Horse Camp 2009

Ella and Hannah attended a week long riding camp last week. They had a blast and loved loved loved the horses. Mucke, Landlady, Altmeister, Goldy were the names I heard about all week long. Their favorite seems to be Mucke, because all the pics we have are with Mucke. There was even a mommy horse with her 2 month old foal. Cute!

Ella kissing Mucke

Hannah getting off after her little riding show.

Hannah's circus/lost teeth

Here's my Hannah with a big hole in her mouth. Since this pic, she's lost even more teeth. I think she has 5 teeth missing right now, all right in front on the top and bottom. Makes eating corn on the cob very interesting! I think she looks absolutely adorable but she hates it! Think she looks like a freak-luckily for her, a couple are already growing in quickly. Ella is also still losing teeth-just lost one in Cuxhafen while vacationing with Oma and Opa. I'll have to wait a few days to see her new smile.

The following is a video of Hannah's circus performance. She was a penguin, in case you're wondering. This was a project they worked on all school year. Hannah really loved walking on the tightrope, doing tricks in the trapeze and walking on these big balls which are in this video.

Sarah is 3!

Sarah turned 3 in June. Here are the better late than never details! We had a fun party at the tennis club with all her friends. Yummy cake and cupcakes and fun times were had by all.

Marina, Sarah, and Louisa

Trying to blow out the candles before the wind does it for her!

Sarah riding her big girl bike!

Sarah decided she was a big strong girl and ready to ride her big girl bike with no training wheels. It worked! You've gotta love the german bikes with no pedals that teach kids to balance. They make bike riding soooo easy. As you know from the last post, Sarah just turned 3 and I consider it a pretty big feat. She is super proud of herself and so are we. Ella and Hannah are gone this whole week at the North Sea with oma and opa, so they are in for a big surprise when they return! Go Sarah Marie!

Trip to the Castle-Burg Stahleck

Last weekend, we had a fun adventure to a medieval castle on the Rhein River in a little village called Bacharach. Our family spent two nights in this castle turned youth hostel and had so much fun. Above is the entrance to the castle. Below is a view of the Rhein from the courtyard. This is also the view from our room. Dreamy!

Above Sarah's bed was a little window once used by lookouts/guards. How cool!

Note how high we are. We had to walk down and back up this very steep hill every time we went into town! What a workout, but it turns out we have a couple of mountain goats for kids-they were great and had so much fun!

We even found some real mountain goats!

Bacharach is such a picturesque village, full of buildings from the 1300's.

And a beautiful old chapel. The colors of the stained glass was sooo lovely and still so vibrant.

We took a car ferry across the Rhein to get home. A fun end to a cool weekend!

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It's that time of year for me. Birthday time! And it was absolutely lovely! Lennart gave me the best gift ever-he and all three girls went to his parents for the weekend and I had peace and quiet! At least until Saturday night, when my friends came over for a cocktail/spa pre-birthday party. It was great-and I have the pretty nails to prove it! Unfortunately, the huge batch of frozen cosmos and frozen margaritas are most likely the main reason I forgot to take any pictures. Oh well, fun was had by all and when my actual birthday rolled around on Sunday, Lennart and the girls came back to celebrate. It was a GREAT weekend!

Lovely Valentine Surprise

Take yourself back a few weeks, it's Valentine's morning. The girls actually let us sleep in. They were fabulously quiet-Lennart and I rolled out of bed around 9 and mosied upstairs to see the neat surprise awaiting us. Ella had set the table in all red, even pulled out a table cloth and the chargers. Even lit candles (which we have sufficiently lectured she may not do it again) on the table and in the chandelier. What a bunch of sweeties!