Another school year begins...

The evening before school began, the sunset was so amazing. Pictures just do not do it justice.
I have taken care of Matthew since he was a baby. Here he is smiling for me through the bus window as he is off for his first day of first grade! Time sure goes by quickly!
Here are the English speaking first graders for 2009 with Mrs Cathy Schmidt. (remember me babysitting Jonathan a few years back? Cathy is his Mom and Jonathan is in 9th grade) By the way, can you pick out the triplets?
BFA is excited to begin a bilingual school this fall. Mid-September, 14 German speaking children will join this class for the rest of the year. English will be taught in the AM and German in the afternoon.
The staff form a circle around the room to give their name, tell what they will be doing and pray together for the new school year.

Sorry it is taking so long to post pictures of the past few days! Our home has been in shambles as we have had new carpet laid in both the bedrooms...what a job! Everything out and now that the new carpet is in (WONDERFUL!!) everything has to be put back! A VERY SPECIAL THANKS to Travis who has come along side us and helped us just when we needed it most! We are on the homeward stretch! We will try to post pictures next week!

We feel SO blessed...

It has been 15 years since we last saw this couple! Alecia (the Mom) was a RA with us in the dorm back then. She and Andrew married and most of the time since then they have lived in countries over here, but our paths have not crossed. What a blessing to have them stop by and let us meet their wonderful children! It has been way to long and the visit was so good but far too short!

It has been awhile since we posted pictures of Chiara. Here she is doing a little last minute shopping!

Photo borrowed from Sharla's blog.

A day at Adventure Camp

Jesse is at Adventure Camp this week and yesterday I had the opportunity to spend the day with them for their canoeing day. The area was beautiful and peaceful...peaceful, that is before we arrived with 23 campers and 7/8 staff! Perfect weather made the day wonderful for the activity.
This is the road on the way in.
Everyone was warned that the swans if feisty or angered, could overturn a canoe. At one point they came across one with babies, but she only hissed at them.

Safety and instruction come first.



Anticipation!
And off they go...lots of squeals, hooting and hollering! They are excited!

This dog is staying close to owner, Ingo! He doesn't want to be left behind!



I tried to get a picture of all 9 canoes but the stream carried them away too quickly.

Our back yard after the rain

Cows and storks in a near-by meadow.

Evening sky from our backyard

It has been a busy week at our house and thus a long time since we added anything to the blog. We hope you enjoy the following posts that give you a glimpse of some of the things we have been involved with lately.

Laundry day

Each summer the BFA dorms host English camps for German children from all over Germany and Switzerland. I had the privilege of helping with the staff laundry between camps. On two different days I did bedding/towels for around 40 - 45 people.


Aaah! The finished project! I would gladly do it again!

Note: While I was doing the laundry, Jesse was busy picking up people from the train and airport, doing minor repairs and helping with driver's ed.

Our annual block party.

These people really eat ALOT of meat!


This was a most entertaining ceremony as these two hilarious ladies (with the help of the only child that lives on our street) lit the candles that go in these paper lanterns. As they were lit the lanterns were hung on a wire rack and gave a pleasant glow to the evening. The comments from the ladies and the other people on the block were so funny. We love living on Burgunderstrasse with all these wonderful neighbors. The lady with the orange top is under so much stress with her husband being so sick. It was good to see her have fun in spite of the circumstances.

A Day with the Stemple Kids!

We got to take care of these wonderful children while Mom and Dad took a day away.

Who can resist the fountain when you have to walk right by it!

Our favorite place in summer...

Back yard gatherings are the best! We love our patio and enjoy our little yard so much.