Thursday, May 28

Brenna trying to see if she can look like a fly above (I think, who knows what she was really thinking) and a pirate below!

Above picture is Brenna's facial expression when we were discussing making FROSTING - can you tell she loves it!

Brenna getting ready to go shopping above in her new shorts - love the turtle pocket embroideries :-)

Justice in on the crown action (why does his look more like a poker hat??)

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there! Can you tell that I have a princess on my hands?? We are baking some cakes to enjoy for my birthday this weekend today - can you believe that I will be 30 on Saturday (don't I look too young to be 30, lol!). (Our house is smelling great today with that - mom made apple crisp this morning too - yummy, yummy (or from Brenna - lecker, lecker - same thing except for her only stuff with sugar is lecker, lecker)).

We celebrated the snail release with an ice cream party after Brenna's nap yesterday - I don't think she is really evening missing the guys (although, she does look at the picture of her snails and knows which one she called Slimmey!). Brenna picked up a dog bone for Justice today - hopefully it will help with his breath (although when he pretty much swallows it whole, how will it help his breath - isn't the point to chew it...)

Well, I think that about covers our tales from the last day, lol! Take Care!

Our Escape Artists

Our snails back in the "wild"

Brenna helping set the snails "free"

"I'll miss you - love you"

I think the guy above was the leader of the escaping crew - he sure was the most alert when I discovered them this morning!

Outside their temporary home

Brenna pointing to the escaped snails (o.k., she was playing with their antenna too, lol)

Hello All!!

Well, the plan was to let our snails go back to the "wild" today. They however, had other plans... Last night (while my mom and Brenna were sleeping in the same room), all three snails "broke out" of their temporary home (who knew that they could lift up the lid on a plastic container that way - I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen them). My mom said she heard the plastic (in hindsight - she said the next time she hears noises, she is turning the light on), but blamed the noise on the dog. One of the snails even made it to the window (hope they didn't plan to "jump" and make an escape that way). Once we discovered the snails (I freaked my mom out - I told Brenna to get Gammy - she had to come back to Brenna's room), we decided a quick trip to the top of the forest would be needed (bummer, missed kinder group again this week). We moved them to a different container for the trip (boy, can those things cling on to plastic - I was worried that I was going to pull off their shell trying to move them back into the woods). Brenna was pretty excited to help put them back - although I was kind of worried about her actually touching the slimey things (yes, to get them out of the plastic, I had to actually touch them - can't believe that people actually eat these things!).

Anyway, I have printed Brenna pictures of her critters for her room (what a relief that she was not upset that the guys had to go back!) and I'm sure we will spend plenty of time this summer searching for them to make sure they are happy back in the wild! Brenna said the "leader" of the escaping three was Slimmey just in case you wondered who the trouble maker was, lol!

Take care (and hopefully laugh about our snail "adventure" today)!

Tuesday, May 26

Can you tell Brenna loved picking out stuff for her crown above??

Admiring her "jewels"

Mom may not like this picture above - but I think it shows how much fun she was having - what a great laughing picture :-)

Waving to her "subjects" (above) and admiring her self in the mirror (below)

Hello All!!

We had a busy day here in Germany :-) We decorated princess crowns this morning - don't you love all our pictures from today, lol! Brenna also decided since the weather was cooler, she would love to have on her new princess dress - can you tell how much she loved it (and how beautiful she felt in it??) I cleaned in the apartment this morning and managed to drop Brenna's table on my foot - who knew that plastic could hurt so much, lol! I don't remember ever having bruises on my feet before living here, lol!

The weather has been rainy today, but much cooler - which made us all much happier today :-) Mom worked on an embroidery this afternoon - they will be pockets on the back of Brenna's shorts - I will try to get pictures up of them soon. It is funny that she picked out turtles for her pockets - who would have guessed that she would end up liking turtles, lol. She also wants an embroidery of Miss Piggy - not sure where her desire for that character came from??

Hopefully, Justice and I will make it out for a long walk tomorrow - mom and I have been enjoying sweets here (who knew that almond/hazelnut spread could be so addictive - I knew I should not have bought one to just "taste" - and the new chocolates aren't helping either, lol).

