A Visit to Daddy

Leevi was away for the week on a business trip, but he wasn't too far so the girls and I drove about an hour to see him on Tuesday and Thursday (we would have stayed the night but we had to get back for Leila...our neighbor let her out and fed her dinner so we were able to stay pretty late each time). Leevi was staying on a U.S. military air force base which has an amazing swim facility. The kiddie pool is awesome: heated, 3 small slides, one huge long slide, waterfall umbrella and small baby area. It was deep enough where Hailey could practice her swimming but not too deep where she couldn't reach the bottom. Kailee loved wearing the water-wing type life jacket and swim around on her own. We swam at the pool each afternoon until Leevi got off of work and then had dinner and hung out until bedtime so the girls would fall asleep on the ride home. His next trip is to Israel...don't think we'll be driving there to see him! :)
We were there a little longer on Thursday so we found a park to play at after the pool.
Kailee is doing amazing with her potty training this week! She hasn't had an accident in the past two days and is even waking up dry in the mornings and going on the potty! Too easy! Yesterday at the park she told me that she had to poop but there wasn't a bathroom in site so I just told her to go in her diaper. Hopefully we can officially call her "potty-trained" by next week!!! :)

Tidbits from Hailey Part XVIII

Tidbits from my big girl....
*The girls and I were running some errands and I spoke out loud to myself mumbling something about I didn't know where I was going and Hailey said, "Mom, I thought you knew everything!"

*Hailey's new phrase when she's bummed about something is "Oh Pickles!" She got it from Higgletown Heroes and it's cute and lightens the mood for whatever I just told her she couldn't do/have! :)

*One day she was getting a Gogurt for herself and she had to open a new box. I asked her to get one for Kailee too and she replied very flustered, "I can't do everything at once!" (You will learn, my dear!) :)

*We were driving with the windows down and Hailey said, "Mom what we are feeling is fake wind...I can tell because the trees aren't blowing"

*She'll often say, "If I didn't have a little sister than I wouldn't have to share my toys or if we didn't have Kailee then you wouldn't have to change poopy diapers." I reply something about being sad if we didn't have Kailee. The other day she said, "Mom, if we didn't have our Daddy and had a new one, I'd probably be able to have a kitty, right?" Hahaha...Leevi is allergic to cats!

*Leevi and I had a date night out and I was wearing a tube top dress with a strapless bra and Hailey said, "Mom! You look fantastic! But what happens if you have to jump around!" Ha! No worries there! :)

*Hailey and Kailee were taking a bath and Kailee points to Hailey's chest and says, "Freckle". Hailey said, "No, that's my boob" and then she proceeds to inform Kailee about the birds and the bees and said, "Girls have boobs and boys just have nibbles"

And a video clip of her going across the monkey bars...this was the first time she did it by herself. She actually didn't make it the whole way in this clip but she did the time before. In her defense it was a pretty tricky monkey bar row that increased in height at the end. And excuse my voice...I was a little excited!

Potty Training Week

Kailee has been peeing/pooping on the potty sporadically for quite sometime, but I finally decided we should crack down with actual hard core potty-training. I have one more sleeve of diapers and it'd be nice if I never had to buy them again!!!!!! I swear by the naked potty-training for girls (it makes them think before they pee because they don't feel the comfort of a diaper or even a pullup or underwear. It would like asking an adult to pee their pants on the spot...it would take some concentration. But for a boy, it just seems in their nature to be able to go anywhere!) We are on day three and Kailee has underwear on now...she got to the point yesterday where she would grab herself if she had to go. She was in a diaper for about 2 hrs when we were out, but she didn't go and went when we got back. And she woke up dry this morning and peed on the potty. Pooping on the potty was an issue for Hailey when we trained her but Kai doesn't seem to mind. We didn't use any "fluff" this time with Kailee...no stickers, M&M's or even a potty seat. We do make a huge scene when she goes though and sing a pee song! :) She's very proud of herself! Hopefully I can stay with it and she'll be in big girl underwear before we know it!

The streaker! But she's always accessorized!

Busy Weekend

The weather was gorgeous starting on Friday, so we broke out the pool again. I told the girls to go upstairs and get their swimsuits and Kailee came back down with her bottoms on her head and 3 different sets of suitsWe played outside again in the pool Saturday and Leevi decided to borrow the community mower to cut the commons area in the back. For some reason it hasn't been mowed in weeks. I think their secret plan is hoping that one of the neighbors gets sick of the tall grass and borrows the mower to do it themselves.
I wanted a turn!!!! Getting instructions from Leevi
Such concentration...but Kai looks cute in the picture
Hailey and I went to the Badasee in Heddessheim with the Kents on Saturday afternoon while Kailee was napping. They have a great kiddie pool, regular pool and a lake
Hailey and Madeline
Hailey and Nora
We wrapped up the weekend on Sunday with a BBQ birthday dinner for one of our neighbors. The gorgeous weather vanished right at dinner time and its rainy and cold again this morning. Supposedly its going to clear up by Wednesday and be warm again!

