a taste of 20 questions

When we are driving in the car seems to be when I have some of the most interesting conversations with the kiddos.  I don't know exactly why this is.... maybe the lack of other distractions for them, maybe because they feel they have me cornered?  I don't know, but that is the way it is.  Unfortunately, I don't always have the resources to answer all of their questions while I am driving, and, while I appreciate their curiosity and want to encourage it, I am driving a car, in a foreign country, and do need to focus a little bit on what I am doing.  So, I asked Charlotte to write down some of their questions and we would talk about them at home.  This morning she handed me a list:

1. How many planets is there in space?
2. What is every single thing in the world made of?
3. What are different kinds of rocks called?
4. How many mountains are there on the Earth?
5. Who is the oldest person on Earth?
6. How big is Earth?
7. What is a space black hole?
8. How do people tell the future?
9. How do bodies work?
10. How do some people make movies?
11. How do you make a book?
12. How many Navy guys die once a year?
13. How are toys made?
14. Have any hunters once got killed by a wild animal?
15. When was money first made?
16. When was air conditioners first made?
17. What flower was first discovered on Earth?
18. When was gravity first discovered?
19. When did jobs get invented?
20. What was the first kind of bird found?
21. How do you make paint?
22. What was the first fairy tale?

Some of these are easy enough to answer, or to Google the answer... others will require more thought and discussion.

Also this weekend, Toby made his first restaurant menu... independently. He has just begun reading and sounding out words, and I LOVE this stage!  I love the head-scratching puzzling I get to do when deciphering the words he writes and getting a glimpse into how his mind works.  I spelled 'chocolate', 'shakes', and 'cakes' for him, but otherwise it is all his work.  See how good your kindergarten deciphering is...

Shakes and Cakes

Dinrs
Csis
Sbgede and Mebals
Posd wif Niutle

Dsrs
Chocolate Smeoe
Tere Cnes
Adl cnes smveoe (this one has an extra trick to it)
Owrd Tere on Bed
Vere Tasd Caec
Cnes Chocolate Smveoe Tasde
Ovr Tasde Tere Smveoe

I will try to post a translation to this in a day or two, but would love to hear your guesses in the comments.

Bacharach

On Veteran's Day we decided to make our first sightseeing day trip, and drove to Bacharach. It is a town located on the Rhine river which we had seen from the Rhine River cruise, but had never before explored on foot.

 

On the way there, we passed this rest area, which Rob and I had giggled about in the past, but our big kids are just now old enough to find truly funny.  The sign is a bit blurry (you can drive fast on the Autobahn, don't ya know,) but it says, "Raststätte Heidenfahrt."

 

 Anyway, we arrived in Bacharach on a grey German autumn day and it was empty.  Like really empty.  But that is just the way we like it.  See that misty castle on the hilltop in the background?  That was our goal for the day and the walk there was full of medieval German cuteness and many, many stairs.

 

They don't know exactly how old Bacharach is.  The first mentions of it as a town in documents date from the early 11th century, but based on some of the evidence found there, it may have been a place people lived as early as the 700's.

 

Climb those stairs little bear.

 

This is the view from our first stop on the path at the Liebesturm, or Love Tower.  There are these towers remaining from what was originally the wall around the town, and they each have a name.  Others include: Thief's Tower, Market Gate, Post Tower, Tithe Tower, etc. 

 

Our little squirrel with her treasures collected on the hike.

 

The view of the Rhine from the top of the hill.  It is hard to tell, but this was around 1 pm.  It stayed misty and grey all day that day.

 

Rest stop.  But not to Heidenfahrt.

 

 And finally at the top of the hill- Burg Stahleck.

It was originally built in the 12th century, then partially destroyed in the 18th century.  It has been rebuilt in the 1920s and is actually now a hostel.  In other words, anyone with 20 Euros can spend the night in this castle if they so desire.

 

Another shot at Burg Stahleck.

 

We took a different route back down into town in order to pass the Wernerkapelle.

It was to be a church and construction began on it around the 13th-14th century, but it was never completed, and still stands there today as part of an unfinished cathedral.

