Devil's Table

Today is Wednesday, which means it's field trip day. Our ward has planned activities every Wednesday and Friday for families with young children. Parks, pools, playgrounds, etc. Today we went to a playground called Devil's Table. Why is it called that? Well, there is a cool rock formation that looks like a table, and if you want to climb up to it, you have one devil of a time, so I think that was the reason behind the name. It was about 45 minutes away, and once again I gotta tell you how nice it is to have a movie player in the car. The kids watched Horton Hears A Who (checked out from the air force library) and there was peace in the car for most of the drive. Once we got to the playground, the kids quickly found some cool electric cars to ride around on. Jaxon wants to get one for his own personal use at home. He actually popped a tire on his after a while and I am just waiting for the Polizei to show up and fine me for leaving the scene of an accident and not reporting it to the proper authorities. We just put the car back quietly and walked away. Mason was a little too young to ride one by himself, but his big sister helped out in that department. They had a blast!







The park has a great huge long slide that we all, yes even me, slid down. Regretfully, there are no pictures of me going down with Ella and Mason. We had fun. There are huge big rock steps to climb in order to get to the top of the slide. Ella walked up the steps, two times, all by herself. Mason? I carried him both times. The funny part was when he said halfway up, "My legs are tired!" Really? Good thing today wasn't legs and back with Tony. Here are Colton and Jaxon going down the slide:



And here are Ella and Mason on a smaller slide:


No German park is complete without a zipline:



We found a cool big swing to relax in for a few minutes.



And I don't know what to call this swing-like device but the kids loved it too!


And it seems lately that no German outing is complete until we've had the following to eat:

Pommes (french fries) and lollipops. (No idea why Ella has that look on her face.)

After the park we had to go to the KMCC and pick up things Jaxon needs for his Boy Scout Camp next week. He was in heaven looking at all the cool camping stuff. "Can I have this?" he would ask. "Uh, Jax, its a huge machete, I don't think you're gonna need it." "How about this?" "Hmm...huge knife, probably not a good idea."
We found pretty much everything he needed and a few things he wanted. Like this:

He really wanted a flask. I know, I know what USUALLY goes in there, but he wanted it for water. So I caved. Oh, his haircut? You noticed that? Yup, that was another reason we had to go to the KMCC. It was getting long and he needed a trim. Guess who he got to cut his hair? The scary lady!! There is one hair stylist there that has huge big scary lookin' hair and a scowl on her face most of the time. She turned out to be super nice and said Jaxon's hair is great and fun to cut. She even gave the kids more lollipops. So, now we learned that appearances can be deceiving. Moral lessons and a hair cut. Not a bad deal for under $12.
Here he is with his new hair cut:


But out of all the things we saw today, my favorite one was this:

The BX already has Back To School stuff out!! Its still June!! Hee Hee!!!

Mail Day

Since Sean is no longer working at Tripler for the next 6 months, the job of picking up mail from the mail room there falls to me. Yuck. I figured once a week is frequent enough to get the mail. So, I scooted off this afternoon to see what packages and letters awaited us. Bad idea. We got a big bill from something that we thought was already settled. Ugh. Then Sean got a German speeding ticket. The whole ticket is in German and I can't figure out what it wants me to do. I don't see an amount I'm supposed to pay. I tried to google translate it, but that failed. So, I'll take it to the church tonight where I'm sure I can find someone to translate it for me. On the plus side, its a pretty good picture of Sean that the speeding camera took. Kinda Arnold Swartenager-ish with his sunglasses. The good news of the day is Mason got his Toy Story crocs and jammies in the mail. Oh was he excited to put them on!! He got a pair of Woody jammies and Buzz jammies, and so far he won't take off the Woody ones. This makes the ticket and bill all worth it:



Remember that cake mix the kids ate for dinner last night? We actually baked some of it and frosted them this morning.

Look how sweet Ella is with her cupcakes. She doesn't look like the kind of girl who would wake her insomniatic mother up from sleep right after she finally fell asleep to tell her she's thirsty. Especially when she has a water cup right next to her bed. Come to think of it, I'm sure it wasn't Ella who did that. It must have been an imposter. Or a bad dream. And it certainly wasn't this sweet Ella who woke up her mother AGAIN before 6 am to tell her she was hungry, but when offered food, turned it down.

The two younger ones have been playing together all day. And they've been playing pretty well together. Ella's room is a mess but they are happy and that's all that matters.

