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BRUGGE, BELGIUM

2007-09-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

a really small house

a church

the most awsome stroller in the whole wide world in front of the church

a street full of restaurants....

a teeny tiny alleyway that the stroller couldnt easily go down so daddy and papick check it out.... (papick is what william calls patrick now)

this is either the church or the burg... can't remember which.... sorry... :)

shad is its real gold but i say naaaaaaaaah

ah .... asleep at last...

this was just pretty

huge clock tower that you could go up in but like everything else in europe it cost....

kids in awsome stroller again

on the side of a church

cool statue in a fountain... there was also one of a mermaid but she had water squirting out of her you know whats.... I didn't think it was funny but shad did...

so happy

2007-09-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

on the bus to brugge, belgium..... :)

getting even

2007-09-12T07:50:00.001-07:00

this is what happens you make little william wait for supper..... he gets even!

a little story

2007-08-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

i came upon this scene the
other day.....

so i thought id see what would come of it...

see that smile? mhhmmm...

well what are you looking for little william?

your trying to find

somthing.... what is it....

reaching... and pushing ....

almost got it.....

oh there it is ... unattended

lets see... hmmmm

what does it taste like?

oh mom... please.... oh wait what is that....

somthing is hanging from that thing in front of moms face... that thing that keeps flashing....

what is this hanging off of here.....

can i get it in my mouth? maybe if i get closer....

ooo... uhoh... just let me get it....

oh never mind... oh yeah what are those guys doin over there..... hmmmm

heee heee heeeee

saturday the 21st

2007-07-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

well we were invited to yet another kids b-day party... and yeah its usually the same old , same old... but they played a fun game which gave us great blackmail material for future use...

and we also all met an astronaut and got his autograph! his name was william! only got a pic of him with patrick and smiley though.... waited as an afterthought to go and get william a signature

happy 4th

2007-07-05T02:32:00.001-07:00

well here it is... this is what we did for explore the eiffel week..... of course they give us three days off during a holiday we already get off! anyways.... the first set of pictures is in a little town not too far ... there were some ruins in the middle of a vineyard.... that was beautiful... as you can see the weather wasnt the greatest.... but its not cold.... we're dressed up because we went to a really nice restaurant afterwards.... i mean they served us in a fancy way and waited until no one was eating before bringing the next course... the food was excellent i thought... shads steak was mooing realy bad but everything else was excellent!

the next set of pictures is from the 4th. we went to bernkastel.... as many times as we've been there we've never really just walked around... so i found a cool tea shop with excellent tea i highly recommend and also youll see a pic of the skinniest building ive seen yet in germany... didnt find out exactly how wide it is but it looked about 4ft from the outside... in that same building we found an atelier! he had some awsome little things he was making... little vignettes! so cool! hes from england... came from spain last though.. been in bernkastel for 5yrs! really cool stuff and reasoble prices!

then we kept goin up the hill to the castle.. the rest of the pics are self-explanatory.... it was good... how was your 4th?

alconbury

2007-07-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

well shad is back from england... he had a swell time and didnt get injured... had a safe trip there and back saw the cliffs of dover. forgot to get me a souvenire but all in all it was a good trip. they didnt win but finished 3rd. thats it

more later

my swap

2007-06-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

well im hoping my swap partner wont check over here.. but this is one of my finished peices.. .i asked some of you what you thought... and this is what ive done to change it... i hope she likes it! ok later gater

art class

2007-06-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

so theres a possibility that we might make somthing totally different out of the art class.. im relieved ... and excited... i have to come up with a curriculum... theres not really one out there teaches what i want to teach sooooo... i guess im making one of my own... i dont know.. im supposed to do it in a couple weeks... but i might need more time then that.... aaaaaaaaaaa! anyways...

just somthing new to tell you about... no pics still but ill put a little somthing up...

verse

2007-06-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

Correct thy son and he shall give thee rest, yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul. (Proverbs 29:17)
this verse thats up today on my little thingy on the left is a good one...
sorry still no pics i can put up... shads still not back yet.. and didnt call so that means they won! which is so awsome! im sure ill have lots of pics to put up when he gets back!

