Teen Girl Silliness

We have been so blessed to have the most wonderful girls Sarah's age live near us. These 4 girls are all the best of friends and they all come from great families. They have such a great time hanging out. One of them is moving very soon and they are all heartbroken. This was their last Saturday all together to hang out. They had a lot of fun, were very silly, and laughed a lot. I know they will all stay friends, but it is always so hard when someone moves. No matter how long you're in the military saying goodbye never gets easier. I think it is especially hard on teenagers and even though I am so thankful for the 4 years we got to spend with this precious family, I am so sad for her to move, and for the friends she leaves behind. Twister SillinessA "normal" picture

Pine Wood Derby '09

Noah has been in cub scouts since he was in 1st grade (Tiger's). Now he is in Weblos 1 (Weblos stands for We will be loyal scouts). So this is Noah's 4th pine wood derby - Noah has always come in (pretty much) dead last in every race every year, but he has made the cars mostly by himself (except the jigsaw part). So, when he took home 3rd place out of his age group this year he was THRILLED. He also took home first place in the "body design" category, which was pretty cool. Noah's whole den (Den 8 - also known as the Blazing Fire Breathing Dragon Slayers)Noah's Carthe man on the left is Noah's Den leader, Mr. Dunn. This is winning the award for best body design.Noah and the other 4th graders (Weblo 1's) accepting their trophies.
Noah

Irish Dancin'

The school that Sarah dances for has gigs sometimes. These are really fun to participate in because you get to dress in costume and dance for an audience without the pressure of competing or worrying about placing. This afternoon the school was dancing at a local elementary school's "wellness night." They showed off some of their steps and then invited kids from the audience up to try out a few basic steps. My boys are well accustomed to being the brothers of an Irish Dancer, they come prepared with their video games, but tonight was fun because they also got up to try out a few steps with the other students.

Sarah and her friend, Hannah, and Hannah's sister, Leisha.

Hannah's brother and sister and Noah got up to try a few steps.

All the dancers that were able to come to this gig.

Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit

Today we took a field trip to the Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim (yeah that's German for a science museum in Manheim) The museum had some great hands-on exhibits and displays. The staff tried really hard to speak and explain things in English to the kids, but all of the written information was in German, so we missed out on some of the things that we couldn't translate. They had this box lit to take shadow portraits. It was a really small display so Sarah had to smash her teen self in there, so you can see the yellow of her shirt, but otherwise I thought it was a pretty cool photo opportunity.The kids playing with some of the hands-on exhibits.Our final stop was on the short train ride they had in the motion section.

Mom's new haircut

So, I got a hair cut last week and my kids said it wasn't fair that THEY got their new haircuts on the blog and I didn't. So here is my new hair cut. And I'm in my purple coat, because I can.

Indoor Kid's Zone Friday Fun

It all started shortly before Christmas when Noah went to lunch with a family from our church. They went to this kid's zone and Noah talked, and talked, and talked about it. Micah doesn't ever remember being there (we went once when we first got here 3 and a half years ago) so needless to say he wanted to go after hearing Noah. I told Micah we needed to wait until AFTER the holidays and then I would talk to our friends to see when we could all go together. The holidays came and went and I AM NOT KIDDING, on New Years Day Micah started asking me if I talked to our friends, and when were we going to Kid's Zone.
We decided on this Friday since swim lessons didn't start for another week. The kids had fun eating pizza, playing in the giant indoor playground, and spending their tokens on games. We stayed for almost 3 hours and on the ride home I asked Micah, "So, was it everything you hoped it would be?" Micah answered, "It was BETTER." Sarah helped Micah learn the finer arts of ski-ball. Hannah liked the pre-school game and even recruited help from her friend.... silly teens.

HAIRCUTS

These are the after shots. Yes, this is AFTER the haircuts.