun around...too fun but a little scary for Mom! :)

This is where our fun began! The walk from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower was supposed to be about a mile and a half...no biggie since we had the double stroller, BUT we went in the wrong direction! :) Leevi and I laughed that we would have failed miserably at the Amazing Race! Thankfully, the weather was nice and the girls were entertaining themselves in the stroller with their Snow White and Ariel dolls, so we decided to hop back on the train/subway instead of back-tracking on foot. After a few more mishaps with the directions/routes of the train and lugging the double stroller around (any many laughs!) we made it to the Eiffel Tower!!!!!!!

Typical tourists....Leevi looking at a map and me taking a picture of the bathrooms! This is the cleanest public bathroom in a major city that you will EVER go into. After each use, the door locks and the bathroom gets powerwashed and then dried automatically.

It was a Saturday and the lines were sooooooooooooo long to get up to the top of the tower. It was about 2:30 and we had nothing else specific on the agenda for the day so we decided to wait. In hindsight (I felt like we said that a lot that weekend!) we shouldn't have waited! We were in line for about 2 hours (standing! My stomach really hurt!) with two patient kids and we finally made it up. Kai had to go to the bathroom when we had about 15 more minutes in the line and was able to hold it until we made it to the top WHERE WE HAD TO WAIT ANOTHER 20 MINUTES IN A RESTROOM LINE! That did it for me! I was done and ready to go back down and go home! I'm sure Leevi wanted to shoot me (or himself!) I snapped a few pictures and down we went!!!!!! We even had tickets to the very top but there WAS ANOTHER LINE. No way! So if you ever go to the Eiffel Tower don't wait in line...it's not like you are waiting in line for a cool roller coaster or something....you wait for a view (albeit a nice and romantic view!) :) The girls started loosing it around that point (maybe because I was) but we did manage to snap one family shot back at the bottom and then headed back to the train station. Both girls feel asleep instantly on the walk to the train station and Kai slept until we got back to the hotel. We were train/subway experts on the journey home and we were baffled at how simple the return trip was.

View from the top

View at night with the lights on and a view underneath looking up. At 6pm, twinkling lights came on....we saw it briefly from the train.

The MacDonalds in Paris, 2011

We got back to the hotel a little after 7pm, ate more leftovers for dinner, and started packing up a little for our return home the following morning. Leila was excited to see us after spending two days in the hotel room alone but we have found another reason why Melatonin is our new miracle drug! We brought some just in case the girls needed it if they were restless for Disney or not sleeping in their own beds (or in Kailee's case, taking late afternoon naps and throwing off her bedtime). We had brought Benedryl for Leila hoping to calm her down in the hotel while we were out for the day. (She barks and barks and barks when we leave her somewhere new) When she's had it in the past for allergy related issues it knocks her out. For some reason the thought popped into my head to google Melatonin for Dogs and sure enough there is a website www.melatoninfordogs.com which gave us the proper doseage, etc. She was calm and not barking when we left and arrived back at the hotel hours later so we are guessing it worked! :)

It took me about a week to catch back up from our vacation (you always need a vacation from your vacation, right?) and poor Leevi had to travel again just three days after we got home from Paris (not to mention, he had just gotten home from Virginia and Spain the night before we left for Paris!) But the extra money he'll get on the trip to Norway is paying for our Paris trip and Christmas so I guess it's worth it! :) We are anxious to have him home and relax for the holidays! He'll be off of work the whole time that the girls are off from school (Dec. 19-Jan.2) so we are really looking forward to some family time!

I'm still playing "blog-catch-up" so check back for some holiday fun!!!!!!

Disneyland Paris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-12-04T20:00:00.000+01:00

Disneyland Paris was the perfect first time Disney experience for us. There are two parks, but we we only went to the main one (which seemed girly and for younger kids...the Disney Studios park had older kid rides and more of the boy stuff....Toy Story, Cars). We got an early start at the park and it still didn't seem early enough! The actual rides didn't start until 10am but the park opened before that and we wandered around Main Street. It was cold (high 40's) but we were prepared with appropriate attire and we warmed up throughout the day on the rides (most were inside), in the shops, and at lunch.

Once we were through the gates we waited in our first line (and probably the longest of the day!) to have our picture taken with Mickey!!! BUT....when we were about 15 people away, Mickey went on break and they switched to Duffy the Bear (who the heck is Duffy the Bear!!!!????!!!) Not a great start to our day, but it got better! :)

The cold was bareable because everything was decorated for Christmas which made our visit extra special! The lines weren't bad at all.....15 minutes max for the rides. The crowds were mostly around the parades and shows.

One of the first shows we caught was Peter Pan. Seeing Captain Hook became Kailee's favorite part of the day! She didn't show much interest in him prior to Disney but has since watched the movie a few times! :)

The Dumbo (or Bongo according to Kai) ride

This show was my favorite part of the day. We are already wondering when we can go back! The park is small in comparison to Florida and California but you still need two days to see everything. And in hindsight, we should have planned our day around the Show/Parade schedule since most of the rides aren't thrill rides but more like a slow boat/car that takes you through the scenes of the movie. Cute, but why not see it acted out live? And we missed the Princess show...how could we have missed the Princess show with 5 girls?!?! I know what we missed, but the girls didn't and they had a GREAT time and that's all that matters!

I didn't get a picture of it but Hailey's favorite part of the day was Big Thunder Mountain...Kai was too short to ride and I didn't think that I should ride so we sat that one out and Leevi and Hailey went two times (apparently Leevi put on quite the show screaming) :) There was one other coaster at the park that Hailey wasn't tall enough for but she would have loved to go on it. We also really enjoyed the Toy Story Ride where you had to shoot Robots and Aliens with a laser gun (Kai and I beat Leevi's score!) :) and the Haunted Mansion ride.

We had planned on taking the shuttle back to the hotel for lunch (and to let the dogs out) but decided that our day was flying by too quickly and opted for an expensive hamburger/french fry lunch at the park. Again, in hindsight, when they checked our bags for entry to the park they didn't seem to care at all that we had packed snacks and drinks...we should have just packed our PBJ's too!

It is getting dark between 4:30 and 5:00 this time of year, so I'm bummed about how my Once Upon a Dream Parade pictures turned out. The girls had the best seats in the house but my only option was my tippy toes and I would have had much better luck with a Point and Shoot Camera that I could just hold up in the air. Good parade seats are definitely on my list for next time! :)

Take note of the tiny Snow White doll that Kai is holding...somehow it didn't get lost that day or the next day as we toured Paris!!!! She's always been good about keeping track of whatever she decides needs to tag along with us for the day!

Hailey kept me informed of "what was coming next!"

So magical!!!!!

Kai crashed after the parade and missed the Tree lighting show but she had been such a trooper throughout the day! The girls knew prior to our trip that they would be allowed to pick out one thing to buy...stuffed animal, doll, clothing etc. And they were great about patiently laying out their options throughout the day. Maybe subconsciously that rule was set so Leevi and I didn't want to buy them everything in the park! We did put in a special request to our elf, Snowy, for a Baby Minnie Mouse and a Flounder stuffed animal if he thought the girls have been behaving extra well! :)

Kai chose the Snow White minature princess set and Hailey picked out a beautiful Wedding Day Ariel. She has stayed true to Ariel from the time she was TWO! It's definitely going to be another Ariel Christmas this year! :)

We headed back to the hotel after the park closed at 7:00, ate some Thanksgiving leftovers, and then we all crashed! We slept in and then ralleyed the troops the following morning for our adventure into Paris....stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving!

