Christmas

For the first time in more than 10 years, I did not fly to the states for Christmas!  My family came to see me here in Germany.  What a treat!  We had a very snowy Christmas, it was beautiful.  We drove to Strasbourg, France one day during the break to visit their Christmas market.  Zoe's favorite part is always the rides.  :-) 

Scotland

We spent Thanksgiving in Edinburgh, Scotland.  What an amazing city!  We spent a few days exploring the city, enjoying the many pubs along the way.  I think we ate fish and chips twice a day while were were there!  We were even brave enough to try haggis - and it was really good!  Zoe's favorite part was a cup of hot chocolate with about 40 marshmallows floating on top.  We were lucky enough to catch the Christmas market, and of course Zoe found the rides.  We had an incredible vacation....until it was time to leave.  Our flight was cancelled due to heavy snow, and we were told it would be a week before they flew out of Edinburgh again.  We sat in our hotel room exhausted from waiting for hours for the flight that never left.  Zoe was happy - she got 2 chocolate cupcakes to keep her happy!  We decided to hop on a train to London and catch a flight out of London.  After many hours on the train (they were running half speed due to the icy tracks), then switching to the Underground, we got to London about 5 minutes after our flight left.  AGH!  We spent the night in London, and got out on the next flight in the morning.  Unfortunately, Zoe's birthday was in the middle of this mess.  We got take-out pizza from the nearby restaurant and when they found out it was her birthday, they threw in some pretty flowers and cake.  The hotel receptionist gave us 4 silver candles, so it all worked out.  What an adventure!

Halloween and Europeans!!

What an October!  Heidelberg's Tennis Team took first place for tennis this year at Europeans, and Paige took first place for ladies singles -- Go, Paige!  We spent the weekend in Wiesbaden watching the matches, biting our fingernails all the while!  It was an awesome experience, and the team's unofficial mascot, Zoe, enjoyed every minute of it.  Gramma, Zoe, and I spent one day exploring the pumpkin fest in Ludwigsburg; this year's theme was Under the Sea.  Such fun!

For Halloween, Zoe dressed as Thing 2 and went trick-or-treating with me and Gramma both dressed as the Cat in the Hat.  She had fun, but after about 10 houses, she was done.

Luxembourg and Trier

Over Columbus Day we all packed up and headed to Luxembourg.  Along the way, we decided to stop in Vianden and see the castle, and wouldn't you know it...there was a fest going on.  Perfect!  We spent the day at the "Nut Fest", sampling nutty foods, wines, and liquors.  The castle at the top of the hill was gorgeous, we could have spent the whole weekend there, but off to Luxembourg City we went.  The next day, we spent tooling around Trier - Germany's oldest city.  We had a perfect day!

Our Favorite Fest

It comes around twice a year...our favorite fest in Stuttgart.  This time we went in our traditional dirndl dresses.  I don't think I'll win "mother of the year" this year (again!) since we were singing and dancing all night -- even Zoe was dancing on the tables!  What a blast!

Where is Zoe?

The other night, Zoe gave me a real scare.  I put her to bed, only to check on her 30 minutes later, and she was not there. I searched high and low and was a little panicked....then I glanced at her basket of stuffed animals, and saw her! Sound asleep among all her furry friends!

Paige, Zoe, and I went to the children's fest in Heidelberg a few weeks ago - fest wasn't so great, but the day was gorgeous and we loved walking around downtown.

Today we went to our favorite park - Luisenpark - or as Zoe calls is "The Weezen Park".  Finally a sunny day after a rain filled week!  We enjoyed our day!

Ok, I don't know how to get those two pictures to go straight!  Each time I upload them, they turn when upload completes....you'll just have to turn your heads to see them correctly.  :-)

September In a Nutshell

Here we are back in Germany, and we've got a full house!  James and Sam are back for their senior year, and Paige has decided to come and go to school here for her junior year.  It's a full house, but lots of fun!  We went to Ribeauville, France for their annual parade- a family tradition for us now!  We've gone for the past 2 years, and it's an absolute blast. 
Heidelberg's Castle Illumination was this month as well.  Zoe loved the fireworks!  We snuggled up in our blanket right along the river to watch the show. 

