See you soon!!

Marvin's family is moving soon.  We got the boys together one last time at the indoor kids gym.  They played for 4 1/2 hours! 

So many memories with Marvin! 

 

They say, "there are no good-byes in the military, just see you soon!"

 

 

 

Marvin suprised Owen with an early birthday gift. 

 

This note made me cry!  Marvin and Owen met last year and have been BEST friends. 

He gave Owen a Star Wars lego plane.  This is the picture we sent to Marvin showing him that Owen had finished it.

We are so thankful that Owen met Marvin and we are hoping to see them again soon! 

Thanksgiving

Marvin's Family hosted us for a wonderful Thanksgiving Meal

Here the kids are at their table.

 

The food was so good!

                                        Off to the park after our big meal. The boys are getting all the sand out of                                                     of their shoes after playing in the sand pit.

                                                                     The girls!

                                                                            What a great day!

The food was great but the friendship was out of this world!

Our week

 

 

Owen decorated his door knob in honor of Veteran's Day.

 We had to say good bye to Pascal last week.  Here are a few shots we took right before he left.

 

 

Owen got his cast off on Friday.  I was so glad to get that cast off and that arm and hand WASHED!

Checking out his arm.

YEA!! CAST is gone and arm is healed!

The very next day was the annual Wiesbaden 10K Turkey Trot.  We ran five road races this year together as a family.  It was very important for me to run this race because if Pascal had been here we would have all been out there, but this 6th and final race had to be run and biked with one member of our team missing.  I wanted to show the kids that even if dad is not here we have to keep movin!  We wanted to make him proud!  Owen was amazing, within the first five minutes he was gone.  He rode the entire race on his own and met me at the finish line.  When we got in the car he said, "Boy, is my bottom sore!?  Meg said, "I didn't even see the turkey."  I said, "Meg they didn't have a real turkey, they were just giving away a frozen turkey if you came in first."  Meg replied, "Well, that is just gross." Here we are at the starting line getting ready to go!  It was in the 30's and misty!

Ready, Set GO!!!

 

Finished!!!

 

We rewarded our hard work by making pudding later that day!

 

 

 

Last Week

Last weekend we went back to the Recycling Center in Heidelberg.  We were not disappointed, we found these books.

 

 

And these books with tapes

At the Thrift Store I bought the kids their own racket and ball.  I think we will be heading to the racket ball courts a lot this winter! 

This is a typical scene for Meg.  She ALWAYS sets up her "office".  This week I found her taking tissues and cutting all around the edges.  She worked on these for hours and then sold them.  I bought several!! 

Haircut!

Sportin her new hair cut!

We met up with Pascal in a town a couple of hours away where he was taking classes.  He took us out to eat and we were the only ones in the restaurant. The chef came out and made the kids anything they wanted!  It was a very special evening!

Here we are at a Kids museum I found online.  Germany has hands-down some of the greatest kids' museums, parks and playgrounds I have ever seen. Check out this tree house.

Owen and I rock climbed for a long time!

Owen did this slide!  If you look closely you will see a rope course hanging from the ceiling!  We were too nervous to give it a try.

Here is the indoor water park

They had this huge castle you could go into.  It had a ball room, library crazy tunnels, slides, secret hiding areas, an arts and craft room and even more stuff. I just can't remember everything.

We had a great time and are enjoying every second with Pascal before he leaves.  Some hard days ahead but trusting God to get us through!

What we've been up to

 

These are a few outfits Meg wore this past week.  I asked her if she wanted to wear jeans the other day and she said, "Mom, jeans are not fashion." 

 

We had to get these clone troopers together for a picture.

 

Marvin's family came to visit us on Friday.  We decided to try out a kids indoor play area.  The following slideshow will show you how much fun we had.

The hot dog sandwich

Lately Pascal has been having to work super long days and weekends.  At times I find that I am running on empty and just can't seem to get everything done.  I ran out of bread one day and had some hot dog buns.  Perfect, I thought. So I made Owen a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a hot dog bun cut it in half and thought, he probably won't even notice. I picked up Owen from school and as we rode home he said, "Mom, tomorrow for lunch I don't think I'll have the hot dog bun sandwich."  I replied with, "Oh sorry about that buddy, I ran out of bread."  I giggled a little and thought that was a very nice way of saying, "Mom, the hot dog bun sandwich was a dud."  

Here is Owen with his soccer trophy.  We missed the last 3 games because of his arm but he enjoyed the season.  I think we are all feeling the pre-deployment jitters.  Last week we decided to eat lunch with Owen at school on Meg's birthday.  We went into the cafeteria to find Owen and when he saw us  he immediately teared up. Big fat tears started to roll down his face.  I quick spied a janitor closet at the end of the cafeteria and took Owen over for a little talk.  The conversation went as follows:

Owen - "Mom, I just need to see dad"

Me - "Well, buddy he is at work, why are you crying?"

Owen - "Mom we had like 5 pages of math, and it is Meg's birthday and I shouldn't have to go to school on Meg's birthday and I'm just having one of those tough days, you know the kind where you just want to go home and see dad ....and I had 5 pages of math!

Me - Well, just because I come to eat with you doesn't mean I'm here to bail you out of school but I know what you mean about tough days so let's go home."

I don't know if that was the "right" decision but it was my "heart" decision and for now I'm gonna go with that!

 

 

Here is a picture of Owen's class having their Pumpkin Party

 

Meg and I were in charge of the station called, "Will it float or sink?"

The children had to guess whether or not a big fat pumpkin would sink or float when put into a container of water.  Almost of all the kids guessed it would sink.  Their eyes were so cute when it just floated right to the top!

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Here is Owen at the measuring table.

 

 

Before we left he wanted to make sure I saw his "scary story."  

We had his first teacher conference today.  The teacher said, "Owen is such a shining star, he just gets along with everyone and everyone wants to be his friend."  My prayer for Owen since before he was born is that he would have a sweet and gentle spirit.  So proud of my buddy!

Meg turns 5!!

 

This week we celebrated Meg turning 5!!

Here is the cake Owen and I made for her.

 

 

                               Here she is wearning her new leg warmers, shoes and hairband from Mimi!!

 

She got a new lunchbox, sunglasses and shoes from Abigail!

She was beyond thrilled!

Here we are at the Trunk or Treat sponsored by Pascal's battalion.  We had never been to one of these events. Here's a shot of my princess and Clone Trooper!

The ideas people came up with to decorate their trunks were amazing!

This lady and her little boy won 1st place for their costume.

People had tvs hooked up in their cars, lights, music and one car even had a smoke machine!

This little boy dressed as a Paratrooper won 1st place.  Owen thought his costume was amazing!

Our favorite was this guy, He was a "Personal trainer". 

There were lots of pirates!

The kids really enjoyed the event.  It was super cold last night, in fact we had snow flurries this morning!  We give Trunk or Treat two thumbs up!