Do we look German yet?

These are the last seven or so months that we have in Schweinfurt, Germany. We don't know where we will move from here. Even so, our lives will indefinitely continue overseas with Dan's job-- but it could very well be our last of Germany. We've called this place home since summer of 2006. It will be almost eight years by the time we move. We lived in downtown Schweinfurt in an apartment on the Rossmarkt for the first two and half years. Our little dackel (daschund) Nutmeg joined our family at the apartment. Since 2009 we've been living in the nearby farming village of Hambach in a wonderful home that I will be so sad to leave. It's the place where God blessed us with our two little girls, and it's the only home they've known so far.

The military post was first established in 1945 and is now gearing up for its final closure in 2014 along with the end of the American presence in Schweinfurt. Services shutting down and programs being cut have hit me hard this week, which is probably why I've found myself blogging sentimentally today. I have heard many Germans express their extreme sadness that the Americans are leaving the city and that we will be sorely missed. I'm glad that the American presence here has been a good experience for the Germans as well.

In honor of our time here, we decided it was appropriate that we don traditional German dress for our family photos this year.

 

Loralynn's drawing of our family (minus Nutmeg).

Gallery of photos

Going through our pictures makes me smile so much that I just have to post my favorites. Here are some of our candids from July to October 2013 in no particular order. I should probably add, too, that Loralynn has been particularly bothered by the camera so getting good photos of her has been hard to come by. Tana still likes to ham it up for the camera for the moment and sometimes I'm able to catch it.

Loralynn & Emely J. (her Pfandhausen Kindergarten friend) got a chance to play at the playground next to the Hambach Kindergarten before school began again in September. They are school-mates once again!

Loralynn likes to impress through her climbing. Our Kreuzberg hike was cold but fun.

Polish Pottery shopping in July was super fun, and I added a few things to my kitchen.

My oldest niece, Alicia, came to visit before starting her discipleship school near Dresden with YWAM.

We took Alicia to Kreuzberg Monastery for a yummy dinner and hike.

One of the outings we did with our home Bible study included going to Oberwerrn go-cart track. It was a cut-throat race between Dan and me with injuries to prove it.

Andrew & Kristin S. and Marco & his son Manuel raced with us.

Our little family has enjoyed Sunday night movies together with lots of homemade popcorn. Poor Nutmeg doggie always feels so left out. Whirly-pop has made the popcorn-making much easier thanks to Jessica and John C.'s gift.

Did you have pop-up books as a kid? I loved them! Now they have pop-up castles that fold back down into books!

Our girls wrestle sometimes, and it's usually pretty fun to watch. Most of the time it ends with someone getting hurt and crying, but it's so worth it!

This summer I discovered incredibly tiny hummingbirds outside my kitchen window. They are about the size of a bumblebee and their beaks/mouths are tiny, long, bendy sticks. Thank you, God, for your amazing creations.

When the weather was lovely, we often found ourselves at Seufert Ranch just up the opposite hill in our village. The girls loved feeding the horses, goats, sheep, rabbits and chickens. Sometimes we would even eat at the restaurant there.

Tea parties are important. They give us a fun chance to practice our manners and are a great excuse for eating cookies and drinking tea (apple juice for now). We are still practicing the art of not spilling a ton.

When Dan was teaching science, the four froggies were in his classroom, but now they reside in our home. They like to hug sometimes and this time I caught it on camera. Who says they are entirely cold-blooded!

Magnetic dress-up dolls with a scenic book provided lots of entertainment. Loralynn likes to match all the outfits. Tana is just fascinated by the "stickiness."

Sunday movie night again. We don't eat dinner-- we just have loads of cheesy popcorn and milk (or soda and beer) while we watch a mild cartoon. This time was "Balto." I liked it, but it was a little intense for the girls.

Sunday movie night includes, "No Nutmeg-- no popcorn for you!" Our doggie usually gets some fallen kernels here and there, though.

Laura Lynn E., a teacher friend of ours that also attended the home Bible study, let the girls wear her special hat for a few minutes. It was a delight for Tana.

We are slowly expanding our dress-up clothes collection for the girls. They love putting on hats, capes, masks, scarves, tails, and fancy shoes. Fasching season (Mardi Gras/Karnivale) in the winter is perfect for finding those accessories!

30 + 4 Birthday Bash

All our birthdays came together in one big party on Oct. 20. We had 31 people in the cafeteria of the Schweinfurt elementary school. Three families from Loralynn's German kindergarten attended (Jenna, Emely, and Hailey). Most of the other attendees were our friends without kids or with older kids.

Circle time at school gave Loralynn a chance to pick her favorite games.

The party was decorated for Loralynn since she's the cutest and was turning four years old. We've titled our parties each year 30 + __ (Loralynn's age) because we gave birth to Loralynn when we were 30 years old. Adding her current age to 30 is how old we are that year. So this year was our 30 + 4 party with a lollipop theme. We had had the lollipop theme planned for last October but Loralynn got really sick two days before the celebration and we had to cancel.

Dan spent around six hours the day before putting the cafeteria tables up by himself, decorating the room and setting up the photo booth. Clean up after the party was much quicker with all the extra hands we had. (Thank you Kristen and Andrew S. and Crystal and Mike C.!)

Jenna and Emely are friends from Loralynn's school

Most of the kids didn't even touch the pizza and just ate lollipops all evening (and cake). Tana never finished any of hers, but I believe she must have had 7 or 8 different flavors in her mouth throughout the party. We had a prize walk around numbered circles taped to the floor. While the music played, we walked. When the music stopped, we stopped on a number. Dan drew a number out of a hat and that number was the winner of a prize. Most of the kids went home with something from that game. Then we play "Tape the tail on the blow-up elephant." Kids were blindfolded (or so it seemed) and all of them got their tails amazingly on target. For obvious reasons, there was no winner for this game.

Our photo booth was set up the whole evening and we encouraged people to pick a mask, hat, or accessory to wear and take a photo of themselves. It was a fun idea and I think we'll do it again. It ended up being a much nicer way to remember who attended the party.

Many families went home with a whole pizza (we bought way too many) and a party hat full of lollipops. Loralynn got quite a few gifts some of them worth noting: her first Barbie "pregnant Barbie" fully loaded with baby that comes out of flip-around tummy, DVD of Bible stories & some classic kids' movies, a few German children's books (which I have read to her, I just don't understand the words I'm saying), a doggie in a carrier, Busy Town airport board game, Wiki sticks, and more. She's played the most with the Barbie and the dog with its carrier.

Loralynn sat at the head of the table for school lunch.

We had two quarter sheet commissary cakes (we only needed one) decorated with her

favorite characters Diego and Dora the Explorer as well as a princess on the other. Both cakes were mislabeled as chocolate when in fact they were vanilla. Even though Loralynn didn't say anything, I know that chocolate is her favorite and that was probably a let down to have two vanilla cakes. But what kids doesn't like frosting! I added my first experiment with cake pops (red velvet flavor) which turned out well despite the time and difficulties I had with them. 

On her actual birthday, Loralynn had a party at her German kindergarten with homemade chocolate cupcakes that we decorated with princess sprinkles together the night before. She wore her fuzzy tiara and brought her star wand.

Hailey (left) is one of Loralynn's favorite friends at school.

Tana also played "Tape the Tail on the Blow-up Elephant."

Fall Harvest brings fresh pumpkin pie

Loralynn's costume was a "Renaissance Queen" from the PX. Tana reused Loralynn's old owl costume. I grabbed some fasching (Karnivale/Mardi Gras) accessories from the girls' dress-up stash. Dan sported Mr. Potato Head. Then we attended the Harvest Fest at the Ledward Chapel on Halloween night.

We went pumpkin shopping about 45 minutes away from our home. It was supposed to be a "patch" but the German farmer put all the pumpkins on his driveway because the field was too muddy. In any case, we bought some pumpkins to carve and the smaller, darker orange ones to eat. I thought I might actually try to make pumpkin puree this year.

I caught a rare camera smile from Loralynn.

It was a lot of work to scrape out the seeds, cut it up and steam it, then scoop the flesh off the rind. After all that, I had to put my cheap blender to work pureeing it with just the right amount of water so that it resembled the thickness of the canned pumpkin. The end result was some mighty fantastic pumpkin pie (with homemade crust as well) and the best compliment I've ever gotten on my cooking from my husband.

I can make four pies from the three pumpkins I steamed. You might ask, "Is it worth all the work?" I wasn't thinking so until I discovered how much my husband liked it. I'll do it again just for him.

For Halloween night, we took the girls to the military chapel in Schweinfurt for the Harvest Fest for about an hour. We left a bowl of lollipops (left over from our big lollipop birthday party a couple weeks ago) on the doorstep for any possible Trick or Treaters. The bowl was emptied about halfway at the end of the night (although it could have been just one kid taking all those lollipops).

Dan carved a pig in honor of our last year in Schweinfurt (which literally means "pig ford")

I found these masks for a euro each at the craft store. The girls had fun painting and jeweling them.

Pumpkins are fun to take pictures of. They are colorful and make yummy desserts, too!