Well, I think that is about it for today! We plan to set our snails free tomorrow (and then get ice cream afterwards) - wish us luck that plan works out well!

Take Care!

Monday, May 25th

Too hot for clothes!!

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. It was a hot, hot day here today (can you believe we have no fan and no air conditioning). Our upper floor apartment was very warm today - glad that the weather will be cooling off tomorrow (I really hope). Mom made Brenna another new pairs of shorts today (good thing as we had an "accident" on the balcony with not making it to the bathroom - lucky it was on the balcony though :-)

Too hot to do too much today - we made stuff for cold sandwiches for supper. We made it out to the post office in the morning and also to the bakery and general store. I couldn't believe they were out of the cookies for the kids at the bakery - Brenna was very confused by that!

Brenna wasn't much in the mood to model today - hope you enjoy our pictures anyways!

Take Care!

Sunday, May 24

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there. It was a hot and humid day here (o.k., I think all the days are humid here - it is a very wet place where we live). I took Justice out for his long walk this morning - good thing as it was already getting warm. Can't wait for the rain storms on Tuesday to come and cool things off for the rest of the week.

We discovered with the warm weather that Brenna doesn't have much in summer clothes. We bought several new tank tops yesterday that Brenna can wear either for bed or around the house. My mom made Brenna a new pair of shorts today (we also bought some elastic yesterday) - hope you enjoy Brenna's fashion show above with them. The shorts also match the headbands we made earlier in her stay :-) Brenna was in underware all day today and dry (she has been doing really well with my mom here as well) - she was even dry when she woke up and at naptime - you go girl!! She was funny with our road trips the last few days. Brenna recognizes rest areas here - seems like every time we pass one, then we hear "I have to go to the bathroom", lol. We weren't even out of town yesterday (Dustin had just stopped for gas), when we had the first chorous of "I have to go to the bathroom" (we had all went before leaving the house too). I can't complain as she is holding it now until we get to the potty and going on the potty when she says she needs to go. We are so proud of her (o.k., I know you all may be bored by this now and I'm feeling very much like the parent that has shared too much!)

Going to be really hot here tomorrow - in the 90s. At least it should only be one day and then the rain will come through and cool things off. We are hoping to let the snails go "into the wild" on Tuesday or Wednesday when it is wet and not so hot. With all the damage they do to the gardens, our neighbors asked that we let them go far from home - hopefully we will get them out before they get hungry again - those three eat like pigs (and are making a mess of their temporary home - we don't really want to clean up after these three snails!).

Our cinderella balloon still looks great - I still can't believe how big that thing is!

Well, that is it for today! Take Care!

Saturday, May 23

In Switzerland (we went to a much bigger town than we expected, but enjoyed walking along the water)

Near the restraunt we ate at on Saturday evening

Brenna window shopping - "I want that one"

In front of the main doors at Mannheim castle

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there. We have had a busy last two days :-) Based on weather forecasts, we ended up changing our plan on Friday and today. Friday, we drove north to Heidelberg and Mannheim to avoid thunderstorms in Switzerland. We had excellent weather and saw both the Mannheim castle (it was more like a palace, but you are not allowed to take any pictures inside - it was very beautiful though!) and Heidelberg castle (where we forgot to take my camera up to the castle!). It stormed in between Mannheim castle and Heidelberg, but we missed the storm while we were in the car - yeah!! They continue to be very "serious" about kids at Heidelberg castle making noise - we were approached by our tour guide up front that while she was talking, Brenna needed to be quiet (could they not post something when you buy your tour ticket?? I really think they need to have a better approach for parents with small kids). Anyway, Brenna did great once again on the tour - was very curious about items in the castle and did a pretty good job whispering. After our castle trips, we strolled around Heidelberg and then back home. Brenna got a great new rock, a rosenquartz (rose quartz) - she couldn't decide if she wanted it in her pocket or in her hand though! We ate at a small Biergarten (beer garden) near our house (thanks Karl and Heather for taking us there!) to give my mom some more taste of the local food. Mom and I shared Schniztel and a spargel dish. I think the only item remaining on our food list is traditional black forest cherry torte. Brenna loved playing in the small walking area outside of the restraunt - loved the water fountain (with the mouse on top of the faucet) and the blocks that she could jump and stand on. Brenna fell once when Dustin was helping her (she didn't hit the ground hard at all with Dustin's quick reflexes), but her reaction was hilarious - she looked up at us and said "what happened to me?" (can you tell she doesn't have my coordination - the girl has great balance!!).

