Berkastel-Kues

Every year in a village called Bernkastel-Kues they have a wine festival with an amazing fireworks display. The fireworks represent a battle between a ship on the river and the castle on the hill. Fireworks are lit off from both alternately until the end when both of them shoot off tons and at the end the castle is lit to look like it's burning. We went last year and loved it enough to brave it in the rain this year. But lucky us, the rain stopped as we were literally pulling into the village and there wasn't another drop all night. We spent a couple hours riding the rides and eating before the show started.

Porter LOVED the cars. This picture doesn't show the amount of shear joy that was plastered on his face the rest of the time! We had to let him ride it twice because it was so fun to watch him!

This is at the top of the ferris wheel. The village is along the Mosel river in the middle of wine country. The valley is covered with vineyards and is one of my favorite places in Germany - so pretty! It just looks like green hills behind us, but it's all grapes!

Labor Day Weekend - Hutt!

On Saturday we did a little canoeing with some friends around a small lake not far from home. I tried to tell the kids about the old days when I was little and Grandpa Wayne used to take us canoeing. He was serious about his canoeing and always made us do it right. So as he was the lead canoe guy - he would say, "Hutt!" when we were supposed to switch what side we were paddling on. I loved it and of course tried to instigate the technique when Tyler and I were a young married couple out for a romantic canoe ride. It didn't fly. It was actually the cause of one of our first fights! Tyler thought it was silly and of course I took offense to that as it was the right way to do it. I mean, my goodness I was no canoeing amateur! Unfortunately my kids liked the story, but didn't care to do the "hutt" thing either. Oh well. It was a nice day and we had a good time regardless!

Talkin Smack!

I have to admit I'm a bit of a control freak. And I really relished the days when Sophie and Briggs were little and almost anything that they saw or heard had to get through Tyler and I first. I knew that when they started school that would change and I tried to be prepared. It was hard to let go, but they are great and it hasn't been too bad. What HAS been hard though is that I was not prepared for my 3 year old to pick the things up that the kids heard at school or key phrases that the new neighbor kids - and parents - casually throw around. So today as I was strapping Sawyer in his carseat I asked Porter, "Are you getting your seatbelt buckled?" To which he raised one eyebrow, swallowed the bite of pretzel he was chewing and replied, "Does it look like it?" His face turned a little concerned when he saw my shock and he looked even more unsure in the stunned silence that followed. Of course I hid the smile that I couldn't help as I said, "We'll you better get on that," and climbed in the car.

I also heard him laughing and playfully calling Sawyer a 'bumwa' the other day. Fortunately it sounded quite innocent and really was because I was pretty sure that he was actually using a phrase favored by our second grade neighbor - since I've heard it used by him myself several times. - which involves switching the 'm' for a 't' and adding a 'd' to the end of the word. Thanks be that Porter heard it wrong! I thought that term had stayed in the 80's!

First Day of School

We had some mixed feelings about the first day of school this morning. Some excitement of course. Some anxiety. Some disappointment. Some sadness. Some relief that it was finally here! Briggs was up and dressed at 6:30 a.m. Obviously the excited one! He got into the first grade German Immersion program this year and can't wait to make new friends. Sophie was a good sport. She was disappointed that she didn't get into the German Immersion class this year and was more on the nervous side. Her German Immersion class had stayed together - teacher and all - for first and second grade so third grade is a whole new experience. Porter was pretty sad to have the kids leave of course. It's going to be hard for him to get used to not having them around. And I thought I was all relief - quiet, clean house again! - until we got almost home from dropping them off and as we turned onto our street Porter yelled, "Mom! We forgot the kids!" I found my eyes tearing up a bit as I explained, once again, that they were staying at school and would come home on the bus later. I really think a 5-6 hour day total would be perfect. Time to get some things done, but I do like having my kids around. It's really just the swarm of neighborhood kids coming in and out all summer that I can do without!

Tooth Invasion

The poor thing got all four teeth within a week! He was really pretty good about it though. I didn't even know they were coming! Our kids usually don't get teeth until around the year mark - Porter was 14 months - so I wasn't expecting any so soon let alone four at once! Fortunately he is really good about not biting when he nurses, but everything else is fair game as far as he's concerned. He especially likes to bite my jaw, arms, and my neck near my collarbone! He's like a little vampire baby!

Bare Foot Walk

My mom will vouch for me when I say that I've always been a big fan of mud! And I'm always game for any chance to walk/play in it! So when we heard about the Barfoos Pad...we had to go. It is about a mile walk over all kinds of different terrain (mud, moss, grass, rocks, bricks, etc.) I was actually disappointed that there wasn't MORE mud though and being a connoisseur of sorts - it wasn't really the quality of mud I prefer, but the kids loved it! All but Porter that is. He wasn't particularly thrilled at being dragged through thigh high slop and freaked when his shorts got dirty! Whose kid is this?

