Snow...

snow and more snow! Yep it snowed over night again and on and off all day! That didn't stop the boys from wanting to go out in it! You see, I bought them "snow gliders" or as they call them here in Germany "Popo-Rutscher" which translates to "bum slides" - perfect name for them! (see a picture of them on my Project 365 page)
They play on these things at kindergarden when they go out in the snow, and they don't have enough to go around, but now my boys have one each! They had a great time at Kindergarden with them. A not so great time at home though, cause they just would not work on the snow in the garden!So instead Richard did some digging and Robert rode his bike around the garden. if it wasn't so cold and wet, I might even have enjoyed it!

I am coming down with a cold and the last place I really wanted to be was out there with the kids, but the things us parents do for them!

OK, off to bed now, to get better by the morning - I hope!
CU tomorrow

Carnival Time

Yep, its carnival time here in Germany for a while now there are parades and parties going on all around the area. Today it was the parade where my parents live, so we went along and had a great, if be it cold day out!
If only carnival could be moved to summer, it would be much more fun, I am sure. But we wrapped up well, and braved the weather. the boys thought it was great, the both had a plastic bag for all the sweeties they were throwing from the floats, and once they were full, they had had enough, bless them.
The dressed up as firemen and looked so cute, which is probably why their bags filled up, cause those throwing just couldn't resist them. Could you?!
Time for bed now! Cu tomorrow

Think of me...

in the morning!
It's my first day back at work tomorrow after 4.5 years of looking after the kids. I am trying very hard to be positive about tomorrow, I have to make it work, so it is no good turning up intending to hate it all. I know that, so if you all think of me, that will make it easier I'm sure!

We had a great day today, it was Richard's birthday party and we all enjoyed it. My sister-in-law made a great train cake (see the picture on my project 365 blog), here is Richard blowing out his candle!
And here he is working hard on one of his presents that he got today! A "Cars" colouring and sticker book. He did all the stickers with my Dad and then had to colour it in. So cute!

OK, off to bed, have to be rested in the morning. Wish me luck, my biggest fear is not having anything to do there, I just need a little something to get me through the day.
CU tomorrow

Ill again!

Poor Robert, whenever there is a bug going around he shouts here! he woke up this morning and didn't feel to hot to touch, but again he is in bed with a fever. He was showing me where it hurts this evening and tomorrow I will be off to the doctors with him and I want him checked out properly again, as this time he was pointing to his chest and right hand side, mmh, not promising. I know I probably worry too much, but after John Travolta pointing his finger at Kawasaki Syndrome being responsible for his son's death. I think I need to have a doctor reassure me, that Robert is completely over that!

But we still had a nice day. I sneaked out after lunch, pretending to the boys that I was feeding the chickens, well I did that too, but I also took the camera out for a walk across the snowy fields, I have posted one picture on the Project 365 blog, but I have some for here too.
Just pretty snow pictures, no story for these ones.Still freezing cold here though, so I wasn't out for long!

Dad went out with his camera today, and Mum sent me this one he took of the fountain in the park, isn't it just beautiful!
Bye 4 now

A cold walk yesterday

So, I'll start today with the pictures from our walk yesterday, it was GREAT fun, although it was just that little bit long for poor Richard, and Florian had to carry him on his shoulders for the last 20 minutes! But he did really well, we were walking for about 90 minutes altogether!
Robert wanted to give up too, but understood, that standing still in the middle of a pitch black woods was NOT a good idea! And carried on carrying the fire and showing us the way.
The boys wore their Xmas present - a torch for the head, that was good too, Richard watched the light on the floor all the way (well, until he was on Daddy's shoulders!)
So those were the pictures from when we first turned the fire on. And here is one of me and Ricahrd at the restaurant where we had our tea after the walk. Florian ordered a tomato soup, and it was the BEST tomato soup I had ever had! And we will definitely be going back there again! I had deep fried mushrooms with garlic sauce - ooh that was delicious too. Richard enjoyed them too, here he is dipping his chips into the sauce, but he had mushrooms too. And quite a bit of my salad (in fact ALL of my cucumber!)


today was a quiet day in for us, it was -10°C (14°F) outside, so we stayed in with the log fire on! I did a bit of designing - expect a GREAT (well I think so) posting bonus in the DAC forum next month, and the boys played.
thats all for today, I'm off to play with my new toy now!

