Halloween Party

The girls before we left for our Halloween Party.  Snow White still wasn't so sure she wanted her picture taken.



But she had a great time bowling,



pin the nose on the pumpkin (even though I couldn't convince her to put on the blindfold),



and decorating/eating pumpkin cookies.  This child had a sugar high like I have never seen before when we got home.



Sidney with her buddy Darci



They had fun playing with all the toys they had set out for the little ones.



Ever since the party Carolyn has been talking about all the costumes that we saw.  She was very impressed with the mom dressed as Jessie  and Batman became her buddy too.  She keeps saying mom I hope I can see Batman again someday.



We don't know if they will do trick or treating in our neighborhood so we are headed to the Trunk or Treat they have at the base tonight.

Costumes

She doesn't look happy does she.



If you had asked Carolyn what she was going to be for Halloween she would say Alice in Wonderland right away.  Even though I ordered her Alice costume on Oct 2 it still has yet to make it here.  Thank goodness for her Snow White dress up costume.  I had a little mom guilt over her not getting to be what she wanted to be for Halloween, but then I realized that if that is all the child has to complain about she has a pretty good life.

Needless to say even though she doesn't look happy here she had a ball at the Halloween party we went to this morning and hasn't talked about Alice again.  I think Santa might be bringing her an Alice in Wonderland dress up costume now.

Photography

I started this blog because I don't write anything down, I don't scrapbook, and I felt weird constantly sending out pictures of my kids to family.  Now if they want to see what my kids are up to they can just come here.  I am eventually going to print this out and hope that Carolyn and Sidney want to read it one day.

My love of Photography has also come into play with the blog.  After Sidney was born I realized that I needed some kind of outlet other than the girls to put my energy into.  I love staying home with the girls and feel VERY fortunate being able to do so; however, two kids under three all day long can be a lot somedays.  So I started learning how to take pictures with my Canon Rebel that I had had for years but had never taken it off auto mode.  This must be a trend because once I started trying to figure out my camera I found all these websites like Pioneer Woman and I heart faces which have tons of tutorials.  When we found out we were moving to Germany we decided to upgrade my camera and lenses.

I took pictures of someone other than my children for the first time this past Saturday.  I am not ready to make this into a business, I feel like I have sooooo much more to learn.  But I did have so much fun getting these shots (even though it was cold and Jonathan really didn't want his picture taken) and even more fun editing them.  Just thought I would share a couple I was proud of.

Berry Fairy

For the past two years I have tried to convince Carolyn to be one of the Fairy costumes that Gymboree always does for Halloween with no success. If Sidney is anywhere as opinionated as her sister is, then this is my last year to pick out her Halloween costume. So of course I had to get the Fairy costume and how unbelievably cute is she!

From behind even cuter. Even Carolyn was impressed. And yes it will be layered over tights and turtlenecks and whatever else we need to brave the German elements.

Sidney has been teething like a mad woman. She has been sticking her tongue out a lot I guess feeling the teeth. Who knows?

La Falote

Sidney's bedtime is 7:30...sometimes earlier. Carolyn goes to bed at 8. When we were in Amsterdam we didn't make it to the hotel until after 7 that night. We had not eaten, so we were just planning on grabbing something quick by our hotel. The owner of the hotel checked us in and when we asked where a good place to eat was he said, ""Do you like mussels? Uh...YES! He said that a friend of his owned a restaurant around the corner and was having all you can eat mussel party. The hotel owner was about to leave to go to it and he said he would call and see if there was room for us. About 2 minutes later he returned to the lobby with a big smile on his face.

When we arrived at La Falote, Peter, the owner/head chef of the restaurant greeted us. He welcomed us and said to make ourselves at home. He explained that one weekend out of the year he shuts his restaurant down and has private mussel parties. Traditionally he serves 600 kilos of mussels to his loyal patrons, friends, and family. Most people that were in attendance come every year. He had someone unexpectedly not be able to come, hence how we got our table. Before we started dinner he went around and briefly introduced each table in Dutch of course, but because of his body language we could kind of get the gist of what he was communicating.

The food was incredible.

Even though it was way past the girls bedtime they were great. They were throughly entertained by the man playing the accordion all throughout our dinner.

And they both ate the mussels. The waitress kept bringing out bowls and bowls of mussels.

After a while they handed out song books. I wish I could have kept one so I could have figured out what we were singing in Dutch. Then Peter the owner came out with his own accordion and the whole restaurant proceeded to break out in song.

Carolyn had had such long day and was so good! She sat up in my lap for a while and then in Brian's and then she just laid down and went to sleep. I think the accordion and the chorus of Dutch music lulled her to sleep.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Since Chris's flight was out of Amsterdam on Monday we decided to go on up Sunday.

Last December, Brian went to Amsterdam for a week for work. He had such an awesome experience there, and it inspired him to pursue our assignment in Germany...after some lengthy discussions with me. He explained this restaurant with a playground right outside and the kids were running back and forth from the eating area to the playground, and their parents were eating and drinking as they watched their kids play. Sunday, as we were looking for the Van Gogh museum, we saw a playground and Brian said, "This is it, this is the place that made me want to live here." Hard to believe that less than a year later we live here and our kids were playing at that playground.