The second half of the walk was through different obstacle course type things.

Expanding Hobbies

For the past year or two, I have been making bows for Sophie. As I've previously mentioned - I love dressing up my little girl! It's become quite an investment though as I've acquired ribbon in nearly every color imaginable, so when a friend suggested that I make some to sell I thought, why not? And ever since I have been cursing her name because now I've added a whole new realm to my hobby by entering the world of retail. The bows I made that first time all sold and I had orders for more. So now I'm doing some of that, but trying to keep it small scale for now. There is a season for everything and my season for adding things to my to-do list really didn't come with my fourth child. I do really enjoy making bows though! So I do it here and there and just have fun with it and I'm actually glad my friend put a little pressure on me. And if anyone needs a bow, let me know! I love making them for friends and family!

My Beloved New Dishes!

I had several people tell me that they wanted to see the dishes...so here they are! They are called Veitri Incanto and they're so cute and fun, but very classy! Easily dressed up or down. You can see that the dishes in the picture are all different patterns which is what I went with. You can choose a style and have everything the same, but there were too many fun styles, so I bought some of everything!

Ah Venice

I love Venice. It's one of my favorite cities. It's so small, but I could just walk around all day wandering through the narrow streets and canals and browsing shops with a gelato in my hand. I was worried it would be too crowded in July, but it was just fine and the flower boxes were out in the windows which we didn't get to see when we went in February a couple of years ago. We opted out of the touristy and expensive gondola ride this time and purchased a painting instead from a sidewalk vender. I love it and can't wait to get it framed. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend the evening here because Tyler had plans to play basketball with a group of guys from the ward in Aviano. Basketball! I seriously couldn't believe that I was leaving Venice early so that my honey could play ball. I had to tell him 50 times that he better realize how much I love him!

Camping Croatia

In July we went down to Aviano, Italy to visit some friends who used to live here in Germany with us. It was fun to just relax and visit our friends, but we did take advantage of their location as well. My friend Carrie and I got to go shopping in Nove where they make dinnerware for Lenox, Tiffany's, etc. and found some super fun dishes for a mere fraction of what they cost in the states! Tyler is scoffing at me even as I'm typing. His view is that I have still spent money I wouldn't have spent otherwise, but he doesn't understand the thrill of the hunt! It's a glorious thing to find such deals and then to have pretty dishes besides. I got a cake stand for 10 euro that I found later online for $180 dollars! It seriously warms my heart to think of it!

We also drove through Slovenia to Croatia for a couple of days of camping at a resort on the beach. The weather was perfect for the beach, but a little warm for camping. Some air conditioning would have been nice and the humidity was pretty fierce, but we had to travel economically so that I could buy my dishes! The above photo we took in a town called Pula on the tip of the Istrian peninsula. We aren't sure where Porter got the gangsta signs from.

This was Sawyer's first big trip and he was a good sport, although it didn't make for a real relaxing beach getaway or for good sleeping on the air mattress. He did love splashing in the pool though and it was warm enough that no little old ladies gave us a hard time for not having shoes on him.

Here are the kids after a rough day of playing on the beach and at the pool. The ocean is in the background at the end of this walkway.

As you can see the beach was fairly rocky. A bit of a shame for Porter, but Sophie and Briggs had fun swimming in the ocean. Sophie actually dove down and plucked a hermit crab off of a rock several feet under the water.

European camping is really quite nice. The campgrounds are not very private, but you usually camp on grass and they have nice facilities. This was a resort, so they had swimming pools, restaurants, gift shops, etc. But there seemed to be very few actual Croatians so it wasn't a real cultural trip to Croatia. We were mostly surrounded by Italians on vacation .

Sophie's Baptism

Sophie's baptism turned out really nice. Tyler even conceded that the stress and hours of preparation he had been giving me a hard time about were worth it in the end. She was the only one baptized in June, so we got to plan everything which was both good and bad! It turned out just the way we wanted it, but we did wish that we could have somehow added family and friends in the states to the program.

Sophie's Island Monsoon Birthday Party

So the weather had been beautiful and HOT all week long. We had water balloons, shaving cream, sprinklers, coolers of drinks, the tissue paper flower garland was strung, the music was playing...we were ready for a serious island party. The morning was sunny and the sky was blue. The party started at noon. We were all set up and ready to go...the guests started arriving and I kid you not - at 12:00 almost on the dot the thunder rolled! This picture was taken about 12:05 as the rain started falling and by 12:10 it was a monsoon and my tissue paper garland was a soggy mess on the ground! Not even all the guests were there yet. But here is our island princess still smiling. The girls ran around in the rain for a while and it cleared up just long enough to throw some waterballoons before it started again. Thank heavens I had Gilligan's Island on hand just in case since the party was supposed to go 3 hours and we had 10 girls coming! And of course by the time the party ended the sky cleared up and it didn't rain again the rest of the day! Murphy's Law in full force!