2011-12-02T10:53:00.001+01:00

Wow, how have we been home from our Paris trip for a week and I still haven't posted anything?!? And it's not going to happen today either! :) Although, Leevi is travelling in Norway for the next two weeks so hopefully the evenings alone will allow me to get caught up! It's crazy that it's already December!!!! The girls each had a Thanksgiving Feast at their schools and because of the certain days/times, they were each able to attend one anothers'. Hailey's class made Pilgrim hats for the boys and Native American hats (thanks for correcting me, Hailey! :) ) for the girls. There are a couple of pictures on my iphone of Kailee's feast that aren't uploading (maybe I'll try again later!)

We can't say enough about how thankful we are for our safety, health, employment, friends, family, housing...on and on. The typical answers that are all too often taken for granted! This Thanksgiving we were particularly thankful for the opportunity to vacation in Paris over the holiday weekend. Living in Europe (on the military's dime!) is like when we lived in Hawaii for so long...you picture yourself going to the beach a few times a week but LIFE gets in the way and it just isn't possible! We aren't sure how long we will be over here but we are trying to check off a LONG list of things we want to see with this once in a lifetime opportunity! We had so many friends take off to Paris, Ireland, Prague, Italy etc for the weekend....these kids have know idea how fortunate they are!!!!!!!!

Top left is Hailey's teacher, Mrs. Winter, giving the Feast directions and you'll see Kai in the right corner sitting on Hailey's lap acting like a big kid! Middle bottom is the FEAST with both kindergarten classes (and notice Hailey has her lunch box because she wouldn't even eat a roll!) But of course she didn't turn down a delicious RAINBOW cupcake! :)

Leevi arrived from Spain late Wednesday night (after a delayed flight and a LOST bag, which was finally found a few days later!) I was all packed up and we got an early start Thursday morning with the Dozier family. We had 4 hour drive with a "Boy" car and a "Girl" car and two dogs!!! Amazingly, we didn't hit a single stau (traffic jam) going or coming home! The girls watched a few movies and we got to the hotel early afternoon. After unloading what seemed like our entire house, we rested and then whipped up the fastest Thanksgiving meal ever made. The hotel had a small kitchen with a medium sized fridge and stove so we planned out all of our meals to avoid the extra cost of eating out all weekend or eating junk all weekend! Our Thanksgiving consisted of a pre-cooked ham, pre-cooked turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, instant mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, cranberry sauce and pecan pie....and then we ate those leftovers over the next two days! ;)

Such a lovely picture on the left...Kai with a stinky face and Hailey murdering the yams! Not to mention the bag of Lays chips on the table...they WEREN'T part of our Thanksgiving dinner! :) On the right are the girls saying their Thanksgiving Grace!

After dinner we walked across the street to a fabulous French mall (Val d'Europe)

Carousel at the French mall

And got to see Santa!

Special Santa treat....Elves walking around on stilts, a French Santa, and a choir....the girl elf was sprinkling glitter dust on the girls' faces! :) So fun!!!! We didn't visit with Santa (just waved) and will go to the one at the German mall near our house....not too many kids will get to say that they saw a French, German, and American Santa all in the same year!

Our hotel was absolutely perfect! It had a bedroom downstairs with bunk beds, bathroom with shower, small kitchen, and a living room with a twin sized bed/couch and a 2nd twin bed/couch with a rollaway underneath. Upstairs was a full sized bed and a 2nd bathroom! Somehow the thought never occurred to me to bring things for the girls to do in the hotel (I guess I assumed we wouldn't be spending too much time there) But I forgot bedtime books, coloring things, toys, etc. But they made do and found ways to keep themselves busy! There was a free shuttle ride to take us to Disney (10 mins away) and the Subway station to get us into Paris was a 10 min walk away. Too easy!!!

Passing time at the hotel....journal writing (nice face Hailey!), the Lefty on the Leapster, and their fun bunk beds!!!!

I'll leave you with this picture of the girls bundled up for Disney!!!!! It was cold but we were prepared...fleecy jeans, hats, gloves, Minnie Mouse earmuffs, hand warmers and blankets for the stroller!! I'll try to get this post up tomorrow but no promises....laundry, Leevi out of town, playdates, etc are making for a busy weekend!!!! And I've got to get my Christmas cards done and in the mail!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby Mac #3

2011-11-22T07:19:00.000+01:00

It's about time that this excting news officially hit the blog! Baby Mac #3 is doing great and will make his or her arrival around Easter! I'm 20 weeks today!!!!!! Halfway there....this first half seemed to go by quickly and I'm sure the next few weeks over the holidays will fly by too. March might be the slowest month without any big school breaks/holidays this year! Just like with the girls we are going to drive everyone crazy and wait to see if the baby is a boy or girl! It might be difficult because I get an ultrasound at every appointment! It's awesome to see the baby every month, but so so so hard to keep my willpower in check! My next appt is in a week! We are already preparing ourselves for another girl...we are SURROUNDED by three girl families. Four of Hailey's school friends in Germany are from 3 girl families and we know quite a few back in the States in addition to countless 2 girl families! Another girl would be easy but of course we would be pleasantly surprised with a boy! Hailey wants a boy (for Leevi's sake! Too cute!) and Kailee ONLY wants a girl (A cute little tidbit from Kai: she said, "I want to have a little sister that's just like me!) :) The girls have objected to all the name possibilities that we've discussed and want to name a girl Emma or Gracie and don't really talk much about the possibility of a boy! :) Hailey has been able to feel the baby kick but we are anxiously awaiting the bigger movements!!!!! I'm feeling great and everything seems to be going just as smoothly as with the girls! My mild morning sickness stopped around 10 weeks and I got my energy back around 14 wks. I pray that things continue on this course and we'll be holding our new blessing in our arms before we know it!

Ultrasound pic at 13 weeks

20 week belly pic! Halfway there!!!!!

I feel like I can eat dinner and my belly grows an inch!!!!

I'm definitely not attempting these pics again without Leevi's help! We were setting the timer and it took FOREVER to get a decent one!

More attempts....I like the first one where Hailey's sign is backwards and Kailee's is upside down! :)

Gotta end with a silly pic!

Hailey wanted a belly pic too!!!! Her baby is under there!

And a few pictures of a typical German labor room. I haven't gotten the tour yet at my hospital so we'll see how it compares to the ones below. I remember my neighbor saying that they gave her a rope to hold onto when she had her 1st child in Germany 6 years ago! Thankfully, this isn't my first!!! Our hospital is only 9 minutes from our house so if this baby decides to be competitive with Kailee's labor we should hopefully have enough time to get there!!!!

That looks enticing! There was a similar tub like this for Kailee which I didn't get a chance to use because she came too fast....let's hope I can try it out this time! :)

Purple Unicorn Monkeys

2011-11-19T07:43:00.000+01:00

Our soccer season wrapped up at the beginning of November and we rented a room at the bowling alley for our end-of-the-season party. We passed out trophies, ate pizza and cake, and danced the night away! We had a great season this Fall and I really enjoyed coaching this group of kiddos!

Hailey getting her trophy and me getting my coach's gift

Dance party with a disco ball and flashing lights!

Hailey, Hailey, Hailey

2011-11-15T07:43:00.000+01:00

Hailey had a really busy week a few weeks ago (and I've been really busy and just now am getting around to this post!) She had her first school project and in "Hailey-fashion" refused all help/suggestions! :) I read her the project sheet and she did a great job!! On Halloween they weren't allowed to dress up at her school but they did have a school wide Hat Parade. The assignment was to make or decorate a hat with a WORD. Hailey choose "little" and went to town. The only suggestion she accepted from me was how to fold the tape to stick on her drawings verses long strips across the top of the illustrations. :) I thought it turned out pretty cute!

