Gavin's First Day of Kindergarten

Gavin was so excited for his first day of Kindergarten. He had his backpack ready by the door for a couple weeks. He picked out his outfit the night before and was all smiles the morning of.

Although Gavin is no longer the "baby", he was for almost five years and I had a really hard time with letting him go. I cried a lot the night before and morning of and as a result got to rock giant bags under my eyes for his day;) I am really going to miss my little buddy during the day.

Landon was SO excited to show his brother around and to have his brother at school. It worked out well because most of the second grade classrooms are no where near the Kindergarteners, but Landon has a new teacher this year and her classroom is right next to Gavins classroom. At a huge school like Ramstein, with over 15 classes a grade, that is incredible luck we/they have!  They also overlap for lunch and recess are are able to see each other a little bit which is nice.  I really can't believe I am in the "I have multiple kids at the same school" mom club now :)

Gavin found his desk right away and is already good buddies with another boy at his table. He is so genuinely excited here;)

"Bye Gavin! I love you! I'll miss you!.... Have a good day!..." (crickets chirp) He was in his element and hardly noticed me leaving...

 His WONDERFUL teacher slipped all us parents this note as we left. As if I wasn't crying enough already...

First picture post first day of Kindergarten:

He loves his teacher Ms. Asher:

Love this cute hat they made:



He was SO excited to tell me every single detail of his day. While we waited for Landon, he dumped out his backpack and started showing me each. and. every. paper... and told me a play by play of everything he did. Seeing him so excited and happy made it much easier to let him go...

Mediterrannean Cruise- Arriving in Venice

Hi All!

We thought we would post some of our favorite pictures here for those of you who are curious to see them.

 I took over 1500 pics through out the trip, but I won't bore you with nearly all of them!

 We had an absolute wonderful time on the cruise. On the last night, as Nick and I sat with some drinks in the bar listening to live music, I got to thinking and I teared up a bit. We had first started talking about the cruise right after he left for his deployment and shortly thereafter we booked it. We finished saving for it throughout the course of his time away, and NUMEROUS times while he was gone we would talk about how fun this trip was going to be once we were all together again. There were many times, while we were apart, that thinking of this trip was what got me through some tough days. So, as I sat there, on the last night of the cruise, I realized that we had come full circle- we spent 8 longs months apart but we made it through.

 Anywho, this trip was definitely one we will never forget. We were/are grateful that my parents were able to experience it with us and we longed for the company of those who couldn't be a part. We look forward to all our future adventures!

 The trip to Venice was only about 75 minutes and tickets cost us 20 Euro a person! Lovely benefit of traveling within Europe.

We flew through a little rinky dink airline named RyanAir. Mainly cheap flights, mainly cheap aircraft. ;D

 

Flying with them is an adventure. There is no assigned seating, you wait in a long line for a first come-first serve selection. Because the tickets are so cheap, they continually try to sell you stuff during the flight. Smokeless cigarettes anyone? How about perfume? How about toys? Oh, and my favorite part is when they land they play an "on time trumpet jingle" and everyone cheers. Out of curiosity, I checked to see if I could find the jingle on youtube, and sure enough here it is! Listen to it here if you would like:)

Arriving in Venice reminded us SO much of landing in Florida actually! You are immediately hit with a wall of heat and humidity when you depart from the plane. There are palm trees and even the smell reminded us of Florida.

One of my favorite first memories of landing in Venice, was how happy and vibrant the locals seem. The vibe there is so fresh, friendly and fun.  As we were waiting for our luggage, no more than 20 minutes after we had landed, the sweetest family came up to Penelope and kept saying "Ciao Bella!" "Ciao Bellissima!"  One thing, I can not even begin to stress is how much the locals at most of the countries we visited LOVED children and ESPECIALLY Penelope. When I saw this shirt later, I had to get it for her. After all, it was our first Italian experience!

Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures from Venice. This was definitely one of our favorite stops on the trip! It is exactly how you would picture it to be there, but better.

Goodbyes

are never easy. Nick was explaining to the boys that he would be leaving. Gavin wanted hugs; Landon had two billion questions.
Bless their hearts

Computer down

Hello!!
We really miss blogging and are looking forward to my computer being fixed so we can continue to share pictures again!

We have some awesome neighbors though, and the wife is a talented photographer. She has shared some pictures on her blog that include the boys.

The first is of the boys sledding our\tside our homes:
http://www.jessreneephotographyblog.com/2012/02/10/life-in-germany-snow-day-steinbach-germany-photographer/

And the second is of our trip to Trier, the oldest city in Germany. It was FREEZING when we went to Trier, but it was beautiful and we had a lovely weekend away.

http://www.jessreneephotographyblog.com/2012/02/27/life-in-germany-trier/

We really look forward to sharing more about our time here, and our own pictures. Hopefully soon!

Christmas was Magical

After last years "moving after Christmas Day" craziness, this year seemed even more perfect and magical.

Landon asked me this morning where we would be moving next time it was Christmas.

NO WHERE, sweet Landon, no where.

Merry Christmas to everyone, and Happy Everything!!

Mannheim Christmas Market through pictures