Christmas in April!

Tomorrow is April 1 and we are surprising the kids with an all day Christmas celebration since we missed Christmas with them in December. After they went to bed tonight we put up a tree, placed the gifts and now will head to bed and see what happens in the AM!

Today we took Jordon, Ellie, Katie and Matthew to a special park. We were there for several hours and everyone had a good time. It was very quiet on the ride home!






We began and ended the afternoon on this pond in the park which has a raft the kids love to play on. I think they could spend a whole afternoon just riding this rig.

Off on an adventure!
Early morning bonding.
Katie has not been feeling well for almost a week. However, on Monday AM, she bounced out of bed, brushed her hair, added a barrette or two, got dressed...all on her own. She is ready to roll!
I love watching these kids create wonderful things at this table! (Matthew has gotten his appetite back, after being sick last week. I just realized he is eating a left over waffle in this picture!)

Katie, Jordon and Matthew helped Jesse do inventory and re-label all the AWANA equipment! Such a big help and I think they had fun doing this together.

So much for the back yard treasures. It snowed today and it is cold out!

Back yard treasures!

Who would have imagined...

Terra, Sharla (our daughter) and Joy all graduated together from BFA in 1992. In 2008 they each had a baby girl (Tasha, Chiara and Anya). They have some fun years ahead as they all live in the Seattle area.

Today when I was on a walk, I happened upon this flower box filled with Prim-roses. It was SO pretty.

Later , while walking through a park, I came across these crocuses. I had never seen so many in one place. There were thousands of them, way more than the pictures show. I couldn't decide which pictures to post so I posted them all! (They are really neat when you click on the picture to enlarge them.)

And the winners are...

March 7th, Jesse took a great team of kids, helpers and parents to the Awana Games in Sembach. They took FIRST place but more important than that, 16 responded to the clear message presented that day!

One month from today, Chiara turns a year! Hard to believe!

Today, Katie and Matthew helped decorate our Easter tree. It was fun getting this ready for spring which we all hope is coming soon!

Great Weekend!

We had such a good time with the Stemple kids!
Oh No! Less than an hour and Mom and Dad will be home...we have a few things to DO!!

Boys went up in the hills to play in the snow on Sunday afternoon.

We went out for hot choc at the bakery but we did not tell the boys!!

Katie and Matthew being goofy!

Weekend of entertainment!

This weekend we are taking care of these children(and their brother and sister) while their parents are off on HS retreat. Yesterday, Katie and Matthew spent part of the afternoon with Jesse and came home with these balloons which they are adding a personal touch to.
Katie is pretty serious about hers.

What do you think? Looking good, right? He is counting the days(16) until he will turn 6. Look out world!

An added twist to the weekend...more snow! As I write this, Ellie and Jordon are off on a field trip to Basel...they are a little apprehensive as it is a trip to a 'trash' museum. The HS(230 students, 45 Staff) are leaving on buses on a 6 hour trip to the retreat center in Nurnberg, Germany.

I bought these yesterday at the grocery store...79 cents/bunch.

This is what they look like today.

Easter Chocolate galore. (Click on the pictures to see the details)


This chocolate bunny is about 2 meters high.

Sausage anyone?

Oodles of noodles!


This particular package of assorted noodles was on a good sale today. 5.5 Kg of noodles is about 12 lbs...that is a LOT of noodles and people were buying them like crazy! If I would buy one of these packages for Jesse and I they would last us for months! Anyway, I saw an elderly couple leaving the store with TWO grocery carts(12-15 packages in each cart)heaping full of these noodles. It made me laugh!