Playmobil FunPark

 Last Tuesday the weather was beautiful and some friends of ours asked if we wanted to go to Playmobil FunPark with them. The kids went last summer with my mom and dad and loved it so they were REALLY excited to go again AND they got to go with some of Laney's friends. It's a really cool park with lots of fun things to do. This was at the big pirate ship. Ty at first didn't want to cross the plank but then he did a little bit later. He looked at bit scared at first but by the end he was almost running across it not thinking about falling in the water at all.

 There are some really fun rafts where you have to pull yourself across and also some where you can just paddle around.

 Ty told me he DIDN'T like this bridge afterwards.

 The dinosaur part of the park. A cute little Ty-Rex being born....apparently he's a twin!! There was also a giant T-Rex that made loud roaring noises and every time it did Nyah looked up at me and started whimpering and she wouldn't go anywhere near it.

 Aaaah the lava is burning me. hahaha

 Laney spent a long time milking the cows. It was cute cause water came out of the utters. There were also an area where you could wash some Playmobil horses. Laney really wanted to do that but there were no available brushes. Next time!!

 Nyah shook these ladies hands for a loooong time.

 While Laney was watering the fake cows, Ty and the Durtschi boys were playing in the sand. Then they started burying each others feet and legs in the sand.

 Meanwhile, Nyah was checking out how the rocks at Playmobil compare to the rocks in Eschenbach.

 Laney's turn to have her feet buried.

 At the very end we let the big kids play and swim in the water playing area. They had a ton of fun. At one point they took turns doing push-ups in the water. I was chuckling to myself.

 Nyah LOVED the little kid water play area and got super wet.

 Ty fell in love with his whale at the big kid water play area.

All 3 kids getting wet. We could have stayed in this area for a lot longer...the kids had so much fun. Thanks for inviting us Durtschis!!

I Like the Fowers, I Like the Daffodils....

 HA I tricked you all....you thought we were all done and up to date. Not a chance!!! I remembered I had some more pictures on my camera. So....after the kids and I had been in Frankfurt for 2 weeks we gathered all our junk up and drove back to good ol' Eschenbach and the bright yellow house. We felt so lonely (Ü) but then luckly a couple of days later Zak called and asked if he could come visit when my dad was driving through. OF COURSE!!! (did he even have to ask?!?!) So Zak came and hung out with us and chased my crazy kids around. The kids and I had a blast. So much so that we forgot to take any pictures. Zak might have been a little bored and might never come back again but we loved having him here. When my dad drove back through again he picked up Zak (even though I clung onto his legs and tried to keep him here) and also took my first born in the desert....uh Laney, that is. She spent the weekend in Frankfurt all by lonesome!! Ü Ty, Nyah and I then drove up Tuesday to pick her up. We stayed to Friday and the drove back to the fluorescent yellow house again.

 BUT while we were there we did go a-flower-pickin'. It has been Laney dream for a while now to go pick flowers. She wishes that there was a field of wild flowers by our house and when she walks home from school she could just prance along and pick flowers to her heart's content. She's so cute. Although I do feel that we should have been skipping while we picked these.

 These were the flowers that we picked. Gladiolas. They were gorgeous.

 They were also other ones to pick but they didn't quite tickle our fancy.

It was quite muddy and so I made the kids take their shoes off before getting in the car. Zak had to hold the flowers whilst I helped the kids. He pretended to the "Flower Man" with flower-power!! After he had run around playing for a bit with the flowers and the kids and I had been waiting for him for while, I told him we had to go home and herded him back into the car. Ü

Nyah Turns 1.....again??!

 Since Nyah didn't really get a birthday cake and got the opportunity to dig into a cake all by herself I decided to make her a cake and try to get some cute pictures of her eating her cake.

 She kept eating those little fondant balls around the edge even though we were cheering for her to just dig in.

 Then we took the little fondant balls off and Ben dug a little hole in the cake to try to entice her. But the little lady was holding on to her convictions....no tempting this girl. She just poked some holes and that thought that was mighty funny.

 Finally we tried to give her a fork and THEN she started eating.

 "Uhm Laney, why you eating my cake?"

