Memaw and Pappy's visit

 Memaw and Pappy came in on Friday!  We stopped in Rudesheim after they arrived.  

 This cute little village had lots of souvenir shops and restaurants.  

Lincoln got excited when he saw the little witches.  

 On Saturday, we took them to Idar Oberstein.  

The boys were excited to show them the castle and the church in the rock.

 Unfortunately, the castle is closed until November.

 The church was closed for a wedding!

 At least we all got a good workout climbing up to top anyway.

 We enjoyed a yummy lunch.

Of course, the fellas got ice cream for dessert!  It's been a nice relaxing weekend!

Lincoln lost his 1st tooth!

Lincoln noticed his tooth was loose and he was determined to get it out!

He wiggled and wiggled his tooth. Then, he picked out an apple and started eating it on the stairs.  We kept hearing him say, "Ouch!"  All of a sudden he says, "It's gone!"  

Ethan and I ran to look and it was gone, but we couldn't find the tooth.  We looked on and under the stairs.  NO tooth!  I finally asked him if it was in his apple and sure enough it was stuck in his apple.  

He told us that he thought the tooth fairy would leave him $20.  BUT, she only left him $5!

Ethan told him that it was the cutest little tooth he had ever seen!

More than we bargained for!

One of the HUGE reasons we chose this house was the outdoor space.  The back patio is amazing!  Last week, I was trying to show Sara where to park her car from the back patio and I realized that the bushes and shrubs were out of control.  You couldn't even see behind them!

  So, I talked Nate into taking out the shrub in this corner bed.  

Unfortunately, I took this picture after he had done a huge trim job!

               

He dug and dug for two nights!

Then the poor guy spent an evening hauling the mess away for me!  

Tonight he finished it off by adding more dirt and some flowers that we picked out tonight!  It looks so wonderful! The best part is we can now see out the back to show our friends where to park!  :)

Europa Park

On Saturday, we went to Europa park.  

 The park reminded us of Disney (mainly Epcot) a lot!  

The park is divided into different European countries.

 Germany had Grimm's Fairy Tale Village.  Here is the house from Hansel and Gretel.

 England had the Big Bus and the Crazy Taxi!

 They had some unique food choices.  This hotdog has chicken and pickles!
 We stuck to fish and chips for lunch and pasta for dinner.

 There were quite a few rides that Link was not tall enough for.  We found a pirate playground and he and I played while Ethan and Nate rode a roller coaster.

Ethan loved a roller coaster in the Switzerland section!

 These crazy drivers kept getting too close!

 Behind the fellas is a Venice canal.

 This ride was called Sleigh Ride Snowflake.  Let me tell you it was a lot like It's a Small World.

 Link and I found a few relaxing rides while Nate and Ethan went roller coaster riding again.

 When they came back, he told Ethan that we went on two rides.  Ethan said, "THAT'S NOT FAIR!!"  Link said, "Oh they weren't your kind of rides.  There was no action.  It was relaxing."  

 We saw princesses.  Not sure what they were from.

If you have any doubt that this place is like Disney, check out their mascots!!!

We had such a good time.  We are not sure when we will have time to go back, 

but I think we will have to try!

Dino Park

 It was a fun day at the Dino Park with friends today!  

 My pictures are HORRIBLE.  I had to chase the fellas down to get these few pix!

 One of my favorite things about Germany is that you can take food everywhere!  It's so common to see people picnicking!  Here the fellas are waiting for friends to finish up and take off running again!

My sweet Ethan holding hands with his buddy's brother!  

Welcome to the jungle.

                           We spent the evening trimming the jungle aka our bushes!

The boys HAD to help!  

The boys found scissors and decided to trim everything those little scissors would cut!

It took Nate two trips with the seats down to get all the trimmings cleared away.

This is an after shot of the patio.  (I wish I had thought to take a before.  You could not see into the patio because that bush and vine were taking over!!!  

Unfortunately, our water heater stopped working and we had to take cold showers after all this work!  Oh well!  It looks good!

Sunday in Turquoise

Mar sent the boys (including Nate) matching turquoise polos.  I found my matching skirt and we dressed up for church.  When we went to church, we got a few "CUTE" comments.  When we went to the BX after church, Nate said we got a few looks and whispers!  I don't care!  They won't let us dress them for too much longer! I need to make them match for as long as I can!