Catch up post!! (Warning Very Long Post)

Sorry I didn't get to post midweek again.  It was another crazy busy week.  Things should be more organized in a few weeks and I should have more time to post.  Well last time I told you I would post about what we did last weekend so I will.  We had a very busy weekend.  We went to our first German wedding on Saturday the 7th.  It was our neighbors and landlords who got married. Very nice couple.  It was Ivy's first wedding and honestly, we had no idea how she would do.  So we sat in the very last row close to the door.  I have to boast for a minute about Ivy.  She was such a good girl.  I brought snacks/toys etc.  She was fairly quiet and she behaved the entire 1 and a half hours of the wedding. The funniest thing, which I did not get on video, was when the orchestra finished.  Now our Landlord is a Conductor and his now wife is a musician as well.  Its not customary for German wedding to have so many songs played, but under the circumstance they had a lot of music with an orchestra. Now back to the story.  At the end of each song Ivy would put both hands up ( as if it were a touch down at a football game) and yell " OOhh!!"  We would try to shoosh her but every one around us was laughing so that didn't help us much.  They all thought it was cute.  Here is a cute pic of her and I at the end of the wedding.

She didn't nap very well that day but we were at the wedding until 5 pm and left.  It was very nice and we enjoyed watching the different customs they celebrate that we do not.  It ended up being a rainy night and we had a nice dinner at home.  Sunday was very rainy , so we took a walk to the closest bakery and the only one open on Sundays, and got a pretzel.  Ivy loves soft pretzels.  Then we just hung around the house and had some fun.  We made forts, wore silly hats, read books, played etc.  Here are some fun pictures from our day at home.  

Fun was had by all.  We had a nice dinner to end the evening. Even Shorty had fun!!  It looks like he is posing in the last pic!!!  The Giraffe is so loved by such a big heart!!!   I get jealous as he gets more hugs and kisses then I do some days.  Any way, the week before last we learned the color yellow.

 We made 2 projects since one of them was a birthday card.  I hope Granddaddy has his card by now or this is going to be a spoiler!!!!  We made some binoculars out of toilet paper rolls and we decorated them by having Ivy paint them, then I traced her hands and made some yellow tang fish to go on the sides.

After teaching Ivy what they are for she had fun playing with them.  Here are some cute pics of her in action!!

 Then we made a really cute Birthday card for Granddad.  I really liked how it turned out to be honest and she had fun making it.  

 This past week we learned the color green.  

Out project was kind of a bust but its still cute.  The plan was to make a butterfly.  I traced Ivy's feet and then she decorated the wings with these little foam shape things that I bought from the hobby shop.  She put them on and I glued them down.  We used pipe cleaners for the body etc.  The butterfly does not have a head since the project didn't turn out or didn't glue properly.  So this what we made. 

Since last post I bought Ivy her own broom.  Since she fusses at me when she sweeps and I am apparently not sharing the broom as often as she would like. So I got one for her size. 

Po even got in on the action.  We got some great news last week.  Ivy got into the daycare we wanted her to get in. It was the only one that has part time. She will go 3 full days.  It will giver her time to learn German and play with other children. I love her but I really think she needs to be around more kids.  Also, I am hoping to take some German language courses that start mid Oct. So this will allow me to do so and not have to worry about a baby sitter.  The first week or two they require I go with her until they are sure she is comfortable with them. So I will be pretty busy the beginning of October.  Ok,  this was a long post and I still have lots to tell you but Ivy is waking up and I promised to read her some books and look at some pictures when she woke up so I will end here.  

Chores

Hello all, Sorry I haven't posted sooner. This was a really busy week. We did learn the color yellow, and made a new project. I will post about that another time. I don't want my posts be just about colors that Ivy is learning.  So instead I am going to talk about her chores.  No, I do not force her or expect her to do chores, but she sure does love helping her momma around the house. She has always loved helping me with the laundry since she could stand on her own.  She likes to help load and unload the washing machine.

When we bring the wash up she loves to help hand me the clean wash as I hang it on the line.  The cutest thing she does is sniffs the fresh clean laundry and says "mmmmmm", every time.  I have this on video, but on Kevin's phone. If can get him to email it to me I'll post the video. Until then here is one of her taking the clothes off the clothes line.

Of course, like most children she loves helping me unloading the dishwasher.  She sometimes, even puts the silverware in the drawer. I have to sort later, but she is an excellent helper.

Finally, Ivy loves sweeping and moping. 

She looks so serious and hard at work doesn't she. I will do my best to post on midweek, about our weekend. I have some really cute pics to share.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Blue is the color of this week!!!