Lining up for the parade outside....the bottom left pic is with her BF, Talia, who also chose the word "little" coincidentally!

A few days later she had a Spanish school performance....

This is the entire school!!! I love it! It's like we are sending her to a private school! :) Her class is down to only 16 kids and at least one if not two more are leaving at the Christmas break! With two teachers (and a parent helper in the class everyday for 1 1/2 hrs during reading group/center time) it's A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

I cringe looking at her outfit....it was GAME day and in addition to her jersey she wanted to wear her shorts but it was too cold so this is what she opted for. :)

Later that night we had one of our last soccer games of the season. Hailey scored THREE goals and had an awesome chase-down-from-behind-break-away defensive save! :) We put a pretty bad beating on the other team and it's so hard to take the drive out of 5 year olds and tell them to stop scoring! Before the last quarter I had a pep talk with the kids who were playing and told them to try and take it easy because the other team probably felt really sad. I didnt say anything about "letting" them score, but Leevi caught it once on film where Hailey is totally in position and doesn't do anything....she even let out a little cheer for the other team when they got their first goal. I didn't realize how obvious it was until Hailey asked me on the ride home if I was proud of her for letting them get a goal. :) We had a really fun season....more to post about that as soon as I can catch up!

If you listen closely to the video you and hear Leevi mumbling things like "no mercy...run it up...double digits...lookin for scholarships here" :)

I don't think there are any action clips in this video but it sums up how much fun we had during the season! :) We did have a pretty talented team this year but it will make for an interesting Spring Season when most of these guys move up to the next age bracket!

On Thursday she had Awanas and earned her Hang Glider Emblem, her Pilot Wings and two Jewels! She was so proud of herself (we were too!!!!!!) We are really happy that she enjoys going to Awanas!

Now that soccer has wrapped up until the Spring we aren't quite so busy! And there have been lots of breaks from school in November which is nice but at the same time eats up my free time to get things done (i.e. update the blog!!!) Leevi has travelled to Norway, Poland, Croatia, Kansas, Virginia, and Spain over the past two months! Talk about the Army Adventure! The extra money seems to make it worth our while but we definitely eat him up while he's here!!!!!! We are looking forward to our family vacation to Paris over Thanksgiving!!!!!!

Christmas Card Photoshoot

2011-11-11T07:43:00.000+01:00

Last Friday the girls had off from school so I took them to the Hardenberg castle in Bad Durkheim about half an hour away for a photoshoot for our Christmas card. It ended up not being the castle I thought I was going to but I LOVED it! It's by far my favorite castle I've seen as of yet (in ruins or not). It was MASSIVE!!!! We had a little trouble at first trying to figure out how to get up to the castle and after a bit of driving we decided to just park and follow the walking trail. I was worried that I'd bitten off more than I could chew since Leevi wasn't with me! I should have taken a picture of how far we had to walk up yet the girls did great. I was amazed at how many levels the castle had...we walked up, explored the grounds, and then would climb the next flight of steps and find a whole new level! Once we finally reached the top there was still a tower that we could have climbed with a sprialling staircase but I was able to convince Hailey that we really didn't need to go up (for fear that I'd be carrying Kai UP or DOWN!)

I don't really want to spoil what our Christmas card for this year looks like, but some of these pictures that I didn't use on the card were too cool or cute to not be on the blog.

How most of the shoot went.....

Um, seriously Hailey?!?!! :) Her "glamour pose" on the left and her "laughing at herself pose" on the right

Along the tree line of the top left photo is another castle (maybe the one I was originally trying to get to)...I wonder if long ago they were friends or enemies

Kai was pouting in the top right photo because I ~~screamed at her, scared her, went hysterical~~ told her to stop climbing that window! I was too scared to go over afterward to see how far down the drop was! Ughh!

Overall the adventure was fun and I got a few decent pictures. One that I LOVE and others that are do-able for this years' card! :) You'll just have to wait and see.........

Fall Fest and Trick or Treating

2011-11-05T14:22:00.000+01:00

On Friday evening before Halloween, the community hosted a Fall Festival for the kids. Many organizations on post (FRG's, PTA, Girl/Boy Scouts, Chapel etc) set up booths and FUN, FUN, FUN for the kiddos. Everything was free including dinner which I'm always amazed at and the weather was absolutely perfect!

Ariel and Strawberry Shortcake

Saturday was our community Trick or Treating night since Monday was a school night. The Fall Fest was organized because they didn't know what to expect for Trick or Treating. Since our community is rapidly dying, most families went to Heidelberg for Trick or Treating. I didn't feel like driving or messing with the crowds on Patrick Henry Village so we decided to stay home and see who turned up in our neighborhood. Because most of Benjamin Franklin Village consists of stairwell living, everyone comes to our Grant Circle neighborhood for the Trick or Treating in years past. Last year we were at almost full capacity with housing and the streets were packed! It was a lot of fun. This year we probably have 1/3 of the families left if not less, so you are looking at less than 30 families to pass out candy! The 10 or so families that stuck around to pass out candy had plenty to go around to the 50 or so trick or treaters who came. Our girls still had a lot of fun and had no complaints (probably from lack of T or T experience!) :)

Jump!

We walked the neighborhood with the Dozier girls

Once we lit our pumpkins on Saturday they seemed to mold pretty quickly. I was inside doing housework while Leevi and the girls were outside doing yardwork and I looked out the window when I heard a bunch of squeals! Leevi allowed them to smash our pumpkins and they of course had a blast (followed by a clean up!)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween at the Preschool

2011-11-05T07:42:00.000+01:00

Kailee had a fun filled week leading up to Halloween. Her class is so small (8 kids total) and they are able to do a lot more hands on things that most larger classes of 3/4 yr olds wouldn't be able to manage. Most days there are only 5 or 6 because it seems that someone is always traveling or sick. We love Ms. Kitty and all that she is doing with our little ones! We had a community wide Fall Fest on Friday and then Trick or Treated on Saturday (more posts to come on that!) so the week prior to all of that fun the preschool kids got to carve pumpkins, bake pumpkin pie, and paint pumpkins!

One of her latest poses! Seriously....why can't she just stand there and please her Momma! :)

Around the class

The Frankenstein Castle

2011-10-29T12:41:00.001+02:00

Last weekend we took the girls for "Family Day" at Frankenstein's Castle. Back in the 70's when a US Army post was located in Darmstadt, the soliders asked the owners of the castle if they could host a Halloween party there. Apparently each year since, it has grown and grown and now a German company has set up a Haunted House for the month of October. We prepped the girls by trying to explain that they were just people dressed up in costumes and they seemed excited enough for us to make the 30 minute drive. On Family Day, the monsters just walk around and don't scare you! A few offered to shake the girls' hands which Kailee accepted but Hailey just buried her face in Leevi's neck! :) At night there are a few major differences between a German Haunted House and an American one....namely the fact that they are allowed to grab you; we've heard stories of people being forced into coffins, chased and attacked by chainsaws, strapped down to torture devices, etc!

I didn't get too many pictures because we were each carrying a kid. The girls' were brave (one braver than the other!) :) But we don't feel the need to go back next year. It's one of those things that we feel like we have to take advantage of since we are so close!

Trying to decide if they want to go in!

How Hailey spent the entire time

They asked for Cotton Candy when we were done and we figured they could have a special treat since we tortured them! BUT.....neither of them liked it! Thankfully it was cheap!

