Vacation Bible School

Olivia got invited by a friend of preschool to a vacation bible school that Brooke (the friend) attends this week. It is not too far from here, obviously free of charge but unfortunately in the evening from 5:30 to8 pm.

At first, Olivia did not want to go but later she changed her mind and wanted to go when I would stay there, too.

So I called Brooke's Mom back to let her know that Olivia would be okay when I would stay (and so would Jonah) and we agreed to be there.

At first my kids where shy but then they had a blast.

First they learned a bible verse:

'Love your Lord,

love your neighbor!'

and the teacher explained what this verse means in giving examples and had a little play (Himmel und Hoelle) with it.

Story time followed (with the help of puppets) about a good Samaritan who helped the weak

when nobody else did.

Then the gang of 17 kids had some snack and finally got dressed in old men's button down shirts for the craft of the day: making your own T-Shirt.

Back we got into the church and the kids got to sing songs.

Pooped but happy Olivia and Jonah got home and they both want to go back tomorrow!!

Of course, my boy jumping around while everybody else tries to do the movements...Olivia is somewhere in the background

Miss Chris from the barn (I ride her horse Vanna) asked me last week if I could do her a favor and teach a student of hers riding Vanna. Jake is a young teenager, autistic, and gets very frustrated with Vanna. He loves her to pieces but Vanna can be VERY stubborn and just won't move or just moves the direction and the pace she wants. So Chris asked me if I would teach Jake some tricks.

And today it was Jake's riding lesson and I had a blast teaching horseback riding again!!



Jake is a very good listener and all I should pay attention to is that he does not start crying because of frustration. So I told him upfront that I am getting frustrated with Vanna, too, and that he should not take it personal. She's a tough cookie to ride because she is not a well-trained horse.

So in the lesson we focused on get Vanna going, to really work her mind in doing a lot of excercises like figure eights, little circles, big circles, change in pace, change in directions....I set up little orange cones so that Jake focuses on walk-trot transitions from one cone to the other to really 'control' the pony. He did not really get this part, Vanna started to trot in between two cones but that was fine. To deal with a student you don't know what to teach plus having a student with special needs is different than to have your normal students that you see each week.

But Jake did fabulous and he even cantered Miss Vanna 3 times! She was obvously later in the lesson in the mood of cooperating with us a little more!

Later from Chris I heard that Jake and his Mom Barb liked the lesson and I felt great, too!

Boulder Reservoir

It is just hot. Plain hot. Hot since weeks. And with hot I mean like over 90 degrees F, so 33-36 C for DAYS!

Yesterday we had the baby pool filled up again in the backyard and the kids had so much fun in sitting in the pool and squirting water all over the place but today was the time again to go to a real water park.

And I read in an article about Boulder Reservoir (sowas wie ein Baggersee) with a beach area for the kids to play in, boats to rent, surf boards to watch....so today we went there! It is about a 30 minutes drive, so not too far.

The kids loved it but I am fine with being there just once a year. As a kid you maybe don't care about the water and such but now, being older and wiser, I like the clear water in a normal outdoor pool ways better!!! So I only took a bunch of pictures of the kids being in the water just up until my knees.

Back at home, I filled up the baby pool again and jumped right in!

Introducing ' Popcorn '

A few weeks ago we got a new puppy....a Boxer Terrier who is now 12 weeks old.

Chris was really touched by Bobo's death and he wanted another Boston Terrier bad. I on the other hand would have been fine with just the two Boxers we have....oh well.

We found 'Popcorn' on Craigslist in South-East Aurora (almost a drive into Kansas from our location :-) ) and Chris spontaniously fell in love with the little guy. I mean, who can resist a puppy dog, whatever the breed?

So, with 8 weeks old, we got the Pop home!

Tobi is an an adorable puppysitter, Nellie plays with Popcorn, too but mostly she just ignores him or goes out of his way.

Pottytraining is doing sometimes wonderfully good, sometimes not.