Today, we went to Switzerland and had beautiful weather there :-) We strolled along the water looking out to the Alps in Luzerne. Brenna really enjoyed seeing the swans and the boats. The swans were very hopeful for all people to share with them - they expected all the kids to feed them (I was a little nervous that they were going to try to get my feet when I went to close to the water). Also, she loved getting her ice cream treat at the end - we have completely spoiled her with ice cream treats while traveling. Brenna was tired by the time we got to Switzerland today, but she did o.k. and we kept it to a short visit. On the way back home, mom got a taste of more German shopping. We stopped at the Real close by for some food goods, and ended up with several other additional items :-) I bought a great new book for Brenna and I about animals - just perfect for our level of German. We also found a Handy Manny video in German - I think I have it memorized in English - it should be great to hear in German for my practicing :-)

Our neighbors dropped off some new pets for Brenna tonight - she got three snails, lol! Dustin wasn't as excited about our new arrivals as Brenna is - she spent time helping us get a habitat ready and then draw a thank you card for the neighbors. They don't have any names yet (Gammy suggestions were Slimey, Speedy, and Slimer) but Dustin is hoping that we will be able to have them exit the house in about a week...it will be interesting to see how well that goes over...Our landlord gave us a red wine Thursday - we tried it today- it was the first red wine that I have actually liked. Nice to have a wine maker next door who likes to share.

Well, that is it for today! Take Care!

Thursday, May 21

Brenna was loving her new lifesize Cinderella ballon!! (we got this at the park that we walk to every day - she saw too many other kids with these to pass up)

Showing mommy her attitude!

CHEERS (we had to go through about 5 rounds of cheers with all of our cups today!)

Our yummy new recipe from my German kids cookbook - I didn't even have to get the dictionary out to translate anything (o.k., the pictures make it pretty self explanatory, but I'm still understanding more)

Our embroidery from yesterday (I almost called it quits on this one yesterday as I had all kinds of problems completing it!)

Our yummy angel food cupcakes with blueberry sauce (boy, do I wish that they had the same canned fruits in the States that they have here - made the sauce super easy and delicious!)

Brenna on the small horse from our horse ride today (this was again at the park that we walk to every day)

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. The weather here today is stormy, but we had a nice day yesterday. Yesterday, mom, Brenna, Justice, and I walked up to the German war memorial here in town. Brenna walked the entire time which was great exercise for her (although she can sure get wound up hanging out with my mom - and she gets very sweaty, very quickly). It is a steep hill, but a short one which is good. We are working on our recipes for microwave cooking over here and made English muffin pizzas yesterday. They were very good (I think the English muffins that Dustin bought were way better than any I had in the U.S.).

Dustin has the day off today and tomorrow. We are just staying around the apartment today - tried to head up to the big look out point, but the afternoon storms were rolling in, so we ended up going to the park instead (which was much more expensive with the pony rides and ballons, lol!). Justice and I managed to get out for a long walk this morning which was good as I haven't made it out for a morning walk with him since Sunday (he has enjoyed our afternoon strolls this week though). Mom and I made angel food cupcakes today (we had some problems with our mixer selection today - I miss my kitchen aid!) - they turned out pretty good, but I think I will try with a different mixer next time and see if I can get the consistency better. The topping was excellent - a blueberry sauce with cinnamon - yum!! We also made a new recipe from my German kids cook book - Quiche - also very good (although all the time with stuff in the oven was starting to get warm!). I think my mom is enjoying my kids cookbook as it is great for a person to get familiar with cooking in Germany. Good thing the rain is coming through and cooling things off a little bit :-)

Hopefully, once the rain goes through we can get a long walk later. We are planning a trip to Switzerland tomorrow and Freiburg on Saturday (and then back through the Black Forest south of us).

Take Care!