Mimi and Papa visit Germany!

The girls have been counting the days until our next visitors, my parents, come to visit!  They really miss having family around and were soooo excited to have Mimi and Papa with us.  I picked my parents up from Frankfurt airport on Wednesday while the girls were in school.  Papa (my dad) met the girls at the bus stop and he was greeted with a huge, running hug from both girls!  They both had perma-grins on their faces for the rest of the day! 

The afternoon of my parents arrival, Germany greeted them with this beautiful rainbow!

Papa gets schooled by the girls in a game of chess!



Yesterday while the girls were in school, I took my parents down to Stuttgart to see the Porsche Museum and then to tour Ludwigsburg Palace.  It was a great afternoon!

Outside the Porsche Museum.  What a cool looking building!

In the parking garage of the museum.  This garage goes down as the cleanest I've ever been in!!  And half of the cars in the garage were Porsches!  The garage itself was a museum!

Entering the museum.

The first Porsche fire truck.

So many cool cars!

One of my favs!

This car had a zipper soft top.  It was especially designed for Mr. Porsche for one of his birthdays.

Can I have one??

This car orginally sold for $1 million dollars!!!

A girl can dream!

When you stood on this black circle, you could hear the engine and feel the vibration (in your feet) of whatever car name was displayed above.  Here dad listens to and feels the 1963 Porsche 911.

Mom and Dad enjoying the sounds of the Porsche airplane engine.

 

The only car in the entire museum that we were allowed to touch and sit in.  Feels good!!

 

Outside the dealership across the street from the museum.

Uh oh.   Dad doing a little shopping.  The only thing we could afford was the Porsche hat on Dad's head!

The price tag on the Porsche Dad was looking at!  It could be yours for only $158,000!!

Inside the courtyard of Ludwigsburg Palace.  The tour was supposed to be 1.5 hours, but it took 2 hours!  Our guide was a British lady and she was great!  We saw the hunting lodge (directly behind mom and dad), the king's "apartment", the queen's "apartment", a theater, and a church just to name a few.

Facing the other direction in the courtyard.

Mom and I still in the courtyard!  It was warmer outside than it was in the palace!

Welcome Spring Party

Today I helped to host a Welcome Spring party in Leena's classroom.  Once again, her teacher wanted to set up three different stations and then split the class into groups and have them rotate between the stations.  Leena's teacher asked if I could come up with a spring craft.  I decided to have the kids decorate an egg tree that they could keep in the room through Easter.  For those of you who don't know, egg trees are very popular in Germany at this time of the year.  Germans basically find a dead branch and then hang beautiful egg ornaments on them.  You will see them almost anywhere.  I found some styrofoam eggs and bought some materials that the kids could use to decorate their eggs.  It was a bit messy at times, but I think the kids had a good time with it.

My station before the fun began!

A before shot of the egg tree.  I found this branch on the side of the road while waiting at the girls bus stop.  We went out and bought a cheap, plastic planter and the girls decorated it with Easter stickers.

The kids busy decorating their eggs.

Leena at one of the other stations.  At this station, the kids got to fill Rice Krispy shaped nests with Robin Egg Whoppers and other goodies (Rice Krispy nests were made by me!).

Miss Perry at the Rice Krispy bird nest station.

The third station - Spring Bingo!

The egg tree almost complete!  A couple of kids were absent and a few other did not finish.

St. Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt

Another mother and I made up a fun St. Patrick's Day treasure hunt for Taryn's classroom.  Taryn's teacher let us come in on Friday, hide the clues and then help lead the kids to the treasure!  It was a big hit and we all had a lot of fun with it!  Taryn asked if I could come back and do another one!  :)

I had to tap into my inner Dr. Seuss to come up with the clues!  I scouted out the classroom a couple of days before the hunt to get ideas for where the "leprechaun" would hide the clues!

 

The treasure!!  Hiding under the teacher's desk!  We'll see if the kids can find it!  It was filled with bags of candy and also  green jello popcorn balls for each of the kids.

One of the clues hiding on the door frame.

The hunt is on!  These two guys are looking for a clue in the books.  The clue was laying against a book in plain sight and they had the hardest time finding it!  It was so cute!

Yeah!!  They followed all eight clues and found the treasure!!

Seth, Taryn and Taize enjoy their treasure treats!

Frankfurt Zoo

Today, Greg took the girls to soccer practice in Weisbaden which is located right outside of Frankfurt.  This group practices two Sundays a month - once in Heidelberg and once in Weisbaden.  This is the first time that we've made the trek up to Weisbaden for practice.  In order to make the trip a little more worth our while (practice was only an hour and it's an hour drive each way), we decided to check out the Frankfurt zoo after practice.  Despite the weather being rainy and chilly, we enjoyed our time there.  It wasn't the nicest zoo I've ever been to, but it was still a great way to spend a few hours. 

Before the rain started, the girls pose with this guy (forgot what it is!).  This is one of the few shots I got of the girls all day!

This "little" guy is only 2 months old!

The monkey exhibit was the best part!  Tons of monkeys flying high!

A group of baboons walking by.

We just missed this chick hatching by only a couple of minutes!!

These worm-like things coming out of the rocks are called pipe fish.  I'd never seen these before!

This sweet guy is enjoying his dinner.

Deciding whether or not she wants to eat.  Here kitty, kitty!

You snooze, you lose!!  He doesn't think twice about eating it!

This guy was pacing back and forth in front of the window.  Gave me goose bumps!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Saturday was Dr. Seuss' birthday and there has been a lot of celebrating going on around Patrick Henry Elementary School.  One of the benefits of attending a school that is closing is that the PTA has funds that HAVE to be spent.  So, on Saturday, the PTA rented out the PHV theater and hosted a free showing of The Lorax to all PHES students.  In addition, the kids and parents all received free popcorn, drinks, and birthday cake!

Could this be a first date??  Taryn sits next to good buddy, Taize (in foreground), during the movie.

Yummy Dr. Seuss birthday cake for everyone after the movie.

The celebrating did not end there.  On Monday, Leena's class celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday and I was invited to help out.  The party consisted of the kids being split into three groups and then rotating between three stations.  I was in charge of one of the stations.  I read Horton Hatches the Egg and then the kids put together a Horton elephant made out of construction paper (all my idea!).  It was a huge success!!

Leena having fun playing "Sneetches" bingo at her first station.

The second station got to hear Green Eggs and Ham and decorated egg-shaped sugar cookies with green toppings (my idea and I supplied all the goodies and cookies!).

Station #3, my station!  The kids make their Hortons!

Class shot.  What a fun class!

Mommy and Leena.