The end of school countdown has begun!

Lincoln started the end of school countdown this week.  The countdown may have started because BOTH of the fellas have been in trouble at school.  Last week, Ethan brought home TWO forms on two separate days for bad behavior.  The first was for throwing an eraser and hitting someone in the eye (she was ok).  The second was for not running the track after his teacher asked him to.  Nate and I were shocked!  This kid is NEVER in trouble at school!
Link got in trouble yesterday for turning the lights off at school and then hitting his teacher (YES I said TEACHER) when she told him he was going to get a two.  He ended up with a three!
So, the end of school countdown is in full force!  Twenty more days!!!

Homework

 Ethan's teacher assigns 95% of his homework online.  He has a reading program, math program, and spelling program that he logs onto and does his assignments.  

Ethan comes straight home and gets to business!

Ethan's teacher also gave Lincoln access to the reading and math programs.  

Thankfully, we have the Ipad and they can work simultaneously.  

Today was the first day that neither one of them needed my help.  

They came straight into the house and got to work.  

Lincoln listened to his story, read it out loud, and then took a quiz on the story independently!  

The coolest thing is that he is reading on a mid-1st grade level!  I am so proud of that guy! 

I am so thankful to have fellas that I don't need to argue or fight with to do their homework.  

K-I-S-S

Lincoln:  So Mom, on the bus, Riley was singing, "K-I-S-S in a tree to me and Haleigh."  We are certainly not in love.

Stinking stinging nettles.

Everything has greened up here.  The weather is gorgeous and the fellas were playing outside last night when we hear Lincoln crying.  He was holding his arm, but nothing was there.  I thought it might be sprained.  

Within a few minutes, his wrist was swollen and had these bumps all over.  He told me that he should probably stay home today.  After rubbing some Benadryl on his wrist, the bumps disappeared.....and he is at school today!

Keukenhof Gardens

Friday evening, we drove to the Netherlands!

 We got up early Saturday to head to Keukenhof Gardens to see the Tulips.

 The tulips took our breath away as soon as we walked in!

 We attempted to do the kid scavenger hunt, but it was HARD!

 I only took 264 pictures!  

 We went to the top of the windmill and the worker had on wooden shoes.

 The garden had a maze and inside the maze was a platform you could climb to see the fields.  

 We ate in their British cafe.  They had made Big Ben and Tower Bridge from the tulips.  

 Jenn and I found a snail in a tulip.

 I asked a guy if he would take a picture of the six of us.  This is what we found on the camera.  

 These may be the two worst pictures out of the 264.

 As we left the garden, the GPS accidentally took us down the path right off the fields.  The road happened to be a dead end, but we got to see this!  

As I stepped out of the car to take this picture, the smell of the hyacinth was amazing!  

In the end we drove almost 13 hours to see these flowers, and they were worth it!  

We are already planning on returning next year!  

Castle touring

 Jenn, Aaron, and I have been castle touring for the past three days.  The first day we let Aaron sleep in and then headed to Burg Lichtenberg.  Aaron really enjoyed the rock/fossil museum.  

Day two we went to Heidelberg.  We went on an English tour and Aaron was not fan. 

 Today, we went to the castle in Lohr am Main (Snow White's castle). 

Aaron enjoyed this one much more.  

Tomorrow, we are going to take a break from castle touring and take him to the Technik Museum!

The Hills are alive in Germany

Jenn and Aaron came to visit!

 This boy has grown!!!!

 To attempt to keep them up we stopped at Castle Reichtenstein on the Rhine.

 Aaron was super excited to see a castle.  This little room had a skeleton.

 Aaron is quite funny.  On the way home, he asked me why I kept laughing at him.  I told him he was so funny.  He said, "Yeah.  I am funny all the time!"  

 We have a fun week ahead of us.  We plan on doing fun day trips every day!