All of that took us about an hour and a half to see.  On our way back to the car we were getting pretty hungry and only then realized that most shops in town were closed.  We hadn't realized that Veteran's Day coincides with St. Martin's Day in Germany. St. Martin of Tours was known as a friend to children and the poor, and his feast day celebrates the beginning of the harvest. In Germany, it is celebrated with bonfires and children walking the streets with lanterns made at school and singing and sometimes asking door to door for candy or donations for a charity. We saw some of that in our last village we lived in here, but didn't see any of it in our new town.  

Anyway, THAT is why Bacharach was such a ghost town.  But we loved our quiet, foggy Fall day.

in between times

So what do you do when you are living in a hotel?  Or, living in a house with extremely minimal toys and furniture and dishes? Well, let me give you a few examples from our lives from August 1st-November 9th....

 

You go to local fests.  

I think this was the Herbstfest in Wiesbaden. We also went shopping a lot- for food, clothing, and looking for a few furniture items we knew we would need for the house.

 

Good thing our kids don't suffer from hay fever.

 

You take walks.

Soooooo glad we brought this double stroller on the plane. I wasn't sure it would be worth it, but it made it possible for me to get out and explore much more while we waited for our truck to get here.

 

You encourage your children to produce evening entertainment for you.

Charlotte, Toby, and Jake wrote and performed several "plays" for us with improvised costumes and hilarious story lines.  Way better than 95% of what Hollywood puts out. I also had them memorizing bits of poetry and scripture.  If they could recite it from memory for Rob when he got home, they got a piece of candy or a quarter.

 

You write letters, draw pictures, and take time getting to know your belly button.... and then show it to absolutely everyone you meet in the hope that they will show you their belly button as well.

 

 

You play way more video games than you are normally allowed to, and you finish potty training the toddler while you have an empty house and loaner furniture. (No couches were harmed in the taking of this picture.)

 

You play some music and DANCE!

 

 You take a lot of selfies.

 

You read a stack of books, and when you are done with those you download some on the Kindle and you borrow some more from the library, and you just keep reading.

 

You build elaborate things out of Playdough. 

And Lincoln Logs. And random bits of tile, sticks, and rocks that you find in the yard. And construction paper and tape.

 

So, in conclusion, you give your imagination a really good workout.

 

And you take a lot of selfies.

(This one taken just after our furniture arrived!  Yippee!)

Halloweeners

Happy Halloween! What? It is almost Thanksgiving? Yeah, well, our Autumn has gone by in a blur, and I am just now getting these cute photos up on the blog to share. So here it goes.

We HAD grand plans for this Halloween... but when the time came to actually pull all of the pieces together, we had just moved into our house and none of our things had arrived yet (sewing machine, costume parts we had already bought, etc.) So one day I took the kids to the store on base and pointed to the three racks of Halloween costumes and said, "go ahead and pick whatever you want."  It was a novel experience for us, and didn't go that smoothly as Jakey only wanted a costume that did not fit him, and Charlotte and I had our first in-store discussion of what is and is not appropriate attire for a little girl. But we did manage to leave the store with four little costumes.  

The kidddos wore them to our church's Halloween party and trunk-or-treat and had a great time.  We did not go trick-or-treating on Halloween this year... Last time we lived in Germany for three years we had exactly ZERO kids come to our door, so I wasn't really expecting our new neighbors to trick-or-treat either.  We did however hear our doorbell ring just as we were sitting down to dinner, and saw four boys in semi-costumes at our front gate.  Charlotte ran out and gave them candy from our stash.  And that was it.  Our landlord says that word will spread and next year we will have 50 trick-or-treaters.  I say bring it on.

 

Amelie the adorable lady bug.

 

Jake as Leonardo- teenage mutant ninja turtle.

This costume did not fit him at all!  see how short the sleeves are?  So I cut it in half and added that teal "belt" from an old t-short of Jakey's that just happened to be the right color.  It worked out okay, but was still skintight.

 

Toby the Ninja Lord. 

 Not just a ninja... I was corrected many times on that one.

 

And Charlotte as Hello Kitty.  Cute, and a wee bit more grown-up than the princess choices I tried to steer her toward, without being too grown-up like the fishnet stockinged ghoul girls that also came in her size.

Eight is great!

Welcome back y'all! Guess who FINALLY bought a new laptop? Yeah, that was a whole big mess, but now we are back online for real, and most of our boxes have been opened and the contents put away, and I am ready to catch up on the ol' blogeroo. I put all the photos at the end this time, so stick around.