Ok, one last picture of Mason. Here he is trying to show off his big muscles:

Alexander

Do you know that book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Well, I feel a little like Alexander today. I woke up and had to do two speed twitch push ups with Tony. I HATE two speed twitch push ups. Then I had to clean the bathroom. I HATE to clean the bathroom, especially when less than an hour later someone dirties it up really badly. Then my German teacher called and cancelled my lesson. I HATE when lessons get cancelled. Then I went to meet a lady on base to pick us items for a friend moving here, and she never showed up. I HATE getting blown off with three kids in a car for half an hour. Then I had to get a medical power of attorney. I HATE getting medical power of attorneys. Well, not really, but when you're taking three kids into a law center that are tired of running errands and decide its fun to start poking each other and screaming that one of them has a full diaper and demands a diaper change RIGHT THIS minute, then I hate getting medical power of attorneys. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Oh, we grocery shopped. With the three aforementioned cranky kids. Not good. Is it a bad sign when the commissary checker asks if you are ok? Are you sure? she asked. Of course I'm ok! Don't I look OK? Grrrr. Now she just needs to ask if I'm tired because, you look tired...(that's my other pet peeve). On a good note, we had FHE about Patriotism and talked about the 4th of July. I let the kids make fourth of July cupcakes and we ate the cake mix at 4:48 pm. I wonder why they didn't eat their dinner at 5:15 pm, hmm....

Here are the kids eating their cake mix. I know, raw eggs are in there, but it tastes SOOOO good.
Here is Mason showing off his favorite outfit: his blankie dress.

It's getting hot here. In the high 80's. I know its nothing compared to a desert in Afghanistan, but it still makes me miss central air. Oh, our landlord rocks. I found his car here when we returned from our errands and he spent about three hours sanding the room under our garage so we can use it for more storage. Right now the walls have water damage and he is fixing it. Then I showed him how some roladens were either stuck or broken, and he fixed those, no problem. Yea! He is also going to work on fixing the wintergarten beams that are getting old. What, you may ask, is a wintergarten? Well, come to Germany, visit us, and find out!!

Happy Sunday

Well, Ella woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She spent much of the morning being reminded of rules like, "No means No; not keep bugging Mom in hopes she'll change her mind", and "Keep your hands to yourself, not all over your little brother", and "No nasty talk just because you don't get what you want." She broke down yesterday for a minute when she was being reprimanded for talking back, and cried, "I miss Daddy". Oh darn, I should have paid better attention in that Intro to Child Psych class in college. I have to realize some of her misbehavior is due to Sean's absence. I will try to be more sympathetic, but I can't let her get away with breaking all the rules. Maybe just bending one or two. Here she is with a pretty in her hair (it lasted 5 minutes) playing Play doh:

Jaxon has been on a bratwurst kick. He loves those things and is quite the griller. Here he is grilling up some lunch:

Colton has been on a Lego kick since Jacob came to stay with us this weekend. Jacob loves Legos almost as much as the Burke boys. Colton dug threw his Lego bucket and built some cool creations this morning.

The kids looked great today for Church. The boys were all in suits and even Ella was pretty spiffy in a beautiful dress. She had to change out of this one because look how short it is on her! The girl needs to learn basketball because she is growing so tall, so quickly!! Watch out Colton!



Here's Mason in his preferred foot attire. He changed into these as soon as he got home. (My high heels)

And here's a happy one to end on: Mason screaming that he has a full diaper and wants a new one, NOW!

P.S. While I've been writing this, Ella has been busy. She has completely done a 180 degree turn and cleaned up her room all by herself! You go girl!

Doritos and Diego

Right now, Mason is on a Doritos and Diego kick. He loves those chips, and he only wants to wear his Diego shirt with "Colton shorts". Well, how is life with 6 children? A bit hectic, but not bad. But I'm only doing it for 2 days. I tried to keep everyone busy today. We went to the KMCC early to buy tickets for an afternoon showing of Toy Story 3. We bought Jaxon a new church shirt to accompany his new suit, which will be debuted tomorrow. Ramstein Ward. Kaiserslautern Stake. Be there. Then we drove thru McDonalds and after messing up our order three times, we got our food and headed over to the park by the boys' piano teacher. Colton had his lesson first and we ate chicken nuggets and hamburgers in the park. Lunch was followed by a game of tag. Here's Mason being chased by Tyler:

After piano lessons, we went to Donally Park. We were supposed to meet friends there, but after half an hour, they never showed and we were hot! Its amazing what two weeks and 20 degrees can do. We were there for Colton's end of year party and nearly froze our patooties off. Today, we needed someone fanning us and feeding us chilled grapes. Here's Mason and I being 'chair mom and son':

Notice the fingers: Doritos.

