Beaver Dams, Bamberg and Beautiful Days

This post is brought to you by the letter B.

B is for Beaver Dam. The boys created this "beaver dam" yesterday. I did make them stack all the wood back up after they were done but it kept them busy for a few minutes and I thought it was pretty creative of them to think of building a "beaver dam."

B is for Busy Boys. Of course it's not OK for Emerson to climb on a 200 year old fountain, but you try and tell him not to!!!!

B is for Bayreuth. This is Emerson trying to figure out how tiny rocks can float on top of pond scum in the park in Bayreuth. "Mom, rocks are supposed to sink but these rocks float. Why?"

B is for Bang. Townsend throwing rocks at the ducks in the pond. I know he should probably not do this but you try and tell him not to!

B is for Blue Boys Building Beaver Barracks. I think this photo speaks for itself. Yeah, those are their pajamas. I figure they only get Saturday morning to run around and play now that they are in school and their favorite thing is to run around in their jammies, so I let them.

B is for Bamberg. I took a day trip to the city of Bamberg with my Stake Relief Society. We had a professional tour guide and it was very beautiful and interesting. I would love to get back to this city when I have a bit more time to walk around and explore. I had to rush back home to pick up the boys from school. (I was actually 20 minutes late picking up the boys...thank you Mrs. Riggans for keeping an eye on them for me!)

B is for Baby Blue Eyes. My man Jules playing outside on his swing.

My boys love water

Ever since my twins were little they have loved water. Bath time was their favorite part of the day. They loved swimming and splashing at wading pools or in sprinklers. And now, it seems that Julian is following his brothers in his love for water. Even when the weather is cool and we have gone to the pool or lake Julian has loved splashing and playing in the water.

I'm glad we have taken advantage of the warm weather this summer and spent many days in the water. The high temperature for today is only 57!

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!!