Eiffel Tower in Paris

The Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was a cloudy, rainy day. We saw it in the afternoon, and then again with it lit at night (in the rain).

Lunch in Wiesbaden

Today we stayed in Wiesbaden. We booked train tickets to Paris, and then went shopping a little. This is a picture of us eating outside at a cafe. It was very good! Beautiful weather - 70ish.

Blogging from Germany

Wanted to try blogging from Germany. Don't think I will have a lot of time to do this, but wanted to get a few pictures on. When I go to blogger - it is in German - at least I have done this a few times and know what to click on.

At the Wiesbaden train station. These are statue suitcases.



















Trying German beer.














Next to the Stein Bear.



















This is a picture of the East Side Gallery. It is part of the original Berlin Wall that artists painted on it.














This is the Brandenburg Gate. This is one of the central points of where the Berlin Wall was. It got destroyed in WWII and they rebuilt it.

Dying Easter Eggs

We dyed Easter eggs today, since I will be gone over Easter. The kids had a blast.




























The finished eggs.














Our family's names on the eggs.














Eating some of the eggs. Yum!
Allyson loves the whole egg, but Caden only eats the white part of the egg.

Electricity

Friday evening our electricity was acting funny. When our heat pump would run, the electricity would go dim and get brighter. After our fish fry (see earlier post), we put the kids to bed, and I was in bed reading, and noticed the electricity still doing the dim and brighter thing. We decided to brave the cold and turn the heat pump off as someone was coming out in the morning to look at it.
I went back to read, and the electricity still was acting up.
I started unplugging things and walked into the kitchen and smelled hot. I was really worried at this point. I got the kids from their bedrooms and put them both in our bed.
Broc then decided to call the electric company and report the problem. (we knew at this point it wasn't the heat pump!)
About the same time, we noticed that one of our neighbors didn't have any electricity. (the security lights and all were out).
The electric company called back saying that they would send a truck out to check things out. A little after that, we lost all power for about 20 minutes.














It turned out that something happened to a transformer about 1/2 mile down the road, and blew a fuse on our electric input.














All was fixed and we could turn the heat back on and go to bed.

Fish Fry

Last weekend Broc and Brian went fishing in SD and caught Walleye. We got together with Brian and Doni, Dan and Dana, and Darin and Amy. Brian fried the fish. YUM!














All of our kids play so well together.
Allyson is "reading" Star Wars books with Ava.














Caden loves to play Wii.

It's finally here!

My passport came in the mail on Saturday! I am so excited. My mom, sister, aunt Dianne, cousin Tessa and I will be flying to Germany in 1 week to see Trent and also to sight see!

Carly's 2nd Birthday

Saturday, we helped Carly celebrate her 2nd birthday! We had a great evening, and had fun watching Carly open her gifts.

????

Yes - I am still here - just eagerly anticipating higher speed internet. We are on the waiting list for them to come out and get us set up. Then I will be all set to catch up on posting. I have been slowly updating our Project 365 blog - so continue to check that. (I am a little behind - Day 46?) - but be assured that I am still taking daily pictures and will post hopefully soon!

Thoughts...

Yesterday when I picked up the kids from daycare, there was an incident report for me to sign. I took it home with me to read better and bring back. Reported on it was as follows...
Caden kicked another child during circle time after being told to be quiet. When I discussed this with Caden, I asked him,
"Did you kick anyone today?"
"Yes"
"Why did you kick?"
"Because she told me to "shut-up"!"
Okay - be quiet vs shut up! I don't think that kicking is right, but in his defense - if a little girl (younger) told me to shut up - I wouldn't be too thrilled either.
We then talked about better ways to handle the situation. (Like - ignore the comment, turn your head so that you don't have to listen to that person, etc.) Usually I tell the kids is someone is bugging them or doing something they don't like to "just walk away". I tried that answer again this time, but the kids informed me that they couldn't get up and move because they were in circle time. Time for creative thinking on mom's part!