Sorry I hate coming up with titles every week. I would just rather post but I can see how titles make it more interesting!!  Any way we had a pretty good week I would say.  Monday I introduced Ivy to the color blue ( just a note I don't expect her to know her colors I am just introducing on a week and we work on them from that point on).  I did the same as last week.  I pulled out a bunch of blue toys and placed them on the blue couch and we played with them and talked about them.

We had a pretty fun day.  Also on Monday, after I did my daily bible reading and lesson I started playing Christian children's songs for Ivy.  So far her favorite is " Happy all the time" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHzofkZjEvc&list=TLCtEWKXk4z_VxuHnFmfwTldlI1-umxR_V

You should click on the link.  Its actually a very catchy tune and it puts me and her in a good mood. So we start it every morning now.  Its through youtube just to let you know.  Her all time favorite is Kika Kaninchen which is a channel that she use to watch when we were in the hotel.  She loves the theme song and now we don't have a tv so I let her watch the theme song occasionally on my phone or on her playlist.  Yes she has a youtube playlist.  Mostly Christian songs, actually Kika is a christian station if I remember correctly.  

Any way it rained Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday early morning.  Then it was just cloudy.  Ivy hadn't been to the the park in a few days so we went to the park and she played on all the equipment and I blew bubbles which if you remember from the Brussels video she loves.  I even let her in the wet sand box.  Here is a cute pic of her with her piggy toes in the sand!! 

Wednesday she had dance class and she had a blast.  She did really well to be honest.  She picked up a few moves.  On Wednesdays they do this stop song where the kids run around and have to do a pose or something when the song stops. Its the only thing Ivy really gets plus the circle at the beginning and the end.  She is just so precious.  

Thursday, we did our big art project.  I am pretty excited how it turned out and she loves it.  Its hanging in the kitchen.  I couldn't get pics of her painting since I was supervising.  I will say this, she did paint the entire paper towel roll ( I cut in half as a note).   I put plastic down on the floor.  We painted with water color just to be safe.  I held her arm as she made the strokes and I turned the roll around until it was all painted. Then I traced her hands and foot ( since she is so young we will be doing a lot of projects right now with her hands and feet.  Sorry if its so repetitive but I promise I will keep it interesting or fun at least).   Any way here are a few pictures of what we created!!!  

I am pretty happy with how it turned out!!  I had the idea in my head and had no clue how it would turn out but I am pleased!! like I said she loves it and loves looking at it every day!!  

Friday we went to the big park in town and she met a girl named Sarah who was 19 months. She had a great time playing.  We rode our bike and she enjoyed the ride to town. We skipped dance class as Kevin and I deciding if we are going to sign her up for 1  day or both days.  So far, from our experience, Wednesday seems to be more geared towards her age, but she loves going both days. We are contemplating trying 2 days and then going down to one in 3 months if she doesn't do well on Fridays.  The contract is 3 months or a year.  Either way we will do 3 months at a time.  

Today, we had a slightly lazy start to our day.  We organized a few things upstairs. Ivy had a blast and she found her winter hat and was walking around with it on her head just in her cloth diaper.  She was supper cute I had to post some pics. 

Any way, we then biked into town where she played at the big park and we met a nice family there. The wife was from Texas and the Husband was from Lithuania.  They had 2 children one was 6 the other was 17 months.  They gave us there business card so we can get the kids together and play, which is nice.  I have another post.  Just hoping Kevin emails me a video.  This has happened before and I never got his video. I may try connecting his phone and downloading it on my computer.  If not I will post either way by Tuesday.  I will do better at posting. I have been lazy in this area to be honest.  I hope you all are having a great weekend!! Talk with you soon!!!

Busy week!!!

Well we have had a busy week.  I was planning on posting mid week but I really didn't know what to write about so I thought I would wait until today.  I have been working on a schedule for the upcoming weeks.  I hope by getting Ivy and I on a schedule we will have time for play, art, music, dance, sleep, mommy time, grocery shopping , etc.  I think it will take a few weeks to work out the kinks but starting tomorrow will be our first run at our schedule.  I am using the calendar provided by windows to help me write my schedule.  So far this week Ivy and I worked on the color red.  We picked out her red toys and played with them.  we went through books and found objects that were red.  We took walks and pointed out red cars, stripes, flowers, banners etc.

 We wore red outfits with red bows in our hair when willing.  In German we are also learning red which is rot!!  So a red car in German is a rot auto.  A red lobster in German is a Rot Hummer.

We also did some art with the color red.  The painting below is just one example. I had some pictures of lady bugs and gave her a red color pencil and she painted them . Stuff like that. I just really liked the lobster idea found it on pintrest.  

