Bonanza Ranch

We took the boys and Emma to Bonanza Ranch in Katzweiler to ride horses today.  

Ethan rode a SLOW pony named Maya.

Lincoln rode a crazy, stubborn pony named Bonny.  

Ethan said his horse was very obedient....in other word's slow!

Link's crazy horse kept dragging me to the ditches so she could eat weeds. 

She also wanted to go FAST!  In fact, we let Ethan's horse take the lead and 

Bonny pushed Ethan's horse with her nose!  Ethan's horse pulled 

over so Bonny would pass him!  

Emma's horse was just right....not too fast and not too slow!

STEAM Night

 On Friday night, the boy's school put on Science, Technology, Engineering, 

Art, and Mathematics Night.  

 Ethan's science experiment about how much rain Erzenhausen, Germany gets in the month of March was on display in the library along with the other fourth and fifth grade projects.  

 Julian went with us.  The boys loved visiting all the projects and playing the games. 

 Lincoln and Julian were happy to show us their water filters.  

 Ethan tried out almost all of the math centers.  

 Link was happy just watching.  :)

 The kids have been learning to play the handbells.  

 They were pretty good!!

Ethan is very serious about his music!  

It was fun seeing what they have been learning at school.  

God definitely has a sense of humor!

The boys and I have been (slowly) reading I Samuel.  While Ethan was at baseball, Link took a long bath and I read a few more chapters to him tonight.   He loves hearing about the Philistine/Israel battles.  When bedtime arrived, I tucked him in and started our normal prayers.  The boys are very ritualist in their prayers.  They have to be the same three and in order!  

Tonight, Link interrupted me and said, "And Lord, thank you for not closing my mom's womb up like Hannah's!"  Then, he started cracking up and said, "Do you think God is laughing at that too?"  YES, Lincoln!  God thinks you are hilarious.....just like I do!

Mother's Day Weekend!

 I have declared this weekend Mother's Day Weekend.  I just don't think one day is enough!  I started on Friday with a Mother's Day lunch with Lincoln.  The school invited the mothers for lunch.  Lincoln was excited to have me, but Ethan wanted to spend the time with his friends.   

So, I gave him a quick hug and let him alone!  

 On Saturday, we started our morning off watching Ethan's baseball game!  He made an amazing play at second base and got the runner out on first!  It was such a great play!  After the game, we drove to France and bought a set of everyday dishes!  We go the green, red, blue, and brown dishes behind Ethan!  They are amazing!  I have been wanting them for about two years now!

 The Michel Streissel store is my favorite store in Soufflenheim!  His colors and patterns are gorgeous!

 We were lucky to have Bri and Julian join us for the afternoon!  It so much fun with friends along!

Tomorrow we are joining our other neighborhood friends at our village's restaurant for brunch!  

We have the best friends!  It's so fun celebrating with good people!  

Battle of the Books

Ethan woke up this morning and put on jeans and a nice polo (this picture is from this weekend).
I told him he looked very handsome.  He said, "Today is Battle of the Books.  It's at 9:00 if you want to come."  WHAT?  Today? Thanks for the heads up, buddy!   I had to work and was not able to make it, but his team won!  He was super excited!  We knew about Battle of the Books the first week of school.  The local schools have a big list of books and if the children read 10 books (I think it's 10), they are able to compete.  The kids that read at least ten books practice for the battle once a week at lunch.  In all honesty, he was not thrilled to read the books.  I really pushed him to participate.  Once the lunch practices started, he was excited!  His team's win today was all worth it!  I am super proud of him!

Reims, France

We went to Reims, France this weekend.  It's in the Champagne region of France.

 We had a tour booked at a local Champagne House.  

We were early so we took a peek at the abbey up the street.

 Our tour was at Pommery Champagne House.

 We headed down to the 18 kilometers of caves for our tour.

 The tour lasted an hour and told us about how the champagne was bottled.  

 This particular champagne house had LOTS of modern art in the caves.

 This room/inlet held 65,340 bottles.  

Link asked how many bottles the champagne house had and she told him 2 million bottles. 

 These are the oldest bottles in the caves.

 The bottles were found on a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.

 We had 6 glasses for a tasting.  

 Of course, our favorite was a 190 bottle of champagne!  We have good taste!

After our tour, we walked to Reim's Notre Dame.  

 

We also walked to the Museum of Surrender where the Germans signed the peace treaty.

The map room.  

 Of course, we stopped to get pastries! 

We had a great weekend!  Like usual, it was too short!

Promotion Ceremony

 Nate was promoted to Lt. Col. on Wednesday!

He asked his boss Doug to officiated the ceremony.

 The boys and I pinned on his rank.

 Both of the boys were bound and determined to put the shoulder boards on and button them back!

 I think Ethan thought it was a competition.  He was smiling because he "won."  

 Nate's speech was very sweet!  AND...I got some beautiful flowers!  

My besties!  We are super lucky to have some great friends!

Nate had an amazing turnout of friends and coworkers!

We had a great group of kids too!  

I was able to find someone to make him a cake with buttercream and almond extract!  

The best part is there were lots of leftovers!  

The promotion ceremony was terrific!