Hmmm, I Wonder

I'm not joking! I opened a box for J's room, and this is what I found! I guess everyone had to find a moving buddy!

First Day of Schule

As I mentioned before, J & G are enrolled at an American school on base, but they were selected to be a part of a German immersion classroom. They are taught half the day in German and half the day in English. J attends a second grade only class and G attends a multi age class of first through third graders. She will have the same teacher for all three years {and we love him, so that is a big bonus!} The first day of first grade is a big deal for German children. It is a grand celebration and a big moment to enter this grade. In honor of this German tradition, G's teacher had a celebration on the first day of school and the class presented all the first graders with a Schultute, which is a cardboard cone filled with treats and school supplies. This tradition has been carried out in Germany for over 200 years. The older children in the class also put on a play entirely in German! They have only had German for 1 to 2 years. I was amazed and so excited for my children to learn German!

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

I was so excited to visit this medieval city. I had come here 11 years ago with BYU when I did a study abroad to Europe. This was one of my favorite cities. I love this quaint city. It was one of the cities that was not bombed during WWII, so many of the buildings and the cobblestone road date back to the 1300's. It is so charming and fun to walk around and enjoy culture and history.

Hohenzollern Castle

Living in Southeast Germany affords us many opportunities to see castles! This one was a beauty. People still live in this castle too. My mom and I took the kids here while Matt was at work. We even ate in a cafe in the castle. It was tons of fun. I'll tell you what wasn't tons of fun was the parking! My HUGE, American {well, technically it's Japanese} mini van is sometimes a pain in the neck to park. Well, in this parking lot, I parked it just fine, but then everyone parked all around me. I had about an inch on each side to try to get that baby out. I was sweating bullets and giving myself a stress headache to get that baby out of there. My mom was out of the van guiding me with how much room I had. This man was watching me the whole time, looking a bit stressed out himself, and when I was finished he clapped his hands together and gave me a German compliment. I was patting myself on the back too when that was through!

We had fun pretending we were pricking our finger on the castle or holding it. Super boy wouldn't smile {and flat out turned around} for the pictures...oh well. You can see different pictures while we were in the castle, and then a landscape shot of what we could see when we were up there. That village is very typical of Germany. There are lots of little villages nestled in between hills like that here.

Palmengarten in Frankfurt

We were so lucky to see Matt's brother, Dave, who was here for a dental conference. He was in Frankfurt, so we took the drive one day to go see him. We decided to go to this lovely garten called Palmengarten. The flowers and plants were beautiful and it was a nice warm day. It was so fun to see family all the way over here!! We sure love uncle Dave and Frankfurt! My mom was still in town too, and of course we LOVED having her here.

Downtown Stuttgart

When my mom was here we were able to visit downtown Stuttgart. It's a beautiful town center and the Germans love their festivals. There was an "onion" festival going on while we were there. We enjoyed the fountains in the center. Many of the children just played right in the middle of them {without getting into trouble!} My kids wanted to play too, but mean old mom didn't want to deal with wet kids all day. I'm still a modest American too! The Germans just strip their kids down to nothing - yep, total nakey - and let them play. Let's just say we've had more conversations about the human anatomy than I've ever had with the kidlets. We also enjoyed some eis {ice cream}, crepes with Nutella and strawberries {my personal fav}, and playing on this giant rocking horse in the middle of all the outside shops. There are two H&M's at this place. One is dedicated just to kids! You know where I'm going for clothes! This day we also went to Waden Buch where Ritter Sport has a chocolate factory. We picked up several new chocolate bars to try {and we loved each and every one of them!}

Hello From Germany!!

{These is a picture of our village - Weil der Stadt and our village center}

We FINALLY have internet! I have so much to catch up on, in more ways than one {blogging, house organizing, laundry, painting, etc, etc, etc!} Well, life is good. We are very happy here. It has been quite the roller coaster the last 6 weeks though. Here is an email we sent to our family after the first 5 days:

