Our 5th Grader...

Levi's homework assignment tonight was to write 4 "BIG" words that describe him.  These are what he chose...

1. Vigorous- strong; active; robust:

a vigorous youngster.

2. Articulate- using language easily and fluently; having facility with words:

an articulate speaker.

3.Sympathetic- characterized by, proceeding from, exhibiting, or feeling sympathy;sympathizing; compassionate:

a sympathetic listener.

4. Amusing- causing laughter or mirth; humorously entertaining:

an amusing joke.

(I took this just a few days ago when we were at the eye dr.  They had given him drops to dilate his pupils and this is the face he made when I asked if I could take his photo...yes, he is definitely amusing!)

Levi is 9!

Happy Birthday Levi!

Levi, 8 has been a lot of fun! A few of your favorite things included::
apples,
all things Star Wars,
playing outside,
hanging out with your friends,
making silly faces,
cheering for America at the Olympics,
being with Memoo,
swimming,
Playmobil,
any and all adventures,
your bedroom makeover,
your 3rd grade teacher, Miss Sipos,
holding babies,
learning how to play the piano and waterski,
loving others
and just being with your crazy family!
We love you sooo much and we can't wait to see how much fun this next year is going to be :)

Wow how time flies!
Here you are at 8,  7,  6, and 5

This week...

:: Levi received the "Fruit of the Spirit" award for Love!

:: Luke and Abby played in their first soccer game together

This was Abby's first soccer game EVER, so she was a little more nervous and saw a little less playing time than Luke, but they did great and tied 2-2.

:: My grandparents celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary!  Happy Anniversary!!!

:: We made these (but without the ice cream)

:: And we may have had some dance parties to this song :)

Happy Weekend everyone!

Room Updates...

I wouldn't say we did total room makeovers for the kiddos, but we did make some improvements over the past few weeks.  We moved the boys upstairs last year around this time- but we are just now getting around to making their rooms fit their personalities, likes and ages.

Luke is a bit of a mini Brad, and loves to travel and collect things along the way.  We wanted to update his room to showcase the things that he enjoys, and he also needed a bigger space to do his homework.  Brad purchased a counter top, just added some legs and a new desk was born!  For such a tiny room, I feel like we have maximized the space and most importantly, Luke likes it :)

Levi loves all things "Star Wars", so Brad found some panels (like wall paper)  with just about every Stars Wars character and put it up around his bed.  Talk about a happy little guy :)  His room is actually a hallway, so it takes some creativity to make the space work, but Brad did a great job lifting his bed off of the ground to make a place for his toys and still have room for his desk.

Our Abby girl loves lots of color and displaying her artwork and photos. Brad had painted a dolphin a few years ago, and most recently he painted some backgrounds to display some pictures of Memoo and Abby swimming with dolphins in Malta last year.  He is crazy creative and just free-handed them!  I know, I am lucky that he likes to do this sort of thing :)  She also loves the end result!

Hopefully we are done for awhile now :)

Back to School...

So the kiddos have been back in school for a few weeks now... and I am still behind on everything :)

This was the first day of school!  Finally all of our kids are in the same school and on the same calendar.  Hooray!  Everyone loves their teachers and are doing great!

Levi is now in 3rd grade and here is his cursive signature...I love it!  And below are a few things that he took to school to help introduce himself to the class.  A picture of his family and dog, a Star Wars and Pokemon figure and a map from the Olympics, that we saved from this summer. Levi continues to have a tender, compassionate heart and keep us in stitches with his sense of humor!

Abby is now in 6th grade- so we have 2 middle schoolers!

She loves organizing, so it is no surprise that all of her school supplies were organized in rainbow colored order and that her folders were decorated to match her love for bright colors :)  Most of Abby's friends are International- coming from Korea, Philippines, India, Nigeria and more. One of her favorite foods is Kimchi!  I love her willingness to try and discover new things.

Luke is now in 8th grade and has had a tremendous growth spurt over the last 7 months. He is now 5'10 and wears the same size shoe as Brad... a 13!  Crazy.  He got braces right before school started and loves all things related to soccer and a game called, Minecraft.  Our Lukey is growing into a fine young man :)

I don't know where the time goes, but this year for some reason all of our kids seemed to really grow and mature in new ways.  I am so proud of how they have handled the stresses of cross cultural living and have grown in their relationship with the Lord.  I have been reading through, "Praying the Scriptures for your Children"  and have been convicted of my need to be praying more for them, but also be praying specifically for them to recognize the gifts that God has given them and how they can use those gifts to Glorify God.  So that is my goal for this school year...to pray more intentionally for my kiddos.   Would love to hear from other moms out there how they pray for their kiddos or any other resources that have equipped them to parent better!