And some video snippets

My kind of camping!

Leevi and I camped quite frequently prior to children and got out once when Hailey was 2.5 (but she doesn't remember). We told her if we had a big enough backyard in Germany we'd have a camp-out one night. Maybe by next summer when Kailee is almost 3 we will venture out to a lake somewhere (we passed a cool riverside campsite driving to Berg Eltz last weekend). We thought our summer weather was over when all of last week it was rainy and in the low 60's...I even pulled out the girls' winter clothes because it was so chilly for so many days in a row. This weekend was gorgeous in the 80's so we set the tent up Saturday afternoon!Leila wasn't much of a camping dog...she hung out until we started the firepit (the crackling scares her!!!) So we slept in the tent and Leila slept in the house!!!!!!!Roasting marshmellows...Hailey won't eat them but she loves to cook them!
This was a pic from last weekend when we made Smore's (Sharice sent us a care package from Hawaii with the biggest marshmellows I've ever seen!!!!) It was perfect because it was chilly out!Getting ready for booksCrashed in no time! Our plan was for one of us to move with Kailee into the house before day-break to be sure she got a full-nights sleep and wasn't woken early by the sun or cars going by. Her 2 yr molars are coming in so she was pretty restless anyway so she and I went in around 1am.

New Favorites of the Girls

I was making dinner and Hailey said, "Mom, come look at us!" Too cute!

Berg Eltz

We drove to Berg Eltz (the Eltz castle) on Saturday...the drive up got a little scary for about a 30 minute stretch on curvy two-way roads that were only big enough for one car! But the scenery was beautiful!We had to park and walk about 20 minutes down to the castle
I cropped this scaffolding out of the picture above
We weren't allowed to take pictures once we went inside the castle on the tour but I got a few cute ones of things on the outside. Hailey loves these little castle doors!



The girls did great on the tour (staying quiet and not touching anything...including keeping Kailee from hanging on the barrier ropes!) :) Wish we could have taken pictures inside. The original structure of the castle began in 1157 and has never been destroyed and has always stayed in the Eltz family for over 800 years. The castle closes down through the Winter and the Eltz family comes home for the holidays....so cool!

Randoms of the girls

The girls have settled into a fun routine here in Germany and we are excited about Hailey starting preschool in a few weeks. Hailey is an amazing big sister and the girls play sooooooo well together. Hailey is close enough in age with Kailee that they still like doing the same things...cooking, playing baby/doggie/kitty, dress-up etc. I worry about Hailey feeling left out because Kailee is at such a fun toddler age where all the new things she does daily are so cute, but Hailey always says, "Mom, isn't she adorable??!!"

Kailee insisted on sleeping with Hailey's soccer cleats on for two nights in a row! She even woke up one time in the middle of the night asking for her shoes!
Sleeping in the same bed is going well...Hailey came into our room every night since Leevi deployed when she was 3 and then we were in the same room for two months when were in transition to this new place and I thought for sure we were going to have a hard time cracking down on her staying put, but she loves snuggling with her sissy!They were bartering rings one morning...one for you, one for me!Kailee always wears them on her thumbs

I thought about using this one on her 2nd bday invitation...she put it on by herself

Schloss Hirschhorn

Last weekend we went castle hunting with the Kents. Most of the castles (and they are everywhere!) are just ruins with some pieces still standing and they are typically turned into bed and breakfasts and restaurants. The first one we went to was only that and you couldn't explore anywhere. It did have a great view though and we made mental plans to return without 5 children under the age of 6!!!!We drove a little further and found Schloss Hirchhorn...again a hotel/restaurant but it had a tower still standing so we walked around for a bit. It'd be nice if we had an English speaking tour guide or even something to read in English so we could learn a little more about the castle (We need you, Iris!!!) But it still makes for good pictures!I love this one

I said, "Who's wants ice cream!?"




Who locked the Princess in the tower?!
Looking for the enemy


I loved this area for a picture but couldn't get a great one of the two of them and then a crowd passed through.
Hailey said, "this is going to be our grumpy face picture"






The girls were being goofy on the ride home...they went on like this FOREVER but I kept thinking "I'm not going to pull my camera out because as soon as I do they will stop". But they kept going so I was able to catch a little clip. Hailey was saying something over and over and then would crash back into her carseat like she had passed out. Apparently Kailee thought it was hilarious!