Big helpers

There always seems to be work to do when we visit Grandma and Bumpa. This past visit, there was watering to do. Grandma filled up our Gießkannen (that's German for watering cans).


We took our Gießkannen and headed into the yard to water some plants.


There were lots, but we took our time and made sure we got them watered properly . . .


. . . until we found this awesome pile of rocks near the shore of the pond in their backyard. You might notice the change in wardrobe. There was a Gießkanne malfunction.

Loungin'

We went to Bumpa and Grandma's house for dinner to celebrate Mommy's birthday. We did a little lounging on the porch, despite Grandma's distaste for feet on the coffee table.


We also helped Bumpa prepare the fish by squeezing lemon on the fish. We didn't get to eat it, but we're pretty sure it was the best fish ever.

Garden friend

While we were digging in the garden, we found a little creepy crawler. A WORM!


He was so cool, squriming around on Daddy's hand. We were brave enough to touch him, but we could not bring ourselves to pick him up. He was just a little too weird.


In the end, we decided to put him back in his home in our garden. We covered him with a little bit of dirt and gave him some water. He looked kind of hot and thirsty.

An excuse to get dirty

It's actually past time to get our garden ready. So the other day, we finally got to work on it. We had to dig up a bunch from grass/weeds in order to prepare the are for planting. What a great excuse for digging in the dirt. not that we really need an excuse for that.


We all got our "shovels" and headed for what will become the garden area.


We filled our shovels over and over again . . .


. . . and carried the contents all over the yard.

Climb, climb, climb, climb, slide

We went to an awesome park this evening for birthday picnic with Mommy. There were all kinds of rope ladders that lead up to awesome slides . . .


. . . like this one. It was a super-tall curly slide that went way up high in the sky.


There were also three of these leading up to another super-tall slide. There will be video of this soon.

Birthday business

On every birthday, there is bit of business that needs to be taken care of. Like opening cards and gifts for example. This card was the best It was another one of those screaming cards . . .


. . . and this was a great gift from Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Stro. It was a bunch of tea and a special tea-making thing. First you choose you tea (we had to choose carefully, there was lots) . . .


. . . once you pour the hot water into it, you have to wait for it to steep and cool off a bit . . .


. . . then you drink. This tea was so good we didn't even put it in a cup.

Birthday Nuggie

In case you didn't know, today is Mommy's birthday. To celebrate, we thought we'd get a jump on the day and climb into her bed. It was awfully fun nuggie-ing this morning. Some would say there is no better way to wake up than with a good nuggie from a two-and-half year-old.


We also worked in a little post-nap nuggie time. Mommy was happy to oblige.

The final byebye

A couple days ago we had to say byebye to JenJen and today we had to say byebye to everyone else. It was great seeing Aunt Lori, Uncle Rainer and Cousins Austin and Chandler. Maybe someday we can go see them. Germany can't be that far away.

One last BLAST!

As one last hoorah before Austin and Chandler have to leave, we went to The Blast. It's a great indoor play place that we go to when the weather is bad. Notice Austin's shirt -- "I do all my own stunts."


We had a pretty great time. It was just hard sometimes to remember to duck when you enter the stairs.


We're not too sure where this padded thing came from,
but it made a pretty spot to rest

Super snacking

Today has been pretty great for snacking. This morning we a traditional dog party with pup-corn, a pup-cake and of course there were dog ears and a reading of "Go Dog Go".


This afternoon we had ice cream for a snack. We experimented with eating it out of the cone with a spoon and the more traditional way of licking or eating it right out of the cone.


Either way you do it, it's cold, cold, cold.

Pinging and ponging

Austin and Chandler found the mini ping pong table this morning and decided to give it a try. They were pretty good at it and it was rather entertaining to watch.

Cool cousins

Austin and Chandler are great. They play with us or hang with us, whatever we're in the mood for.

Packed patio

We had some friends over this evening for some fun, food and German (they speak German, English too). We had a great time hangin' outside, speaking in various languages. At one point we were all packed around the table (for dessert). There were fourteen of us and we all fit just right.

ByeBye JenJen

It was kind of a sad afternoon. We had to say goodbye to JenJen who had to go home.


We were sure to give her our best hugs and kisses.

Fishies never sleep

And it's a good thing too, they were just about the only animals we saw today at the zoo.


The dolphins were especially active. It was super-cool to watch the trainers work with them.


They had them swimming and jumping all over the place.


Before we left, we were sure to say bye and thanks for the great show.


We spent lots of time in the aquarium area at the zoo . . .


. . . because this is what we saw everywhere else.

Sandmen

Since all the animals were sleeping, we had to find entertainment where we could. There's a pretty good sandbox near the (sleeping) bears.


There are these giant rib bone-looking things that you walk through too. Hopefully this is the only place we'll see ribs from the inside of the animal.

Re-enforcements

We finally got some crime fighting re-enforcements . . .


. . . so now we have nothing to fear now that Aunt JenJen's here.

Can we get a break?

All this family means there are a lot of photos being taken. Let's be honest,
it gets a little old after awhile, having a camera in your face all the time.

Accidental slippage

After nap today we got to go swimming again. Daddy set up the slip 'n' slide and we gave it our best shot, kind of. We ran down it, but did NOT intend on slipping or sliding.


Our slide into the little pool was much more predictable . . .


. . . and besides, that's where the dolphin resides. We discovered he's pretty tasty and a lot of fun to play mouth tug-of-war with. That game is played exactly how it sounds. Just be careful not to fall over.


We also happened to be in the flight pattern today. There were lots of planes flying over out house. Whenever we got tired, we took a break and watched the planes.


Eventually we got too tried (and a little cold) to even do that. So we covered up on the picnic table.