April Photos

As usual this time of year is especially busy with volunteer activities, school and sports, and lots of house projects (indoor and outdoor!).  I'm very behind in my blogging!

Here are a number of our April photos.  It was a great month, made even better by Bailey.  We all love him quite a bit.

 Thomas decided in March to try out for the middle school play.  It was a hilarious play and he played Romeo to our pediatrician's daughter's Juliet.  We went to both shows, taking Brennan with us to the last show.  He absolutely loved it and decided to be in drama next year.  It was so well done. 

Thomas does a great job in comedic roles.  He did great and we were so proud of this group of kids!

Bailey got to visit Brennan's class one afternoon.  He LOVED showing Bailey off to all of his classmates.  Several decided they wanted a Bailey. It was a fun afternoon.

On the Sunday after Easter the youth led the worship service at church, the sermon pertaining to Doubting Thomas.  So Thomas got to be lay liturgist and play Thomas in the skit.  He did a GREAT job.  I love it when he takes on leadership roles at church!

Then we went to a First Communion celebration at The Commons for our friends AJ and Mauricio (their moms are below).  Thomas and Brennan had a great time, and I loved catching up with friends from Mexico that I hadn't seen in awhile.  A fun day!

The elementary and middle school band directors put together a great city-wide band performance in April.  All of the 6th grade band students, and the 7th and 8th grade band students from the two middle schools all performed together.  It was incredible!

Thomas (and friends) made the front page and inside of the paper.

The night of the performance.  It was truly a Band Spectacular and I'm so glad both of our boys were able to be a part of it.

Our 8th grade trumpeter and 6th grade percussionist after the concert.  We just wish Dad had been able to attend - but look how Thomas tied his tie himself without Dad's help!

Easter was a great time again this year, celebrating with friends for the 9th year in a row.

The Easter Bunny brought three baskets this year, now that Bailey has joined us.

Bailey immediately took his new babies into his crate.

Our church on Easter morning.

Sarah (15) and Rissa (13) brought Toby, and Josh, Chris, and Justin brought Dozer.  We had a fun time with the puppies this year!

We have had a lot of visitors this spring with Bailey enticing people to stop by.  Lila came by on her new bike and Brennan and she took off for a little ride in the neighborhood.

I attended a flower arranging "class" with my florist friend Gina.  We made these beautiful bouquets for a Judge campaign party.  I love making new arrangements, but lack serious talent :)

This one turned out well though!

Had a good time visiting with friends in the Litwits (book club) and the Connoisseurs (wine club) in April.

With David's travels for work, he wasn't able to make it last month, but I had wonderful friends to go with!

 Brennan's teacher (actually, the boys have had her for 4 years in a row now!) had her baby in March and we got to visit a couple of weeks ago!  Baby Camille is so sweet!

 And I can't end without a few April Bailey photos!

Nap time while Mom works on the computer.

Bailey turned 3 months old and weighs 3.5 lbs.

Bailey rides in the car with me to take the boys to school and to pick up in the afternoon, plus any errands that are possible with a puppy.  He loves to ride in his car carrier.

This is my typical view on the way to get Brennan first from school.

Within a few minutes he's sound asleep.

While we wait for Thomas and buddy Steven at the middle school Bailey gets out of his carrier and sits with Brennan and me.  He loooooves to sit with me against my chest.

I can't remember if I included this one last month.

Bailey has a lot of buddies.  This is Duke, the 140 lb French mastiff who lives across the street.  They're good friends.

We took Bailey for his first puppy cup at Starbucks - we've been many times with friends' dogs, so it was fun to take our very own!

Bailey loved it of course!

 David came home from Germany two weeks after we got Bailey and was excited to welcome him to the family.  Bailey took to Dad right away.  Dad plays rough with him and Bailey can't get enough.  They're big buddies.

Often when we're outside playing and Bailey sees me pull out my phone, he stops and poses.  He knows Mama takes photos with her phone.  Big boy.

We hope you're having a wonderful Spring!!

Germany/Austria Trip - Final Post!

A have a few final photos from our wonderful trip to Germany and Austria over Spring Break!

Daddy, David, and the boys went to the BMW Museum in Munich and had a great time!

I'd forgotten about paying to use the public bathrooms!

We always made sure to have enough Euros on hand.

At our hotel in Munich we had this vending machine on our floor.

I know David enjoyed it. 

I absolutely just loved driving through the countryside every day on our way to the next destination. 

Germany is a beautiful country and I loved just driving along the highway.

They have a lot of solar "farms" that they use to generate energy.  We'd see them pop up every once in awhile.

Hops growing in the fields

The road signs were a great memory too.

These were my absolute favorite.  Before every new town there was a brown and white sign announcing the town with an example of some of the sites to see.  This one for Regensburg showed the old Roman bridge and the Cathedral.  Even tiny little towns had these signs.  I think we should do this in the US.

I never did find out why some cities (like Nurnberg below) have a red dot next to them - maybe it's a capital city??

Cool to see Prague, Czech Republic listed on this sign!

And Berlin here.

And my absolute favorite thing was to see all the little cities pop up as we were driving by.  They all had beautiful red roofed buildings and a church with a beautiful steeple and bell.

We enjoyed some of the English translations we saw along the way.

Brennan couldn't stop laughing about "Bananen Flic Flac"

at the Italian restaurant in Regensburg where we ate outside in front of the beautiful Cathedral.

We ate at a traditional German restaurant on our last night in Frankfurt.  There were some funny translations on the English menu.

"Toast and something like sausage"

There's a traditional dessert of vanilla ice cream with warm berries and its "English name" is "Hot Love"

The kids' menu was written as "For our tiny geasts"

Can't just get tap water which I craved.

This was the most beautiful water bottle I'd gotten though.

Thomas had to photo bomb :)

Brennan thought it important to show our love of Spezi (Coke and Fanta).  We had many, many Spezis.

And I have to finish our trip with this beautiful plate of Jaeger Schnitzel.

Daddy searched everywhere for this traditional dish but he never found it - until the last night.

Thank goodness!

We had a wonderful, wonderful trip - made even more special because my parents were there to share it with us and show us the sites.  I could easily return to Germany to visit (or live!) 

A wonderful Spring Break!!