After nearly melting at the park, we headed to the Shopette to get some popsicles and candy that we were going to smuggle, I mean accidently put in my purse and forget I had them until the movie started. We went to the playground at the food court to burn some time and energy. Here's Ella hugging Mason on the pirate ship:

After the movie, we came home, grilled some dogs, (hot dogs that is), and let the kids play. I have chocolate chip cookies in the oven I better check on, so I'm off.

Deja vous

Today was supposed to be really hectic, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Colton woke up not wanting to go to Scout Camp. Yesterday he came home in tears because his scout leader had been yelling at the kids. He said even though he hadn't done anything, she yelled at all of them a bunch of times. I was going to have to take her down when I saw her at the lunch that was scheduled for today. I asked Colton if he even wanted to go on Friday to camp, and he said yes. So, I left it at that. But in the morning he said he didn't want to go. So, you mean I don't have to drag five kids up to Sembach, get lost, eat lunch in a hot field with ticks and bugs, wait around for 4 hours to watch you do a skit involving you singing Old McDonald? Yea Colton, I think you're looking a little pale, you better stay home. Oh, is that a cough I hear? Perhaps a sniffle? Yup, no Scout Camp for you today! Well, Ella and Colton couldn't wait for two of the Wilkinson kids to come over to play. Their dad just returned from a deployment and I offered to watch them this weekend so mom and dad could have a little 'alone' time. What's that? The only alone time I have is in the bathroom, and half of the time, Mason is STILL with me. Anyways, Tyler and Jake came around 12:30 and we headed off to Kinderspiel. I looked up their website and they open at 13:00, that's 1 pm for all you civilians. So, we arrived a little after one and it was deserted. Hmmm, maybe we have the whole place to ourselves? Nope, new hours that they didn't bother to change on their website. They didn't open til 3:30. Shoot. So, I reprogramed the GPS for Yabadoo, but the address I thought was Yabadoo was actually my hair dresser. So, 15 minutes later when I was turning a corner and realized I was closer to my hair stylist that bouncy inflatable things, I grunted, and went through the addresses in my GPS again and found the right one. I should have just gone and got my hair done again. We finally ended up at Yabadoo and the kids had a great time. I forgot how German kids like to be half naked, so I was a little shocked to see all these German boys without shirts on, then a little more shocked when the German girls joined in and took their shirts off too. Good thing my boys were too distracted with beating each other up to notice half naked German girls. So Yabadoo, twice in one week; I think I'm done with that place for at least the next 72 hours.



Here's Mason and I sliding down together:

Jaxon perfected his back flip:

And here's Mason with Dorito fingers:

What's wrong with this picture?

I can't tell you how excited I got when I saw a certain van coming down our street towards our house. I LOVE this van. Inside, is pure happiness in furniture form. It is a delivery van from my favorite store, European Country Living, and it was coming towards my house. But, then a problem: it turned and parked in front of my neighbor's house. That is all wrong. I thought for a split second that some how Sean ordered something for me, a "hope you're surviving this deployment" care package. Then I realized that other people like this store also, and I guess my neighbor has good taste.

Besides being disappointed that ECL didn't visit me, we had a good day. A little too much time in the car, but that's ok. We were helping out a friend. Ella and I frosted pinkalicious and purplicious cupcakes.


Jaxon cracked up over a new SpongeBob episode he downloaded.

I better go and get the kids to bed early. Last night I fell behind in the game and they went to bed too late. Late bedtime + long zoo day = crankiness.
We planted new flowers today. Guess what happens to flowers when you don't water them? They wilt and die. I forgot to water our pansies. Oops. I've been busy. I'll post pics of the new garden tomorrow. Oh wait, I'm babysitting two kids tomorrow, having lunch with Colton at Scout Camp, and a million other things. You'll see pics eventually!

My handsome boys

Jaxon turned 12 in April and we were all excited for him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. He has started passing the sacrament and does a great job. He even cut his long, beautiful hair so his gorgeous locks wouldn't be a distraction to anyone taking the sacrament from him. He's been doing ok with his white shirt and tie, but it was time to turn it up a notch. He was ready for a suit. We went to the BX yesterday and I was surprised that among all there horrible clothing selections they actually sold good lookin' suits. Jaxon picked out one he liked, and we were in business. He was so excited to take it home and model it again, right after showering to make sure he was extra clean for the big unveiling. I hadn't seen him try it on in the store, so he snuck up on me at home, tapped me on the shoulder, and this is what I saw:


Makes a mom proud!
Here's one of my other handsome boys, just home from a long day shooting rifles at Scout Camp: