Opening Night!

Last night was the opening night for Kaitlin's current play, Our Town. Once again, the cast did amazing (especially Kaitlin, although I am a little biased) We're not allowed to video (copy write laws) or take pictures (theater rules) but I did get a photo of Kaitlin after the show with her flowers. Here she is:

So, I've been slacking...

I have a good reason (other than that I am a huge procrastinator!) We have been so busy, with soccer, theater, and just life!

Anyway, two weeks ago we had beautiful weather, and no extra activities so we did a little sightseeing over the weekend. On Saturday we headed over to Cologne. We went to the cathedral there, and the chocolate factory.

Then on Sunday we headed over to Ronnenburg Castle for a Medieval Festival. The kids were able to bake bread over an open fire, and watch some knights sword fighting, and even saw a peacock!

Dreamland Everlasting: "Be careful what you wish for"

Kaitlin has been involved in SKIES (School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration, and Skill) theater classes here at Wiesbaden since last summer. This last session, the kids actually wrote and then performed a play. They performed it on Sat. April, 25, and did a FANTASTIC job! We were impressed at the ideas they took and made a play out of. There are three sisters, Katrina, Kaitlin, and Christina. Kaitlin doesn't believe in dreamland, and that night the good fairy comes in to send all the girls to Dreamland, but gets into a fight with the witch. The fairy manages to send Kaitlin and Christina to Dreamland, but the witch sends Katrina to the Land of Nightmares. It is up to the other two girls to rescue her, with the help of a necklace given to them by the queen of Dreamland. The girls rescue their sister, and then wake up and think it's all a dream, except Christina still has the necklace (which their mother thinks makes her feel like a queen while wearing it) And then, their babysitter shows up, and she looks just like the witch from the Land of Nightmares, and the girls run away screaming-and that is how it ends. It was really entertaining and fun to watch.

It's Soccer Time!

A.J. chose to play soccer this spring. He is having a lot of fun doing it, and is actually pretty good. His first game was Friday night. The kids did a fantastic job, and the parents had a good time reminding them which way to go, and to stay on the field.

Happy Easter!

Here in Germany we have had fantastic weather this week! In the upper 60's, lower 70's. Remember how cold it was last year, Krista? Here are a few pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits.

Today Kaitlin was really proud of herself-in her Sunday School class her teacher asked her to tell back what she had just said-as far as Jesus being in the tomb. Kaitlin proceeded to tell her the entire Easter story. Her teacher was impressed with her, too, because her favorite part was when Mary went to tell the disciples that Jesus wasn't there anymore, not just ending the story when Mary discovered the tomb was empty. A.J.'s comment on Sunday School-we learned about Jesus again.

Trier

On Friday we headed to Trier. Trier is one of the oldest, if not the oldest cities in Germany. It is built on the ruins of what the Roman's built. The original gate, called the Porta Nigra is still there. It is called the Porta Nigra (or the black gate) because as time passed the stones turned black (even before there was smog-imagine!) There are also ruins of an Imperial Bath house, and amphitheater. Then, there are the palaces-such as the Electoral Palace, and the churches that the Germans built. It was a nice place to visit. It is laid out so that everything is walking distance-however, the amphitheater is a LONG walk from the hauptmarkt-just in case you were wondering. The kids' favorite part of the day was playing at the bath house. The tunnels are still there, so they ran around in the tunnels, pretending to be adventurers. It's also a neat place to hide and scare the people you are with...not that Jamie and I did that to the kids...or the kids to us.

The pictures: upper left, the Porta Nigra. The kids at the bath house, the kids and I in front of St. Peter's Fountain, Jamie and the kids in front of part of the original wall the Romans built. A.J. is sitting up in a window of the wall.

The Easter Market

Today we headed downtown to check out the Easter Market (or Ostermarkt) I had so many people tell me last year about the Easter Market. They raved about the shopping-especially the hand painted eggs. Unfortunately, last year by the time I found out about them, they were all over. We found out yesterday that the markets for our town (and pretty much our entire area) were this weekend, with today being the last day. We headed down, and it was amazing! There were all kinds of little booths set up-there was a whole side of the market devoted to fabric. Then, the next section was cars. Jamie took the time to sit in a brand new BMW (as opposed to his 20 year old one) that is worth close to $100,000! I can't imagine spending that much on a car! By the way, he said it was INCREDIBLY comfortable. Then, we headed to the part I liked...all the little vendor shops. It was crazy busy, as you'll be able to see in the pictures. There was also a marching band that just randomly marched around playing. I also was able to find some of the beautiful eggs. Check them out!