Wacky Wednesday

Today for Spirit Week is Wacky Wednesday. Cadence wore her clothes backwards with 2 different shoes. I did her hair up in a "Cindy-Lou-Who" do, which she always LOVES! She looked so funny. I love that she gets into these fun themed days. I enjoy celebrating them with her.

OWIE!!

Lorien accidentally opened the door on Taya's toe last night. It literally ripped off the top few layers of skin on her big toe as well as shattered her toenail halfway down. It bled for what seemed like FOREVER! I've been so lucky to only have a couple of "incidents" with the kids in their lives, but when something like this happens, it reminds me to be thankful for how accident free my kids really are. In the picture you can see a blister-like lump on top of her toe: that's the flap of skin that is just sitting on top. When that is off it literally flattens the top of the toe like the tip is missing (well I guess it sort of is isn't it?). Then the entire top half of her toenail is black now. It's going to fall off over the next week or so. Ugh. Poor baby is walking with a limp. The only way I can get her to walk at all is if there is a band-aid on it. Poor Taya. She's been such a good sport & hopefully lots & lots of kisses help too because that's what I'm best at!

Rockin' the 80's Look

This week is Spirit Week at Cadence's school & yesterday was "dress like your favorite decade" day. Not that the 80's is my favorite decade. . . I just didn't have anything she could wear for anything else. So we strapped on the leggins & over-sized t-shirt & tied it together with a scrunchie. Then we put on every bracelet we had in the house to spice it up a bit. And finally we finished the look off with a side ponytail, feathered bangs, & some blue eyeshadow. She felt pretty "radical" in her get-up. ha ha ha.

Treasure Hunters

These people drive me nuts & make me laugh all at the same time. From the time we moved into this neighborhood 3 years ago, every single night there are about 4 or 5 Germans that go around the American neighborhood trash cans & go dumpster diving. I've learned not to throw away anything of importance (without shredding it first) for this reason. They just go to the dumpster, hop inside, & sort through everyone's trash to find . . . who knows what? But they always leave with bags full of garbage (?)! I've watched them almost every day forever, but I've never actually dared to get out my camera to take a picture. Well, I leave in a few weeks so it was time to break out the camera.

Summer Fun!

I love hot summer days when you can spend the entire afternoon outside in your backyard. This weekend was GORGEOUS! The kids put their swimming suits on & we set up the slippin' slide down our back hill. We invited all the neighbor kids over & we had a backyard bash. We had SO MUCH FUN!!

Cadence was having fun catching moths. One little guy liked her so much that he just sat on her back the entire day.

Our new neighbors (who we absolutely LOVE) have the most adorable puppy. Bladen LOVES their doggy. His name is Max & Bladen is VERY protective & possessive of him. Bladen sat on the grass all afternoon & Max sat by his side. He babbled to the sweet puppy all day long. But as soon as anyone else got near Max, Bladen would get very upset & throw a fit. He didn't want ANYONE touching his new special friend. It's really sweet how they love on each other.

It was such a fun Saturday. I hope we have a few more before we leave!

We Outsmarted You!

We got so sick & tired of Bladen emptying our water tank, that we brought in our glass side table from our outdoor furniture set & put the entire tank on it. We made sure he couldn't pull it over on top of himself (it's sturdy) & then we watched to see what he would do.

He's not very happy about it.

Field Day

Friday, June 4th was Cadence's field day at school. All the kids got to spend the last 2 hours of school outside participating in some good exercise games. It was a very hot day in Germany & the kids were sweating like crazy, but it felt SO good to be hot instead of the typical freezing feeling we get here. I decided to throw the other 3 kiddos in a stroller & we watched Cadence play all the fun games with her friends.

Cadence's favorite game is always the giant parachute. They ran in circles & threw balls on top. The girls ran underneath while the boys tried to capture them & vice versa. Super fun stuff.

They played a little soccer with kickballs. Cadence definitely isn't a "sporty" girl, but she did alright. She had fun & that was the most important thing.

They also played football. Cadence throwing a football made me chuckle. She's so cute. But boy can that girl catch!!! If she were to ever play sports, she'd be a catcher for sure.

They also played a game of keep-away with a rubber frog. The kids loved that. The frog was so much fun to touch. Even Lorien & Taya got a chance to hold it.

Cadence is going to miss her 2 best friends from school: Braeden & Hayden. The 3 Musketeers. They were inseparable & SUPER CUTE together. We're going to miss them!

At the end of the day, the kids got about 15 minutes on the new playground to run around & have a blast. Lorien & Taya got to play as well. There is nothing like playing at the park on a sunny day in Germany with my 4 kids. I LOVE IT.

So, it was lots & lots of fun. Cadence had a blast & we had fun watching her.

I love Germany!!!

Whenever I hear the song of a bird

or look at the blue, blue sky;

whenever I feel the rain on my face

or the wind as it rushes by;

whenever I touch a velvet rose

or walk by a lilac tree

I'm thankful I live in this beautiful world

Heavenly Father created for me.

I'm going to miss sitting on my back patio here in Germany & looking at this scene. It is SO gorgeous here. I hate to leave it. It will always remain in my memory as the most beautiful place in the entire world.

Messy Child

Bladen makes a mess wherever he goes. My house has never been so dirty in my life. It seems like as soon as I get one of his mess's cleaned up, he's already making another. But he sure is cute!

Happy Land is a very happy place. It makes my kids very happy, which in turn, makes me very happy too! Seriously though, it's one of those places you walk into & think "Oh man, am I going to catch some horrible disease from touching something in here?" It kind of makes me laugh. Talk about "GHETTO" but SUPER SUPER FUN!

Taya's favorite spot is the roller slides. You have to love Germany & their death-trap playgrounds. This is a slide made out of metal rollers (we're talking losing your fingers if they get caught in between the rollers) that you go down on a piece of thin carpet. We came here for a birthday party once & a kid slid off the carpet, fell face first, & the rollers knocked out his front tooth! I remember all us parents looking for the tooth between the rollers. But Taya & Bladen love it!

My personal favorite is the pull-swings. You sit in these metal seats (without any kind of seatbelts whatsoever. . . & completely open ends) & pull on the rope which in turn makes you swing. I LOVE THESE. They are scary as scary can be once you get going really high & you remind yourself that there is nothing holding you in, but for some reason I LOVE THEM. Taya likes to ride them with me. Cadence & Lorien are both "too cool" to ride with Mommy.

Lorien loves the trampoline area. There are 6 of the best trampolines in the world here. They are SO different than a trampoline you jump on in your backyard. It's hilarious watching adults jump on these. You literally can jump higher than you've ever jumped in your life. Lorien was doing little flips & what-not the entire time we were there. I was having a blast watching a bunch of drunk dad's try & out-jump each other. They literally looked like they were going to break something if they landed wrong. They were SO HIGH in the air! It was nuts!

Bladen had fun in the baby area obstacle course. Daddy helped him get up inside, but then he roamed around forever on his own. He was having a blast.

Taya found Cadence at Cadence's favorite place: the blow up obstacle course & HUGE blow-up slide. Taya would only go down the slide with Cadence. She was too scared to go down by herself. Cadence was going crazy on this thing though. Head first, feet first, rolling, bouncing, surfing. It's fun to see her getting braver as she gets older. She's a cutie pie.