Friday

On Friday, I had planned for Mason and Olivia to decorate spider cupcakes. I had everything ready and they were excited to make them. But then, they just started having fun. They decorated their cupcakes with lots of yummy candies and didn't care if the final result was a spider or just a bunch of cool candy smooshed on top of a cupcake. I was reminded of an important lesson: have fun and enjoy the process, the final product isn't always what is most important.



After cupcakes, Olivia and Mason played so well together that I called Amy and asked if I could keep Olivia longer. I was on a roll and getting some serious cleaning done. After cleaning, Mason and I took off to Kaufland because I knew if we stayed in the house it would get messy again and I wanted to keep it clean for at least a few hours. Even if I wasn't home to enjoy it, just the thought of a clean house put a smile on my face. What is Kaufland, you ask? A cool German store. There is a German Payless shoe store right outside Kaufland and we scored with some cool new shoes for Mason. Did we really need anything at Kaufland? No, but once inside we found lots of stuff that we immediately couldn't live without. Like glow sticks, and German waffles, and knee high socks for Ella that she saw someone at church wearing and now totally needs desperately, and a space heater since it is COLD here and radiators just don't cut it folks. We got Ella and Colton from the bus, picked up Jaxon from his Military History club, and got ready to send Jaxon on a Scout camp out. Jaxon reluctantly agreed to attend this latest camp out even though it will be very cold there and no fires are allowed. I purchased the warmest sleeping bag that the BX stocked, loaded him up with chocolate (because everyone knows chocolate wards off dementors and keeps you warm) and sent him off with a bunch of young men and leaders tonight. They are going to Verdun. Yeah, that's in France. Is it SO COOL that he gets to go camping in France, two hours away, and tour WW I sites? Yeah, I think so. Let's not read about history, let's live it and visit it! Since he is a history buff, I figured this trip was right up his alley, but he doesn't really like camping. Camping = no electronics in Jaxon's book. So, it was a bit weird not having him around Friday night. But Mason and Ella had huge temper tantrums and fits and made lots of craziness, so it felt like I definitely had at least four kids. Do your kids go hog wild crazy as soon as you get on the phone or is it just mine? Oh, here's a picture of Ella in her Halloween/fall outfit this morning, all ready for school. No Halloween parties at school, but I convinced her to wear orange today.

Final note: look how pretty the sunrise was this morning:

I love living in Germany!!