Walking home from the first day of school...

See how they have grown...
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007

Last day of school for Levi...

Finally, Levi is out of school for the summer!  It is bittersweet, as he will be joining Luke and Abby at ICSV next year~ and is having to say goodbye to his friends and dear teacher, Miss Gerit.

Here he is going up to accept his grades...

Way to go Levi!

Happy Father's Day...

to the BEST DAD EVER!

Starting to feel like summer...

While most of our friends in America got out of school a few weeks ago, Luke and Abby just finished on Wednesday and Levi is finished on June 29th.

Yesterday we went to the Alte Donau with some friends, and it finally started to feel like summer.

Abby and So Hye

Andy and Luke

Good friends, sunshine, refreshing cold water and ice cream...let the summer begin :)

Before, During and After...

He had been saving his money for almost a year... and yesterday we finally took a trip to Toys R Us
(love his smile and how he is almost hugging the box!)

He spent several hours reading the directions carefully, putting it together piece by piece,
until finally it was complete...

Celebrating...

In this house, the celebrating of birthdays seems to last for days and there is always yummy food paired with the celebrating!  For Levi's birthday breakfast there were cinnamon rolls, for his birthday dinner it was lasagna and for his class party, banana muffins.  I love that there are requests made, there are "favorite" recipes and that usually all of these good "eats" are shared with friends around our extended table.

Levi's 8th birthday party was fairly low key.  He invited a few friends from school over to our apartment and a high schooler that attends the same school as Luke and Abby, volunteered to come and do some magic tricks.  I was a bit skeptical at first, as I had not seem him perform before... but he did a great job and even taught the kiddos a few tricks! :)

Happy Birthday Levi!

It is so hard to believe that you are turning 8!

7 was a good year for you...you really came out of your shell and became adventurous!  You still are very funny, sensitive and kind.  All of your teachers tell us that you are a great leader and friend, and we see that too!  We look forward to seeing what this year has in store for you.  We love you so much!

Snippits...

Another week, full of good stuff.

It began with an invitation to our neighbor's place for homemade Knödel. Yum

Brad left Monday for 3 days away for a "Synod" mtg. with other churches in our denomination

Abby and I made Gingersnaps

3/4 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp.salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. ginger

Mix all ingredients together. Roll into balls. Roll in sugar.  

Bake for 8-10 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

(Recipe compliments of my friend Sharbelle)

Mo took a field trip to school...it was Tiertag

It was the 3rd week of our "Intro to New City Wien" classes

Luke had 3 soccer games this week

 and Brad and I snuck in a breakfast date before our team meeting

Happy Flower Friday!

P.S. I totally want to do THIS

In case you were wondering...

Levi loves his new cereal bowl that we made on our date :)

A Happy "Flower Friday" to you too!

A date with Mr. Levi...

I had a date with my Levi today.  We promised him one at Valentine's Day but time sort of got away from us!

He requested waffles and orange juice from Blue Orange

He ate every bite of his waffle and drank every drop of juice, as we talked about our fun summer memories and also how he is getting excited for school to start.  I love how he is growing up and yet is still little enough to be my "little" guy!

then we went across the street to "Made by You" to paint some pottery

the hardest part is always trying to decide what to make

Levi finally decided on a bowl that he could use for cereal, with a bit of coaching from me, as I wanted him to make something that he would actually use (not just another animal that would collect dust on his shelf) :)

He wanted it taped and with lots of colors...

he added a cool pirate on the bottom too... with a gold tooth and water splashes on his face

we head back on Thursday to pick up the finished product...stay tuned

Moments with Memoo...

On this vacation, we decided that every kiddo got to have a special moment with Memoo...

:: Abby and Memoo swam with the dolphins

:: Luke and Memoo went Parasailing

Getting their instructions

Memoo getting fitted for her gear

Luke's turn now

their parasail

Brad praying for their safety, and Levi thinking that he may not see Memoo alive again :)

Ready

Set

GO!

They both said the view was of course spectacular...and I wish you all could have seen Memoo's arms flapping like a bird, pretending she was flying!  It was too funny :)

and here they landed safely after about 15 minutes in the air

Look at their smiles!

:: Now it's Levi's turn!  He and Memoo went jet-skiing

and they are off... quite slow at first, but once he got the hang of it, he was willing to go much faster

more smiles, more fun and more great memories!  Thanks for being such a good sport Memoo! :)