Ahh, the Sweet smell of Manure?

You would think we lived on a farm. When I walk Cassidy to and from the bus stop, I keep getting the same question from her. What is that smell? Ok, she knows what it is now and no longer asks. It seems the Germans love their manure. I see huge trucks full of manure driving through town. They take it to the near by fields and spread it around. It is kind of fun to watch, I just wouldn't want to be too close. It sprays out kind of like the trucks that spray salt on the icy roads. So I can live with that, but then they covered up my nice snow covered fields. I liked driving by and seeing rolling fields of snow, but now it is snow covered in manure. Then one day I was driving home and Stewart pointed out something that just made me laugh. I wish I had a camera with me, but missed out. In a snow covered field next to the road, was a big heart sprayed from manure. It will be interesting to see how the crops grow, are they going to grow taller into a heart shape too?

The other thing Germans love to spray is salt. Wow, they use a lot of it. Not only on the roads, but all the sidewalks and driveways and more on the roads. Not so eco friendly when it comes to having ice around. Our poor car. But at least there is a car wash down the street, and yes our SUV fits on it.

Trying to spice up our lives

Well I am trying to find something we can do to make life fun around here, something the kids can look forward to. It has been really cold and dark here. OK, so its not terrible, but we are just not used to it. And the evenings are a real trial. We used to be able to go play ball in our back yard or go for a walk, but not anymore. So to spice things up a bit I created Family Movie Night. Every other Friday we get our pajamas on, we gather up all the pillows and blankets from around the house and hang out in front of the TV. We even get to have a snack in the living room, a real treat. We take turns picking the movie and the snack. The kids really like it. Cassidy wants it every Friday, but I told her if we did it too often it wouldn't be a special.

Nothing going on around here

Well this week was pretty boring. At least that is what Cassidy kept saying. She had school off on Monday and Friday, then was home sick on Tuesday. So she just hung out with mom and Zachary. Thomas went to school and had fun. But After two long weekends Cassidy is definitely ready for school tomorrow. We were able to work on a few Try-Its. For those who don't know what they are, Try-Its are the badges for Brownie Girl Scouts. Cassidy is working on Brownie Girl Scouts Around the World. She learned a few things about Ghana, Oman and Italy. We played where is it on the Globe. Stewart or I would give Cassidy the name of a country and she would have to find it. She loves geography. The other badge we worked on this week was Science Wonders. I had all three kids running around the house with fridge magnets, trying to see what they would stick to and what the would not. Then today, I blew up balloons. And we played around with static electricity. The boys were right there with us, learning and playing. If only they could earn badges too. It kept them busy while I made dinner and Cinnamon rolls.

For some reason since we moved here I have been trying to perfect my baking skills. I think it was our trip to Switzerland to visit the Cook's. Emily had made homemade "Lake Shore" rolls and we all devoured them. And I left our bread machine back in Texas. So the rolls I am still working our the kinks, but I think I may have figured it out. And the cinnamon rolls were perfect. The kids are excited to have them tomorrow for breakfast. I try to give them something special for Monday morning breakfast like my mom always did for me and Mark.

Stewart and I gave talks today in church. We both spoke on avoiding pitfalls. It went well, even though we were both writing them late last night and into early this morning. We had lots of comments on a job well done. Now we don't have to do this again for another 2 years right?

It snowed earlier this week, but with school back in there was no time to play. So we went out Friday after school to the local home store and bought two sleds, or shovels as Thomas likes to call them. Thomas has the same ones at his school, so he showed us all how to use them. We asked some friends to come over Saturday afternoon and go sledding with us. Luckily it had been cold all week, so the snow didn't melt. We had lots of fun, although there were a few runs that we went a bit fast. I think all of us ran into the bushes more than once. We would try to bail off the sled before we got there, but it didn't always work.

Cassidy's start in 2009

Cassidy started the New Year, with a new look and a giving attitude. She cut off 12 inches of her hair to donate to Locks of Love. I took her to the hair dresser and he gave her a terrible hair cut. It was cute from the front, but really uneven in the back. So I had to take her back the next day. It is still not great, but it is much better. I just needed Sherry (our neighbor in San Antonio), who would have taken her time and done it right. But it looks so cute now and she loves it. Mostly because it doesn't get tangled. The first night after it was cut, she took a comb to bed with her. She was so excited she could do her own hair now. The next day she set up "hair station" in her room, so she could do her hair in the mornings before school. Well, she and I are not that lucky. I still have to do it. She can comb it, but I have to straighten it. Her hair has a lot of natural curl that does not work well with this cut. So I still have to do her hair in the morning.

Cassidy has been completing her chores this year usually without me reminding her. Yesterday morning Zachary woke up at 6am, I went in and got him, then we both fell back asleep on the couch. I woke up to two little voices and scampering feet. Cassidy had gotten her Swiffer Duster out and was dusting the living room. She had Thomas helping her. He was holding the flashlight. They were so cute whispering to each other tying not to wake me up. And so happy that they were doing their chores without me asking. And yes both beds were made too.

