Can you hear that?

Listen really closely...can you hear anything? No? Nothing at all? That is the sound my house makes when my two 5 year olds are at school and my little Julian is taking a nap. It's a wonderful sound and one I am looking forward to hearing often in the future.

Today was the first day of school for Emerson and Townsend. I drove them to school and dropped them off. We first went to Emersons classroom and when I was leaving with Townsend Emerson said, "Mom, is Townsend going to be all by himself too?" Emerson has been more hesitant about being split up than Townsend.

We headed over to Townsends room and he just walked around the room until he found the table with his name on it and sat down. They both did great. No tears. No, "I don't want to go to school mommy." It was fantastic!!!

I didn't do much today after dropping them off. I did put together a little gift for after school. In Germany there is a tradition that on the first day of school you give your child a Schultüte. It's basically a cardboard cone filled with treats and toys to help the children celebrate their first day of school. The boys were really excited after school, they were all smiles and happy to see me again. It was an exciting thing to pick up my boys after school. I felt all grown up or something!

I am really proud of my boys and I'm so happy they have wonderful teachers and the chance to learn new things each day. I love you my smart boys!

Emerson in his classroom on the first day of school

Townsend in his classroom

Townsend and his teacher Mrs. Riggans (that's his Schultüte he's holding)

Emerson and his teacher Mrs. Olden

Quick Movie

Because Hyrum has such a SLOOOOOW internet connection where he is I can only make very quick videos from now on. Here is a shot of the boys playing their new game "E" and then a few seconds of Julian sitting up all by himself. He is growing up way too fast!

Crazy Thursday

Here are a few photos from our day today. The boys "decorated" their bikes with bottle caps, which took them about 30 minutes to do and I loved the quiet time. They also showed me a new game they made up called "E" in which they twist up the swing until it is wound really tight and then they hop on (both of them) and spin around and around in the swing all the time saying "EEEEEEEEEE." And then to finish the crazy day up I gave Julian his first oreo cookie...he loved it!

"Me Like Cookie"

Townsend being silly for the camera

Emerson being silly for the camera

The decorated bike. Notice the bottle caps balanced on every available surface, even on top of their training wheels and bike pedals!

Emerson with his decorated bike

Fun at the Lake

We headed over to the lake here in Eschenbach last Wednesday. It was a very hot day and we hadn't been swimming at the lake yet so we decided to give it a try. Townsend and Emerson loved swimming around with their life jackets on. They also jumped into the water from a dock that was about 4 feet above the water. It took them a while to get up the courage to jump down that far but they finally did it and I think they were proud of themselves. Julian liked splashing around in the warm shallow water. I enjoyed the beautiful weather and the fact that my children were all happy, even if it only lasted for about an hour!

Julians new toy. He was getting way too big for his baby bouncer and I found this at a garage sale for a pretty good price. He loves jumping around in it.

Julian and Ri Ri at the lake

Emerson going down the kiddie slide

Playing in the mushroom waterfall at the lake

Our trip to Ramstein

My sister Paige lives about 4 hours away near Ramstein Air Force Base. We took a trip over to see her so that Riann would get a chance to check out her apartment and cute little town. While there we went to an amazing Dinosaur park with life size dino statues all over. We went to a fun playground with an amazing slide. We took a hike up to the castle ruins in Hohenecken where Paige lives. The last 9 slides in the video are purely for Hyrum's sake. The boys love to collect "treasures" when we are out hiking and they kept making me take pictures of each little leaf or feather or rock they picked up so I could "send the pictures to Daddy."

Riann leaves tomorrow, wish me luck and send sanity and strength my direction!!

Fun Times with Ri Ri

My sister Riann has been here for the past three weeks helping me out while I adjust to life without Hyrum. It has been really great having her here. She has cleaned my house, bathed my kids, tended the garden and best of all babysat, babysat, babysat. I have gone to the dentist without kids, I have gone grocery shopping without kids, I have exercised without kids...I don't think I'm going to let her go next Thursday!!!

Here are a few of the things we have done together while she has been here:

Little man Jules getting ready for a hike

The boys on the hike

Outside the cave in Pottenstein, not the best picture of Julian but I think Ri and I look OK

Our flowers died in our flower pot and so Emerson and Townsend spent all afternoon cutting and replanting flowers in the pot to make it pretty when people come over

Feeding the ducks in Grafenwoehr

When the Cat's Away...

...the mice will pretend they can cope without the cat by creating distractions for themselves to make it seem like the time is going by quicker than it really is.

Here are a few attempts at trying to keep my mind off the fact Hyrum is gone:

A boat ride on the Danube river through a beautiful rocky gorge

Spending money. I recently spent an undisclosed amount at OldNavy.com for new sunday/school shirts for the boys

Hanging out with my little man

Taking a trip to a Monastery (the oldest one in Bavaria). Here is Townsend outside the Monastery wall

Emerson posing outside the Monastery

A trip to the "Volksfest" complete with rides that made me want to vomit and overpriced fair food!

If you ask me if these distractions are working I will tell you...no, not really, but maybe I think the boys are having fun and that counts for something, right?