1st day of preschool

James, the wrinkled nose is for you :)

Macen had his first day in German preschool yesterday. He seemed to enjoy it. It's in the town of Sorghof, right off post so a very short drive for us. I am opting to have him eat the lunch they provide in the hopes he will get over his food pickiness. He did not eat for them yesterday and apparently told James over the phone that it was yuck. Prior to preschool, Macen had been going to hourly care here on post a couple of times a week. After he got comfortable there, he started trying new foods so I hope the same happens in preschool.

You'll notice the days of the week behind him. He has taken such an interest in what day it is, time of day as in morning, afternoon, etc and the actual time on a clock lately. I made this chart for him to learn the days in order and so he knows which days he goes to school and he is so proud of it. He loves changing it daily and always tells me what the next day is. He is so eager to learn!

And to celebrate his first day of school, we made cookies for dad. Macen has helped me cook/bake before but this time he actually taste tested. (It could have had something to do with him not eating lunch at school and me refusing to give him lunch when he got home) Regardless, he tried something new and that is all I can ask for. He played in the batter for awhile before he got brave enough to try it.

Lions, Tigers and ... Zebras????

We finally made it to the Nurnberg Tiergarten (zoo). Macen has been asking to go to the zoo since early July and I have wanted to take him before school starts. Well we were running out of time and we've had some pretty crappy weather. It was chilly but the rain held off and we had a great time.

Macen is counting the zebras - there were 7. Once we got inside, he found a giraffe toy he wanted and then immediately said he wanted to see the zebras. The zebras were all the way in the back part of the zoo so it took awhile for us to get to them. Macen could care less about seeing any of the other animals. All he kept saying was let's go see the zebras.

Our summer is over

I need to take a moment to complain. We have had crappy weather for awhile now and I kept hoping the sun would come back to stay awhile but it hasn't. And it's not going to, we are at the end of August. Our summer technically ended mid-July. Ryan, it actually left with you guys.

We have been averaging mid-high 60's since the middle of July with occassional days in the 70's since then. Lately, we are lucky if it's in the 60's. Macen is already wearing winter pj's and I've turned on the heater (well it will be on after someone comes today to get it working). Macen just got out of winter pjs in April!!! So all in all, we might have had 2 months of summer. Ugh!!!!

Apparently last August it was in the 90's most of the time. So 8 months into our European stay, I have to say .....I am soooooo not impressed with the weather here. It appears to be as moody as me! My husband will appreciate that :)

The Good Fight

We attended a neighborhood bbq over the weekend with a huge turnout. Macen loved playing with so many kids at once. One of the neighbors has this small bounce house and after the kids were tired of bouncing in it, Macen and 2 boys close to his age got in and wrestled. They wrestled for a good amount of time without anyone getting hurt/crying/whining. It was great to let them be boys in a small, soft, confined space.

Ha ha!

Update on Mo

I took Mo back to the doctor last week for a check up and she decided he needed the surgery. So he went in on Friday and had his leg repaired. He came home with a bandage over his entire leg. I take him back tomorrow and hopefully it can be removed then. He has been fairly good with it or I should say it's still on atleast. He doesn't like it one bit though. The doctor did say he has a few more weeks in the kennel as well.

In the meantime, Myles has really stepped into Mo's shoes. He sits in our window and hisses at the cats that come to visit. He snuggles even more at night time now and no longer gets up at 5am to run around the house. Only because he doesn't have anyone to play with or chase right now. And when it's bedtime, he runs to Macens door and goes in with me when I check on Macen. It'll be interesting to see how the roles play out when Mo is free to roam again.

Update: Mo had his bandage removed and he is walking great on his leg. But he still has to spend time in the kennel. The doc put the cone on so he won't remove his stitches and he DOES.NOT like it at all. As in he has been pouting in the kennel for 24 hrs now because its on.

And the 2nd pic is just to prove to everyone that although Mo looks like he is a big cat, he really is all fur. He's pretty small under all that fluffiness.

Nymphenburg Palace in Munich

I am way behind on getting these posted. We went to this palace while my mom was here.

This is the bed King Ludwig II was born in. He later went on to build the Neushwanstien and Hohenschwangau Castles in southern Bavaria.

These are from the back side of the palace. There is a large, gorgeous garden behind the palace with statues and streams.

It rained on us even though there wasn't any rain in the forecast that day. And it would downpour then stop long enough for us to get to our next location then start again. Macen's favorite part of the palace was watching the ducks, swans and geese.

Marstallmuseum

There were several smaller "palaces" away from the main palace to tour. This one was all carriages. They were pretty amazing. The carriages ranged from simple to elegant to what I would consider too much. Kinda like the middle pic.

Magdalenenklause

This was a separate palace on the grounds and this room was made entirely of shells. It was beautiful! I can't imagine how much time it took to create a room like this. You could look for hours to see all the detail.

My favorite town in Germany!

Oh how I love Rothenburg!

I don't know what it is about this place that I love so much but I do and it's going to be a place I return to over and over again. It was very crowded the day we went but still so enjoyable.

Right outside the wall there is a playground we let Macen play on when we first got there.

This is a familiar scene throughout Germany in the summer. Everyone puts these planted flower boxes outside their windows and it adds so much to a home or building.

Posing with Grandma

This is a scene (minus a lot of the people) you often see on books, brochures, etc of Germany. Rothenburg is one of the main tourist attractions here and this entrance into the walled area is often photographed for advertisement. Now I have my own :)

Oh what can I say about the Kathe Wohlfahrt store?!

 It's a world of its own! A Christmas lovers dream come true!

You enter the store and there are so many levels of Christmas decor and ornaments you can get lost. They don't allow pictures inside the store or I would show you the year round Christmas displays. I just may have to redo our Christmas tree decor while we are here...every year :) Just kidding husband! Maybe?

Pictures from St Jacobs Church. Still a very simple church unlike so many cathedrals here in Europe but gorgeous nontheless.

At the end of the day, we walked around a portion of the wall to get a view from above.