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.

Affenberg and Mainau

Today is the last day we have our Suburban in Germany. So we took the kids on a road trip. Our first stop was Affenberg or Monkey Mountain. When we got there, we found a little lake. The kids loved just watching the geese and finding fish in the lake. This might be good enough for them, but not for Stewart and I, so we walked on.




























We walked through the gates into the monkey park, after listening to the guide talk about the rules in German. Luckily Cassidy was listening. Thomas did not. He tried to pet the back of this monkey and my heart stopped when the monkey quickly turned around on him looking very upset.

From then on we followed the rules. We only placed one piece of popcorn on our hands and held it out to the monkeys.

When we entered the park, we all took a handful of popcorn to feed the monkeys along the trail. Cassidy was listening to the guide and held her handful of popcorn behind her back, while only presenting one piece to the monkey.

Stewart fed a few, but mostly gave his popcorn to the boys.

Yep, that is what my boys would do if they could. Now that we go out without a stroller, we get asked for piggyback rides often.

I even got to feed the monkeys.

The kids always stayed an arm lengths away from the monkeys. So I forced the boys to sit still on this log and told them to let the monkey come to them. It worked, Thomas liked watching the monkey walk over to him, he kept sliding down the log.

After we exited the monkey park, we found ourselves in a meadow with deer. But it was a warm day and they were all resting in the shade.

Earlier we found thousands of tadpoles at the edge of the lake, so the kids are looking for them in this marshy area. They didn't find any here. On the corners of the buildings were huge stork nests. They were also in the trees and we made a game out of hunting for them as we were walking back to the car.

Taking the Ferry

Very interested in the boat.

Mainau
How could you not love a place that greets you with such a cute smile.

These trees just screamed "Come climb me!!" So the boys did just that. Cassidy was going to as well, but she found the stinging nettle instead.

Cassidy decided to play it safe from then on. She stayed out of the taller grasses. She hopped around for a little while, trying to scratch her leg and walk at the same time. Then she found this fountain and splashed water on her itchy leg, it made it all better.

Cassidy thinks we should plant gardens like these in Texas. I don't think tulips would do so well.

Why travel to Keukenhof, when Mainau is only an hour and a half away.

The tulips just kept on going, and going and going.

This is a sweet picture of Zachary and Stewart. But the real purpose for holding Zachary's hand was so he wouldn't drag behind. Zachary tends to linger, which drives Stewart and I a bit crazy.

Thomas kept finding his favorite tulip. This is my favorite, no this one is my favorite. I am not sure which was the final favorite. I don't blame him I kept finding favorites as well. They were beautiful and in full bloom.

We found a fountain. We let the kids splash each other a little. Then it was time to move on before they got soaked.

So Stewart and I love our I-Pods. We listen to podcasts and audio books mostly. It works great in the car, the kids can watch their movie and Stewart and I can listen to our books. I left mine in the car for this occasion, but Stewart was listening to his book while we were wondering about.

It is definitely spring.

Orchid gardens

Happy Easter

Walking in the dark forest.

We walked along the Bodensee back to the playground near the entrance. Thomas kept telling us that the lake was the ocean. We had to correct him many times, and I am not sure he ever got it.



We found a kids forest, with wood sprites, a bamboo forest and a giant table with toad stools.

We have not been to a petting zoo in a long time. The kids were a bit timid. They went for the smallest one first. Then slowly progressed to petting the larger goats.

The playground had a really cool water area. It had the traditional water pump, but also had wooden rafts to float around on. We wouldn't let the kids play in the water. The Suburban is being shipped back to Texas tomorrow and I didn't want to have to clean wet sand out of the carpets and car seats tonight. The kids had lots of other things to do anyway.

Zachary loves asking for pictures. But then he always wants to see them right after I take them. I usually tell him to wait until we get home, then he runs off somewhere else to play and asks for a picture.

The boys are negotiating the logs. They were following the path Stewart and Cassidy took, just a little slower. I brought crackers and summer sausage for dinner. The kids love going on trips like this, because of our picnic dinners.

I thought the little duckings were really cute. We walked back to the car and put pajamas on the boys for the ride home. Zachary was out in 15 minutes, while Thomas was asleep in 25. Cassidy stayed awake the whole ride home, watching Sound of Music.