Lucy's comment of the day

The Ls found a bouncy ball in the drawer at the hotel and (na-course) are fighting over it.

Lulu: LILLIE give that to me you jealous girl.
L: NO, I had it first!
Lulu: You give that to me NOW, I am counting to three and then you get a time-out from me.
ONE, TWO, THREE, four, five, sixteen, eleventeen !!!!
Fine, I do it again .... One, two, three ....

.... And she is still counting ....

Lillie's comment of the day

At Legoland, we are walking by one of the 100 stands offering tons of useless, expensive stuff to buy.

L: Can we go and buy something? The guy (sales person) looks so lonely there.
M: NO but NICE try L!!!

CZ Californiacation - PACKING

This is for Papa, in case you are wondering why the heck I can't get my sh... together and get going with the packing.

While I was making breakfast the Ls were busy in their room getting dressed (so I thought).
This is what I found when I went to check on them ...

They had gathered a FEW items for the trip to Carlsbad ....

VIP, the Tooth Fairy Pillow, in case L would loose a tooth while on vacation ...

Obviously they CAN NOT live without these items.
Not that they ever play with them here at home but one never knows when you need your giant, stuffed unicorn, right!

... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh .... I think I am losing it!!!!

{this moment}

Today I pledged allegiance to the flag!

It was a strange feeling giving this oath. 

Somehow it felt like I was betraying my home country or forsaking it. 

And then I felt very much alone, like I don't belong anymore. 

I love Germany, I love my family and I would love to live near them so my daughters could be part of that life, grow up like I did, speak my language and love the beauty of this country.

But I can't.

And now I don't even have this little red passport anymore that shows that I still belong there 

... belong somewhere.

While others apply for citizenship as soon as they are eligible, I procrastinated until the VERY last moment (my green card expires in September!). 

This last step was a hard one for me and it did not come easy.

As proud as I am that I completed this task and as relieved I am that it's all over, I am also sad today. 

I feel like I gave up a part of me today.

The next time I will travel "home" I will be a tourist with a foreign passport, just like all the other travelers. I will not be going "home", I will be visiting Germany.

Pat has told me over and over for the last 5 years that I will be a "German born with an American passport" ... I guess this doesn't sound too bad. 

Home is where the heart lies ... and the heart is right here, next to the ones I love.

So I guess I am not quite homeless after all ...

How to make ...

... a  Hula Hoop

It seems that we have switched stores. 

We used to run to the Craft Store every 5 minutes or so to stock up on things or get new items for new projects. 

But lately it seems we are spending more and more time at the hardware store instead.

I guess we are "evolving".  Thats a big word!

We have been reading the book "Big words for little people" By Jamie Lee Curtis and we are really into big words now :) 

One of our projects today was to find "big words", write them on a card and then go through newspapers and find the letters to recreate that word. 

The Ls LOVE it!!!

Anyhow, back to the hardware store. 

When I saw Elizabeth Mitchell was guest blogging on Soule Mama's blog I was so excited. 

We have loved her since the day we found her first CD after L was just born. 

The CD is called "You are my sunshine" ... thats what we used to call L when she was itty, our sunshine. 

The first year of her life she hardly heard her real name, just sunshine :)

So we fell in love with Elizabeth Mitchell and her wonderful music and yesterday she was guest blogging on my favorite bog ... awesome!!!

As soon as we saw her project, we packed up, raced to Osh to gather the materials and today, after the Summer Scholar school work was done ...

... we went to work to make our own

Hola Hoops!!!

All you need is:

poly piping, 

connectors, 

colorful tape 

and lots of little hands to help with the assembly ...

we softened the poly by dunking it into super hot water to insert the connectors easily

tape for decorating and to give it more grip ...

et voila ...

Two hola hops and TONS of fun!!!

LOVE the way Lulu shakes her none-exsisting bum!!!
And my half naked hubby walking through the pic .... it was 100F here today. Blazing heat!!!

Clearly we need more practice BUT we found some great tips on YouTube and will practice every day until we can keep these holas going and going ...

Lillie's comment of the day

Pat took the Ls to see Kung Fu Panda 2 this weekend. L was talking with Pat about the movie when she asked him:

L: What kind of Fu was it Papa?

P: It's Kung FU Lillie, it's kind of like karate.

L: No, I mean what kind of FU Papa?

P: It's just like karate. Remember you went to karate lessons?

L: Yeah I know it's fighting (and now she is getting somewhat irritated...) WHAT KIND OF FU???

P: Looking at me helpless ...

M: What do you mean, what kind of FU?

L: Well, whats the white stuff called in the sushi soup, the one that I like, thats Fu.

M: Tofu?

L: YES!!! So what kind of Fu is Kung Fu? Is that for soup too?

P / M: ... AHHHHH .... :):):)

Lulu's comment of the day

I was laying in bed with Lulu this morning, my arms crossed behind my head and we were just chatting when she looks at me in complete shock and screams ...

