Month of May

We had a fun and busy month of May. With soccer, Soccer Europeans, birthdays, testing (poor Bailey had the SAT and 3 AP tests all in the same week!), work etc. it has been quite busy. In the midst of it, Mia had 2 weeks of "Ferien" (school vacation), and we were able to go spend one of the weeks in Bamberg. We still have a little over 2 weeks of school left for Bailey and Camden, and now Mia is back in school for the last 9 weeks. Here are some random pictures from May..

Here is a Selfie taken on the way to a Soccer Game (their teams did not do so great, but it was a fun season none-the-less). Camden looks thrilled - doesn't he? :-)

When Bailey and Camden had home games - this was the favorite spot for Mia. She wants nothing more in life than to have a little shop, and so she LOVED helping sell (and organize) everything in the snack shack. She was content for hours - so funny!!!

Maisel Bier is a famous Franconian Beer and they had a big fest that Bryan and I went to in Bayreuth with some friends. I've never seen so many racks of beer in my life!!

Happy Bryan!

This picture cracks me up. There is a generic picture as you are going on to the Base of a man in a black suit and top hat. The picture warns people to be vigilant of suspicious people (and we laugh at the fact that we are supposed to think that suspicious people will be wearing a black suit and top hat). Anyway - whenever we see someone that fits the description we laugh - saying "We found him - let's go turn him in".

Gorgeous Germany (this is the rapseed, that makes rapseed oil). There are thousands of these beautiful bright yellow fields that can be seen everywhere in the Month of May

Here was me trying to get a picture of Mia jumping - this was the best one I got

Most of them  looked something like this - hillarious!! Not quite the way I envisioned my "perfect" picture :-)

I thought this is funny - 5th grade English test in German School  (remember this is a foreign language for these kids - I was pretty impressed). Even the directions are written mostly in English.

The test was 4 pages (these are just 2 of the pages). They learn using Oxford English, so I am often a bit confused with spelling and usage too :-) Imagine if this was a Spanish test for American kids in 5th grade...they truly learn languages here!!!

A bier garten over Amberg - so pretty!

Mia and I discovered a free small private animal place near our house. This black swan, literally followed us around the entire time.

It is enter at your own risk, and the liability thing (or lack of it) is always amazing to me

 Here is Mia looking a bit nervous. We kept holding on to each other, thinking something was going to jump out at us (lots of loose animal - especially birds). 

Lots of animals just walking around....

This guy was in an enclosure - but quite interesting to see so close up! It is a really neat little place.

I loved the colors on this guy!


And this guy was just too cute!

Mia and one of her best friends from Bamberg (so happy that she got to see so many old friends on our visit). 

Bryan was able to meet us for a few days in Bamberg - here he is enjoying one of our favorite meals (it is so bad for you) The translation is: "The lumber jack". Notice all of the tourists in the back - that was one thing that I noticed during our week there - too many tourists have discovered our beautiful city :-(

Mia spending time with her other really good friend from Bamberg - I love that they still keep in touch!

Mia enjoyed making "Stockbrot" or stick bread on the fire at our friends' house

All of the kids loved it - so cute!!!

And here is our favorite little Frank in his new Summer House. I don't think he had ever been outside, but boy does he seem to enjoy it! 

Amberg has a big Fair twice a year with Fireworks on several nights. Bryan and I walked up to the Church at the top of the hill one night to try to get a great view below..

We sat at the church until it got dark and then you could see all of the lights from the fair...

And then the fire works began

so pretty

And on the way back down the hill, even at 11:00 at night, the candles were all lit in the chapel (prayers from the people that visited that day) - so nice!

We were so proud of Bailey - She received 2nd place and won a thousand dollar scholarship for a VFW essay contest that she entered.

When Mia and I were in Bamberg, there was a religious holiday for Pentacost. There was a HUGE Procession with thousands of people in the city and we ended up joining in on the walk with our friends. 

Here we are slowly making our way up the big Cathedral where it ended

All of the buildings had these little flags waving

Each church in Bamberg was represented and lots of people carried things throughout the procession...

We finally made it up to the Cathedral where they had a short church service...

Mia's class went on a field trip to "Geozentrum" which as far as I understand is the deepest drilled hole on the entire earth. They were allowed to bring cameras and I asked Mia to take lots of pictures (they never ask for chaperones - only the kids and teachers go). She took this one.... I think it is the small scale model of the drilled hole???

She took this one....It is samples of the different layers of earth (pretty cool). They also asked the students to each bring in a rock, and then they broke the rocks open with a hammer and got to identify them. I think this might be showing the different rocks that were drilled into, in order to make the hole.

And then she took this one :-). 

These Two....

