Keukenhof Gardens

Lauren and I hopped on a bus full of mothers and kids (except the bus drivers) at 3 a.m. last weekend and went to see these.

And hop on water among the swans.


Bougainvillea reminds me of Mexico!
Look how large these are on the right, as compared to the regular tulips on the left.
The yellow ones are called "World Peace". I'll take 2o million dozen, please.

The "Holland Queen" above. We drove six hours to see "Dallas"......tulip, (below) that is. I love the feathery pink quality.



I am not sure why I wanted a picture of me when I had been up all night and had just one small cup of coffee to keep me going!





A local farmhouse near the garden perimeter. Wouldn't that be a nice view!

Where's Waldo? Erhm..Lauren.
The entrance to Keukenhof Gardens-The Netherlands. Yes, the French flag does look similar, just vertical.

I won't bore or entertain you with the bus details just yet. I will say that I am always amazed at the "group phenomenon" or lack of conformity in a group activity.

We did get to eat these for breakfast with bread and butter. Chocolate for breakfast?!? When in Holland.......

Full

• The sky is full of clouds.
• My calendar is full of school-related/social papers to add to its contents.
• The laundry basket is full of clothes to be put away; the washer and dryer are also full.
• My head is full of sinus drainage.
• My head is full of ideas that I want to accomplish/visit/try.
• My "To-Do" list is full of tasks to clean out, organize, complete, call.....
• Our weekend is full of activities--Trier Ostermarkt, parent sport meetings, donation sorting (clothes).
• My library bag is full of overdue books to be returned.
• My inbox is still full-mainly spam.

My patience with the whiny two-year-old and busy four-year-old is empty. My days of free childcare are numbered. It's time to start making a plan.

Right under our nose

I mentioned quite a while ago that we wanted to explore Burg Nanstein. Since it is located in the nearby town of Lanstuhl, it would only make sense that we would check it out soon upon moving here, right? Not so. We had to live here at least a year and a half before seeing it! And can I tell you how many times we have driven past this location??? Hundreds.

This castle was built in 1162, and is associated with the Sickingen family. Nanstein is known for an elaborate siege during the Knight's Revolt in 1523. Restoration work continues throughout the castle as we saw new buildings, ladders, etc. scattered around. This is not really the tourist season, so we were lucky that it was open! Many attractions are closed November -March or April because of the poor weather.

We basically spent part of the afternoon exploring the rooms of the castle. I like trying to guess a room's purpose and look for little holes along the walls. These were often used to throw things out onto enemies (tar, rubbish, boiling water, etc). Dungeons and privy's (toilet) are also fun to find, too. There were not many people out exploring on a gloomy Sunday afternoon. That tends to be the day for walking here in Deutschland. Stores are closed-not much else to do!

Logan has to have a snack while we are out. Somebody had the grand idea of bringing small boxes of Smarties. These are not the sweet/tart discs that I enjoyed when I was young. These are miniature, brightly colored chocolate pieces-very similar to M&M@s, but slightly fruity. Very yummy, in my opinion.






Lots of fun arches and architecture.






The "tween" uniform. Hoodie from "store of the moment", skinny leg jeans and Convers@e shoes.

The view of Landstuhl below.
Crazy for taking kids out on a gloomy Sunday afternoon instead of enjoying naps? Probably.

Snail Crossing??

I saw this posted in a parking area recently.

I'm not sure exactly what it means....but I will be looking out for slow moving snails.

Where I left off

I honestly had no idea as I loaded Logan's birthday pictures a few months ago and left it unedited (crazy blog wouldn't let me move the pictures and kept deleting pictures/text), that I would take such a loooooooong hiatus from blogging.

I've missed it.

I've missed reading people's updates and little peeks into their lives. Funny sayings and events-I've missed you, too.

I have found myself adopting a different life away from my green laptop. I have stopped coming up with blog events, titles and pictures. It was strange from the life I had been living this past year.

Even now, as I type I can see that this will take baby steps to get back into this groove ~where I left my blog hanging. Logan has emptied out the fridge magnet basket at my side and smeared peanut butter from his face on my arm (ewww); the dryer cycle has finished; and there is a basket from my kitchen that I need to clear out on my other side. I am pretty positive that most of the school correspondence in it is now outdated. *Sigh* I am surrounded by things to pick up and sort in the next hour before I venture out into the drizzle and get the kids from school.

Just to give you a glimpse of what we have been doing, here are a few pictures from the past month. I visited Metz, France with a friend and her kids on a recent Sunday. It rained pretty much all day, but in Europe you cannot let that stop you! If you waited for a nice, sunny day---you might not see much of anything. Besides, the sun, clouds and rain are fleeting~sometimes. Allen stayed home with most of the kids. I say most since Lauren was snowboarding in France for the day with a neighbor and her son. Allen's only request is that I bring back some fresh bread from the patisserie. Most stores are closed in Germany on Sunday, so it was a nice break to get away to France. My friend, Jennifer and I made a nice discovery of a rose jam from the crepe vendor in Place de Jacque. It is an unusual sweet, rose-infused syrup. Nice on scones, pancakes, ice cream.........who would have thought?!? Funny story about the french bread: I told Nicholas that I went to France to get the bread that we enjoyed with pasta the next day. A few days ago I went to the local backerie to get some bread for dinner. I returned after 10-15 minutes and Nicholas asked me "How did you get the bread so fast??". He was asssuming that you always have to go to France to get french bread. If we could all be so lucky.





The "Rose Window" inside the cathedral.
Cathedral front entrance adorned with many saints.Some men's fashion that were questionable. Who knows? This might be the next big trend.
Cobbled, narrow streets are so lovely!

A nice sample of gateau in a patisserie window
It was dark in the cathedral, but this is a very ornate confessional inside.
Metz Cathedral. I love that lamp in the right-hand corner.

Logan on his special day

Logan received an "Elmo Live" for his birthday. He loves him! Elmo is very animated and tells stories, sings, sits down, and makes silly noises. Ugh. This is such a cute picture of Logan with Elmo, but the mis-matched pants are a disaster! Logan apparently got his jeans dirty and some fashion challenged soul put Thomas the Train pajamas on him in preparation for bed. *sigh*.
Logan also received a fun tool kit from our newly discovered local store "Ernstings Family". Different name-cute things! Usually I am the good mom who bakes a cool cake. Not so for this occasion. I think after the holidays I just am not in the mood to bake. I bought these plain cupcakes at the commissary and decorated them.
What else could we fit into the day? Well, Allen had a minor day surgery and Nicholas had a 50's theme dance at his school. We ate Chinese after we picked up Daddy. The picture is a few down-I can't get the pictures to move around. Arghh!


Logan started off his day with a pain au chocolate from the local bakery. Yes~he did go to the store in his pajamas. Every morning we go to the bus and Ryan's school in pajamas (him, not me) because I just can't get six people dressed, fed and out the door by seven. Something had to give! Here is Logan with Super Grover. My friend Jill gave him to me years ago. I love him. Until now, he has only made rare appearances and generally hides out in my hope chest. Okay-I finally updated, somewhat. For some reason these pictures won't move, and several have been delated in the correction process.