Way back in October, we celebrated Charlotte's eighth birthday. Rob took the three big kids to one of our favorite haunts from last time we lived in Germany- Miramar.  This is an indoor pool complex with water slides, a wave pool, outdoor heated pools, indoor hot tubs, etc. I stayed home with Amelie because she was running a fever, and baked a birthday cake. When everyone got home we ate dinner, sang happy birthday, and gave Charlotte her gift- a cloth doll that she had seen on Amazon and had wanted for some time.  She has named her Bella.

Then this past week, Charlotte was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In our church, you must be at least eight years old to be baptized.  We do not believe in original sin, we believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and that little children are innocent and do not yet fully understand the difference between right and wrong.  However, by the time you are eight years old, you are beginning to really understand when you have done something wrong, and can be accountable for your own choices.

So anyway, Charlotte decided to be baptized and we were thrilled to help her make that happen.  A lovely lady, Julianna, offered to make Charlotte a baptism dress!  Charlotte got to draw a picture of what she wanted the dress to look like (puffed sleeves! big butt bow!) and then we went shopping and bought the fabrics and gave it all to Julianna. And she made this dress, which Charlotte loves so much.  What a memorable keepsake for her to have from her special day. Charlotte received other special gifts as well.  Grandma and Grandpa Anderson sent a book called "My Baptism Memories" with spaces to record guests, the program, and other items, and a sweet little necklace.  And Rob and I gave Charlotte my mom's scriptures that have her name on them. I think she would be happy to know Charlotte is reading them, rather than having them sit on a shelf. (She is rapidly plowing through Genesis.)

After church on Sunday, Charlotte and Rob dressed all in white. We had a short service in the chapel where Toby said the opening prayer and we sang Baptism from the children's songbook.  Then I gave a talk on baptism and then Rob and Charlotte went into the font where Rob baptized Charlotte. Afterward the guests listened to some piano music played by a woman in our ward while Rob and Charlotte got dried off and changed.  Then we had a talk by Charlotte's Sunday school teacher about the Holy Ghost. After that, Rob and Brother Boyer (from our Bishopric) placed their hands on Charlotte's head and confirmed her a member of the Church and gave her the gift of the Holy Ghost and a special blessing.  We believe that any person in the world may feel the influence of the Holy Ghost at times in their life, but receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost means that you may always have the Spirit to be with you- to help you make good choices, to comfort you, and so on- as long as you keep yourself worthy of that gift.  In other words, if you ignore them enough, you can stop noticing those quiet promptings in your life, whereas if you try to recognize those moments of inspiration, or premonition, and act on them, they can become more noticeable in the future.

After the blessing, we sang the hymn I am a Child of God and had a closing prayer.  Then we had brought some light refreshments to share, planning on roughly 50 people.  Well, I should have brought twice as much food.  It was a stampede!  All of the food (curried chicken salad wraps, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a fruit and veggie platter, chips, pretzels, drinks, and about a hundred Kit-Kats) was gone in the blink of an eye, and Rob and I came home and made pancakes because we didn't even eat anything.  It was amazing how many people came to support our Charlotte, when we have only lived here for less than three months.  We felt the love for sure!

So Charlotte girl, we are so proud of you.  You are growing into a kind, compassionate, smart, talented, hilarious, and beautiful young lady.  Some days you and I butt heads, but I am really thankful for your strong will and determination, as I am sure they will serve you well in this world as you need to stand up for yourself and to do what you know is right. We love you little Peanut.

 (Check out our awesome loaner furniture and dishes by the way... more about those in a future post.)

 At home before church.

 Just before her baptism.

 With the amazing Julianna.

After Charlotte's baptism.

 

With Daddy.

birthday buddies

The past two weeks we celebrated two birthdays in our family. Toby and Amelie's birthdays are just one day apart! We celebrated Toby a little early, and Ami a little bit late in order to have some breathing room in between.
 

 

Toby turned six years old!  This is my big kindergartener at school.  The littles and I brought in powdered doughnuts for his class on the Friday before his birthday.

 

Then Saturday morning we went to Ramba Zamba for lunch and to have a fun time.  This is a bounce house type of place in Mainz with big slides, trampolines, and so on.  Charlotte and Toby had been there before when we last lived in Germany, but I think they enjoyed it more now that they are a bit bigger.