I'm BACK!!

And we had "the best Christmas EVER" to put it in Robert (my four-year-old's) words!
But no we really did have the best time. Lots and lots of presents - check out the mess here! And wow, did we all get some surprises!
I think mine was the biggest though, I got a Wacom graphic tablet, just like my Dad's I still can't believe it, but it is sat right next to me as I type, and as soon as I finish blogging, I am going to practise using it! I think it might take a bit of time to get used to, but already I can see the advantages!
Want to know what else I got, i got my photoshop bible, that comes with a Tutorial CD, so that will be interesting, I got a kitchen mixer and chopper! My one broke back in May I think, and since then I have been chopping manually, it will be great to have the machine do it again, so much quicker! I got the book that all the scrapbooking blogs have been raving about "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyers, so hopefully, they weren't all wrong. And so much more, but I won't bore you all!

The boys got everything off of their Xmas lists and more! So they both got their computers! So cute, aren't they. Robert is already really good at sorting out the largest and smallest numbers!
I won't list all of their toys, as I'll still be typing in the new year!!!

For all of those who know - Florian LOVED his calendar! I have been making him a CD Calendar these past few weeks and have been longing to show off the layouts I made for him, but as this is HIS blog, I couldn't BUT I have been posting them in my gallery at Been there Scrapped that, so if you fancy having a look at them, do pop on over. the cover page is linked to the gallery!


I also got Florian a digital photo frame for Xmas so that he can have it in Augsburg on his desk there, and see us all the time. Well, its a good job I used Mum to help organise it, as Florian had originally had the same idea for me!! AND exactly the same offer!! So funny, Mum managed to somehow dissuade him without giving the game away! So he was surprised when he opened the present! So funny!
oh and he also got a Chocolate fondue set, he had asked for one of those chocolate fountain things, but Mum had said, that no way was he getting one of them for xmas, but she did get him a fondue set. Which we tried out tonight, with all sorts of Mums fruits (her fruit bowl was much fuller than ours). And it was DELICIOUS!

Now with all of the presents we got, I will have a LOT of thank yous to be writing, I'll have to see what I can come up with!

I hope your Christmas's were as much fun as ours! (here is our christmas family photo!)


I'll be back tomorrow with my new kit, a special offer and a freebie!

still poorly

Yep, Robert woke up this morning with his temperature still way too high. So Robert and I stayed at home cosy in front of the TV (about the only thing that would stop his whimpering, poor thing) and Florian and Richard went to our breakfast date. We told Richard that he was just getting the bread with Daddy, as he wouldn't have wanted to go on his own. I actually thought they would be back quite soon, cause of the fact that Robert wasn't there, but he quite enjoyed himself I think and they got back in time for lunch. By which time, Robert's temperature was nearly normal and he was almost his normal self (just a bit pale). Unfortunately this afternoon it shot right back up again. So again he is dosed up and hopefully sleeping now.

We did have some fun this afternoon though, we baked "Plätzchen" (German cookies). What a feat! Luckily I didn't dish out all the dough, cause they were not letting ANYONE help them, so the dough was rolling out too thin, sticking to the rolling sheet, and when they tried to get it off to put on the baking tray it was coming off in tiny pieces. A real mess. Eventually we were allowed to roll it out for them, they cut the shapes and I put them on the baking tray. It didn't last for long though and Richard particularly wanted to do it all on his own again. So mean Mummy that I am, once the first batch was in the oven, I sent them off with Daddy, and finished up the baking with out the little helpers!

here are a few of the pictures Florian took!

The first ones of the boys going it alone!
Then we have one of the so-called cookies NOT! Had to redo that lot!
and here are the ones the boys really did make, they did a great job really!
Bye 4 now

Still Oh Christmas Tree...

yep, today was the big day, we decorated the tree! The boys were so excited about it all. And us mean parents made them wait until 3pm! In the morning we met friends for breakfast at the bakers. It's an all you can eat buffet for just 2 Euros! So you can't go wrong. And the kids get to use up some excess energy as they can ride around on the gokart, or today someone else had taken along a tractor, which was a big hit with my little ones!


This is my boys bringing the tree in to the house, the back way!


