A Family for God

A way to stay connected...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Search for Spring

Today we decided to go on a search for Spring. We woke up to snow covered ground but by the afternoon, the snow was gone and it had warmed up. The kids got their scooters and we went on a search to find signs that Spring was coming! It was a lot of fun, and I took pictures of everything we saw. 









Friday, March 20, 2009

some things never change

Carli really wishes she had a sister. Somedays... she likes to pretend she does. And for whatever reason, they let her.

Cotter starts Kindergarten!

That's right... all 3 of my kids are in school now! Cotter was so ready to be involved in something, but we had decided to start him in kindergarten next year (when he would have started Pre-K in the States) even though in Vienna, kids start kindergarten at age 3. But, a spot opened up in a kindergarten that we wanted him to go to next year, and he could start right away, so we took it. He is in the same class as his good friend Nora. He absolutely loves it and he barely says bye to me in the mornings when I drop him off! It is a great kindergarten and I am so excited about all of the things he gets to do each day. In the first picture, he is playing with a chemistry set and mixing colors. The second picture is he and Nora. It is hard to believe that he is going to school everyday!!



Monday, March 9, 2009

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Caleb just turned 6 years old! It is so hard to believe that he is so old! He will start 1st grade in the fall and that is also hard to believe! He is really growing up and I love his gentle spirit and his sweet heart. 

He decided that he wanted to have a Transformers birthday party. I know absolutely nothing about Transformers, so with the help of Google, we planned a party. We had a Transformer cake:

We played Transformer Bingo:

We played this great balloon game where they had a balloon tied to their leg and they had to try to pop each others balloon to win. They LOVED it and wanted to play it over and over again!
Then we played a hide and go seek game. We had two teams (the Decepticons vs. the Autobots) and they had to find colored cards that Josh and I hid throughout the house. The first team to find all 5 cards, won! Caleb's team won the first round that we played and their reaction was so great and... I didn't have the camera on. So, the second round, Carli's team won, so I filmed their reaction. This will give you a little glimpse of what a bilingual birthday party looks like in our family!


It was a great party and we had so much fun celebrating Caleb! 

Friday, March 6, 2009

Change for carli

Well, Carli and I both were tired of the daily fights over her hair. I have never seen a child who hates to have her hair brushed as much as Carli. In fact, she drew a brush in her heart from Valentines day with a big "X" through it, because she does NOT love to brush her hair! So, it was time for a change....

BEFORE

AFTER!!

She LOVES it! She ran into the house when we got back and grabbed the brush, and brushed her hair real fast and said "Finished!" I think that this big change will definitely keep the screaming down in our house each morning! 

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

windows

One thing I love about Vienna are the windows! All of the windows in our house can tilt back from the top, or open completely, depending on how you turn the handle. I love it in the summertime when all of the flowers are in bloom. It is really pretty!


Lots of changes

We have had quite a few changes in the last few weeks! First of all, we got an office space for our team! This will give the guys a place to work, (which will help all of the girls!), and also provide a place to host community events and many other things! We are all excited and we met there last night for a celebratory picnic! Let the decorating begin!


We went to the office to clean and Cotter was a big helper!

In other news, we got new wood floors in our house! The tile was breaking apart, so we called the landlords, and within a week, we had brand new floors! The kids love to do puzzles on the floor now, instead of the table! With new floors, you need new paint! So we had fun changing up the living room a little bit and we got rid of the white walls! Carli loved making her mark.
The changes have really helped our home feel more "homey"!