Go Deutchland Fussball!!

This was our jellobean Deutchland flag! We in years past have made an American type version of the jellobean flag around the 4th but this year with the European Soccer Championship we have been following we decided to give this one a try. We mixed strawberry and lime and added a little food coloring to make a true black! and then of course raspberry and lemon for the other colors. The kids had just as much fun eating them as they did making them.
We also had a nice fresh salad with lettuce from our next door neighbor, we affectionately call "Wilson" (from home improvement) and radishes from our own! Brats and spatzle of course! We had a wonderful time celebrating a reunion with the "B's", our friends from IL who have moved to Ramstein and the Dagenhart's as we looked forward to watching the European Soccer championship game between Germany and Spain!

Mary painted flags on every one's cheeks who wanted it and we all sported Deutchland shirts!!

But alas all the team spirit could not a victory for Germany bring... Spain was just too strong! Congrats Spain... and hang in there Germany!! Maybe next time!

Garden beauties!

Our very own red ripe strawberry from our garden!! Planted and cared for by our own hands...look how beautiful!! How excited we were!!Until something... like "a big hungry snail" got to it first!! So off we went to Toom and got the Schneckkorn... the stuff you put around your plants to keep the snail away. So hopefully we will soon have more luck. (yes this is the same strawberry just turned on it's side)

And now that the local strawberry field is closed we really need those snails to be taken care of more than ever!!

A few more favorites from the week

I just wanted to post and share a few more of my favorite pics from last weeks visit!!

The love between Joey and his sisters is so precious and evident!! With Karin here for his promotion a couple weeks ago (see 1 June post) and Kim and her family here this last week we feel so blessed!

It has taken a few years, but these days these two are the closest of friends!! Loving and encouraging each other!! We love you Alison.

John being his silly cute self!! He is our resident German tutor.

Best friends for always and forever!! Remember girls to keep each other out of trouble.

Cool dude! and John's best German student!

A wonderful night out in the village of Mittelbrunn. Dinner was delicious, the walk beautiful and the time spent just precious! Thanks to M and A for babysitting!

Just a sweet picture!

These boys are so awesome! They love each other and they love the Lord. We are so thankful our boys have them in their lives. Cousins to grow in Godly ways with. To love and encourage each other! Lifetime buddies! Thanks K and J for raising like-minded boys who are so hard to find these days!

Good times!!

Go Deutschland Fußball!!

Last Day

Yesterday was the T's last day to visit but there was still much to do...

We started with picking strawberries in the Erdbeer Wiese here in Mittelbrunn.

Then we had to drive the route we had biked Sunday to see how far us girls had actually gone as we didn't have the fancy sports watch with us. We had biked 7 miles! I also drove them up the road to one of my favorite German views.

The T's still had a couple souvenirs they were looking for so I took them to the center of Landstuhl and headed to Aldi's for staples. We were then off to swim at the Bad! Naturerlebnisbad... a wonderful swimming hole in Landstuhl. It was perfect weather!!

With sad goodbyes they left this morning... and my children are going through withdrawal.

I am slowly doing laundry and cleaning house, a little lonely as well. I did take a nap. But there is lots to plan and look forward to. The boys are headed to boyscout camp soon and then our cruise. We have just enough time to get caught up and prepared. Now if I can only get C to stop crying!

Autofrei Tag

Every other year the road is closed from Mittelbrunn for about 40 km South to the Theilisher, no cars allowed. Everyone rides their bike on the road! It was wonderful! We rented one bike and had enough bikes to ride in shifts. The girls plus John took the first shift and rode for about an hour. Then the boys took the bikes and rode a 10 mile round trip. Then the four oldest boys went off, deciding to ride the whole trek, 25 miles round trip. Shortly after dinner and dessert S was asking if he could have a bowl of cereal. J said... "well he did ride 35 miles today!" J's sports watch tallied they burned about 3000 calories (just the second trip)! But we must say Aunt Kim was most impressive not having ridden a bike in about 36 years! She did great! Another wonderful day as the Turner visit begins to wind down to a close!