And from the first night at our house he sleeps through the night from about 9:30pm to 6:30 in the morning! And when we let the dogs out, he was not even the noisy one, the boxers get up and shake their ears so loud that Popcorn wakes up but he does not sit at the crate's door for going out, he still rests and just looks at you. What a good boy!

At 6 weeks at the owners'.

Playing with his Mom Bella

At our house at 8 weeks. Tobi on the leash in the background, since he was a little too rough



Playing with Tobi outside

Popcorn with 6 weeks playing at his owners house with Great Pyrenees (Pyrenaenberghund) Maggie.

Turn on your speakers....somebody SNORING!!

Boulder Creek

Today it should have been one of the hottest days....like over 100 degrees F...means about 39 degrees Celsius...or just plain and simple ' very hot'.

And since it was Sunday and we wanted to have a family day (and not a Hot Rod working weekend once AGAIN) we wanted to do something special....Boulder Reservoir (sowas wie ein Baggersee mit Strand), our Broomfield pool The Bay (unser hiesiges Freibad), driving down to Colorado Springs to go to the Mountain Zoo (where you can feed the giraffes and look them eye to eye), Renaisance Festival in Larkspur....endless possibilities!

But we ended up deciding on visiting Boulder Falls (Wasserfaelle in Boulder)...

Unfortunately, driving up road 119 we saw a sign - that was already there when my Mom was here in May - that read: Boulder Falls closed ahead. Well, thanks!

So, change in plans...since we were already on Boulder Canyon Road and had the Boulder Creek next to us we just stopped at a convenient parking lot and just walked the path a few miles (probably one) down and up again. It started out to be very nice and pleasant but since we were running late and it just got hotter the more challenging the kids got. All in all they were good but the last couple of yards both wanted to be carried!

But we had a great family day and the scenery is just fantastic (besides the noise of the nearby road of course!)

I hope that whatever they do to have the Falls closed, will pass soon!!

Boulder Canyon Road crossing over the creek and our path

There were so many hikers and bikers that we really could choose whom to ask to take a picture of us...we chose a lady that was relaxed strolling around and not in 'work-out mood'

on the way back a tired boy

Jonah slept in the car and on the couch...

and YES, he slept with his eyes open! Just plain horrible!!!

Yeah, I knew it!!

I had no idea that Broomfield does so well within the nation! I am lucky to live here but still miss Germany's beauty A LOT!!

Jonah at the hairdresser

Yesterday it was time again to send Jonah to the hairdresser...I tried to cut his hair the last 2 times, it always turned out okay but never good...so once every couple of months I can spend $10 on his hairstyle I guess :-)

This is 'before' with already wet hair

...and here he's 'durinig' his hair cut...

...and a very cute, handsome guy 'after'!

Portraits at Target

Today we did go to Target (grosses Warenhaus, welches alles hat, wie etwa Kaufhof) and I got some photos done for the kids holding a '5' and a '3' . Not all pictures turned out that well but that is maybe good because otherwise I could not have decided which ones to take! LOL

OK, so I tried to save the pictures on my PC from the Target web page and it worked! And here are the 'keepers'!

And here the ones that I probably won't purchase...LOL

These following two pictures were made by the Studio and cost a lot more than just a normal picture...but they still look great and I really think about the black and white one...hm.

It was a pretty rainy and cold day for once and after Germany lost against Spain the World Cup Semi Finals, and Jonah waking up from his nap, we did go on Jonah's first real bike ride!

I had Tobi on the bike with me and we all rode a big round around our County Commons Fields. Jonah had a blast! Of course he was trying to 'win the race' and did not listen one little bit! Because they were so well behaved in the morning at the photo shoot they needed to get naughty again in the afternooon... LOL but the bike ride actually went quite well and after getting home, we took Nellie out for another quick tour!

This might become now our daily habit (when it is not that hot that is) to go on a family bike rides with the dogs! The dogs surely love to run next to the bike, Nellie is a natural and Tobi is still focused on rabbits and other dogs, he still has the energy to go after another dog after running with us for 2 miles! But at home they just fall to the side and sleep after the run!