The Boys Turned 8!

The birthday fun started on the 25th, when I brought treats in for their classes at school.  Hyrum had made snicker doodle cookies the night before and I was just going to bring those in but I thought I needed to make them a little more exciting.  I stuck toothpicks into each cookie and then put curly Cheetos on the toothpicks.  The cookies looked pretty funky and crazy when I was finished but I wasn't so sure the kids would go for the combination: nacho cheese and cinnamon cookie.  Turns out they all loved them.

Emerson in his classroom with the tower of crazy cookies behind him.

Townsend in his class enjoying his funky treat.

After the school snack was out of the way it was on to the main event.  I spent the next 2 days getting things ready for their birthday party.  This year they wanted to invite 45 friends and I knew I couldn't even host half that many kids in my house so Hyrum and I finally let them have a party at Megaplay.  We have hesitated in the past doing a party at Megaplay because it is usually a mad house with about 200 kids running around the giant indoor play area.  But, with all the kids coming we decided we had no other choice.  It turns out that it's pretty nice to have a bunch of kids able to entertain themselves, instead of trying to come up with all the activities myself.  Also, not having to clean up after the party is also a great bonus.

The boys wanted a "science" theme for their party, so we made them a volcano cake.

Cael Platt helped me mix the "toxic" punch, complete with green glow sticks.

There were about 23 kids that ended up coming.  We took up more than 3 tables at Megaplay!  I had put together a few "science" games for the kids.  Here they are trying to guess what the magnified object in the picture is.

Here the kids are doing a science experiment.  You pour a layer of milk onto a plate then have the kids put a few drops of food coloring in the middle.  They then dip a Q-tip into soap and then dip that Q-tip into the food coloring.  The kids were pretty excited about the designs that appeared on their plates.

Here is our volcano cake...on fire!

At the end of the day I think the boys had a great party with all their friends:)

Some of the other things we did:  We took the kids outside and put Mentos into a 2 liter bottle of diet Coke to make a foamy fountain.  We played "Will It Float?" where I had 10 objects and a clear bucket of water and they had to guess whether or not the objects would float.  I had 4 different bowls with tic-tacs and they had to guess the flavor.  I had a few other ideas that used dry ice but it turns out it's pretty hard to get dry ice here in Germany.

I can't believe my boys are 8 years old.  They are really growing up.  Don't get me wrong, they are still completely crazy at times but I do see glimpses of maturity now and again.  I love these two guys and I'm so proud of them when I see them being kind to their little brother, or when they get their homework done all by themselves.  Happy Birthday Townsend and Emerson, I'm glad you had a fun day!

Beating the January Blahs

So, Christmas is over.  The smoke from the fireworks has left the sky after a New Years celebration that shook our windows.  The Christmas tree is gone.  Boys are back in school.  There is no snow, just rain.  Get the picture?  Here are a few things we have done so far this January to beat the "blahs".

Bowling

Swimming

Fun train exhibit in Weiden with Miss Tammy

Megaplay

Playing with remote control cars in the REWE parking lot

Exploring

Playmobil Fun Park 

There are still two weeks of January, what else is left to do?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

So, we have spent the last week in the rain and the clouds...no snow yet, just really soggy.  We have also spent the last week wondering why we didn't stay in Spain for another week:)

We had our traditional Christmas Eve party with some friends.  We had yummy German potato salad, meat with cheese and fresh rolls, finger jello (this was a big hit with the kids), broccoli salad, stollen, pumpkin pie and some cookies.  The adults hung out in the living room and had fun chatting while the 16 kids (yes, I said 16 KIDS) ran around upstairs!  After we all ate we had the kids each do a talent to win a "grab bag." Inside the brown paper "grab bag" we had put money, candy or a small toy.  The kids all LOVED this and had fun tearing into the bag to see what they discovered.

After everyone left Hyrum and I cleaned the house, did the dishes and then wrapped the gifts...getting to bed around 2:00 AM.

This is the shot of our beautiful tree with all the wrapped presents (taken around 1:30 AM)

The boys slept in until 7:30, what a blessing:)  They got to unwrap their santa gift and then we had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.  Rolls with cocoa, orange juice and stollen.

We had church at 10:30 Christmas morning and we made the boys wait to open their presents until after church.  They thought we were the meanest parents around!  After church we all got back into our pajamas and had a fun time opening presents.  I think we mad the right choice in making the kids wait to open the gifts, it made Christmas last much longer and was so much more relaxing than rushing through it all before church.

Santa brought Julian a little train station that makes noise and flashes red lights.  He loves it:)  Townsend's favorite gift was his new football and Emerson really liked his remote control car.

This is my living room after the unwrapping was all done.  

Hyrum surprised me with this new nativity he got while we were in Spain.  He met the artist at the store while he was buying it and the man gave Hyrum the angel figure for free, pretty cool!

Last night, New Years Eve, we had Becky and the boys over for our traditional game/movie night and for the torching of our tree.  Hyrum made fabulous pizza and homemade doughnuts and the boys all watched Harry Potter while Becky, Hyrum and I played "Ticket To Ride."  We had lots of fun.  Unfortunately our tree was still too green to burn so we didn't get to bring in the New Year with a burning tree.  I was sort of sad but all our German neighbors sure made up for it by shooting off fireworks from about 11:45 PM to 12:15 AM!!!!

Changes for 2012

Townsend and Emerson getting baptized

Squeeze in as much travel as we can before June

Move from Germany to Oregon

Hyrum separating from the military

Buying a house

The boys starting 3rd grade in a new school

Change makes me anxious and I'm already dreading the move, even though it's 6 months away.  I hope we can grow together as a family through all the changes and I do look forward to living a bit closer to extended family in the coming year.  We hope you all have a fabulous 2012!