Lulu: WHAT DID HIM DO TO YOU MAMA?
M: WHAT??? WHO??? Whats wrong?
Lulu: (pointing at my underarms) PAPA, he put all of him beard sharpies under your arm.
Thats not nice him do that to you!
M: ... note to self, SHAVE underarms today, it freaks out the kid!!!

Summer Scholars

... that's what we are this summer, summer scholars.

Summer is here, school is out and we have nothing but time on our hands.
What to do, what to do, what to do???

Fancy summer classes are not quite in the budget this year.
Plus I have missed hanging out with the Ls with no schedules or plans, no places to be, no trainings or classes to race to and Lulu has missed her big L very much lately.
It's about time we can all hang out together again, get our craft on and maybe do a little learning while we are at it.

I purchased a summer home school curriculum for us, which can be used for various ages.
12 weeks, laid out step-by-step for us, perfect I thought and clicked the "buy now" button immediately.
$50 later we have a MOUNTAIN of papers in front of us, summer book lists and a whole lot of fun from the looks of it.

We prepped all week last week, got the materials ready, printed things and such.
One of the reasons I like this program is the book lists, the way you incorporate a book/story into a whole week of projects and it works well for a 4 year old and a 6 year old.

Last Friday I took L to the Library to take care of business ...

L filled out her application ALL BY HERSELF!

et voila ...

My BIG girl got her OWN library card!!!

She is so darn proud of this little piece of plastic!

And today was 

Day 1 of Week 1

of our 

Summer Scholar Program

First the Ls wrote in their journals and colored a picture.

 Then we moved on to calendar and bean math.

I added some bling to Lulu's set :) 

L has a full set of 30 calendar days to work with.

While L was doing more math Lulu used her new white board and practiced her numbers.

 Then we had some coloring works sheets ...

And then I added a little craft session, 

na-course ;)

Our home-made dot-stamp 

Plasticine ROCKS people!!!!

et-voila, twirling ladybugs

  

                                       

Then it was recess 

(aka mama needed a shower)

Then it was lunch/pick-nick time

And while I cleaned up I found this on Ls desk :)

Check out the picture, the monkey bars, a slide, a parachute kid?, a swing, trampoline and a zip line ... totally my back yard :)

Then we ran to the Library to escape the heat and did our reading session and then it was "explore time" ... aka let's get wet, wet, wet ...

We also worked on some physics theories ...

And had a wedding. 

Jessie, the Race Car was getting married to the Tonka Prince Car. 

You can't get the Princess out of my girls, I guess ...

And now they are snoozing and I am POOPED out!
We had a blast today and I can not wait for tomorrow ... we have so much cool'ness lined up, it'll be awesome!

On Papas Day

Pat got up at 4:30 AM, as usual on sunday mornings, woke up sleepy-head L, went to the ice rink, taught her the art of floating on ice, drove back at 6:00 AM to bring her back into my warm and still very quiet bed (instructing her NOT to wake up Mama and Lulu), raced back to the rink, had his morning skate and walked back into the house at 9:30 AM.

He finds me in the kitchen, grumpy and tired, since L wasn't into sleeping after her exciting morning with Papa and Lulu was crying for food but didn't know what she wanted "I just don't know" was the answer I had gotten to any breakfast suggestion that had come across my lips.

He takes my face into his huge and warm hands, looks into my eyes and says "Let me take them to a movie and you go and take a nap".

I refuse, of course, since this is supposed to be his day of being spoiled and pampered (even though I wasn't the best at it at that point).
I tell him that "We'll do whatever you want to do. This is your special day!" and he replies "Well I want to take my girls to a movie with popcorn and a soda and I want you to take a rest. Simple as that!".

He tells me how great I am every day, even though or maybe because I never believe him and just shrug it off as a bad joke.

He tells us that he loves us every singe day, many, many times, he reads our wishes from our lips and never says no to any of them, he loves these girls so much that it just melts my heart and he never tires. He is always the go-to guy, helps everybody in need and does it always with a smile.

Not once, in those 10 years that we have known each other, has he spoken an ill word to me or was mad at me.
Not once has he given me reason to worry or to grieve and when everything else is going dark on me, the world seems like a sad place, tears are rolling, worries are near, I just have to reach out my hand and am sure to find his near by, always ready to hold and support me, just like he promised he would.
And if there is one thing I am certain about, it's that this hand will be there for me as long as the big and warm heart behind it beats.

And while I am standing in my kitchen this morning, my face in his hands, I am once again grateful for the wonderful and amazing man standing by my side, always and forever.

Happy Papas Day my dear Goalie. 

Thank you for being the wonderful person you are.

We truly LOVE you!

 Your Hockey-Buddy L, Nutters Lulu and LUM

Propagating - Take 1

A few months ago I received an African Violet as a gift.
They have been blooming ever since and look so very pretty!!!

We decided to try propagating by leaf cutting.
Here is the outcome ;)

We cut the leaves about three weeks ago and just kept them in the water.

L was very eager to plant them into their new homes.

Three, new & pretty girls for the house ;)

Now lets hope they don't die on us right away ;)