The boys were most excited about decorating the tree, and NO Mummy was not really allowed to help, by telling them where to put things. Which did result in a LOT of things on the bottom right of the tree!
I think it is beautiful, so do the boys, Florian thinks it has way too much on it. But then he is German and their trees to me seem to be with a lot less tinsel! BUT I just love tinsel, as it reflects the light and makes it all sparkle even more.
Anyhow I got some pictures and will now show you, that it really is beautiful!


Oh and I did a layout yesterday with one of the photos at the christmas tree chopping event, it was for the Lyrics Challenge at DigitalArts Cafe and I am pleased with how it turned out.

Credits:
DigitalArts Cafe Collab Kit - On A Snowy Evening (my portion)

Robert isn't really as tall as our tree (as you can see on the decorating photo) he was stood on a mound playing "I'm the king of the castle" in front of our tree.
Oh, and don't you think I found the perfect position to take the picture of decorated tree, it looks quite straight in it! - you see, it is really quite wonky - we didn't realise that until we had it at home, but the trunk has quite a curve to it! But I love our wonky tree!

Off to be creative now
Bye 4 now

Oh Tannenbaum - Oh Christmas Tree

wie grün sind deine Blätter.... Sorry that is what has been going round and around in my head all day today! You see this morning we went into the woods and chose our Xmas tree.

This year Robert wanted to saw it down and Florian let him do the very first bit of it. So cute!

I stood there snap happy after pointing out which tree I thought would look good in our lounge!
Then the boys got the snow off of it, so we could see if we still thought it would look good, then they sawed, and dragged it to the car.


It was a fun morning that we all got excited about. It costs a lot more than going to the supermarket and getting one, but it is way more fun this way!
OOH, and this afternoon another GREAT fun thing! We took the boys to the cinema! We decided to go today as we need the tree to dry off before bringing it in to decorate, so we'll do that tomorrow.
Robert wasn't sure he wanted to go to the cinema, he's like that anything new can't be good, is his motto! BUT he loved it. We had popcorn as well. Richard tucked straight into that but Robert was so enthralled by the film, he forgot what he was holding...until I put a piece in his mouth for him!
We saw Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa, they love part 1 so much, and they loved part 2 too. They said it was a bit scary, but we discussed those parts after and they were OK. Now I will probably have to keep explaining why we can't go and see it again. I hope it comes out on DVD soon!
And as all good things come in threes. We finished off our day with a trip to McDonalds for tea.

And surprise, the Happy Meal for the kids came with Madagascar figures!! So it really did round the day off nicely! (Although Florian is downstairs now, having his tea here - since McDonalds took the Veggie Burger off the menu, there isn't really much other than chips there for him to eat! Plus we already had rolls for tea really!)
Hope you like the pictures, expect to see them scrapped sometime soon.
Bye 4 now

Nikolaus

the boys were so excited today, they had us up at 6.45 am. We managed to keep them from rushing down the cold stairs to see if St. Nikolaus had been until about 7.20am, then they were dressed and there was no stopping them.
St. Nikolaus had been and wow, there was a present in their shoes - and chocolate!Once unpacked they found they had some new Lego, which Daddy built up for them.

And for breakfast they ate their chocolates! What healthy boys!
After lunch we went to visit my parents, we wanted to take the boys to the Xmas Market there, and also St. Nikolaus had left some presents in Nanna's shoes for them! They were so excited about it all - even or should I say especially the fruit and nuts!
Then it was off to the Xmas Market where they had a REAL steam train for the kids to ride on!


They LOVED it! From there it was on to a ride on the parcel slide. Is that what you would call it, it is what they use at the post office for moving parcels around, and today it was being used as a slide for the kids! So cute seeing them in the post office boxes!


And then we went to the restaurant for chicken and chips - you would never have thought that the boys had been eating chocolate all day, the way they tucked in and ate it all up! Salad included!
We had a lovely day out - oh and cause I really like this photo of me, you get to see it too! Florian took it as we watched the boys on the slide thing!

So as you can see, plenty of material for more layouts!
Bye 4 now

MONSTERS!!!

Do you remember that not so long ago, we had the back of the house painted. Well today the boys did THIS to our white wall!!!


Now for the whole story, be warned I am going to bend your ears here, but I need to put it down in writing for future reference, e.g. as to why they are 16 and still not getting pocket money!!!

