I heart Valentine's Day

So instead of making Valentine's Day all about candy this year I thought I'd try to make it fun. I cut out a bunch of pink and red hearts to decorate my daughters room with and made a heart banner with some construction paper, ribbon and tape.

easy peasy

 I wrapped up her Valentine's Day gifts and made a little scavenger hunt for her to find them. Since she's only four and she can't read yet I made it a picture hunt on yellow hearts so she doesn't get them confused with the pink and red hearts that are all over the house. 

I think I learned was that if you're going to be taking pictures of a fast paced scavenger hunt in low light, it's best to put the camera on auto instead of trying to adjust manual settings! So many blurry photos! She had sooo much fun though, I can't wait to do it again next year. 

her first clue...

that drawing was horrible, good thing she knew what it was...

it was unplugged, don't worry...

 but which boots?...

the microwave!

it took her awhile to figure out what that drawing was LOL

the present was in the bathtub!

She helped me decorate the house with cut out hearts. There is something still fun about cutting hearts out of paper.

 our front door

Confession: I used to get really annoyed by people that would say "heart" instead of love when someone draws a heart in a sentence but I guess it's grown on me :)

Memorial Day in Europe

Today was Memorial Day and so we paid tribute to our fallen servicemen by making a day trip to St. Avold, France to visit Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial. 

Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial is the largest American World War II cemetery in Europe. The French government granted free use of the land as a permanent burial ground without charge or taxation as a thank you for liberating the surrounding area. 

There are 10,489 graves (10,487 according to their brochure), (151 of them unknown servicemen.)  The wall of the missing contains the names of 444 soldiers and airmen missing in action. As we viewed the graves of these long dead veterans I couldn't help but tear up a little. We stayed, hand over heart, while retreat was played on the bugle, the flag was lowered, and the canon was fired. It is a beautiful and peaceful place for those laid to rest there. I am thankful that they sacrificed so much so that I can have all that i do today. 

Thank You!

Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

I had such a wonderful day yesterday I thought I would wait until today to write. To all you mothers out there, I hope you had a great day as well.  This was officially my fourth Mother's Day since giving birth to my daughter and the amazing thing is that my husband has only missed one of those. (He was deployed to Iraq for the second.) The Army does a great job of making sure you don't spend too many holidays together. I got 3 out of 4 Mother's Days together but only 1 of my last 3 birthdays. Weird huh? Anyway, Mother's Day is one holiday my husband does up right. He realizes when your kids are young it's up to daddy to help make the day special. Last year he helped my daughter make cupcakes.

 It was adorable! This year I took my daughter to friends birthday party and when I came home he had done the dishes (which I can't stand doing!), the laundry, and vacuumed. It was wonderful. Then we went shopping and out for supper. When we got home he had an already wrapped  present hidden from me. My daughter brought it to me and says, "Happy birthday Mommy!" 
Inside I found a Nextbook (an android tablet/e-reader) and a DS game. I was so excited! I've been wanting an e-reader for some time but I never buy stuff like that for myself. This was the most unselfish gift my husband could give me because he hates to read but he knows how much I love it. This thing is great! It came preloaded with 27 classics and it has wi-fi so I can surf the internet, get on Facebook, check my email, listen to music, watch videos, and blog ;)  It does take me a while to type on it though so I probably won't be doing a lot of blogging from it. The DS game was immediately taken over by my daughter so I haven't even got to play that yet. 
Thank you both for making today the best Mother's Day ever! 


I guess I better start planning for Father's Day...

Frohe Ostern! Happy Easter!

Frohe Ostern! Happy Easter!

It was a weekend of BBQ's for us in Baumholder. We celebrated an early Easter Saturday with a German friend/neighbor who's parents were visiting from Mainz. The food was delicious and we even fit in a water fight. Sunday we spent the first half of the day in bed (that's my favorite way to spend the day by the way) and then had to practically lead my daughter to where the Easter bunny had left her basket of goodies. She doesn't quite have the hang of it yet. We had another BBQ behind our building yesterday with most the people in our building and my neighbor cooked a feast all by herself. Today we had (drumroll please...) a BBQ and our Easter egg hunt at the park to celebrate with friends who were out of town for the other BBQ. Three BBQ's in a row!! BBQ's and birthdays. There seems to be no end to them around here :) I can't complain though when we have such great friends to share them with.  

What der Osterhase brought us

She's starting to scare me a little. She bites the faces right off and that's all she eats. Even off of Peeps!

A really big Kinder Egg

Mmmm, Kinder candy is the BEST!!

  

There goes his face!

She was so proud

"He wanted to go in my tummy" she said

"See?"

das Ostereiersuchen (The Easter Egg Hunt

As much as I've enjoyed spending so much time among friends, I'm actually looking forward to the next meal with my husband at home. Even if I have to cook it. I can only handle hot dogs and potato salad for so long! I even made a pregnant friend throw up! Apparently mushrooms make her vomit in her current condition and she didn't realize they were in my green bean casserole! 

I've got my green on!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's been a busy week! Lots of appointments.  I had a booth at the BCSC Luncheon yesterday. The ladies were kind enough to let us vendors eat for free, so I had my St. Patrick's day feast a day early. Unfortunately the luncheon ran late and I had to leave early to pick up my daughter so I apologize to those of you who where planning to make a purchase after the lunch and didn't get to. You can contact me directly and we can get together. To the winner of the raffle, if you would like to exchange your hat for a different one please contact me as well. I've almost finished one of the custom orders from the show! 

It's becoming a tradition for me to whack off all my hair in March so I did that again today (twice in one day actually- long story!).  I also (finally) went and got my international drivers license. I'm pretty sure my husband only wanted me to get it so I can help drive on our vacation this time. The poor guy hurt his back so I guess I won't complain about doing my share of the driving since he's done all the driving the last two trips.

We are leaving for Paris in the morning so I will get back to everyone next week. I hope you all have a great weekend. I know I will! 

The raffled hat