vonmaeroy

2007-06-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

well i also wanted to tell you that if you look to the right hand column you'll see the same little thing im posting here... its my mini-shop.... i have a few new things in it... only one new painting... now that im done with my really fun marie antionette swap then ill have more time for paintings! so let your friends know all about http://vonmaeroy.etsy.com/

some old pics that you may not have seen

2007-06-26T23:41:00.000-07:00

well the one with all the kids is really old... well like a month old... the one with smiley coloring on doll furniture is a bit newer .... the last pictures taken before daddy ran off with the camara are these two lovlies of patrick and hes newest lego creation... so next week there will be newer things....

tchuss

2007-06-23T17:35:00.001-07:00

we have a scanner now....finally and its also a copier printer.. anyways.. i made this cool collage of shad for many different things... but also so he could say goodbye for a week.... hes off to england....
pray for his safety.... theyre riding with their sworn enemies on the trip.... sheesh....
have a wonderfull weekend...

fun stuff

2007-06-19T07:26:00.001-07:00

this is somthing really cool... i dont know how many of you saw the new marie antoinette movie... we dont get movies here as soon as you so we have to rent... blah blah.. most of you know that... so we have to wait.. i just saw it the weekend before last... anyways... it was allright as far as history but since it wasnt all about the history aspect i truly enjoyed the artsy side of it.... so i found out about an art swap that somone one hosting on one of these here blogs and signed up right away... basically you get a partner and you trade art and goodies and whatnot... so allllll of that to say keep checking http://blendedcolors.blogspot.com to see what i get together... plus ive making lots of stuff and have a few new things in the store... im waiting until maybe august and im gonna start painting again so if you know anyone who likes my paintings let em know about the little teeny tiny store....
hmm.. oh ill have more pics of the kiddies up soon.... we've not done much the last two weeks ... taking a much needed break! its tooooo hot!

dollhouse decorating

2007-06-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

just wanted to say and i forgot before that smiley and i ... and patrick a little... have done more work on the dollhouse she got for her b-day.... to see pics then click on the link on the left there that says my art blog... or ill help ya out... http://blendedcolors.blogspot.com make it easy... anyways i thought id start putting pics of the work to make it a nice way to remember the FUN!

the brudder-hood

2007-06-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

i call them brudders because back when smiley was learning to talk she called her big brudder, brudder ... so heres the brudder-hood

today they were having fun laying directly in front of the fan at the end of the bed because its suuuuuuuuuuper hot here again...

i think they like the wind in their hair.. .whaddya think?

this is so cute with bee-bees one eye peeking out...

ART CLASS WITH HOMESCHOOLED KIDS

2007-06-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

couldnt tell which picture was better.... so i put them both up... only diff. is smiley of course... shes not a.d.d. shad! :)

dont know if you can tell in any of these but we're using black and white paint in this class because ... well ... i ran out of red, blue , and yellow from the last class... ive been teaching the kids to mix their own colors...

couple of nice action shots... theyre learning to shade with paint...

smiley actually sharing paint with some new girls.... so proud of her...

sorry a little blurry... not naming names ... "chris" :)

another nice shot...

i think these kids really like the class and if nothing else theyre having fun getting messy! well i think i went a little backwards in these pictures but anyways... there you are.. i finally put up pictures of my art class! which is growing by the minute! im having fun and i know the kids learn a little... i hope! enjoy!

mosaic

2007-06-06T23:51:00.000-07:00

coool right?

tea party

2007-06-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

here are all the pictues.. well there are more but i thought this would give yall the gerneral idea... i didnt take a pic of the cake... its on a video...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SMILEY!!!!

2007-06-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to you.... Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday dear Smiley... Happy Birthday to yoooooooooooou

The Next President of the United States

2007-05-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

ok i wanted to put some pictures up of my very adorably beautiful neice Puddin Pot .... shes either gonna be a marine like momma.... look at that cutie...
or.....

the next president... i'd vote for her.. wouldnt you?

illustration friday

2007-05-25T11:41:00.001-07:00

ive a joined a group called illistration friday... its fun... they have themes each week and you have to put up your art by friday. The Boy was watching as i came up with my idea and wanted to try it. just go to http://blendedcolors.blogspot.com and check it out! and i forgot to bring my camara to art class... so ill make up for it and take some awsome pics of the kids this weekend!

having fun

2007-05-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

just a few pics of the kids... Little Man is riding in smileys baby dolls stroller... dont know why they wanted to play this game.. but its cute...