Let's go home!!!!

I pulled this picture from the internet...this view must have been a side of the castle that was blocked off during the Haunted House. I love castle ruins! I'm scouting out some local castles for our Christmas pictures this year!!!

Carving Pumpkins!

2011-10-24T11:33:00.000+02:00

We carved our pumpkins on Saturday night. The girls had a blast and nobody had an adversion to cleaning out the guts! Leila even helped out and cleaned up the dropped pumpkin seeds!

Kai could have played with the guts for hours if we let her! And Leila got into the festivities too!

I made the girls' handprints, Kai picked the cat, and Hailey picked the smiley face

Hailey is soooo into "jump" pictures right now! :)

How did our parents survive without digital cameras and an endless supply of retakes!?!?

Pumpkin Festival in Ludwigsburg

2011-10-22T09:28:00.000+02:00

Leevi was out of town last weekend and Scott had recent back surgery so Brandy and I braved an adventure with 6 girls to a pumpkin festival in Ludwigsburg about 1hr and 15 min away. It was definitely worth the drive and we all had a great time!

Each year the theme changes....in the past they've had Under the Sea, Outer Space, and Fairy Tales. We will definitely go back next year!

We spent a lot of time here wandering around and eventually made it to the pumpkin section that was way bigger than we expected!

Seeing this wedding reminded me of all of the weddings we saw at the KoOlina lagoons. We gave up try to convince the girls that this lady was NOT the princess that lives in that castle.

They saw the wedding party do a jump picture and wanted to try it out themselves

There is a contest every year for the largest pumpkin...on the last day of the festival, they smash the big pumpkins!

We finally made it to the pumpkin section!!!! The "Kurbisaurs" (pumpkin dinosaurs) were really cool....the head/legs were carved from wood. This T-Rex even roared! The fest grounds were beautiful and the weather was absolutely gorgeous....a crisp, but sunny high 50's.

T-Rex greeted us at the beginning of the festival

I wonder if her light hair will last through the winter...

They thought this baby dino was extra cute

That pumpkin soup was amazing!!!!!! I'm not a big fan of German food but I haven't found one of their homemade soups that I didn't like!

The Dozier ladies

Of course there was a unique German park...

Unfortunately, Kai found this water pump....she "waded" through a deep stream instead of following a rock path and I thought our day was going to be cut short but apparently those good ole Target boots are somewhat waterproof!!! She did think to hold her pants up though!

The last thing we did was go on a boat ride with a Pinnochio theme...there was much more to see but we had underestimated the size of the festival and decided we should head back before any meltdowns!

The girls wanted one of these baby pumpkins...Hailey searched and searched for the tiniest one...it's about the size of a golf ball. I got one of the "blue" pumpkins you see on the right. I forgot to take a picture of them before I uploaded my photos so I'll try to remember when we carve them.

Kathryn, Hailey, Talia, Kailee, Farrah, Piper

Awanas

2011-10-19T09:41:00.000+02:00

Hailey has started Awana this year! (concept of Sunday School) She is loving it and loving the time she gets to spend with one of her best buddies, Alli! In the video above she is reciting the bible verse that she had to memorize in order to earn her vest, bag and book! They meet every Thursday in Heidelberg throughout the school year from 3:30-5:30. Kai and I usually head over to the library, thrift store, or commissary to pass the time and then have started the routine of going to dinner with the Seatons at the bowling alley afterwards.

Little Chefs

2011-10-16T21:02:00.000+02:00

The girls baked Halloween Sugar Cookies last weekend! They turned out pretty cute, but their sugar highs from the cookies (with frosting) was too much to handle! Thankfully they forgot about them by the second day and I tossed them! :)

While the cookies were baking/cooling, they traced the cookie cutters and sketched the designs of how they wanted to decorate them!

Hailey's drawings

Kailee's drawings complete with a self portrait and a hand tracing

Mmmmm....frosting!

Frosting and decorating the cookies....

Kailee's designs along with her Fu-Manchu mustache

Hailey's designs!

Happy Fall

2011-10-16T10:06:00.000+02:00

School Update

2011-10-14T21:38:00.002+02:00

I'm happy to report that we have settled into a great routine in the morning (without tears!) When Leevi is home (which isn't much this Fall....the extra money gets us through it!) :) he takes Hailey to school on his way to work, but when he's traveling we are all out the door around 8:15 to get Hailey to school by 8:25 and then Kai and I read books in the car for the half an hour until her school starts. It'd be silly to go back home for 10 or so minutes. Sometimes we run a quick errand (commissary, gas, ATM) but most mornings we read our bag of library books that stay in the car. We rode bikes for the first few weeks but it's too chilly in the mornings for Kailee and I to wait outside during that 30 minute gap. It usually has warmed up by noon when I get Kai (and 2:30 for Hailey) so I'll typically walk their bikes or scooters up to their schools. I don't have as much free time for myself as it seems I would but I'm making the most of it and am settling into a good routine myself (walk Leila WITHOUT CHILDREN!, housework, check up on emails/blog, walk/gym) On Tuesdays I'm going to a bible study during Kai's 3 hours and on Wednesdays I volunteer in Hailey's class during most of the time Kai is in school.

Kailee loves school now and her teacher is great. She's in a small class (8 kids and someone is usually absent). I ended up spending her first 4 days with her and helped out in the classroom. I just couldn't bare leaving her in hysterics when she really doesn't need to be in school yet anyway. By me seeing and learning the classroom routine (journal writing, craft, storytime/singing, snacktime, centers, play outside) we were able to talk with her about her day a little more indepth and it also gave her time to get to know her teacher without me dumping her with a total stranger. (I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to do that!!) Kai's teacher is also a great artist so she is coming home with some cute crafts. They are going week by week through the alphabet and she's also learning a bit of sign language that corresponds with the letter of the week. Below are a few of her A crafts....

Kai showing off her cutting skills! :)

Autumn trees and leaf rubbings on the left

Painting with an apple half and Lots of A's

Hailey is still enjoying school also and I love that she's a jabber-jaw at the end of the day...she's enjoying all of her "Specials"...Spanish, Music, Art, and P.E. This quarter she has Spanish twice a week and that will rotate over the year. We love her teacher too!!!!!!!!!! We really lucked out with both girls considering our school options are so limited here.

And a bit of Hailey's work....this Math Journal is my favorite thing to look at on Fridays. I just love her drawings. You can see they started out simple and have already progressed to "number sentences"

Math Journal

Progression of Math Journal

Below is usually what I'll work on with the kids in their centers when I volunteer in Hailey's class. The craft goes along with whatever book they are studying that week.

Her Fit It Duck center crafts from the week

Our home! I really liked this one...

And a bit of craziness...this paper is actually from Awanas....the blank for "name" was written on the right corner of the paper and Hailey wrote her name backwards ???????? "YELIAH"

A few Kailee videos...

2011-10-12T19:24:00.001+02:00

And just some random pictures of the goofball....

The Purple Unicorn Monkeys

2011-10-07T17:15:00.000+02:00

I'm coaching Hailey's soccer team again this season! We are just about halfway through and have been enjoying some great non-Fall weather....70's and not a drop of rain. Our luck has shifted and its dropped to 50's and rainy. We have two weeks of byes and then two more games that will finish up the season in early November.

