Christian Turns 11!

We woke up in Eindhoven, Netherlands.  We'd brought Christian's gifts along on our trip, but we'd forgotten the wrapping paper.  The boys just hid gifts behind their backs or made Christian close his eyes to be surprised.

 We stopped at a farm just outside of Amsterdam.  Christian was chosen to help with a demonstration on how wooden shoes are made.  Here he is chopping the Poplar wood with the farmers help.

The finished "trophy" or cell phone holder as the farmer called it.  He loved helping with every step. 

Christian and the farmer.  Later the farmers wife burned his name and date into the shoe.  The wood was green and the shoe is still wet.  If you smell the inside of the shoe it smells like smoked fish.

I'd brought brownie cupcakes and frosting along.  So that while staying in an Amsterdam hostel we could sing and eat treats. 
It was a memorable day for Christian.  He is such a wonderful and sweet boy.  I can't believe how quickly he is growing up...makes me sad.

A few facts about Christian:
*He is super, duper, over-and-beyond helpful.  He is a kid who sees a need and fills it without being asked to do a thing. 
*He has always had the biggest smile.  His entire face just lights up.
*He is a perfectionist.  A half job can make him fall apart.  He can't just do something, it must be perfect.
*He is A LOT like his dad!  A Lot!
*He flops every where.  He is dramatic.  He is accident prone.  He is usually hurt.
*He has a very good ear for picking up languages (and funny accents).
*He likes to be in charge and is always right (even when he isn't).
*He is touchy and loving.  He wants to hold hands and snuggle.  He LOVES his back rubbed.

Everyone needs a Christian in their lives.  It makes life much easier.

Deutsch Dienstag

You can still find bridge signs like this one.  I just hope that I don't see a tank on the bridge at the same time that I am.  It is hard enough fitting down the narrow streets without having to share them with the tanks.

Spring Break Day 1: WWII Sites

When Darin looked at a map of how we would travel to the Netherlands for spring break, he instantly knew that we needed to make a day out of the WWII cities that would be along the route. 

First stop was in Malmady, Belgium.  Site of the Malmady Massacre.

There is a plaque on the site of the massacre as well as a list of names and a US flag flying.

I really like that Europeans see fries as a meal.  They have "Fry Shacks" everywhere.  They love to load them up with sauces of all sorts of flavors and eat them with a fork.  We, Americans, just may not appreciate the fry for what it is worth.  Davis, who is always full of information, informed us that fries actually started in Belgium and are referred to as Flemmish Fries instead of French Fries.  (I totally stopped fact checking that kid years ago, but you can feel free.)  I don't care what they are called, because we call them lunch and they are delicious.

Second stop:  Aachen, Germany.  This was the first city in which the Germans were attacked on their own soil.    The cathedral was damaged some, but had been repaired.  It was a really neat cathedral. 

Ok, for a moment of snottiness, the first thing that I thought of when we walked into the cathedral was how much it reminded me of the Hagia Sopia in Istanbul. The ceiling was covered in gold mosiacs.  There snottiness over.  It was amazing.

We've noticed that all the big churches have some "claim to Christ."  This is one that I call Mary's Garage Tote. It supposedly contains Mary's clothes (maternity clothes?  Just toss them in the tote), Jesus' swaddling clothes (put them in the tote for the next kid), and the cloth used in John the Baptist's beheading (that is just gross). 

This is Charlemagne's church so his remains are here too, as well as his throne.

This was kind of funny to me.  The little "doll" reminded me of  my childhood with Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.  It kind of looked like the puppet that was a girl, but kind of looked like a boy.

Aachen has a famous spicy cookie.  This is inside the store where we bought our large chocolate covered gingerbread-ish cookie.

Easter

I really want to post about our wonderful spring break, but first Easter.  I just really can't do things out of order. 

A yellow egg for Grandpa Fawcett, his request.



We woke up early (730) on Sunday morning to the boys squawking about someone ringing the door bell.  When we opened the door this is what we found.

Gifts from our cute little neighbors.  They put it on the door step early because they didn't know when we'd be going to church.  We have the best neighbors!



 Each kid is assigned a color of egg to hunt for so that we can vary the degree of difficulty.  Christian was finding eggs for the rest of the day.

Anya's sweet Easter dress was a gift from my Grandma Davis.  

At Jag's Request

Jaggy is such a cute kid.  He is just going through an ugly smile phase.  See cute kid!

See?  Ugly smile.  

He wanted me to take a picture of his teeth, and put in on the computer for everyone to see.  He thinks that by doing this "everyone will stop asking to see his teeth when they are on Skype."

He quick to lose them, but they do not grow in fast at all!  It has been months and months without any sign of white coming.  I think that maybe the big Bertha tooth in the middle has scared the others away.

Deutsch Dienstag

Ode to the Commode

German toilets make absolutely no sense to me.  Imagine this,  a flat dry slab with a small hole at the front of the "bowl."  What is the purpose of that dry slab?  It only makes everything disgusting!  You have to flush and hope that there is enough water to scoot everything down the hole.  The toilet brush is a mandatory item in every bathroom!  Even all of the public restrooms have the mandatory toilet brush.  Clean up after yourself.

A couple of nice things about the toilets.  First, there are often two buttons to push depending on whether you need a lot of water or only a little water to clean it out.  Second, although you pay 30-50 euro cents to use a public restroom, they are the cleanest public toilets I've ever seen.  I was at a Christmas market and saw a toilet trailer and thought (because of the smell) there is NO WAY I will ever go into that place.  But it just so happens that the trailer was unfortunately parked right next to the stinky cheese booth and the restroom was perfect.  A little lady went into each stall and sprayed and wiped it down between each person!  That is service.

Eggy Update

The German pre-colored eggs looked better than they apparently were.  I don't know personally, because I think that boiled eggs smell like farts.  I refuse to put something in my mouth that smells like that.  I live with enough boys to keep that eggy smell in my house without adding...eggs.

But, the boys prefer homemade boiled eggs to store bought ones.  What ? Homemade eggs?  They said that the yolks were weird.  I think they mean that the yolks aren't the usual shade of green that comes from cooking way too long, way too hot on my crazy German stovetop.  Bright yellow yolks are "unnatural." 

Davis, who loves eggs, first wanted to know if they were bought from a store that happens to keep them in the refrigerated section.  They were, but actually most eggs both raw and boiled are more likely to be found on a shelf near the bread. 

Oh well, back to making "homemade" eggs.