CHEERIOS

2007-05-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

don't you love cheerios? so does little man!

sorry not the best pic

this one is! he's realized its somthing small that he CAN put in his mouth!

YUMMY

oh get it....you can do it!

GOT IT!

well thats all for now with cheerios! hope you liked it! :)

oriental german class

2007-05-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

well i forgot i did wanna say a bit more about some homeschooling fun things we've been doin. like ive said before we're gonna be here for quite awhile longer than originally planned and so i know we need to LEARN THE LANGUAGE ... ive been looking everywhere for those books "my first thousand words in..." insert language here. well i found the JAPANESE one and the kids are catching on pretty quick with that one... smiley loves to say ears in japanese.... which is mimi in case you didnt see THE LAST SAMARI with tom cruise.... well anyway obviously thats not gonna do much good for where we are now.... trying to teach this lady i know here whos about to pcs there. she knows how to say mimi now! :)

madame tutli-putli

2007-05-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

first just wanted to say happy mothers day! i know im late for some of ya.... also sorry its been a bit since i did anything on here. theres an excercise this week and Mein Ehemanns working the midnight shift to theres limited computer time. anyways... i wanted to say also ive finally decided to make a real effort to make somthing out of my art, and im researching possibilities, which is fun, and in so doing i found this great website dedicated to a wonderfull little movie coming out. all about madame tutli-putli... i really really really wanna see this! check it out if you can. i know my sis and bil will like it! so cool!

http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/madame-tutli-putli/index.php

please check it out!

well more soon.

butterflies and baby brothers

2007-05-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

So little Smiley is gonna be 4 this year! My idea for her party.... well actually I have to tell you first, dont tell her what my plan is because its supposed to be a surprise. Got it?

Anyway this little kid loves butterflies, I mean she wants to catch all the real ones she sees , and is always pointing them out... she has a million stickers and coloring books with butterflies , and clothes with butterflies.... she even points them out when we go anywhere outside.... or even from the window....

So since The Boy had a party at the indoor playland this year and we kinda went all out my idea for Smiley this year was a butterfly Tea Party. I'm posting some pictures of some party favors we made today ... we're also making handmade invitations etc etc etc.

I'll show more of my ideas as we make them/aquire them. Enjoy.

my painting

2007-05-02T23:35:00.000-07:00

I also wanted to show my most favorite painting I've done for a friend so far. It's from a picture she took of the tulips in the Netherlands. It took me sooooo long to do but I love every minute and it was the biggest one I've ever done... it took a ton of paint... and I had to actually go to her house to do some touch ups after I had already given it to her. Anyway here it is.

smiley

2007-05-02T23:27:00.000-07:00

I'll add pictures later but I wanted to tell you that smiley can spell her name now... so if you talk to her anytime soon ask her to spell it.... now she cant write it by herself yet but my goal is before next school year she will be able to.... she also knows the letters A-L just pointing at the letters she says them and and the sounds they make....

For her name we have a little song we sing to help her remember.... theres no rhyming or anything. We just sing her name in a sing-song voice.... you know.... ssssssss mmmmmmmmmmm iiiii lllllllll eeee yyyyyyyyyyy

just wanted to let you know how she's been doin in school. :)

CLIMBING TREES

2007-05-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

The other day we were all just hanging around outside and it was a beautiful day and so i brought out the camara and started taking a few pics... and these are some of the boy playing in the only tree in our yard he can climb in. He's so handsome.... just like daddy.

today...

2007-04-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

...was kinda long and boring. Nothing new goin on. We're doin the same old things in homeschooling so I decided to whip out some little fun things I was going to save for the summer. Of course the kids want to do all the fun things in one day, and do none of the everyday stuff we need to do. I wish more of the homeschoolers that we know here, wanted to get together, it would make the week more interesting for us all.

We are going to try harder to learn german since we will be living in germany until 2011! I also want to try to take the kids on more trips locally.... I'm a huge fan of google earth ... you can see what your looking for. Theres a teeny tiny town near here we're gonna try to go see. Its so remote you have to park a half mile from the town and walk to get in! Very cool!