We are the ONLY sports team left in Mannheim!!!! No other sport/age group had enough players (and a volunteer to coach!) so they have to travel to Heidelberg if they want to be on a team. The high school and middle school closed at the end of last year (those kids from here now get bussed to Heidelberg) so we really are IT! We really are representing Mannheim! :) The 7 kindergarteners wear their jerseys to school on game days! :)

We are having loads of fun and let's hope we have enough kids in the Spring for one more run before the installation closes in September 2012

Pregame chat

My favorite picture....I'm not sure how Quinn walked away from that unscathed! She can't weigh more than 30 lbs soaking wet!!

On the left is typically how I spend part of every practice/game UNTIL the ever so important job of babysitting Katie is needed! :)

Passing the time when you have to sit out a quarter!

Everyone except Bobby who was travelling Europe....is it's amazing what these kids get to experience over here!

All 11 kiddos....we'll only have 9 by the end of the season due to moves!

Va Trip Recap!

2011-10-05T15:47:00.000+02:00

I've finally finished all of the blog posts from our trip....my goodness, I didn't think it'd take me that long! The girls were amazing travelers on each leg of the flights (and the FOUR 3hr road trips!!!!) We had delays leaving Frankfurt, and DC (twice)....ughhhh...are you kidding me??!!! And Kailee lost it on our DC delay (we were on the plane and had to deplane...I decided to let them watch a movie while they were trying to fix whatever issue it was and when they couldn't get it fixed and we had to get off (AND TURN OFF THE MOVIE) she kicked and screamed as I carried her flailing body back into the terminal! We ended up waiting 3 hrs for a 35 min flight!!!!

All packed and ready to go!!! I thought I was packing light! I was very impressed that I was able to fit everything I bought in the States back in our luggage....I thought for sure that I'd have to mail things home!

The best aiport invention to pass the time on long layovers!

At the aiport to head back home after a month away!!! We ended our trip with a bang and experienced the earthquake that shook the East coast about half an hour before we headed to the airport! It's crazy that this is Hailey's 2nd earthquake in her 5 short years (and that it's also only my 2nd earthquake)

Our flight was delayed AGAIN almost THREE hours leaving Dulles heading back home...no meltdowns this time!

The jet lag was the worst we've ever had! It took us soooo long to get back on schedule! Hailey was sleeping until 12:00 and 1:00pm for the first few days!!! Or they'd go to sleep at a normal time but then only sleep for 2-3 hrs as if it were nap time and be up from 11pm to 2 or 3 am!!! After talking with some friends (and a dr) I gave them Melatonin! I was desperate and it worked! I'm sold from here on out!!!! For all of my busy bee traveling friends in Hawaii....talk with your dr about it before your next big trip!

I tried waking them up early to get us back on schedule but they just fell back asleep while we were driving to the pool

And some random pictures that didn't fit into a specific post....I got to link up with two of my childhood best friends...one in VB and one in Richmond whom we stopped and had lunch with on our way up to DC which was a perfect break in the drive for the girls. I didn't think to pull my camera out for either visit!!!!!!!!! So I stole these picture from facebook!

Nicole Falardeau had her THIRD girl while I was there!!! Haydyn Olivia!!!

The girls just ate her up!!!!! I was really surprised with how long each of them sat holding her!!

And I stole this picture of Avery from Sara Campbell Maida's FB...she is toooo adorable and I can't believe neither of us thought to get our cameras out!!!!!

We also were able to link up with Kristine Bonsack while we were in Fairfax visiting the Stampfers (again NO PICTURE!!!) She and a friend drove down from Boston for the weekend and it was great catching up!!!

And I left this picture off of the Aquarium post...

The Children's Museum of Virginia

2011-10-03T12:57:00.000+02:00

The girls and I went with my parents to the Children's Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth. I remember going there as a child...my favorite memory was the Shadow Room which has been altered, but we had a great time and it's the best hands on children's museum that my girls have ever been to. There was almost too much to take in in one sitting and we could have used a snack break room, but we made it through without any meltdowns and even had a pleasant lunch at a quiet Italian restaurant afterwards!

On the left, the girls and I are inside a bubble

On the boat

At the bank writing herself a big fat check! (She only made it out for a dollar)

Kailee's favorite part

The doctor's office was a big hit and also the vet (which I didn't get any good pics of)

I love the sequence of her face

Firefighter Kai

This was definitely my favorite part although it was crowded! They should expand this to a whole wall! The girls played here forever!

These remind me of 3D baby ultrasounds...

And a hodgepodge of the rest....music room, train room, derby car racing...

Kailee's Birthday Party

2011-09-30T12:42:00.000+02:00

We had an impromptu birthday celebration for Kailee one weekend before Leevi had to travel again. During the summer I had had in my mind that I didn't want to go overboard for Kai's bday party since we were just getting home from an expensive month long vacation. In the eyes of a three year old as long as we had decorations, balloons, cake and presents, then IT'S A PARTY! She had talked for months about wanting a Strawberry Shortcake birthday so I was able to snag some decor from Party City while I was in the States. We were having friends over for dinner one night so that morning I called them and told them it's turning into a Birthday Party! The weather was perfect so the girls (all 5!) were able to wear themselves out outside then we ate and had cake and opened presents!

By request, her Strawberry Shortcake Cupcake Cake

Posing before the party

Happy 3rd Birthday, Kai!

We've had GORGEOUS weather!

Ready for cake and presents!

Getting ready to sing

Singing and Wishing

Present time!

The Monkey on the Monkey Bars!

2011-09-28T14:06:00.001+02:00

I've been trying to get Kai doing the monkey bars on video for over a month now! The one time I remembered to bring my camera to the park she didn't want to do them and as you'll see from the video, I needed someone with me to film the feat because it's too scary to let her do them completely on her own (which of course is what she prefers!) She did them for the first time when Leevi took the girls to the park for a couple of days in a row right after we got home from our VA trip so I could unpack, do laundry, (SLEEP OFF MY JET LAG)!!!! The first time I saw her do it I was almost crying...I was laughing but I was also terrrified! How can she not have ANY FEAR??!!! I went home to count my grey hairs. She's perfected it now and cruises down the right side and then hangs for as long as she can!

Sorry about the video quality...I only had my iphone on me!

The Faisons!

2011-09-21T15:17:00.001+02:00

Another of our main stops on our trip was to visit the Faisons!!! Caroline and Hailey are only a month and a half apart and Grace turned 4 in February. We had to juggle Claire's work schedule and the fact that her girls had their tonsils and adnoids removed at the beginning of our trip but we got it worked out. I loved that all four girls just played together as if they get to do this all the time! Claire and I even got a girls night out after the little ones went to bed (I remember doing that in 2009 and both of my girls woke up!) We miss them already and hope that one day we will live close enough!!!!

I can't remember the name of this park but we had a picnic and wandered through the woods to see some animals

Counting for Hide-n-Seek

I love this one of the girls walking across a root in the ground

And as always, I like reminiscing...

This one of Baby Hailey and Baby Caroline seems like ages and ages ago!!!!

