Learning German

In Germany after a Mom has her baby she gets 3 years of paid time off from work to take care of the baby. Then she puts the baby in Kindergarten, which is where they mostly just play, but also learn how to cut, and color, and sing, and play coordinated activities in the gym. I am just loving the Kindergarten experience here. They stay in Kindergarten from 3 to 6. At age 6 is when they start "real" school. So I went to register Steven about a month ago, and they evaluated him while we were there. They determined that he could use some improvement on his German (of course) so they have put him in a German language course at his new school with a teacher there. He goes for 45 minutes 3 days a week. I was worried that this would be another fight with him, but he has been twice now, and he really likes it, so that is a big relief. It is crazy to me that he really will be a fluent German speaker by the end of this school year. I love it!! So I took some picture at his new school. One of just him,


and one of the boys in front of an animal mural they have on the wall there.



As a side note....Nathan comes home from school all the time trying to sing songs that they sung at school, but as of yet I have not been able to pick out any recognizable German words from the songs. :) Oh well it is just a matter of time.

Carousel Cake!

Last week we had a babyshower for Natalie Mungia, who is due in May for those of you who know her. She is moving to San Antonio on Tuesday though, so we had the shower early for her.

I volunteered to bring the cake even though I don't know the first thing about decorating a cake. :) Well, I was telling my friend Julie this dilemma and I showed her some cutsie animal candy decorations that I had come across at the store, and she came up with this idea. It turned out so cute, and I will totally use the idea again.





She suggested making a 9X13 size cake so we could decorate the ground as well, which was cute, but you could also do a bundt cake or some other circle. Then we used candy canes for the poles, and then attached the candy animals with white frosting.
Cute huh?

The letter D

Last week at preschool we learned about the letter D. It was a great day at preschool like always. The women who taught asked each child to bring something that started with "D." I had to get creative to come up with 3, so Steven brought some Dirt that he put in a little see through tupperware thing, Nathan brought a stuffed animal Dog that Nana and Papa got him a couple of years ago, and Jacob brought a Diaper. :)

So we did show and tell, then we read some stories about Dinosaurs. Then Dawnella gave all the kids some of her homemade playDoh. They played with that for a little bit and loved it.

The snacks were bagels and cream cheese with cheez-its all put together to kind of look like a dinosaur.

Then we played with a cool parachute thing where they all hold a handle and pop the balloon around.The balloon had dinosaurs all over it to stick with the theme.



As always it was a great time.

Halloween package

YEAH! We just got a Halloween package from Grandma and Grandpa and we love it. The boys always enjoy peeps, and they were wearing their faces and teeth all night. I got a couple pictures to display.





Thanks MOM and DAD!

Halloween night

On actual Halloween we went to a Haunted House at the kids pizza place on post and then went trick or treat for about half an hour to a military neighborhood. We were with our friends the McNalley's and we went back to their house to play our new Settlers game after trick or treating.

This is the boys with our neighbor Ronya just before we left.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween! We had a Branch Halloween party the Friday before Halloween which was a blast.

I actually spent some money on costumes this year, and was happy I did. The past two years I have just gone to the thrift store and whatever they had that was the boys size I got and that is what they were for Halloween.

This year Steven wanted to be Peter from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. This is an actual Peter costume that he just loves.

Nathan always pretends he is a lion, so I asked him if he wanted to be Aslan (from the same book/movie/Xbox game). He thought that was a great idea.

Happy Lion!


Sleeping Lion

Jacobs costume is the itsy bitsy spider. I saw it on ebay.uk and thought it was cute and cheap so that is what he got to be and he loved it.




And I was a witch because it was the cheapest costume I could find. I had a hat with lots of black hair coming out of it. But once again, no pictures of me. Steve had to work that night, and was not a very happy camper. He was suppose to get off at 3 and then something came up and he had to stay until 10. It was very sad.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We will be getting ready to go trick-or-treating when you are all just waking up, or eating lunch depending on where you are, so I will be the first to say Happy Halloween.

We finally carved some pumpkins last night and had a grand time.


Nathan unfortunately fell asleep just before the carving, and then slept all night, which never happens. So we missed his company, but I am glad he got some good sleep.


I gave Jacob a plastic knife to play with the eyes and nose as we cut them out of the pumpkin. He chose to put a piece in his mouth, so I got a shot of that, and then one of how he thought the pumpkin tasted. :)



Steve wanted to make little holes for the teeth in his skeleton pumpkin, so being the smart man that he is, he went and got his drill which made just the right size teeth. I am glad I married a smart man. Now, let's just see if he can get the pumpkin guts cleaned off the drill bit before next Halloween.