I don't write too much about these 2 anymore, but  I have to say I adore them! They are really good friends. It makes me happy that they can enjoy this time (High School) together - having many of the same friends and experiences. I have a REALLY funny story... When Bailey and Camden started back at school this year, lots of kids thought they were boyfriend/girlfriend. Absolutely Hillarious!!! They went to different schools last year, and being that there is a contant community of people coming and going in their schools, Bailey's friends thought that Camden was a "new" kid. Camden's friends thought he had an older girlfriend. So funny!!! Their soccer teams have traveled together this year and they have the same game schedule. It has been a lot of fun (not such a good Season, but lots of fun nonetheless).  When you add me into the mix (as a sub at their school), it is still hillarious to meet someone that doesn't know that we are all related. I often get a "YOU ARE CAMDEN"S MOM!!!! or CAMDEN AND BAILEY ARE BROTHER AND SISTER??? There has been many a time where someone will literally "yell out" in my class - "No WAY!!!"  It is so funny :-). It makes me happy that they have this bond and I hope that being that their life is a bit non traditional, they will continue to appreciate the fact they have experienced it together. So grateful for these 2!!!

Happy Birthday Mia!!!!

Mia is 11 years old!  Unbelievable! We had a nice family celebration on her actual birthday with cake and presents. Bailey and Camden put together a really cute scavenger hunt for her, and she absolutely loved it. The next week, we celebrated with 7 of her friends by doing a "city scavenger hunt" and then coming back home to play games. Bryan took the day off (because of course the Germans get off at 11:30 AM before each of their 2 week vacations and being that this is the 2 week Pentacost vacation, all 8 of them were ringing the doorbell by 11:45 (so cute)). Anyway...they were truly a fun bunch to host and while we know all of the girls in her class very well (there are only 3), we don't know the boys at all, so it was fun to get to know 4 of them. Oh My ... can you spot the difference between boys and girls in 5th grade right away! Luckily, Bryan and I laughed at how we have changed as parents over the years. We are much more layed back now and we laughed at the sillinees of the kids in the city (especially the boys). Germans really respect the idea of "let kids be kids". They are also quick to let them know if they are getting too out of hand. They came back with a few stories of how they had been "hushed" in certain stores. It made us laugh! It is the way things work here though :-). Picture the craziness of 8 - 11 year olds running around; getting autographs of strangers, taking pictures in front of certain landmarks, finding Chinese takeout Menus, buying nail polish at the dollar store and painting nails, finding the ISBN code of a book in the book store, taking a picture of one of them in a grocery cart, returning bottles to get money to buy Frank (our bunny ) food etc., It was so funny! They had about 20 things on their list and they came back to us in the end, having accomplished every single task. They had a blast! (As they ran around, we waited for them in the city center, and they came back every once in a while to drop off jackets or to get drinks). It was really a nice birthday with such a fun group of kids. Happy, Happy Birthday Mia! We absolutely adore you - you make us so happy!!!

*A couple of funny side notes... The German kids are responsible for RSVP-ing to the birthday person. No parental involvement at all. Just faith that they will all show up like they said they would (and they all did). Another funny thing is that all of the kids ask the Birthday Person what they would like for their birthday, and they truly expect a detailed answer. It is very normal to request a gift card to a particular store (again so funny!).  Also, no thank you notes. From our experience, Germans do not do thank you notes. Mia loves this part of it. I think a "thank you" that is spoken, is truly meant, and so that is enough for them.

Silly Mia - loving her scavenger hunt :-)

Love these nutty 4!

Happy Birthday Xuey!!! We adore you!!!

And for the "friends" birthday celebration, the kids all showed up at our door after school :-) 

We had lunch ready for them.

Bryan had grilled Hamburgers

And then they headed off for their "city scavenger hunt"

These 4 have become great friends! 

One of the "tasks", was to get a stranger to take a photo of the group in front of a statue (the picture actually came out quite nice :-))

And this one, not so much. Funny, nonetheless though. The task was to take a picture of one of them in a grocery cart

the boys loved this one :-)

10 and 11 years olds!

crazy!

but gotta love em!

The surprise after the hunt, was ice cream

yummy Gelato!

Then, at the very end, Mia had to stand on a bench in the market square, and everyone sang "Happy Birthday". Definitely a bit embarasssing: -) The cute thing is that they all (including Mia), sing "Happy Birthday" like a German speaking English with a British accent. It is so cute!

Then we came home for games. This is one of the funnest games (for both adults and kids). In German, it is called "chocolate essen". The object is to open a gift wrapped chocolate bar with a fork and knife. Before you have a chance do it though, you must roll a 6 with the dice and then put on a scarf, hat, and mittens. It is hillarious!

it's a fast moving game

with a fork and knife (sometimes a bit dangerous :-))

hillarious!!

The "inner Gambler" in all of them came out in the "Right, Left, Center" Game

And this was a hit - our German friends introduced this to us - it is called Jakkolo....

lots of fun! And promptly at the time of pick-up, all parents came and picked them up - so German to be punctual :-)