I took Paige and Zoe to the local circus this month.  Wow, I just do not know how to describe this...strange acts, older than old grandpa posing with a horse, a very bendable woman, and clowns that were downright annoying.  Let's just say there are better circuses out there, I'm sure of that.  The best part was intermission when we got to walk around and feed the camels, zebras, pigs, and horses!

Aaahhh the beach....

What's not to love about the beach in the outer banks?  Zoe has a great time with her cousins.  She tried her best to get Jenna to laugh when I was taking this picture!  Zoe caught a ton of jellyfish - the non stinging kind.  Who knew?

Bike Riding

Zoe loves her new bike at gramma's house!  Her favorite part?  The zip-up bag on the front that holds her puppy.  :-)  Zoe loves to act like a pirate with Pierce.  What I love the most about this picture is her hair!

Summer Road Trip

We just got back from our annual road trip to Pennsylvania. I took Pierce along with us; Zoe just adores him! We stopped at the Smithsonian for a day, then continued on to Baltimore where we spent the night at the Inner Harbor. Zoe just loves her cousin, Pierce. It was so cute, she snuggled right up to him at the hotel! The next day we went to the Aquarium in Baltimore and the kids just loved every bit of it. The highlight was a 4-D movie of Diego and Dora. They could not get over the water, bubbles, snow, and other special effects during the movie.

We continued on to State College and spent a week with my sister. The kids had a blast playing in the backyard with their plastic dinosaurs.

The last part of the road trip was my annual visit to Tina's house. Oh my, did we ever have fun! The girls did a huge makeover on Zoe, who just loved it! They even had her posing on the bench afterward. We spent a night at the Midway carnival, and then night swimming. Zoe could hardly keep up - I just love the picture of her in the car seat passed out still wearing the swim goggles. Too funny! We had such a great time!

The First Haircut...Officially Anyway

Well, Zoe is 3 1/2 years old and finally got a real haircut! Back on her 2nd birthday, I chopped off her 'rat tail', but this was an actual "sit in the chair with a cape" haircut. Zoe's hair was not long or even falling into her eyes. In fact, the only reason for the haircut was the fact that she was looking a little "webby" with all that baby fuzz sticking out in every direction! Dorothee, my hairdresser, put Zoe on the chair and asked if I wanted to save a lock of hair. Now, I did have a little plastic bag with me for the big event, but I didn't think it was going to work that way, so I told her not to worry about it. She was thankful, because as she cut those webs off, the hair just evaporated! I swear there was nothing left on that floor at all! It was the oddest thing! Zoe was the perfect customer, and sat still the entire 3 minutes it took to cut her hair. It made a world of difference - her hair looked curly once more and not webby!

Bodensee

Zoe and I went to Bodensee with James and Kerry for the weekend. What a beautiful place! We loved exploring parts of Switzerland and Germany, walking for hours and enjoying great meals at night. One of the highlights was visiting a monkey park off the beaten path. We fed Barbary Macaques popcorn out of our hands. It was a hoot! The park was fun, and they had more than just monkeys there.....fields full of deer, storks, and lots of ducks. Zoe thought it was great!

Where is Zoe?

I put Zoe down for a nap today and a few minutes later she came down to ask for a flashlight, guess it was a little too dark with the rolladen all the way down. I gave her one and told her to head back to her room. About 10 minutes later, I went to check on her and did not see her in her bed. After looking all over the upstairs, I finally discovered her all curled up in her playhouse. Too cute!
Back to Luisenpark to enjoy the sun - we always have a great time there!

Prom

The boys' junior prom was a very big deal in our house. Zoe wanted to take part in all the action, opting for a very fancy dress....and her favorite blue plastic clogs! Zoe was all smiles as she joined the girls for their pics.