Kai's First Day of Preschool

2011-09-20T12:09:00.000+02:00

Kai started her first day of Preschool on her birthday!!!! She'll go everyday from 9-12. This is the same Preschool on post that Hailey went to last year but since the numbers in our community are so small they've combined the Part Day kids with the Full Day kids and only offered a 5 day option! Her teachers are Ms. Kitty (whom Kai keeps calling Ms. Cat!!!) and Mr. H and they have about 15 kids total in their class. She was very excited to start and I thought she would feel pretty comfortable since she knew the facility and a few of the kids in her class....but.....apparently she can "talk the talk but not walk the walk"! She didn't want me to leave!!! I didn't mind staying because she wasn't clingy and she did what was asked of her but she just wanted me there. I stayed for about an hour and a half during their "educational" portion of the morning and then said goodbye when they went to play in centers before going outside. She said goodbye without objection, but I guess lost it about 3 minutes after I walked out the door!!!! She was crying when I picked her up an hour and a half later and had been doing so on and off since I left! Boo!!! :( The most horrible story came later that afternoon from Hailey: As Hailey's class was walking to recess, she passed Kailee's class playing outside (the elementary school and preschool are right next to each other). My crazy mom mind drifted to a Concentration Camp scenerio where two sisters are separated and crying for each other!!! I asked Hailey if she went to the fence to try and console Kailee (who was hysterical!) but she said that the rule is if she got out of line she'd have to go to the end!! Tragic! Hailey's teacher did try to say something to Kailee but it didn't help! And then to make matters worse, Hailey got upset because Kailee was so upset!

It has to get better, right??!!! Kai is actually home sick today (on the 2nd day of school!) but I'm still hoping by the weeks end she'll be used to going and enjoy it!!!!

The birthday girl on her FIRST day of school!!!

Hailey was a BIG help getting Kai ready for her first day!!!

Walking down the hall with our neighbor, Cameron. These two are the "babies" of the class and just made the cut-off. Cam turned 3 the day after Kai.

Finding her name

Sitting at her cubby

Half of the classroom...I'm sure she'd spend the entire 3 hrs in the "House area" if she could!

Writing in her journal (and a self-portrait)

Happy THIRD Birthday, Kailee!!!!!

2011-09-19T21:38:00.002+02:00

I'm still playing catch up from our VA trip, but I had to make a very important post to the most special THREE year old we know!!!!! Happy birthday, Kailee!!!!! Even though on your "birth"day you caused me the most pain imaginable we are so happy that you were in such a rush to join our family!!!! We are anxious to see what your THIRD year brings!!!! We love you!!!!!!!

Many more posts to come on Virginia, Kailee's first day of Preschool, Soccer, and Kai's birthday celebration!!!!! So much to do, so little time!!!!!

The Oceanfront

2011-09-16T09:36:00.002+02:00

We only made it to the Oceanfront once during our visit. I guess once we discovered the pools, they were much closer and simplier of a trip. It definitely wasn't KoOlina but the girls had fun and the waves were pretty big and they liked for me to take them out to jump over them. Bobby and Josie tagged along and of course were a big help! We avoided the hustle and bustle of "the strip" and kept to ourselves in the residential area. The big dilemma on my trip was "to bring or not to bring" my big camera everywhere. I settled for the iphone for a lot of the outings simply because I didn't have enough hands and for a place like the beach I didn't want to worry about water, sand, clingy kids, etc!

Lots of wave jumping!

You'd think after living in Hawaii for so long Hailey would be used to the sand but she definitely takes after her mother. I'm just glad she didn't flip out when it was time to leave when she realized there weren't showers to rinse off in! I told her, "I know! I don't really like the sand either!" And she replied, "Well, why did we come here then?!" :) She really did have a good time though! :)

Navy Waterparks

2011-09-15T09:37:00.000+02:00

We had full intentions on going to Oceanbreeze Waterpark while we were in Virginia Beach until I discovered these two military waterparks which didn't come close in price comparison! Maybe if Leevi were with me and we could enjoy the adult waterrides at Oceanbreeze it would have been worth the money but I was much happier to spend FIVE DOLLARS entry fee to these pools (girls were FREE) than spending a fortune for one day at Oceanbreeze and running the risk of bad weather or a grumpy Kai. She wasn't the biggest fan of these pools mainly because we seemed to miss the huge heat wave in VB and the temperatures on the days we went were a little overcast and almost chilly in the water! Over our time in VB we went here 4 times...once by myself and then with Josie; Annie and Josie; and then Bobby, Annie and Josie! The girls loved playing with them in the water and I loved having their help!!

Our favorite slide was the big white one on the right!

These one was a little further away and doesn't look as large from the picture but there is another slide to the right and a kiddie area with a slide too.

The first time that I went alone, Kai was pretty clingy and it was chilly. When I decided that she had had enough, I told Hailey that she could go down "one more" slide! Kai ended up falling asleep while she waited on her so we stayed an extra hour! I could see Hailey go on all of her favorite slides from where I was sitting so she got to roam around like a big kid!

These lillypads were Hailey's favorite at the Gator Pool. At the beginning and end she was too short to reach and had to "monkey bar" it across and she was sooooo proud of herself!!!

I still can't believe she's brave enough for these slides!!!!!! And I couldn't catch her at the bottom so she had to swim over all by herself!

Busch Gardens

2011-09-14T09:22:00.001+02:00

Just like when we visted in '09, we took advantage of the Here's to the Heroes program and had free entry into Busch Gardens. Josie had a Summer Fun pass and tagged along to help me out! It's funny how much money you are willing to spend once you are inside when you get in for FREE! We had a great time and despite a rocky start with grumpy moods from both girls, they calmed down and we stayed until the park closed at 10!

Hailey was really bummed that she was too short to ride the big coasters but she went on everything that she was tall enough for! Maybe next time!!!! Her favorite ride was Escape from Pompei!

Kailee, following in her daredevil sister's footsteps, also went on all the rides that she was tall enough for!

Despite the terrorized look on Kai's face, she really loved this ride!!!!!! We even went on it more than once! They must get their bravery from their Dad because there is no way you could convince me to go on these rides when I was their age (or even 5-10 years older!!!) :)

These rides were more my speed! :) I didn't go on my first coaster until 8th grade! I don't know how they'd go from a thrilling, stomach dropping ride to these "baby" rides!

The log flume was a big hit too (which also scared the crap out of me in 2nd grade!) This picture is a picture of the picture they take right as you drop down! We had gone on it several times and decided to all make a funny face on the last ride. I found it hilarious that Kailee, at only age 2, was able to understand what we were trying to do and was relaxed enough on the ride to pull off her funny face!

And my favorite pictures of the day...at around 8:30 we were ready to call it a day and got ice cream and started making our way out of the park. Since it had been so hot and nobody had napped we figured we were pushing our luck and should head home since we still had an hour drive. The middle picture below is Kailee falling asleep while eating her ice cream. Her poor little head was bobbing around but she was still licking away with her eyes closed! We got her cleaned as best we could and she crashed which allowed Hailey and Josie to sneak in a few more rides and we were able to see the fireworks which was a perfect end to the day!

The Kownacks!

2011-09-12T21:08:00.000+02:00

We spent a lot of our time in Virginia Beach catching up with the Kownacks! We were so happy that all of them were home at the same time...two in college and two in high school make for very busy kids! Hailey remembered bits and pieces of our last visit with them in 09 but Kai was obviously too young. They had a blast and the "big" kids couldn't have been more helpful! Hailey and Kailee enjoyed hearing stories of when I babysit them and changed all of their diapers! :) We are excited for the day that my kids can babysit their kids! :)

They have recently added on an in-law suite to the back of the house and had the porch re-done into a large family room. The carpet had just been put in and the large empty "porch" made for a great place to run!!!

I'm not sure what started the pyramid pictures but it's definitely a tradition now! In 09 we tried convincing Hailey to sit on the top but she wouldn't (I'm sure Kai would have if we let her!)

Add caption

The tormenting of Bobby never ended!

Josie makes these amazing cakes....