 I love her expression in this picture. hahaha

And I'm so sad that there are so many shadows in this picture. She looks like she just having a grand ol' time playing in the cake. Ü Happy Birthday little Ladybug. (and happy day to me....I think I'm finally caught up on my blogging.....yay!!)

I'm a Little Graduate....

♫♪...aren't you proud of me? I know my numbers and ABC's. I made lots of friends and had fun too. Now I'm off to the big kid school. ♪♫

 Ty was so excited for his graduation and that he got to wear a cap and gown. He marched in to the room so proudly, sat down and started singing his songs they had practiced and then....he must have looked around the room and realized how many parents were looking at him because suddenly he got a horrified look on his face and totally froze. The rest of the, luckily short program he was just sitting there trying to be brave and not cry. Poor little feller. But he made it through and we are so proud of hime.

 His class.

 Ooooh isn't he just the most handsome little graduate you have ever seen?! Ü He got to keep his cap and has proudly worn it to show everybody who comes over.

 Aaah cupcakes makes everything better.

Nürnberg Zoo

 For Memorial Day we decided to go to the Nürnberg Zoo since we had to go into Nürnberg anyways to order Nyah's passport. We really liked the Zoo especially these cute little monkeys that just came out and walked across the rope to the other side. It. was. awesome!!

 The happy little Ty-man at the Zoo.

 Ty really likes tigers and we spent a good amount of time hoping this guy would start walking around a bit.

 After we left we suddenly heard this REALLY loud roaring, moaning noise. We hurried back to the bears, tigers, and lions and saw it was the tiger you had moved and was roaring. It was pretty cool.

 The happy lady in one of her happier moments. She missed naps and was getting pretty tired and ornery by the end of the day. But what a trooper.

 These cool vultures were just sitting really still with they wings out sunning themselves. It was awesome. When we first walked over to them I seriously thought they were statues. And they were so close to the fence too.

 We spent a loooong time watching the 2 cute polar bear cubs running around playing. They were so cute.

 Our cute kids watching the seals. It looks like we're missing a child between Ty and Nyah. Ü

 Laney and Ty totally surprised us at the petting zoo and immediately started petting the goats. Normally they are so shy and timid with animals. I guess we need a goat for a pet. hmmm maybe it could help us out with the lawn mowing too. I'll have to pitch this idea to our landlord. hahaha

 Such cute little baby goats and they made the cutest noises.

 Ty petting a goat.

 There were lots of baby animals at the zoo. Just look at this cute little Shetland Pony baby. (Yes I realize baby animals have other REAL names...like foal...but when you are a mom, you're allowed to call all of them babies...uhm okay!)

 And this cute little llama baby!

It was a pretty sweaty day and we consumed our share of ice creams and popsicles throughout the trip. By the end Nyah was getting tired and angry with all of us and just wanted her own popsicle.....so she stole Ben's, which was okay because it made her happy. What a nice dad!! Ü

For some reason I really really liked the rhino. I mean look at his skin. It's like armor. Anyway, that was our trip to the Nürnberg Tiergarten as Laney (and the Germans) like to call it. I'm sure we'll be back before too long.

Nyah - 12 Months

I decided for Nyah's 12 month picture I wanted to recreate her very first ones that I did. Obviously she couldn't be sleeping for this one or all hell would have broken loose. And it definitely wasn't as easy!! Ü

*you’re not walking anymore….you run!!*

*anytime somebody closes any door you get sad. Maybe you’re worried you’ll miss something fun*

*you have 4 teeth on top and 3 on the bottom*

*you love to cuddle and you give the best hugs*

*you say ‘tak’, ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ and you copy a lot of the tones in the things we say*

*you LOVE to dance*

*you try to jump and do somersaults*

*you like to flirt with people you see when we are out and about*

*you make the funniest faces and have us all laughing*

*you are good at getting your point across to us without just crying*

*you are into EVERYTHING*

*you often do things you know you shouldn’t do and then look at us and shake your head*

*you like to sing especially “wavin’ flag”*

*you warm up to people pretty quickly*

+you are just the happiest, cutest little girl and we love you to pieces +