SOCCER

2007-04-25T00:02:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd put some pics of shad playing soccer...

I do have some more recent ones somwhere but i have to find them first.

These are from the competition in Italy two years ago now, (wow!), and doesnt he look just awsome?!

FROGS

2007-04-23T05:11:00.000-07:00

We didn't do this today in Homeschooling, we did this a couple weeks ago, but we met a lady recently and were at their house and their kids were talking about some frog eggs in the pond beside their house.

They said hey wanna take some home? I said *gag* "sure why not, it will be fun for a science project...." right? *gag*

So one of the kids got a big empty pickle jar and went and scooped some up for us and we carried them home to begin our project.... watching them hatch into tadpoles and then turn into frogs.

So as you see we have a few pictures of the kiddies looking at the little boogers.... *gag again*.... well anyway we asked around about what we should feed them once they hatched and the best advice we could come up with was fish food. So i went to the german pet store and also tried to ask them what to feed a frog... they were clueless. I mean to what i was saying not to what a frog should eat.

So needless to say we brought home the food and at some point forgot about even feeding them and smiley took upon her little self to feed the tadpoles... lets just say they were well fed! Which may or may not have led to their death the next day.

May i say though that when tadpoles have a small space to live in and are very hungry they can swim so fast they make the water spin!

guten morgen

2007-04-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

Well i plan to put a bit more on here later in the day but i wanted to say we probably will not put anything on here on sundays because it is the day of rest.... :)

Also wanted to say Good Morning! and hope your weather is looking as good as ours!

saturday is pancake day

2007-04-21T04:08:00.000-07:00

At least that's what smiley and The Boy call it. They love my home-made pancakes for some reason..... :)

It's also videogame day. The Boy waits patiently all week for this day.... i wish he felt the same way about our first day of school each week. Oh well! :)

This is also the day that the kids are the most silly becaus there's nothing we "have to do" on this day. Well there's nothing for THEM to do anyway. This is our be silly, relax, no-nothing day. It's also Hot Dog night. Sometimes its Movie Night.

Today we wont do much i think. Maybe go to the park. Maybe try to plant the tulips that we brought back from Holland. They're black! Altho I'm not sure your supposed to plant them in the spring.... I don't know!

Well so far it's been a relaxing day. Mein Ehemann is competing , or rather trying out , for the soccer team he already plays on. This is for an upcoming tournament in England. I hope he makes it, but i also hope we can come with him! I think it would be great to go to a country where you dont have to say "Do you speak english?" Just be nice to change it up for once. :)

I'm adding some Easter Sunday pictures to this post cause i dont think i sent 'em out to everyone.

Hope your day is as relaxing as ours.

about our trip

2007-04-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

We had a great time. It took about 4-1/2 hours to get there and of course we had to stop to feed the baby and take a potty break. :) We stayed in Den Haag at The Golden Tulip Hotel,and I highly recommend that city. The Hague is right down the street as well as the Mauduran which i think i mispelled, and that is a wonderfull little park to take the kiddies. Its all of Holland in miniture.... well not all but all the main attractions. The beach is also right down the street and its got an awsome boardwalk. The Kukenhof is about 30km away which is known for its tulips, of course. Amsterdam is also about 35km away. Lots to see there. We mostly went there to go to my new all time favorite art store. They have awsome deals on paint, brushes , and canvas. I try to stock up whenever we go there. We also made it up to Alkmaar , where they have a cheese museum. This was where Mein Ehemann wanted to go..... just call him Wallace from Wallace and Grommit.... "cheeeeeese Grommit".

So the tulips were awsome... the weather couldnt have been better for spring in the netherlands.... and the kids did so well on the trip in the car up and back. I highly recommend this trip to anyone who makes it over here.

the first day

2007-04-19T23:48:00.000-07:00

I've never done anything like this before , but i think it's nice to have somwhere for my family and friends to see whats goin on with us , and its easier than emailing everyday or getting a chance to call sometimes for us. We live so far away from everyone so the time difference makes it hard and also we just had baby number three so that makes it hard and now that Shad has a new job its longer hours which means less family time in the evenings. So this is for all our family and friends . We love you all!