When we finished we proudly displayed the pumpkins out on the front porch.


Mine and Steven's. Happy Pumpkin with traditional triangle eyes.


Steve's. Skeleton Pumpkin with drill bit size teeth.

Saturday pictures

Today we had a really lazy Saturday, which is nice, but can also be quite boring. Here are some pictures I took.




I know you have seen a picture exactly like this in the not so distant past, but these two were laying on the couch again today listening to Shakira on the computer. Steve said I should take a picture of how cozy Jacob was. The part I thought was funny was that in one picture Steve is smiling and Jacob's not, and in the other picture it is the opposite.



Nathan wanted to go to the store with me today, so he went up to get dressed, but like always he got in to Steven's drawers instead of his own. I can't figure that one out since they are at the exact same level. When he came downstairs and said he was ready to go he looked so funny to me because these pants are even big on Steven. You can't see it as good in the picture as I thought you would be able to, but I thought his weird face was worth the post.



This picture was taken as I was standing in my front doorway. The cats belong to our neighbors who we love because he is Irish, and we were so happy to have someone who speaks English living next door. They have a female cat who has had at least 4 babies about every 6 months since we moved here. They have recently run out of friends to give their cats away to, so the cats all live with our neighbors. We have asked them many times why they don't get the Mamma fixed and they say cats are suppose to have babies every 6 months. I think they just don't want to go get it done. So at the moment there are at least 10 cats living in their backyard. They come to our doorstep because Steve thinks it is fun to feed them sometimes, so I have captured 8 in this photo. :)

Swing Dilemma

We went on a walk today to enjoy the last of the good weather. It was about 60 degrees and the sun was out. We went a differnt way than we usually go and discovered a whole new section to our subdivision. It was great. We also found 3 more parks that are within short walking distance from our house. We stopped at one for a short time, even though we couldn't stay long because parks close in Germany at 1:00pm and open back up at 3:00. We thought that was really weird at first, but I have decided it is because most parks are flush up against peoples houses or an apartment building, so it may be to give them a nap break from noise from the park.

While at the park the boys wanted to swing. As of yet I have not found a park here that has a swing set with more than 2 swings on it. Even if the park is a big park, they put up these two seat swing sets, and it really creates a problem with the 3 Hughes boys.




(and typically the one waiting for the swing is NOT smiling)

The letter B and C

The preschool/playgroup that we started at the Branch has been going wonderfully. I am really enjoying it, and the kids are as well. There have been about 10 kids there every week and we have been able to find crafts and games that work for so many. I taught on B week, and we made Balloon Boppers and danced and played with those for a while, and then for snack we had bugs in a bed which was actually bread, peanut butter and raisins. It was great.


Then Natalie Mungia taught on C week. She glued the letter C on to a paper plate and then the kids decorated the C with popcorn kernels, confetti, and cotton balls. They turned out really cute. For snack we had cheese and crackers. Don't mind the faces they are making. Nathan was just trying to be funny and Steven always has a goofy look on his face for pictures.



We also want to start saying the Pledge of Allegiance with the kids every week. We started last week, but of course most of them had never even heard it before. I am sure they will learn after a couple of weeks. They were quite fascinated though that all of th adults knew it and were saying it all together. If felt good to me to be doing the Pledge of Allegiance again.

We were going to learn about the letter D tomorrow, but a lot of people are sick this week, so we have cancelled it. Instead I am going to have a Halloween preschool at home with the boys tomorrow. I will be sure and take some pictures. I have been horrible at keeping my camera close at hand lately.

ZUMA!

Beware all you gamers out there! Steve just taught me how to play this new game that I would put in a category with Tetris. It is like a puzzle solving game and one that doesn't take all of your concentration, so it is perfect for phone calls. It is called ZUMA and we are both obsessed with it now. I would rather be playing this dumb game than just about anything else. Our Smallville series ended and this is our latest vice. So if you are curious do a web search for it, but remember I warned you. :)

"Had a Bad Day"

This is one of the boys and I favorite songs. Here is the link to the video for the song. We love it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aigC-cy3yg8

I'm Going!!

