Going For A Walk

The weather was gorgeous yesterday so Mason and I decided to pick the kids up from the bus stop and walk home. Then bus stop is about 3 blocks away and usually I meet the kids in a side parking lot with my car and drive them home. I know, they're spoiled. Remember the days of walking to and from school, uphill both ways, in the snow? Well, I don't, because my mom spoiled ME and drove me to school and picked me up, even when my school was a mile away. But yesterday the sky was blue, the birds were chirping and the sun was shining, which is a rarity here in Deutschland, so we took advantage of it and went for a walk. Here is my favorite house in the neighborhood that we walked by. It is always filled with beautiful flowers in the front yard.


One incredible thing about Germans is their strong work ethic and their extreme sense of cleanliness. Their outsides of their houses are as clean as their insides, which are ready for a photo shoot from Better Homes and Gardens at any moment. I don't think you can see in this picture, but this house's owner is in the front window, cleaning the rolladins. (Big cool metal plates that roll over windows for protection and darkness). I have never even thought about cleaning my rolladins. Ask me the last time I washed the windows. It rains all the time here. Doesn't that count for washing them? And, as far as the inside of the windows goes, I tell the kids not to wipe stuff of them, so that kinda keeps them clean, right? Ok, I'll grab the Windex and be right back......
Better now.
Mason was excited to go on a walk. Here he is at the start of our walk, excited to watch a cool construction truck pick up a dumpster full of rocks and load it in the back of its bed:

And here's a cool sight we get to see every day: a hundred year old church that's right around the corner from the bus stop:

Oh, you don't have a neat old church in your neighborhood? Really? Only recently contructed, prefabricated generic looking buildings? Oh, too bad. You should move to GERMANY!!
Here's Mason as we are getting close to the bus stop. Look at the gorgeous yellow leaves on the tree behind him. Oh, you can't see Mason? His head is down? Well, that's because he is already burned out from the walk. Or the ride I should say, since he wasn't even walking, I was pushing him. And since that beautiful sun was shining, the poor kid had the sun in his eyes and was getting cranky from the brightness. I lost Super Mom points for forgetting his Diego sunglasses in the car, which he repeatedly told me to turn around and get, so he wasn't happy about any more pictures at this point:

Here are the kids as they get off the bus:

I didn't take of picture of Colton complaining when he found out that I had walked to the bus stop, thereby requiring him to walk home on his own two legs.
"Aww Mom!! I have a lot of homework!!!"
Ella even grumbled about having to sit in the stroller; she didn't even have to WALK home:
"I'm tired!! The sun's in my eyes!"
So much for my wonderful idea about getting some sun and fresh air! Heaven forbid we have a nice day here and enjoy it. I think we are all sunned out from three years in Hawaii. Bring on the clouds and rain! We welcome gloomy weather!! Cloudy days=chocolate chip cookie baking.
Here we are rounding the last corner to our house. Can you see the garbage cans and recycling bags already lining the curbs? Since garbage is only picked up every other Thursday, we get excited early and by mid Wednesday everyone has their stuff out on the curbs already.

Homework, dinner, stories, laundry, a little cleaning, more stories, bedtime, singing, more stories, and then I got to practice German with my new textbook that finally came after 2 1/2 months. Crazy postal system. Hey Sean, guess what MASON asked me last night?
"What dreams am I gonna have?"
See, Ella asks me this question EVERY night, and I am always trying to think up fun and wonderful things to tell her that she will dream of. Like Mermaids and Fairies riding unicorns with her and going on a picnic. But since she's been asking this question for years now, I am running out of cute ideas. So now that Mason is starting to ask, I am gonna have to elicit the help of some professionals to think up some cool dream ideas. Brandon Mull is my friend on Facebook (author of Fablehaven). Maybe he can help...