Buddies

Ethan's teacher wrote all the parents today to tell us that the student's behavior in the hallway today was horrible!  He said that they were so loud another teacher came out to tell them to quiet down!  Ethan's teacher wrote me personally to let me know that Ethan was not one of the loudest (but he was still talking).  He also told me that he had to separate his buddy from him because Chase loves Ethan so much and that he thinks the feeling is mutual!  While I was not happy that he was talking the hall, I am so thrilled that he has a good buddy!
When he got home, Nate asked him what he was talking about in the hallway.  He said, "I was asking if he watched that guy jump from outer space!"  I have to admit that was really cool!!!  :)  

Acht

 Look who is eight!

Happy B/day to my awesome eight year old!!

A few of his favorites:

Song-Call Me Maybe

TV Show-Ninjago

Food-Bacon

Hobby-Making Paper Airplanes

Sport-Soccer

Board Game-Life

Black Forest

After a crazy day at Volksfest, we decided to enjoy a quiet day in the Black Forest!  The drive down to Triberg was just like the pictures you see in books!

I had MAJOR flashbacks to my family vacation to Colorado in the 6th grade.  Every few miles, my parents would say, "OH MY GOODNESS!  This is GORGEOUS!!"  I think I said that a few hundred times today!

We stopped in Triberg because the House of 1000 clocks is here!  We knew that we were going to get our good friends a Cuckoo clock.  We have never wanted one because I think that constant cuckooing would drive me insane!  The guy who sold us the clock showed us that you can turn off the cuckoo!  So, we ended up with one, as well!  

After seeing all the dirndls and lederhosen yesterday, we stopped in a shop to see all the different styles you could get.  Did you know that REAL lederhosen start at 100 euro.  They are made of leather.  I had no idea until we got here.  A dirndl can cost well over 100 euro, too!  

We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant.  We enjoyed lunch with two cute knights!

Today is Ethan's b/day.  So, we ordered Black Forest Cake for lunch.  When the waiter set it down, all you could smell was the liquor!  It was so strong.  The cake was practically inedible.  The boys and I ate the cream and that was about it!

Triberg has a large waterfall.  It had rained all night and I only brought suede boots, so we passed on hiking up the falls.  They were pretty!

This is the self proclaimed largest cuckoo clock in the world.  

The poor kids had to endure us stopping every few miles to take pictures!  The pictures do not do it justice.  The drive was breathtaking!

This village is at the bottom of a hill and has a cobblestone street.

We stopped at Cafe Konig in Baden Baden.   We stopped here with the Prices in August.  Nate had to try their Black Forest Cake!  It was so much better than the cake in Triberg!

This weekend was so fun!  I love our three day weekends!!!

Stuttgart Volksfest

Welcome to Stuttgart's version of Oktoberfest!!!  I knew we were in for a treat when we saw two YOUNG girls on the train to Stuttgart drinking Champagne straight out of a bottle.  Of course, they were wearing Dirndls, traditional German dresses.

There were rides, beer tents, and lots of people!!!!

The boys are both taking a class at school called Host Nation.  Their teacher is a German guy that they call Herr Schuster.  All we can figure out is that he tells them all kinds of random German travel information.  We learned a few weeks ago that we should have gone to Bad Durkheim to the wine festival.  The latest info he gave them is that if the boys go to Oktoberfest to stay clear of the bumper cars because German kids can fall out of them!  Of course, the fellas wanted to try them out!

Guess who saw a pirate ship and HAD to ride it??

After enough carny rides, we stopped into a beer tent for some lunch.  As we walked in, the band started playing Sweet Caroline.  It was HILARIOUS to hear the Germans singing it!

Just a few people here!

 It was so LOUD and crowded, but it was a cool experience.  It's nothing like the Biergarten in Epcot!  hahah!

 This was the "tent" we went into.  It also looks nothing like a tent!

 We took a ride on one of the ferris wheels to get perspective from the air!  This place is HUGE!

 The boys spotted cotton candy.  In german it's called zucker watt.  It tastes the same!   YUMMY!

 Our plan was to make it until dinner.  That did not happen.  I had a few panic attacks. There were soooo many people!  I definitely have some crowd claustrophobia!  We made it to about 3:30, and then got back on the train for the hotel.  Nate fell fast asleep.  

About five minutes into the car ride, the fellas fell fast asleep!  We had a good time.  I am glad that we went to get a feel for how the REAL Oktoberfest is.  I can start planning my panic attacks for next year!

Leaf Day in Kindergarten

 Lincoln's Kindergarten class had Leaf Day today, and I got to help!  The lady helping him is Mrs. Hall.  She is the aid in the classroom and he loves her.  She loves to spoil all the children, and I am pretty sure he takes FULL advantage of that fact!

 I stayed at one center and he rotated around.  He was so excited to be doing the projects that he didn't even miss me!  

 I snuck next door to get a picture of him.  This is Emma, a friend in his class, who also rides the bus with him.  

 One of the last centers was his favorite.  They put leaves in the water and then put pennies on the leaves to sink the leaves.  They counted how many pennies it took to sink each leaf.

I had so much fun watching him at school.  Nate and I always knew how Ethan would be at school.  He is such a rule follower.  We were curious how Link would be.  He is definitely more outgoing than I thought he would be.  Mrs. Hudnall told me that he is very smart and that when he gets into mischief, he looks at her and grins!  

Random

    I started work this week!  So far, I am loving it!  I am only working a few hours each week.  As we get more clients, my hours will increase.  Each afternoon, Lincoln asks me if I went to work and then what I did with the kids.  Honestly, starting work again has inspired me to work on his speech again.  He made so much improvement last year.  He only has that stubborn /r/ sound to work on.  We have added it to his "homework."  Each day we spend about five minutes and practice.  He is really such an easy "client."  I don't know why I didn't start working on that /r/ earlier.  He will get it so quickly!
Today, he asked me if I went to work and then told me that I should take him to my office.  He said, "I am one of your speech kids.  We should practice at your office."  I told him that I prefer the couch!

    On another random note, we have FOUR garbage bins:  one for paper, one for compost, one for plastic and metal, and one for trash.  The recyclables go in a clearish yellow garbage bag that is apparently free at the city hall.  We just learned they were free....we bought them at a German grocery store last time.  As I was googling where the city hall was, I found out that our village has a Stalactite Cave.  The craziest thing is that this sign is right next to our house!!!!!  Tropfsteinhohle is the cave!  We've been here since July and I had no idea!!!  I googled the Tropfsteinhohle in Erzenhausen and found a youtube video of a guy going in it!  We will NOT be going in there!  It looks scary!!!
  You Tube Erzenhausen Tropfsteinhohle link

Bike Rider

 We decided to take Link out on his bike without training wheels!  He has been zooming around on his balance bike and we both had a good idea that he could do it!

 His only problem was getting distracted! He would see something to the side and turn his whole bike.  Notice how he is in the grass near the horses.

 It didn't take but a minute for Nate to let go.  Of course, Link didn't know that he was letting go.  He kept turning around to make sure Nate was holding on.  

 As we got to the stopping spot, Nate said, "Whew, that was a workout."  So Link says, "Let's do some push-ups!"  Of course, Daddy was not going to say no!

I brought some yummy chocolate for a treat!  After our stop, the boys took off!  Poor Nate! He had already worked out for the day and now he had to run all the way home with them!!

We were both so excited that he is already doing so well!!!