So.....after much discussion, and changing of plans, I have bought a ticket to New York City! I know I went back and forth on this issue more times than I care to think about, but Steve and I finally figured out how to make it work. I will turn 30 on November 10th and will go to NYC for 4 days on the 16th. I am going ALL BY MYSELF belive it or not, and am going to tour the city with Jessica, who lives there. What am I going to do on a plane for 8 hours with no one to take care of! We will see a broadway show, the statue of liberty, central park, and anything else that she thinks is interesting enough to show me. Steve gets to stay home with the kids and they will have a wonderful male bonding weekend I am sure. I was very nervous before and after buying the ticket because it feels very odd to be abandoning my children and my husband to go have a "ME" weekend. I am starting to get excited though because I am sure everything will be alright. I figure, my youngest is 2 1/2 right now, and we plan on getting pregnant any day now, so if I don't go now I will either have to go when I am pregnant or have to wait another 2 years til the baby is old enough. I will report all of my outings on the blog when I get back. (Yes, I realize that is a month a way.)

Kurbis Festival

On Saturday we had one of our best outings in Germany yet(at least in my opinion). A lady from the Branch told me about a Kurbis(pumpkin)festival that was about an hour and a half away from us. It sounded wonderful so we headed out on Saturday to find it. Some friends of ours from the Branch came with us. It was at a palace which you don't come across as often as you do castles here in German. The palace was beautiful, and in Sept. and Oct. they decorate the gardens in the back with pumpkins. We went a little camera crazy, so I hope you don't get bored.

There were all these displays of figures made out of pumpkins and different squash. It looked sooo cool.


They also had a place where they displayed the results of a biggest pumpkin contest. Here are some of them. They are around 600 pounds. The pumpkin that won the contest came from Sweden and was over 1000 pounds.

The Hughes and McNalley kids in front of a pumpkin totem.

For lunch, Steve and I went to this little makeshift restaurant they had, while Julie hung out with the kids at the playground. They were only like 50ft apart, the restaurant and the playground, so we didn't abdandon her too bad. They were selling all sorts of cool pumpkin dishes. We ended up with some ravioli stuff in pumpkin soup, and a bowl of pumpkin soup, and pumpkin quiche. It was interesting tasting. We liked the soup and the ravioli but wouldn't crave any of it.


There was also a fairy tale park that is attached to the gardens, where there are little displays of fairy tales, with figures in them that talk. They had this cool chair where the kids sit on it, and it starts rising up a little bit, and the water around it starts to rise as well. Kind of like you are in the middle of a water fountain. It was pretty neat looking.


A picture of Jacob and I.


And that was our fantastic Saturday. I really enjoyed it and will take any of you there with me next year if you are here for Halloween. :)

German sign

We were on an outing the other day that I will blog later and Steve found a cool sign that he wanted to share. He thought it was especially funny that the "poop" was still falling from the dogs behind. :) haha



Dad- Do you remember the picture you saw on the front door of McDonalds that you saw when you were here?

T-Ball

I feel like I have been slacking on my blog lately and I apologize. Steve and I got in to watching the season DVDs of Smallville, but we finished them a while back. Well, we just got Season 5, so we are watching those in the evening more than being on the computer these days.

Anyway. I have a nachbarin(neighbor) here whose husband is really in to baseball. Baseball is not a sport in Germany at all, but I guess he has had a lot of American friends and just enjoyed the sport. Well, he is affiliated with some youth baseball teams that are just starting, and this year they are trying to get some T-Ball started. They asked us if we wanted to have Steven join, and I was thrilled for the opportunity. He started about a month ago and is really enjoying it. He practices for 1 hour every Monday, and there are only 4 other boys on the team, so I am not real sure what they are going to do about that. His coaches are 15 year olds that play on the youth baseball team. It is funny though, because the coaches love to practice their English with Steven and they do a really good job of speaking to him. They have English classes in school from the time they are young. But this week I was laughing because one of them said "come on Steven" and I guess the others thought that was a cool phrase so the other two boys said "come on Steven" "Come on Steven" when he was already coming. Poor Steven, I think he was a little confused by the commands when he was already doing what they had asked him to do. :)




In the meantime while I was talking to my new German friends Nathan and Jacob where finding something to do to keep themselves busy. They usually just run up and down this path that is right there, and don't cause to many problems. Well this week for some reason, Nathan had found a big mound of dirt out on the field, and he recruited Jacob to roll in it with him. Literally! When they came back over to where I was sitting I was a little surprised. They were covered in dirt. Needless to say, they had a bath right when we got home, but I think they had a good time.


Before the dirt roll


After the dirt roll. I guess I only got a picture of Jacob.