Constant Beginnings

You spent the day at school then had fun with friends at your workout group after school.  Mya wanted to bring donuts as her treat for classmates.  Oh my girl, you are officially 9 years old! Your last single digit year. Hard to believe we are here already. I've spent some time looking back at old pictures recently. You've spent the last 8 years living overseas and now are getting ready to leave everything you've ever really known to move to the USA. We are all excited about Texas but this will be a huge change. You are the one kiddo that is really riding the fence on whether this will be good or not. We talk about the fun things that are available in Texas and you come back to leaving your friends. I know good things will come. You'll even be able to reconnect with your old bestie-Asa. That conversation brought a smile to your face. I think you needed the social connection. You are finishing up 3rd grade. You've mastered your multiplication facts and are pushing t...

We celebrated Mya's 5th birthday with a day at Holiday Park. The girls were so excited and the weather was gorgeous! Holiday Park is a great little amusement park located about an hour from our house. It is small enough that we don't wait long for rides, but large enough that we can easily spend 4 hours or so and not double a ride. We went for the first time last year, but Mya was still a tad too short to enjoy a few of the best rides. This year a whole new world was available. She loved what I remember as the "tower of power," only on a smaller scale, the bumper cars and her first flume ride. Claire also underwent her first flume ride, but had mixed feelings about it.  I tended to Gavin most of the day, which was nice. He slept, I watched the girls' faces light up with excitement, relaxed and even nursed in public for the first time ever! Pretty big accomplishment for this very conservative girl. Gavin spent the day doing a little of this. 1st ride of the...

Germany has thousands of festivals each year. Several are the same with rides for the kids and food, but this one is different. It is complete with corn mazes, straw fun, pumpkin foods galore and craft vendors. It is free aside from the 2 Euro to park plus food, etc. The kids had a blast. It was fun. We saw several friends, enjoyed pumpkin soup, which is a highlight of this festival. To top it off, the weather was perfect--sunny skies and NO rain. (It has been raining for nearly 2 weeks, so sunshine is much welcomed.) On top of the world--or at least the bales of straw. Miss All about the FUN. A view of the dining area. There were a ton of craft/food vendors on the other side selling everything from hats to cheese. Fun in the muddy corn maze. These are the huge vats they cooked the soup in. Giving the pumpkin soup a try. It doesn't look so great, but it is delicious! Mya hanging out, enjoying her drink. We walked away with a delicio...

One of our favorite things to do while living in Massachusetts was venturing out to pick our own strawberries and pumpkins. We couldn't have been more excited to learn of a few different erdbeere patches around our little village. They were the largest quantity of large sized berries I had ever seen--and mmmm so delicious!

Gartenshau is located in Kaiserslautern, which is about 10 minutes from our house. It is a great park filled with huge dinosaurs. There are playgrounds, flowers, walking trails, sand activities and food. It even has a miniature golf course and skate park. In the summer, they hold concerts and special events. We tried to check this place out last fall, but couldn't find the entrance :) Anyway, we are glad we were successful this time as we are now season ticket holders at the price of 45 Euros. It is a steal and so much fun!

We ventured to Holiday Park which is about a 1 hour drive from our village to celebrate Asa turning 4. It was a great day! The park is pretty reasonably priced for children--10 Euros and meets everyone's needs. We mainly utilized the rides for smaller children. Claire had high hopes of riding bigger, more scary rides, but she didn't quite make the height requirement. She was able to do the Tower or Power which is a smaller version of the adult ride. It was a pretty big deal and she loved every minute. The kids had their faces painted. The chick started painting the side with Mya's dog bite until we asked her to stop. She had to revise her design a bit, but the girls could have cared less. They were in heaven. They both had butterflies though I neglected to take pics of Claire's. It was a really fun day. The girls had a blast.