Got to love the Dutch swings. Sidney looks a little frightened but they actually both could have stayed there all day.

We tried to convince Carolyn to take a picture on top of the I amsterdam sign. Behind her is the Rijksmuseum.

We didn't realize that there was a marathon going on until we arrived. We were on our way to do a canal boat tour and we couldn't cross the street because of the marathon. It was either stand in the cold and wait for it to be over or go to the Heineken Experience. So we opted for the warmth. The girls actually really enjoyed the tour. Carolyn loved seeing the Heineken horses and they had a little 4D movie that both girls liked.

Carolyn was such a trooper that day. We did a lot of walking.

Finally we got to do our boat tour.

I loved the tour. Perfect way to see the city since we didn't have that much time there. I also loved seeing all of the house boats on the canal. Our driver was so nice. He let the girls take turns driving the boat. First Sidney.

Then Carolyn with Sidney as her copilot of course.

Then he let them both sit up front with him.

Such a great day. We didn't end up checking into our hotel until after 7 that night. Our dinner later is a whole other post.

Leuven, Belgium

Brian's cousin Chris has been hiking through India for the past month so on his way home he stopped in to stay with us for a couple of days. It was a great excuse to go check out more towns near us. We headed to Leuven, Belgium on Saturday. It is a University town and known as the beer capital of Belgium.

The architecture here was breathtaking.

We didn't want to get the girls out of the stroller for picture time. We need to work on our stroller angle but Sid is back there.

I loved the statues on top of this building.

Europeans must have super bladders because you can't find a bathroom here to save your life. We have learned the hard way to use the bathroom whenever we find one no matter how much we have to pay(you pay on average .30 - .50 Euro to go to the bathroom here). With a three year old that needs frequent bathroom breaks a lot of times the only way we can find one is by stopping at one of the cafes and having a drink/snack. But we all enjoy our bathroom breaks. :)

This is the University Library. It was beautiful. I don' t know why the bug is on the needle in front of it though?

Carolyn always wants to do group hugs. It was cold that day we needed to do a group hug.

Sidney was sleeping during our hug. So sweet.

Carolyn stayed warm by chasing after the pigeons.

And of course since we were in Belgium we had to try the chocolates. Best chocolate I have ever had. I wish I could bottle the smell of the shop.

Pumpkin Island

On Saturday we headed to Pumpkin Island which is right near Dusseldorf, Germany.

I have yet to go somewhere in Germany be it the zoo or a pumpkin patch where they don't serve beer. This pumpkin patch even had a bar beach.

How cute are these three. They are all within a month of each other.

Carolyn loved the pumpkins.

They had a pirate ship made out of hay bails set up that she wanted to spend most of her time at.

This is Jonathan, the Jonathan that Carolyn locked herself in a bathroom at his birthday party. So to me this is how this picture goes.

Carolyn : Jonathan I am sorry I messed up your birthday party.

Jonathan: Dude it's OK

Sidney: Whatcha doing with my man

This is just a picture of Sid that I got from that day that I love.

After the pumpkin patch we went to another little town near there and ate a great lunch. The menu was in German but the waitress spoke some English. Brian asked her what a dish was and she started laughing saying she couldn't explain it. She told him it was good though and he said he would take it. When it came it was SPAM with a fried egg on top. Doesn't matter what language you speak there is no explaining SPAM. Too funny.

Playlist

Carolyn has always loved music and been pretty opinionated about what she wanted to listen too. Now that we are here we listen to our Ipod most of the time in the car and she has quite an eclectic playlist.

Normally she will always ask for the song about the frogs first

Dig the Ribbet-The Hatters

Then the song about love

When it's love-Van Halen

The old song (this became the old song because Brian told her he used to listen to this when he was little)

West End Girls-The Pet Shop Boys

The song about ants

Ants Marching-Dave Matthews Band

The song about sailing

Ship of fools-Robert Plant

Song about the dog

Smelly ole dog blues-Scott Henderson

She is so her father's daughter.

Tantrums

I have a theory. German kids don't seem to have tantrums and for that matter when I am in the Netherlands I don't hear many Dutch kids having tantrums either. My theory was further confirmed when we drove to Ramstein Air Force Base this weekend. It is a huge base that has a shopping area that looks like a mall. As soon as we got there the familiar noise of screaming American children could be heard. I do not know what the Germans/Dutch do differently but I am going to try to find out.

We had a gorgeous drive to Ramstein. We drove through the Mosel Valley and could see all the grape vines. Fall is in full force here so the leaves are starting to change. I also got to drive on the Autobahn for the first time. For about 30 minutes and then Brian said I was making him nervous and he wants me to go practice by myself without the kids in the car. In his defense I do not have the best track record when it comes to driving. I have managed to hit a deer and a dog at the same time on an Interstate in SC.

Here's a picture of my pseudo-German/Dutch tantrum free girls from the trip. They just started holding hands and

zoning out right before they fell asleep. So sweet.