And this is what my girls created with her! :)

And just a random pic of Kai in the morning! :)

We miss them already and as always wished we lived closer!!!! :(

Many visits with Makelina

2011-09-10T08:07:00.000+02:00

Kailee, Makelina, and Hailey

While we were in Virginia Beach we made several trips to visit my 90 year old grandmother. I think Kailee aged her a few years bouncing around her small apartment and after about an hour visit EVERYONE needed a nap! :) It was good to see her though and I love listening to her stories about my grandfather during the war or stories about my Dad and my Uncle that I didn't seem to appreciate when I was younger!

Emily and the Virginia Aquarium

2011-09-09T09:18:00.002+02:00

On one of our first days in Virginia Beach we met up with my friend, Emily, from Longwood. Somehow we didn't get a picture together...grrr! It was great catching up and she was very helpful following the girls through the Aquarium, especially with Kai who wasn't in the greatest of moods!

Turtles

Komodo Dragon

Kai was NOT a fan of the crocodiles!

Touchtank: Horseshoe crab, starfish, hermit crabs

Brave Girl

2011-09-07T10:40:00.000+02:00

Kailee got her ears pierced when we were back in the States (it's so funny saying "the States" after saying "the Mainland" for so many years in Hawaii!) Hailey had hers pierced when she was a little over two and I had said with the girls that they could get them pierced when they were old enough to express the want for them but also old enough to understand that it will hurt! :) We looked around at a couple of places in Germany but apparently they only do piercings here at tattoo parlors because of hygiene reasons. Well, after having Kailee's first birthday party at a "bar", I wasn't about pave her a path of destruction and get her ears pierced at a tattoo parlor! :) We opted to wait knowing our trip was coming up!

Tiff and I took the kids to the mall for lunch and to go to Claire's (Hailey had also wanted to pick out some new earrings for school) Kai did great for the first one but cried for the second one. She told people that the left one hurt but the right one didn't. When Hailey had her ears pierced at Walmart they did it at the same time....definitely the way to go (and probably half the price!) I'm just glad we didn't walk out with only one earring! :)

She loves them and loves telling people that she has diamonds in her ears! And, knock on wood, we haven't had any problems yet!

Last earring-less picture!

Of course Coconut had to come along!

The Diamond!

The Stampfers

2011-09-07T09:50:00.000+02:00

Our main reason for holding off on our trip until August was to wait for the Stampfers to move down to Virginia. The girls did great on the 8 hr flight over...the flight showed two kid movies, Rio and Robin Hood, so the girls each enjoyed their own tv screen and I didn't even have to open my bag of tricks ONCE (Kailee must have unplugged and replugged her headphones and changed her channels 1000 times but it kept her busy!) They napped for about 2-3 hrs and only took one potty break. It was ridiculous! I could have read a book but didn't even think to bring one for myself. I watched two movies myself, one good and one pretty bad, but I couldn't fall asleep...boo! We were up pretty early for the next few mornings but then adjusted pretty easily. We stayed with the Stampfers for the first 5 days of our trip and then drove down to Virginia Beach for a week and then back up to Fairfax for Colin's birthday and a few more days. It was really hard to fit everyone's schedules into the trip and we did lots of driving between DC, Richmond, and Virginia Beach but it was well worth it to see everyone!!! Hailey's famous quote of the trip was, "Are we here but we're not there yet?" Hahaha....implying were we close when we finally got off the highway?! :)

The kids got along great and seemed just to pick up where they left off over a year ago in Hawaii!

At Chuck E Chesse for Colin's 6th birthday

The girls tormented the two cats and drove them into hiding! Miracle is extremely tolerant and allowed them to play baby, doctor and who knows what else! By the end of our trip she had found a great hiding place and we didn't see her again! :)

Poor Miracle

Swimming at Fort Belvior

Playing their Leapsters

"Sole"mates....apparently there is Leapster foot placement protocol

Playdoh and Doctor

Jim watched all FIVE kids one day and Tiffany and I drove to Leesburg to go shopping at the outlets!

Backyard BBQ

Trying to get a decent group picture

An oldie but goodie....Colin 3, Rylee 18 months, Hailey 2 1/2, and Mason and Kailee 3 weeks

According to Hailey, they are still getting married one day! :)

Where Has the Time Gone? Part II

2011-09-06T11:14:00.002+02:00

I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After our month long trip to Virginia in August, I just couldn't get back into the blogging mode and was panicking as the Summer came to a crashing end! We had a few school things to finish up, had to unpack and reset our biological clocks (this was definitely the most jet-lagged we've EVER been!), and do as much relaxing as we could before school started! Hailey will be in school from 8:25-2:30 everyday and Kailee will go everyday from 9:00-12:00 starting on the 19th. I knew I'd have lots of alone time so I put off the blog for a bit to focus on family time! I'm going to try to do a big blog purge of our trip to get me caught up before we are in full swing of school, soccer, etc!!!! Check back!!!!!!!

Where Has the Time Gone?

2011-09-06T11:06:00.003+02:00

We will ride bikes to school for as long as we can this Fall!

Her classroom

Thankfully Kai didn't give us a hard time when we had to leave!

It's hard to believe that Hailey is already "school-age"! I'm sure I'll still be saying that when she's about to graduate from high school! She was very excited to start and knows at least half of the kids in her class. She got a little nervous and started to clam up but thankfully Daddy was there to calm her down because I'm sure I would have just fueled the flame! She got tears in her eyes when we said goodbye (and wiped them on Kailee's sweater when she gave her a hug!) Her teachers are Mrs. Winter and Mrs. Holmes and they both seem wonderful. Last week they came for a "home visit" to meet our family and fill us in on the year and to have Hailey do some "testing".

Here's hoping for a good first day and successful school year!!!!!!!!

Sisters

2011-07-28T11:19:00.000+02:00

I know I've said (for almost 3 yrs now) how I LOVE having two girls. While my days of dressing them alike are practically over, they are the best of friends and definitely keep each other entertained. (Right now as I write this they have set up some sort of Pet Store/Humane Society with all of the stuff animals in our living room. I keep hearing monkey calls and kitty meows.) I barely have to break out my referee whistle which is so nice! Individually, they have me earning my keep but that's another story!

Polly Pockets EVERYDAY

A blast from the past

And a video montage of the SISTERS in action! I needed a tissue for this one! :)

On a side note, the girls had docter appt & dentist appt this week and got clean bill of health on all counts. Hailey (at 5yrs and 5 months weighs 39 pounds and is 3 ft 8 inches and Kai (at 2yrs and 10 months weighs 31 pounds and is 3 ft 1 inch. (Hailey weighed 30 pounds around Kai's age and was the same height)

Tidbits and Photos

2011-07-25T21:03:00.000+02:00

Kai's recent tidbits...

When Hailey was getting upset and worked up about something Kai told me, "Hailey needs to do this" (as she was taking deep breaths) :)

Hailey asked us who was shooting off the fireworks on the 4th of July and Kailee told her it was God.

Kai loves to put barrettes/clippies in my hair and then will say, "now you look like a girl!" Thanks!

I do most of my shopping here online (the PX is limited and most things on the Economy are too expensive with the high Euro exchange rate, not to mention peace at my computer vs trying to drag two little ones out) so the girls are acustom to Daddy bringing home lots of packages. We were playing in a dr waiting room one day and Kailee told me that she "wanted to get one of these toys in the mail"

Hailey's tidbits....
We have recently gotten a fish tank (more about that in a future post!) and it is all Leevi's and the girls' project. The water needed to be changed but it was getting pretty late to take on such a task so when Hailey asked me if they could change the water I told her to ask Daddy and her response was, "Dad's in charge of the fish...but you're in charge of bedtime" Smart girl! :)

Hailey has recently reverted to getting upset before bedtime and wanting me to snuggle her until she falls asleep (it probably has a lot to do with me being so lax on their bed-time this summer...boo mom, although Hailey has always been the "needy" one as opposed to Kailee...playing, sleeping, being scared...that could be a whole other post but it would definitely peg one child as much "easier" than the other :) ) So I'm staying firm and not caving even with as crazy as some of our nights get and I've been telling Hailey that I need some alone time and her reply once was, "Sometimes Daddy watches us when you go to the commissary and that gives you alone time." Quite true....sad that we start to cherish those moments to grocery shop in peace!