Since I can't call any of you just yet, I thought I would write a little email about our first 5 days here in Germany. First of all, we couldn't be happier to be where we are. We love it already. Also, having my mom here has been SO VERY helpful. Matt and I have been slammed with so much stuff to do and she has been so helpful with the children. I would be lost without her. So, here is a million thanks to my mom (Thanks, Dad, for letting her come!). We packed 19 bags, 3 car seats, and 5 people on the airplane. (The airlines allow transferring active duty military to check 4 bags per person, so we were one under!) We took our long 13 hour flight here and Matt and I didn't get any sleep. One of the kids was always awake. We were awake for 32 straight hours - yikes. When we first got here we had a ton of in-processing to do, so we didn't take a nap at all. I think this helped get us onto the right schedule though. Everyone, but Sam, has seemed to adjust to the time. Super boy wakes up every night from 10pm til 2am (or 2200 to 200) - I'm still getting used to military time. That is how everything is around here, not only on base, but also in Germany. I couldn't be happier with how kind military folk are. We were carrying our groceries back to our hotel and loading them and 3 kids onto the bus, and 2 gentleman rushed to our aid (and they weren't even riding the bus). Everyone calls each other Sir and Mam, so I've been teaching my children to do the same. It really feels like a family here. I really love that. I'm excited to go to church on Sunday and meet some more "family". We still don't have a house and met some people the other day who have been living at the hotel for 2 months...let's hope we get out of here sooner than that. We toured a home tonight that is perfect, so maybe if you all pray for us, we can get it!! I think if we have to live in the hotel for too much longer, my kids might kill each other. Sharing a bed isn't too fun! On a side note, German bees just really don't like us. Sam and Jack got stung at separate times on the same day. Good thing I read one of those forwarded emails that said to tape a penny to bee stings because copper draws out the poison...it really worked. Jack noticed an immediate difference when I taped one on. (See, not all forwarded emails are junk!) We've tried German ice cream and my new favorite treat is a chocolate-filled croisannt (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). We have already taken the German drivers' test and passed (yay) and are now driving the minivan all around town! I kid you not, I got that baby up to 110 mph on the autobahn today and I couldn't stop giggling because it was legal! I felt like I was breaking the law the whole time! (I was by myself..no kids, in case you are wondering).

We did get that house...it's wonderful. We ended up staying in the hotel for 3.5 weeks and then "camped" in our house for 1 week without our goods {that was fun - insert sarcasm}. We got several rooms painted before our furniture arrived - that was a bonus. Matt started work the day we got into our new house, so that left the painting and moving in to me. Let's just say that I would hit the pillow every night. The day are goods were delivered was also the first day of school, of course. My kids were chosen to be in a German immersion program {their lessons are in English half the day and German the other half.} They go to an American school on the same base where Matt works in the dental clinic. We feel SO blessed to have been chosen for this program. This is one of 4 German immersion programs in the world! Not even all the German bases have it. My kids are already speaking more German that Matt or I. So far, the kids are loving school. I ask them to tell me their favorite part, and they say that they can't choose one part because they love all of it. The one negative is that they get on the bus at 6:50am in the village center at the bus stop...ugh, it's early. I've never been an early bird, but we are learning to become one!

We live in a small farming village outside of Stuttgart called Weil der Stadt. Right across the street from us is a strawberry farm - perfect. We've already made freezer jam and walk across the street to get fresh strawberries and raspberries on a regular basis. Also growing in our area are corn, potatoes, pumpkins, apples, and many other produce that we haven't figured out what it is yet.

I shop a lot on base, where I can pretty much buy every American commodity that I would want. For the German treats, I venture into different German grocery stores, bakeries, and butchers. I am stumbling with the German, but I am determined to learn the language. Now that I'm not working on school, I'm going to devote that same time to learning the language. The Germans are very friendly and most of the time will stumble through English as I stumble through German {although many of them speak English very well}. Our next door neighbors speak English very well. They have a little boy 1 year younger than Sam. Our neighborhood is filled with children. My kids can't wait to converse with them, and with the rate they are learning German, it will be no time, I'm sure. There is a German Kindergarten {preschool} right across the street from my neighborhood that we will enroll Sam in next year. Kindergarten started in Germany, along with many other things.

We attend an International LDS ward. There is a congregation of over 300. This is huge for us! Both J and G have 10 + kids in their primary classes and J is in cub scouts with 15 other boys. He got to go to a cub scout camp as soon as we got here. Everyone at church is very friendly, and we have felt very welcome. We feel blessed to not only have the army as a support, but also our church congregation.

We are a little obsessed with the German chocolate {and when I say "a little", I mean A LOT!} The other day G tried a new candy bar and sighed, "I think I might pass out this chocolate is so good!" We just can't help ourselves. It is so creamy and delicious. Any time we see a new chocolate, we have to get it and try it. My taste buds are screaming, YES, but my waistline is screaming, STAY AWAY!!!