Henry's Birthday Weekend

Here some pics from this wonderful Birthday weekend. We had an amazing time and especially our little man enjoyed this weekend a lot.

Sunday we went to the Renaissance Festival up in Holly, MI. It was quite something... I didn't take many pics, it was just too much to take in... amazing!!! As if you were in the renaissance time with LOTS of tourists from the modern area *lol*... but even guests dressed like back in the days. It was quite interesting.

A picture from today... painting

Some birthday pictures again. I guess the camera date needs to be updated ;). We had a nice birthday party on SAT for Henry with just a couple of families. Now that mostly everybody has more than one child it adds up really quick and I wanted it to be special for him so we invited the ones he plays with the most.

Frankenmuth, MI

Unbelievable but tomorrow our little man is turning 3 years!!! He's very excited for his birthday and we picked out his birthday decoration yesterday again in 'Cars' movie theme. He's talking pretty good nowadays and his cars are always having the cutest conversations with each other.

Zoe made some signs for Jenny's swim competition to cheer her on :)

Yesterday Jenny had a day off school and we took advantage of it and went to Frankenmuth and the Outlet Stores - shopping :). Jenny loved it and the kids were doing soooo well and we walked A LOT! We got our workout in for sure ;). After the 6 hrs shopping trip we went to Frankenmuth and took a stroll through the city and finished up at Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. - the usual tour - :) It was very awesome. We were home late of course and went all right to bed basically and while the kids and I could take it easy today Jenny had to go back to school and has another competition tonight which we all are going to go to and cheer her on. Time to get in a relaxing day for her... she's going going going all the time :).

... and on top of it we have an amazing sunny and warm week this week. It feels amazing.

Beautiful Fall

Jup... we've reached fall weather but this week we are super lucky and have a super sunny week ahead of us :). So excited...

Jenny doesn't have school on WED so I took Zoe out as well and we'll head up north to Frankenmuth - SHOPPING *lol*... it'll be a fun filled day.

Here some pics from last week while Frank was in Baltimore attending his aunt's funeral and helping his mom with his dad :(... not a very great time right now. The kids were soooo excited to see Daddy back home this morning... he couldn't get out the door because they had to tell him this and that. They were super happy to have their daddy back and I'm super happy to have him back too :).

Greenfield Village:

THU Night we watched Jenny competing against another high school. The kids loved it. It was a lot of fun and Henry is asking to go and watch Jenny swim again and again so we probably watch now every competition we can go to :). She's the very last one 'preparing' to go in the water soon

 Happy Ending. They beat the other team big times. It was a very successful 'meet' (they call it) - I'm learning all these new words now *lol*

The swim team

 Us alone at home... we have many great ideas :). Delicious buttermilk waffles with all kinds of sugar loaded toppings *lol*

And then we build a scarecrow

Hahaha... we have to remove the bag but other than that she's complete! And too funny to look at. I think we did an amazing job. Jenny created all the hair for her and picked out the crazy looking outfit :)

Shopping again? Jup... we kind of do that a lot. Not really spending money all the time. Henry loved closing the shoe boxes and reorganizing them. I think the sales reps were happy when we left :)

Two Toddlers with terrific ideas!

Ice Cream Night

Yesterday Night we had my friend Adelheid over for dinner. Frank is not in town so I'm cooking vegetarian this week and yesterday with a whole onion as well *lol*... it was sooooo delicious *YUM* we finished the whole dish and I will do it again (when Frank isn't home for dinner *lol*). Today we do another vegetarian dish with spinach and ricotta cheese. Frank likes both of them but let's test eat it first and then see if it will get a spot in my meal planner ;).

After Dinner we took the gang to Frosty Boy. Everybody was happy and we had a great and fun night.

News from Baltimore

Unfortunately I have sad news to bring you guys... after battling lymphoma for about 7 years, Frank's Aunt (his mom's youngest sister) died last FR and today is the wake with service and funeral tomorrow. We decided that I stay home with the kids this time. We just went to Baltimore and Jenny needs to attend her school and Zoe just started her pre-k which seems to be going very well so Frank went by himself.

In the meantime my father in law got hospitalized with pain so his treatment plan of chemo / radiation took a hold for now and they're trying to figure out where all this pain is coming from. It's a big mess. I'm glad Frank is there now to support the family and we're just hanging in there and waiting for any kind of news and progresses that my father in law is making. 

On the happy side. All kids are doing amazing. Jenny got adjusted to the American school system very quick. She's gone so much that there is no room to do fun things during the week but at least we're getting to have our family dinner together and then she normally has to take care of home work or just needs to rest for a minute since she's getting worked very hard with the swim team. On THU night the kids and I will join her competition for the first time. I'm excited to see it and I hope the kids will be behaving great ;). Every time we pass Jenny's school Zoe recognizes it right away and asks if Jenny is in there (and she normally is). 

The temperatures here dropped somehow and suddenly fall has arrived without warning. We probably only have about three weeks left of treatments with the company and then we have to see how the weather is doing and wrap up for the season. That summer went by in no time somehow. 

Here some pics to share with you: The kids 'occupying' the staircase!

Picking up Zoe... Henry brings of course always something with him mostly a car collection :)

Monday Nights we started our German Class again. The kids like it they just need to 'speak' more German as well... I'm trying ;).

We made a 'schultuete' for the kids which they really enjoyed.