Fridays

Fridays the kids get out of school at 1:30. We then will either go home or head to Patch for Girl Scouts. Cassidy and I have Girl Scouts every other week. I am a co-leader for her Junior troop. I usually bring mazes or puzzles for the boys to do. When Stewart has to work nights, I will leave the boys home with him, then he will bring them over before he goes to work. The boys are usually good, especially if I bribe them with the Girl Scout snacks.

The boys came home with these cute wood creations. They received a werkstatt pass as well. This pass is a check list of all the tools they learned to use while creating their woodman.


They both had fun making them. Zachary thought it was hard and needed a little help from his teacher, but only a little help.

Thursdays

Our Thursdays are much like our Tuesdays. The kids go off to school. Thomas goes to Null Klasse first, then to Kindergarten. The boys will usually go home and play the Wii for a little bit. This day happened to be a day when Zachary was exhausted, but didn't want to give up his chance to play.


So I took Thomas and a sleeping Zachary to pick up Cassidy from school. By the time we got to Robinson Zachary was awake. They love this playground and it was a beautiful day.
























I spend my time somewhere half way between the playground and the ball field wanting to watch Cassidy, but needing to keep my eyes on the boys.

Wednesdays

Wednesday morning Zachary goes off to Kindergarten and Cassidy goes to her school. Thomas gets to go to null (zero) Klasse. Thomas attend a special class three days a week at Cassidy's school. The teachers tell me that he has a language disability, in other words, his parents do not speak German. His class gets out at 12:30 and he walks over to his Kindergarten where Zachary is waiting. The boys get picked up at 2pm. Cassidy stays at school until 3:45. Then it is off to her softball game. Her Wednesday games are at the Kelly fields. I like to leave early for these games too because traffic can get backed up. So I pack another picnic dinner and we eat before the game and play on the playground until the game starts.




The boys don't ever watch the game. They spend their time playing on the playground. They have friends that they play with every week and meet new ones when Cassidy plays different teams.

Tuesdays

Tuesdays start off the same way, the boys off to Kindergarten and Cassidy off to class. The boys get out at 2, while Cassidy stays after school for lunch and homework help until 3:45. Today the boys and I picked her up from school with dinner all packed up. Her Activity Days church group was having a mother daughter outing. Unfortunately Stewart was working and so we had to take the boys along. But they had fun. We hiked along a forest path near Panzer to a Spielplatz. It was a lot of fun. We got there early because we had to get Cassidy to her softball practice later that evening.



I packed a picnic dinner and we ate it in between play time. The other girls and their mom's finally showed up. We stayed long enough to play for a few minutes and say Hi. Then we had to hike back to the car and head to softball.
























It was just starting to rain, but practice went on. They usually have practice rain or shine because many of the girls have to drive 30-50 minutes to get there. Our drive usually takes 35-45 minutes. I try to leave early to beat the evening traffic.



When the practice is coming to an end or when is starts raining I head back into the car with the boys. Pajamas go on and we spend a few minutes reading Highlights, I Spy Books or playing Leapsters. They usually don't fall asleep on the way home, but it makes getting to bed easier once we get home.

Our Mondays

Monday's I send the kids off to school. Thomas and Zachary go off to Kindergarten while Cassidy goes to 4th Klasse. They get out of school at 1:30. So I pick them up and take them home. Cassidy work on homework while pack up our dinner. The boys usually end up playing the Wii or playing soccer in the back yard. Then it is off to T-ball practice at Panzer Elementary School. We try to get there a little early so the boys can play on the playground or go get cookies at the USO.



Warm-ups include jumping jacks and a short jog around the field. Then the team divides into small groups to practice batting, throwing and catching. Cassidy and I usually help out the coaches and play alongside the boys.

Spring Sports

This was Cassidy's first year playing softball. She always kept a watchful eye and was ready to back up the first baseman. In fact she did stop some balls and kept the runner from taking second.

Cassidy did strike out a time or two. But she also got some great hits off. I think she had the highest RBI's on her team.

"I am ready Mom!", and away he swung.

Zachary may look small, but he had a powerful swing. He is checking his helmet at first base. Someone was not thinking when they provided two teams with red shirts. The Nationals vs. the Cardinals, no one knew who was on which team.

Easter Morning

The kids got up early to see what the Easter Bunny left them. But before we could hunt for the eggs, we had to get ready for church. Cassidy was not allowed to find any eggs until the boys got dressed.

I think Zachary just realized he can't eat all his candy until after church or he is thinking he would rather be sleeping.

Zachary and Thomas are master egg hunters.


























Happy Easter, as you can see Cassidy is recovering from a major ouchie.

Just another fun filled Saturday

The Cardinals opening game. The boys got lucky and were placed on their Granddaddy's favorite team. We dropped off Cassidy at Robinson Barracks for her game then raced to the boys game. I didn't get to see her game but I was told she got two hits off, but no home-runs.

Thomas is trying to stop the runner at first.

Here comes Zachary running in a score for the Cardinals.



After a morning of games we went to the Patch Easter Fest. We missed the Easter Egg hunt, because we opted for playing t-ball and softball.

Fishing was a popular game, in fact we spent most of our time here,

Cassidy is playing tic-tac-toe with her friends.

Thomas has to check out things to make sure everything is alright. Zachary just enjoys the ride.


























More face painting.

Coloring Easter Eggs

Easter snuck up on me this year. I don't know where the days went, but I am glad we had good weather to dye our eggs. It works so much better when we can color them in the grass.

I thought I would try something new this year. In January I started collecting eggs. When ever I made something that called for two or more eggs, I would blow the insides out. Then I would store the clean egg shells. By the time Easter rolled around I had three dozen eggs. The kids like coloring eggs so much, but they don't like hard boiled eggs, so this worked our great. The eggs would float on top of the water, but this was not a problem. I also instructed the kids to make sure and let the dye drip out of the eggs, before they put it in another color.

Cassidy was showing a friend how American's color eggs. I let her use my eggs. I don't even know her name, she and her family were here visiting our downstairs neighbors. She came out to see what we were doing. She let us keep the eggs she colored.

4 year olds are the reason we color eggs outside. Zachary thought it was easier to use his hands rather than the wire. After he colored all his eggs, he went to the hose to wash his green hands. Then he want back to coloring.

Zachary was bored waiting for Thomas and Cassidy to finish coloring their eggs, so he started coloring his eggs again.

It wasn't hot outside, so we didn't put on our bathing suits. But I still let them play in the sprinkler. It is our traditional way of cleaning up our mess. They worked hard filling up the big yellow bucket with water. Then they dared me to pick it up, none of them could. So I picked it up and threw water on Cassidy and dumped water on Thomas' head. From all the squeals, I gather it was cold water.



























I put stings on the eggs and we hung them on our shrub.