A milestone to remember

Katharine beat me at 'Memory' today... and I was really trying to win. It all goes downhill from here.

"The blooming flowers"

Kara and Julie need to grab this picture, so I might as well share with everyone. Katharine drew this for their adoption church group (photograph + light table + pencil + pastel + me punching it up a tad in Photoshop).

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Love

Erik, Iria, Katharine, Lukas, Lennon and Keira

Lennon's Lunch

So this is a first: One of our children falling asleep at the table. It was really funny watching Lennon nod off and I couldn't resist taking a picture of it.

The wild sky of Texas

I was grilling last night, and looked up to see some amazing clouds on the horizon.

It almost looked like some of those banded cloud patterns that you see in Jupiter pictures. This is Texas... so if it is going to remind me of a planet, it might as well be the biggest one.

One last note- I brought Katharine out to show her the clouds and she said matter of factly that those were low clouds and that meant it was going to rain. Sure enough, it started raining 15 minutes later (she had been studying clouds in school this week).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Katharine and Lukas would like to send special greetings to Grandma and Grandpa who they thought of when drawing these two pictures. We kind of lost track of time this week, so by the time we realized we were supposed to send cards, it was already yesterday and too late. We decided  on a less conventional way of sending our love and put the pictures on the blog.  If you look closely at Lukas' picture, you can actually see a face and a bit of blue sky. Katharine is proud of the fact that she didn't ask for any help.

This afternoon, I am doing a lot of "Love is..." thinking, what with non stop fighting kids is hard to achieve or find.  It's amazing how kids' moods can turn around without any warning! Love is

to love my kids, no matter what, patient (hard to be in that state sometimes), kind...you' ll find the rest in Corinthians.

Again, HAPPY  VALENTINE'S DAY, EVERYONE!

Learning about American Indians

We have been learning about American Indians in History and Art. What a fantastic interdisciplinary program! Katharine and Lukas have made puzzles of Anasazi clay pots, Katharine painted water color clay pot with her own design and today we tried to build a tepee out of twigs, string and a brown paper bag. Katharine knows that the Plains Indians put their own individual designs on the tepees and decided to go with an eagle design covering the entire tepee. She learned that the eagle is a symbol of power and strength and that the designs came to the artists in dreams or visions.

School Work

Lennon has been playing with Dado cubes, an assortment of colorful blocks that can be put together in endless combinations.

Lennon loves Lawrence Welk

Or at the very least, Tchaikovsky... but I know that I've seen him polka as well.

The Doescher Family Tour Van

We spent a good amount of time on the road in Germany, and the white bus that Iria's cousin Thorsten leant us soon became known as "The Doescher Family Tour Van".

Packing the kids in the car was always an adventure- especially when Jakob and Anna were visiting.

Lukas and Lennon shared the back row. Note the frost on the windshield- it was COLD in Germany.

Katharine and Keira shared the front row.

Iria drove... and I sat in the passenger seat playing around with my iPhone and DS.

The kids alternated between sleeping and asking "are we there yet?" over and over.

The scenery was great, but I didn't get many pictures of it. Although I couldn't resist snapping a shot of this person walking along the road in the freezing cold- it looked very Bergman.

Heading home.

The Galadriel Dance

This one goes out to Mom- Katharine's haunting 'Galadriel Dance', set to the soundtrack of 'The Lord of the Rings' :)

The Black Forest

Our last big Germany day trip was an excursion to the Black Forest, which was about a one hour train ride from Linda's house.

The kids loved the train ride, but it couldn't compete against the tram.

Iria would be paying for those piggy back rides over the next week or two...

It was starting to warm up into the 40's that day, so everyone decided to cool off again with some ice cream :)

We walked along the hilltop for a bit.

Katharine marked her territory,

And then we headed back home.

The Black Forest was beautiful- I wish I could have spent more time there. But as you can see, everyone was beginning to get pretty tired.

A blanket of new art

So how appropriate is drawing blankets in the winter? Unless you live in Texas of course - we are looking art 70 degree weather this weekend.

Anyways, this picture quilt and Navajo blanket were Katharine’s school art projects this week. Enjoy!

Super Hero'rama

In the spirit of the previous post, we continue on with some new art from Katharine.

Batman was a collaborative effort between her and Lukas.

BTW... the Martels just started a cool new blog featuring their kid's art:
http://martelsartorama.blogspot.com/

I'm so glad that their drawings won't be confined to those little sidebar windows anymore :)

Ketchup, Super Heroes and Yogurt

Who knew that you can use one of those little ketchup packs as a spoon. Lennon was inventive and didn't leave much of his dinner.

After Lukas never wore his costume on Halloween last year, he finally decided to wear it now. I am so proud of my little guy, though it brings out the best and worst in him, like temper tantrums if he can't sleep in it. Wonder Woman and Batman had a blast chasing the Lennon Monster, which included flinging the Golden Lasso.

Yogurt is always a big hit in our house. This time Lennon took the lead and decided to drink it, Lukas and Katharine picked up on it quickly.

Castle Neuschwanstein in the Bavarian Alps

On our second excursion into Bavaria, we decided to combine my wish of seeing the Alps with the kid's wish of seeing the castle that inspired Walt Disney (ok, that was pretty cool for me as well).

It is a 45 minute walk up the mountain to visit the castle, so we took a carriage ride.

The last 1000 meters was by foot, much to Jakob's chagrin.

This is what a 6 year old kid looks like when she looks up and sees the castle up close for the first time.

They didn't allow any pictures on the tour, so this is a sneaky covert shot.

Katharine checks out a real princess.

Lukas strikes a pose in front of the restaurant. I had some sausage and Bavarian beer- a nice way to end the day.

Hugs are nice as well.