Cassidy went on a field trip with her class last week. They took a bus and a train into Stuttgart to see the play Pippi Longstocking. It was in German of course. She had a great time. They had to go in Sunday best. But it was very cold and it snowed the morning of their trip. So she wore her snow boots, and took her dress shoes and a comb in a backpack. She wore the hat Grandma Grover had given her, so she needed the comb in case it messed up her hair a little. She had a great time and was exhausted that night. They did a lot of walking to the bus stop and to the theater.

The New Year

We spent New Year's not quite sure we were going to stay up. We were all pretty tired. I even put a movie in for the kids at 9:30 thinking they would go to sleep watching it. They didn't. So we put Zachary to bed at about 10:30, he was getting too cranky. Then there were a few fireworks going off here and there in our town, so I would yell "fireworks" and Thomas and Cassidy would race to the window, usually missing them. Our downstairs neighbor had a few set out on his back porch, so we would watch for him to come outside, then we would watch his fireworks. When midnight came they started going off everywhere. We soon realized there must be no firework laws here. There were some really big fireworks going off. We sat in our living room and looked out our big window watching the fireworks from the warmth of our house. We are up on a hill that overlooks a little valley. We looked across to the other side of the valley and the whole side was lit up by fireworks. It looked like every house was setting them off. We opened the window a few times. Thomas didn't like the noise, and none of us liked the smell. After about 20 minutes of this, we cold no longer see the valley or the fireworks going off on the other side. The valley was filled with smoke. The kids had fun, but were asking to go to bed a 12:30.

The kids enjoyed their time off school. We played the Wii. We got Wii Fit, Outdoor Challange, Eye Spy and Diego Wii games for Christmas. Cassidy and Thomas also got new games for their Leapster. So we played and played. The kids were ready to go back to school though. Cassidy was getting too bored at home. Well she is not bored now. She started piano lessons. Santa brought us an electric piano for Christmas and he arranged for Cassidy to take a few lessons from a friend of ours. So she has been busy practicing. Her favorite song to play is Jolly Old St. Nikolas. Her class at school sang it at a Christmas festival.

Schloss Neuschwanstein

We went to Cinderella's Castle the day after Christmas. It was a nice day with the sun shinning. But what we didn't know was how cold it was still going to be or how far we would have to walk to get to the castle. There is about a 30 minute walk from where we parked to the castle. The boys had it great and Stewart kept warm by pushing the stroller. We got about 3/4 the way up and I realized I had forgotten the Camera in the car. (I did remember the video camera which we never used.) So I jogged back down the hill, while Stewart went on with the kids. At the top he got lunch for the kids, as I raced back up the hill. I was sweating by the time I got back up to the castle, but at least I was warm. I had to take off my gloves and unzip my coat. The kids were all bundled with their gloves and hats Grandma Grover had made for them. We knew we were not going to take the tour inside the castle, just too much for Zachary and Thomas. But it was so cold outside, the kids were cold and Zachary was starting to fuss. So we walked around just a bit, waited in line for the bathroom then hiked back down to the car. Oh yeah Thomas had a fever and wasn't feeling well, so he stayed in the stroller the whole time. Zachary explored a little and Cassidy wanted to ride on the horse cart. They had horse drawn carts to take you up or down the mountain, but there was a long line to get on. It was a quick trip, but it was still fun. We will definitely go back when it gets warmer. They have a lot of hiking trails that were closed because of the snow.

Zachary is a German!!

It is official we all speak German now. Zachary said "bitte" yesterday for the first time. It is the one word you want every child to say. It means please.

Bowling with Santa

Stewart's work hosted a kids bowling party tonight. We only made it through one game. I have no idea what their scores were. The kids had fun, but we found out there is just too much lag time in between turns. Especially when the kids balls go so slowly down the lane. So going bowling once a year is good enough for now. As you can see Cassidy gets a running start, and she does pretty well. She got one or two spares. I should give credit to the Wii, but I think it was the side gutter rails that really helped. Thomas and Zachary just have to give the ball a push and hope it doesn't come back and squish their fingers. There is a little lip on the edge of the ramp that they have to get the ball over before it goes down. The kids then ate pizza and had cupcakes, or as Thomas calls them "pupcakes". Then Santa came, OK he wasn't all that impressive as Santa, but my kids didn't say anything. I think they just liked the presents he came with too much to care about what Santa looked like.

The really bad thing was we ran into a "real" Santa at the grocery store right before we went bowling. It was real cute though. In this store they have little shopping carts for the kids to push around. Usually Thomas goes crazy running these carts around the aisles. But when we walked in I saw Santa around the corner, so I whispered to Thomas "He had better be good and not run around, because you know who is always watching." Then I pointed over to Santa. Thomas just looked at him, then at me, then walked with his cart very slowly into the store. It was the best shopping experience I have had in that store.

Bowling with Santa