Also this week Ivy started potty training.  She has been in disposables since April 27th.  She has gotten use to them since we shipped her cloth diapers.  Well on the 8th when our stuff arrived I immediately washed her cloth diapers and started using them that weekend.  Instantly she hated them.  She could feel when she wet herself and would grab her diaper as she went to the bathroom.  As soon as we got back from Brussels I decided it was the right time to get her a potty seat.  Well we got it Tuesday and she peed twice on the potty on Wednesday but nothing since. On my schedule I have planned potty time for her in hope it helps.  To make her feel comfortable I give her books and sometimes she will sit there for 5 minutes just reading.  

She had her own bathroom that is all hers.  Of course that may change when we have guests and may need an extra potty!! Also, this week we started kindertanzan, which is a children's dance class. Ivy seems to like it. She still doesn't understand the language or the moves but she has fun with it either way.  Today was kinderfest.  Her teacher  and class along with other kids were up on stage dancing. I didn't think she would go on stage let alone dance.  She did the best she could and it was precious . Here is a video ( I think its easier to view videos o google chrome if have it.  I wasn't able to download any videos on blogger until I downloaded google chrome. Just a note if you have issues viewing the videos)  

Today at Kinderfest was also Ivy's first ride. You may have to download the video to see her as I am closer to the camera then she is.  I will say this she was fine until we went uphill that she started screaming and became upset.  By the end of the ride she was laughing and saying "Weeee".

Trip to Brussels

Well we went to Brussels Belgium Thursday for a long weekend.  Kevin had a Holiday on Thursday, it was a Catholic holiday in Saarbrücken.  Apparently in Paris, Brussels and a few other locations it was a bank holiday.  Any way we left here Thursday morning arrived early evening. The first picture is of our train ride.  We had a small compartment to ourselves which Ivy enjoyed running around in which was nice.  We took and hour bus to Luxembourg and then a 3 hr train ride to Brussels.

 Then after we checked in our hotel we went to this nice part of town called St. Catherine's.  We shared some mussels and fries and had some lovely Belgium beer.  I apologize, some how I never took pictures of our hotel.  I am only posting a few pictures but I took 300.

 We were all tired went back to the hotel and went to sleep. The  next day we started early and headed towards the Grand place. On the way we stopped by a Church (pics not posted) then headed to the Grand place.  Now I haven' t been a lot of places but Kevin has.  We both agree that this square is among the most beautiful and since I have a long post I did not post a lot of pics but it was gorgeous.  I will say this much though. The carpet of flowers was very disappointing. I am not sure if it was a bad time of the year, but inside the grand place they had a florentine flower display this weekend but pictures were not allowed.  

 Then we headed to the Royal palace/  It was a very nice palace.  The gardens out front were gorgeous and the inside well what palace is not beautiful. Sorry for not posting all 30 pics I took but I hope from this you can tell its pretty.

 At the end they had a section where you could make paper flowers.  I am usually creative but just didn't have it in me on Friday.  Ivy loved the flowers I made even though they were a sight.  However, she loved them so much she destroyed them before the day was over.

Then we headed to the famous Peeing boy and it was tiny.  I just don't understand the big deal around it but there were hundreds of people taking pictures and Kevin wanted me to take one while he got us a table and ordered beers.  I hope you like it, I was pushed almost in front of a truck taking his picture.  That is the French for you!!!

 Then on our way home we stopped by  a market and I picked up these nice handmade sandals.  They are comfy and quite cute for 25€  I hope they hold up better then my bass outlet sandals that lasted 3 months!!!

The next day we headed to the Da Vinci Exhibit.  I have to say it was quite interesting and I learned a lot.  Yes, I learned about his art and his works in Art History in College.  I learned about his contribution to photography in photography class, and I knew about some of the machines he invented.  I just had no idea how much he had really done and the ideas he came up with.  I will only share a few pictures but some day you will have to see all of them and if you ever get the chance to see the exhibit, please do.  Its well worth the money.  

Then we toured a Brewery in Brussels.  It was the last Lambic beer in Brussels.  Lambic being one with our carbonation.  It was interesting and well worth the tour. The beer was not to my liking but we had to go as it was stated to be the best in the world. Not in our opinion but still and good tour and we came home with some beer.

Then we went to get some chocolate and while Kevin was buying Ivy was having fun popping bubbles that a street entertainer was making. Stupid me missed a lot of good video opportunities as Kevin had my good camera and it took me forever to realize I had my phone.  Here is a short clip of her popping a bubble. She had a blast and I really wish I has gotten some better video.  

Then we went back to the Grand Place and got some dinner.  Below is a pic of Ivy and Kevin.  Yes, Kevin got a king size beer.  I think its bigger then his head???   

 We had a great time but we are tired.  Ivy went to bed early and now its time for me to go to bed.  I will be back mid week. I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!!!