Evelyn Rides a Bike

oh, little girl on a bike. We laugh so hard because she can't stop screaming when I let go. It's too funny. I love these moments, they are so, so, so, so fun!

Day at the Zoo

For one of the first sunny days in a week, we headed out to the zoo in Stuttgart. Took along one of Ethan's friends, Charlie Brown. (Charlie Brown V, actually. I feel a little bad for him to have this name, but I suppose when Great, great, grandpa was named Charlie Brown, Charles Schultz was not drawing yet. What can you do?)



And of course, the spielplatz had to have something a little edgy.... This swing set was of tires, all facing one another. The object is actually to TRY to bump into one another and set the other one flying. How fun!

Tages des Kinder (Day of Children)

Last friday we had a Day for Children in our town. Students from the several kindergartens in town gathered in the schloss in the middle of town to sing. (Evelyn is there but I can't see her because she's much smaller than the kids in front of her.) Our mayor, the Burgermeister, is in the gray suit.




Around the schloss there were various activities for the kids. Like dancing, drawing, food and face-painting. (I think they have this art down pat.)


Here is Evelyn with her friend, Anja. Anja's mother is American Filippino and her father is German. They live here permanently, not with the Army. After this photo was taken, we got yelled at because we're supposed to pay someone ELSE to take the picture and buy the photo.... Whoops!



On the walk home, we met some of those cut little creepy, crawly critters that everyone loves so much. Ewwww!!!

These snails (schnecke) are EVERYWHERE after it rains. You literally have to look down when you walk lest you step on one. All kinds of colors and sizes. Some of the slugs are literally a bright, neon orange... I haven't had the pleasure of having my camera with me when I've spotted those, mostly in the woods.

Here's a comparison to Evelyn's shoe so you can see just how big some of these snails are.


And our neighbors got bunnies a couple months ago, so we stopped by to say hello to them as well.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day...


... to my babies' Daddy

... to show our undying appreciation that you work and slave all day to support us, improve the continent of Africa single-handedly (well, almost), bring home the bacon every night, fry up the pancakes every weekend, teach little boys math and little girls how to read, finish the USA Today crossword in a single sitting...

... for you, we give you the purple balloon animal dog. Made by hand by Ethan. And a dollar, given by sweet, generous Evelyn.

Weekend in Dresden

We spent the weekend in Dresden, about 5 hours east near the boarder to the Czech Republic. Even more than 60 years after it was bombed from WWII, it still seems to be a city under construction. It just celebrated it's 800th anniversary a couple years ago, so it's pretty old, but even the church in the center of the city was still a pile of rubble 4 years ago. Now much of the city has been restored, but there's a lot still in progress.

The city center is the Residence Palace of Augustus the Strong (not to be confused with Augustus the Stronger or Augustus the Strongest), and is now comprised of 5 museums. Easy to see all of the museums in one day.


The kids favorite was the Armory, which included sets of children's armor.




Evelyn takes pictures while we wait for Ric during his triathlon.




We rented an apartment on the outskirts of town so that we could all have a bed and a kitchen and not have to rent two hotel rooms. So for about $60/night we stayed in the bottom floor of a suburban house in a neighborhood that looked remarkably like Florida- with expansive lawns and large houses near a golf course.

Here's the owner's cat who came in each day to say hello. She also had a kitten who looked exactly the same, just smaller.

And the kids were permitted to head to their back yard to jump on the trampoline as a bonus. (Can't get that at a hotel.)

While Ric and I had Happy Hour on the patio.

Swim, Bike Run!

We spent the weekend in Dresden where Ric did a Sprint Triathlon. The first feat was actually finding a triathlon and registering (mostly all in German). The second feat was scrambling at the last minute for a wetsuit since the water was reported to be about 60 degrees F.

The event was in Moritzberg at this Hunting Palace of Augustus the Strong, Prince of Saxony (this eastern region of Germany) and King of Poland. They swam the surrounding moat:




... and biked...

...and ran around the grounds.

To a respectable finish of 1:38.

Pretty good given that Ric's take on the event was he felt "awful" and the swim was "miserable." Not for lack of training though. More like too many brats in the previous days and a too-tight wetsuit borrowed from our tall, but female, friend.

Great finish!

An Afternoon in Alex's Room

Army Guys, Policemen, Firemen.... $1/bag (at the Dollar Store)
Lincoln Logs.... $20/box
Ball of String.... Free from the junk drawer

Hours of fun building a fort, setting up men, and taking hostages.... Priceless.

Last Day of School

Happy Last Day of School!

No pictures with the teachers since I forgot the camera (of course) and the teachers this time were actually not that memorable. I didn't even think to give them a parting gift, if that tells you how dear they were to my heart. Where's Ms. Bossi when you need her?

German weather is a lot like Colorado's - highly variable and unpredictable. So the pretty sunny day that we started with turned into a torrential downpour by mid-morning and then on and off rain the rest of the day. The picnic and park afternoon that was planned with friends got scrapped for a picnic on the living room floor.


The sun finally came out and stayed out after dinner. So a 7:30pm walk/bike/scooter to the park was still in order. Since it's light out until almost 10:30pm (not even to the longest day yet), you can pretty much play at the park all night. And if you want, you can come back to the park before the rooster crows, since the sun comes back up at 4:30 am. (Don't really need an alarm for the 5:30 am wake up call each day, since I'm always already up with the sun.)

Here's Dog, standing watch. Note the shadow... even though it's 8:00 pm for this picture.



And our typical dangerously dangerous playground. So much fun living just on the edge of breaking an arm.







Wilkommen Sommer!