 

All the kiddos got to ride the dino-karts.

 

Even the big Rob-kiddo back there!  ;)

 

It was a fun family day out.

 

For dinner, Toby requested mac & cheese & peas.  Gourmet, right?  I made easy mac in our hotel room microwave and the kids were all very happy.  Even Ami with her plate of peas.  (She doesn't know she's a baby.)

 

Then we had the birthday cake! 

Since I have no oven, and Toby had a grand request for a MarioKart themed cake that the commissary could not fulfill, I found a lady on base (via facebook) who bakes cakes.  She came through in a big way with this super fun cake.  We blew out candles in the smoking area outside (so as not to set off sprinklers in the hotel,) then brought it into the breakfast area to enjoy and share with some fellow hotel dwellers and staff.

 

Toby is such a wonderful little boy.  I continue to love his gentleness and empathy.  He is making a pretty smooth transition to kindergarten, though he does complain sometimes about having to do things he doesn't want to do, and he needs to continue to work on controlling his emotions.  (Welcome to school, buddy.) His teacher told me the other day that she asked the class to use a sight word they had been learning in a complete sentence.  She said that no one seemed to know what a sentence was, until Toby raised his hand and said, "I am going to the park." He used four of the sight words they had been learning and made an excellent sentence.  He also stuns us nearly daily by explaining math ideas that are much more complex than what he is doing in school.  For example, "10 rows of 9 plus 1 row of 9 would be 99, right?" We think he definitely has a talent for numbers and visual mental construction- if that makes sense.

 

But most of all, Toby is our sweet gentleman.  Every evening when he reminds me that he needs to give me hugs and kisses and tells me that he loves me, I melt again for my little heartbreaker.

 

And then we have this girl!

Amelie turned one year old last week! She is the smiliest, happiest baby we have ever had.  She is seriously a fully mobile ray of sunshine in our family. Yes, Ami took her first real solo steps in the Charlotte, NC airport on our way to Germany on Aug. 23rd. Now she is a speedy walker and climber!

 

Despite the fact that Alarm-elie still wakes up at least twice a night to nurse (normally I would have weaned her completely by now, but with having her in our room these past three months, and having the other kids in our room as well, I still get up with her to keep her quiet,) I still think she is adorable when she sleeps.  She has two lovies that she sleeps with- her seahorse from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson, seen here,  and a Lambie from Pop-Pop and Grandma Linda, which is under her belly in this picture.

 

Ami and Mommy- a birthday selfie.

This girl loves her momma, and the feeling is totally mutual.

 

For Ami's birthday dinner I made vegetable (not)fried rice.  Amelie is fiercely independent when it comes to her food these days.  Someone feeding her is an insult to her, and so while she figures out how to use utensils, we clean up the mess.

 

Sometimes she gives up on the utensils and dives face-first into her food.

 

Our first birthday family tradition has been chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  In order to make that happen, I borrowed the oven of a friend on base and made a batch from a box mix.  We sang happy birthday to Ami outside and the big kids helped her blow out her candle.

 

Rob tried to take the wrapper off of the cupcake before handling it to Amelie.  She was not willing to wait, so dove in face-first again.

 

Clever daddy decided the best thing was not to come between the girl and her chocolate.

 

She really didn't make that big of a mess, but I was glad we set her in the grass outside to do it anyway.

 

Soooooo yummy fu manchu.

 

We adore this baby.  She is far too spoiled and doted on by mom, dad, and older siblings.  She is just irresistible!  I love walking places with Ami- everyone smiles and says hello to me, and then I realize that it is because she is sitting in the stroller, or grocery cart, grinning from ear to ear and princess waving to the world.  She really knows how to make friends and influence people. 

 

Her favorite place in the world is sitting between mom and dad.  She will scream and complain until one of us picks her up and puts her between us, and then she is as happy as a clam.  She doesn't talk much, and I don't think we have added many real new words to her vocab, but she understands many things and considers herself one of the big people in every way. I am so thankful for our little Ami. I can't imagine our family without her.  Since she was born, we have really felt that our family is complete.  What a fantastic, crazy first year she has had!

 

Happy birthday Toby and Amelie!