Wednesday, February 28, 2018

February!

February is always a short month, but I feel like I blinked this year and it was gone.  Here are a few moments that I'd like to remember...

Toby's class celebrated Fasching by dressing crazy and parading through the halls of the school shouting "Hello!!" and throwing streamers and candy.  It was a little shocking to see him being SO  GERMAN but also wonderful.  He has really thrived in his German Immersion classes.

A distant cousin contacted me about family history and I spent a few weeks going through my records and working on finding new ones.  It had been a long time since my last genealogy binge and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  
(The picture above is of my mother in the back middle, Her parents- Ben and Sarah- to the right, her grandmother-Amelia- to the left, and her cousin, whose name isn't coming to me right now.)

Jacob brought home some fantastic artwork that he was very proud of.  I love how his confidence has been growing this school year!  The right teacher can make all the difference.

Amelie has been practicing riding her Hello Kitty bike she got for Christmas.  She pretty well has it, except for getting started and stopping.

We took a cold but sunny Saturday and spent it in the Herrngarten in Darmstadt.  We have loved this park for years. Toby talks about going to college in Darmstadt when he is older... if he does, I will be coming to visit for sure!

The zip line is a little slow, but the kids like it anyway. 

They rode bikes, climbed hills, got muddy, played on the playgrounds, and we all got a snack from the bakery.  It was a lovely local day out.

We also ALL went to the dentist.  No small feat with four children!  And there weren't any cavities, hurrah!!  My favorite moment though was when Charlotte's hygienist told the dentist, "she's going to be a model, just look at those legs."  And Charlotte corrected her and said, "actually I'm going to be an author."

Toby performed a short play at the high school's Black Box Theater that he wrote with two friends in his class.  They had been working on it for about six weeks, and each group of third graders had a high school drama student mentor that helped them bring their work to life.  They made props, had special effects lighting, and planned every detail.  His play was titled Quest for Zeus. He did a great job and was very proud.

This past Christmas our kiddos got some nerdy gifts from Santa- microscopes, a rock collection, a chemistry set, etc.  So one afternoon we all sat around the kitchen table and dissected and examined owl pellets that I had bought on Amazon.

Owls eat their food whole, digest what they can, and then spit up "pellets" of the fur, feathers, bones, etc that are left over. The ones I bought were "sanitized" but we made sure to wash up really well afterward anyway.  Amelie and Jake liked pulling and picking the pellets apart.  There was a lot of fur! Charlotte and Toby identified several different items that they found in the pellets using a chart I found on the Internet.  They had a really fun scientist-y time.  

And that is a pretty good snapshot of what life has been like around here for the past few weeks!  Hopefully I will do better about blogging in March.