Thanksgiving

Today, at school, N's class had a lunch for with the parents. It was a lot of fun.

N as a pilgrim

N and Ms. R

N and Ms. R

N and friends

N & class

pictures from the weekend

These are the pictures I was going to put on before. . .

N.'s castle he built with his blocks. He also took the picture himself.

Swimming while it was snowing outside!

Last trip to the schwimmbad

Yesterday (Saturday) we made a final trip to the schwimmbad. I love that place--especially in the winter. It is a great way to pretend for a couple of hours that it is summer again. We will definitely not have any places like that to go to when we get back to the states. There are no lifeguards, no posted rules--the kids just run and play wherever and whatever they want to. It will be strange to go back to all the rules and paranoia that have developed from Americans suing each other all the time!
We all had a great time swimming, and went to McDonalds for lunch--we treat ourselves to that dose of "America" when we go swimming. Anyway--by the time we left, N. was coughing and 15 minutes later when we got home--he had no voice and a fever of 102.7! Who knows what's wrong!
I was going to put some pictures from swimming on here, but the boys are all gone shopping for a birthday present for a friend, and they have the camera in the car! I'll have to do it later!

This could be addictive. . .

This blogging idea seems so great! I keep thinking of all the regular mundane stuff in the day that we can share now. . .like bathtime! If you want to start your own blog--it is really easy--at the top of the screen on a blue bar you should see some options. One is "get your own blog" or start your own or something like that. . .it takes you through every step! Took me about 20 minutes to figure it out and get to this point!

Getting started. . .

I'm not very computer literate, but some of my friends have these blogs, and I thought it would be a good way to let everyone keep up with us. (Without the headache of building my own website or sending a bajillion emails with picture attachments that won't open.) I'm not really sure how this is going to work. . .I am just figuring it out as I go along. So, here goes. . .
I will probably not use our names very often, and if I do, I won't use last names--I'm just too stinkin' paranoid!

One of the things that depresses me most is the idea of our family missing out on being a part of the kids' lives. . .and the kids' missing out on being a part of theirs. One thing I've learned from all this is that the "big" things aren't really so big. Missing Christmas or something is not as big a deal to me as not having grandparents at a soccer game or having cousins to jump in leaves with. Maybe this will ease that worry for me a little. . .maybe it will make it worse. We'll see. . .
Right now, it is snowing outside. None of us is very happy about it. Me, because I would be happy with 75 degree weather year round, and the kids, because the snow won't stick and they want to sled! I HATE cleaning floors covered in melted snow!
Here are some recent photos of the beautiful boys!

J. in the fall leaves!

R. and his favorite teacher!

a day off of school--N. keeping busy!