The other thing I've been a "bad" mom about this summer is letting Hailey have an occasional soda (Fanta or Sprite) We are big water pushers here! Hailey told me one time that when she drinks her orange drink "steam come out of her nose"

We always pass many vineyards on our excursions around Germany. One day I was explaining to Hailey about how they used to stomp on grapes with their feet to make wine and she thought it was the most disgusting thing in the world and vowed to never drink wine! :)

Speaking of wine....these aren't grapes though, They are the cherries in our backyard! They have all practically fallen from the tree now (what a mess...and it brought flies and bees!!!) but for awhile the girls were making cherry juice and somehow they convince me to let them rub a cherry on me....it really did look like blood!

Ipod....getting ready for a road trip

We stopped to see a chainsaw carving contest...pretty amazing

Dress up!

Leevi's parents celebrated their 29th anniversary here!

We haven't had a chance to do much swimming here because it's been too chilly!

It doesn't stay warm enough for consecutive days to warm the water!

Bedtime stories with Grandma

Buffalo Park

Grandpa and Grandma

Hailey was grumpy because she wanted to take a picture by herself and Kai was grumpy because Hailey hurt her feelings!

Can you feel the love?

A little bribery!

Triberg Wasserfall

Hailey, Piper, Kailee, Farrah

Kailee's Summer Pedicure

Kai decided she needed a nap one day and brought me a blanket and asked me to rock her

Princess Hailey battling left handed with her wrong hand on top but hitting quite efficiently

Hailey Girl

2011-07-23T22:26:00.002+02:00

I've had this post about Hailey started for awhile now but have just been lazy. Leevi is traveling again so I envisioned all of this free time in the evenings after the girls go down but we've been busy with friends and I've been really slack with the girls bedtime this summer. The sun doesn't set here in the summers until almost 10 so bedtime really sneaks up on us!

Hailey girl is super excited about starting kindergarten this Fall. We are very curious to find out the classroom assignments...numbers are dropping rapidly with the scheduled closure of this post so as of now there will be two kindergartens but I'll be really surprised if it stays that way. We are hoping there will be just enough kids for two SMALL kindergartens and not one BIG one but that would mean she and her buddies might be split up. The school year starts on the 29th of August but the kindergartners start a week late after Labor Day and that "free" week for teachers is spent doing home visits to the Kindergartners' families (I'm impressed!!!) We have already gotten her school supplies (I'm not sure who was more excited!) :)

We had a lot of fun watching the Women's World Cup together and I think since we met many of the players she was even more intrigued. (On a side note, Kai's favorite "player" is Coach Pia...most likely because she was very easy to recognize. Hailey's favorite is Hope Solo and Tobin Heath...she liked Tobin's picture) Come Finals, Leevi was traveling so I let the girls stay up to watch the game with me (almost 9pm kick off here) and Hailey kept saying over and over how nervous she was! So cute. She made it until almost the end of the game and I carried her up to bed before the start of the overtime. She woke up only to mumble, "is it over?" Thankfully she didn't ask who won because I'm sure I would have said "the US". I still can't believe they lost and I was really surprised at how sad I felt. Great for Japan (Ya-pan according to the German announcers) and their country but WOW, how did we blow it??!!! My favorite tidbit from Hailey during the tournament was when our defender got red carded in the game against Brazil and had to be sent off the field and into the locker room. I explained to Hailey what happened and why she had to leave the game and a few minutes later she asked me how long the girl had to stay in the "lock up" room! :)

Her latest rite of passage in girlhood has been learning how to braid!!!!!!!!! She got a Barbie head for her birthday and has mastered the braid on that...of course she had now moved on to Barbies, My Little Ponies, and ME!

She is still more ~~stubborn~~ opinionated than ever about her clothing! I supposed I could care less during the summer but we'll see how many battles I pick once school starts. At least she has drastically curbed my clothes shopping for the girls! :)

With her best bud, Talia

Journal writing/drawing

They don't leave Daddy's side when he returns from his business trips

Exercise

2011-07-20T08:53:00.000+02:00

I always felt guilty from the age the girls could crawl about having to force them to sit in a stroller while I exercised or walked Leila. I know I've said it in the past but my most favorite part about our new house/neighborhood is ability to ride/walk safely to just about anywhere we typically go on a daily basis...school, commissary, library, bank, soccer practice, dance class. The PX is a bit far for Kai on her scooter but it's more about me having the patience to wait on her! We are still working on being faster with her balance bike although again it's more me taking the time with her vs knowing she'll be faster on her scooter. Hailey is great on her bike and can go pretty far distances (in those cases, Kai will ride with me on my bike)

These last two pictures are from an indoor play place called MegaPlay...we went on a raining chilly day...all of these play places have bikes and trikes and all sorts of ride on things. I looked into buying one of these taxi-type trikes and they are over $300...nevermind! :)

A video clip of the girls riding out front...pay attention to the last scooter race where Kai beats Hailey (she had a head start) and Hailey says, "I'm gonna get my bike so I can keep up with you!" :) Kai's a beast!

Weinheim and Ladenberg

2011-07-19T09:22:00.001+02:00

All of these recent posts are out of order and I'm still trying to play catch up. The day after Grandma and Grandpa arrived we headed out on our first adventure. One of my favorite quick afternoon trips to take visitors to is a small castle close by and then to the cute little town of Ladenberg.

Exploring Burg Windeck overlooking Weinheim

Sittin on the potty!

Love the ruins!

Off to Ladenberg

Love the cobblestone streets

We had ice cream and espresso at a cute cafe until the rain chased us away!

Kai Kai My

2011-07-18T12:17:00.001+02:00

I'm trying to catch up on blog posts before we go back to the States and then I get really behind! I haven't done a recent post about the girls individually so here are some updates about Kai. I am loving her as a two year old! As we creep closer and closer to THREE she is becoming more and more strong-willed...testing limits, protesting bedtime, getting picky about clothes (ughhh....I've definitely given up the fight with both girls in that department. It's not worth the stress I cause myself! At least they both still like dresses!) Kai says that she's TWO turning FIVE (like Hailey). She still cracks all of us up with her accent (all O sounds are more like AW drawn out, so "top" sounds like "tawp") and according to Kailee "big girls don't wear underwear". :) She is quite the ~~liar~~ story-teller when it comes to confessing to something she did wrong. Her alibi gets very detailed about a mouse being the culprit. Two of my favorite phrases that she gets twisted up are "one quick" for "real quick" and "inever" for "forever" which sounds like "ineber".

I remember THREE being difficult with Hailey so we are savoring these last two months with our adorable TWO year old before her tantrums aren't so cute anymore because she'll know better! ;)

Singing the song from Sleeping Beauty...sorry it's so dark!

I LOVE this "scooter leg"

The girls take lots of sink baths when they come in from outback...usually it's just their hands and feet though!

Her recent FAVORITE dress up outfit (two skirts and of course the Pinkalicious crown)

Playing Handy Manny...she LOVES to tinker!

Accessory Queen!