Luxembourg

We visited the Luxembourg American Cemetery where Gen Patton is buried along with over 5,000 other soldiers. Once again a very moving experience for us. John and Reuben found crosses of men with their names.


We had beautiful weather and then headed to find a place to purchase a postcard. We ended up in the center of a pretty big city where we walked, has ice cream and there was a band of some sort entertaining in the middle of a center square. It was really amazing how we found parking so close, especially for two cars and one being our full size van! We found our postcards and a few more souvenirs!!

Reuben graduates

R graduates from the Theodore Heuss Grunde Schule!!

He is headed to the Gymansium in Landstuhl in the fall for 5Klasse!!

Frau Pelletier... what a great teacher she has been for him!
Herr Pelletier, her husband, also taught and helped R early in the year with his German!

They both think the world of Reuben!! ...and we think the world of them!

Best Friends. (you can also C and J in the background) We are so proud of R and the challenge he was brave enough to face and how successful he has been in the German Schule. This was also a very sad evening for him however... and he shared he was surprised at his own emotion... as not all his friends will go to the Gymnasium with him next year. Sasha will go the the Realschule and Alex the Haupschule.

Just a side story... a mother of one of Reuben's classmates talked with me the other day and shared with me she was sure that I was German. This is because she new R's dad was American yet Reuben's German is so good he had to have a German mother at home!

The Rhein River

We drove to Bingen and took a ferry across the Rhein River to Rudesheim. Here we are high above the Rhein where the German monument, the Neiderwald stands, built in 1877-83 as the German empire was reestablished. We are so enjoying our time with the Turner Family!!

C is at the Zoo with a new do!

Yesterday's visit to the local Zoo with friends and family!

If you look back a few blogs you can see C has a new do!! Isn't it cute!!!

The long awaited Turner cousin visit begins!! Yesterday we took a hike to see the Bismark Tower which is located in Landstuhl near the LRMC and was once used by the Nazi's as a look out. The American's did not destroy it during WW II was because it is a historical Landmark built 1900. The view was wonderful!

Then we set off for the castle, Burg Nanstein. Here we walked around to see the ruins of this castle and enjoy more beautiful views of Landstuhl.

Today is Father's Day and we enjoyed some typical German food! We grilled pork steaks and brats and had spatzle to go with it! I think we adults are being challenged by the kids to a DDR tournament of a sort later this evening!! Should bring some laughs and maybe we'll work off some of our Father's Day Feast!

Won't this guy make a good daddy!!

Mittelalternliches Burgfest

We went to a Middle Age Fest at the Castle Nanstein in Landstuhl yesterday. This is a fest done every 5 years and we were thankful to be a "part" of it. If you came in costume you got a discount on the entrance fee. The kids of course loved dressing the part. We met up with our friends and had a really nice afternoon!And we tried to leave them there but they said we had to take them back home with us!

Where in the World is Waldo?

I know your wondering where is this guy and what is he up to... well guess what, most of the time we are to, so welcome to the club! But I will give you a clue that we have learned. When he is not seen or heard he is usually hiding somewhere with a book. This one happens to be a comic book... but he can be found reading anything and everything he can get his hands on... in German or English!

Sky Rocketing Achievements

S built the highest flying rocket in the 7th gr class this year at LEMS. Here he is making a few finishing touches and adjustments after today's test flights. It went really high!! But he had some trouble with the nosecone and parachute deployment. Sooo after several landings right on the nose he wanted to touch up the paint. He also redesigned two different nosecones to see which would work better. Next week the 7th grade will compete against the 8th grade rockets!!

AWANA Awards

We spent this year at the Ramstein Chapel Awana Program, hiding God's Word in our hearts!!

This was taken after the awards program Sunday. Very fun!

Colonel

See those Eagles!!Friday, May 30 was the big day. Joey's mom and dad and I pinned the eagles on each shoulder of his jacket; then S & R, and M & C pinned them on his shirt...

and J got to pin on his hat!

...a salute from his father....a proud little sister.

"Celebrate, good times, come on...""Party on dude"you go girls...

go Colonel, go Colonel, go Colonel!

...and a good time was had by all.
Thanks Grammy for the pictures. I could not have blogged today without them.