I was having trouble tidying the lounge this morning, cause everytime I reorganised something, they would rediscover some toy and get it out, empty it, or whatever else they do with their toys. So I decided that they would do less damage in the garden, in fact, if I played my cards right, maybe they would even pick up some more apples. So I dressed them up for the autumn weather and out they went. Not long after I heard a thumping sound and go out and there they are throwing apples at the back of the house. I told them not do it, cause the apples make the nice clean white walls all dirty, and that I don't want dirty walls. Then I went back in and carried on with the tidying up. I heard them a couple of times and saw that they had decided to "bowl" the apples down the side path, that's OK, no painted walls there.
Then I finished the tidying up, did the hoovering, then started to get dinner ready. Whilst making dinner I heard a lot of giggling from outside so I knew they hadn't run off. I even went out at one point and gave them a piece of lettuce for the rabbit. Then they were looking at my flower beds - should have been suspicious then!!!
OK, dinner nearly finished I went out to get them, to wash their hands and such. Well, I went out and that was the sight I saw, only with Richard stood on the left by the door and Robert somewhere to the right of the window, with clumps of moss - YES moss! - in their hands wiping or painting not sure what they thought they were doing, the wall!
I WAS LIVID! I first had to go indoors so that the floor got the harder beating, in which time, knowing that they had been naughty they ran around the house to hide from me.
I found them out the front (luckily the gate was locked) and marched them back in the house.
Well, needless to say, NO TV for these guys this weekend. Yep, I am extending it to cover at least tomorrow. As Robert's words when he heard the punishment were "That's alright Mummy, we didn't want to watch Telly anymore today anyway!" Talk about cheeky!

I made them both tell and show Daddy what they had done when he got in, I had however pre-warned him, as that was just too much of a shock! So they got another telling off. And hopefully it won't happen again. But I am now thinking that I can never trust them on their own anywhere again. its going to be a while at least! Giggling I now know is a sign of danger as is total silence!

Well, now the little monsters are in bed, and I am going to relax. No designing tonight, well, maybe a little bit for an add-on, we'll see, but I fancy scrapping today! Anyhow check back tomorrow morning. Sometime tonight the last entries for the Design It Contest go up! And I am very pleased with what I made! Wish me luck!
Bye 4 now

One very proud Mummy!

Yep, that's me today! I arranged with a neighbour and her daughters that today we would meet up in the road for cycle practice! Since we took Robert's stabilisers off of his bicycle he has been refusing to even try to ride it. He admires it, but wouldn't try riding it! I haven't forced it, but the other Mum and I thought if we got our kids together, they might get the idea from one another. Well,...
We got outside and Robert was wobbling all over the place, whilst I bent down and tried to steady him by holding the handle bars. That didn't work too well, then I held on to the back of the saddle, that was a little better, but Robert then insisted he wanted to hold hands! That wasn't going to work at all, and we were still in front of our house! Richard on his little scooter bike was already half way down the road and nearly there. So to speed us up a bit, I told Robert to scoot his bike, like he used to on his scooter bike and like Richard was doing. That said, off he scooted. By the time we got to our friends house, he was really speedy, Sabine even said, "was he riding it properly", I said no. I WAS WRONG!
He realised when scooting, that the balance thing was the same, lifted his feet off the ground put them on the pedals and that was it, there was NO stopping him! Wow, it was so fun to watch. I didn't have to do anything. He just "got" it! He was driving in circles, doing an 8 shape, driving up and down the curb, and all this with no problem whatsoever! A NATURAL!


Unfortunately after only 30 minutes it started to rain, and neither Robert or Richard could understand, why we had to take cover and why they couldn't carry on cycling. In the end we left Sabine's to go back to our barn for some cycling in there. But that wasn't what they wanted either! We went indoors had some sweeties and then when it had brightened up again, we were back out again, and the fun continued. This time Robert started cycling up a little hill there and speeding down. Unfortunately braking with the tips of his shoes, I told him that that was not a good idea, and he came straight over "show me how to brake, Mummy", So I did, and then he practiced it coming down the hill! Wonderful, he learnt to cycle and brake and all in one afternoon and all on his own! I am so proud of him, and he is of himself too.
I did take a few pictures, so watch this space! And expect more cycling tales in the future, cause I think that is going to be all he wants to do from now on in!

And here is what I forgot to post yesterday, I used a new kit called Bubblegum available at DigitalArts Cafe. Nice bright colours for this great pic from Zoe's Birthday Party.

Credits:
Bubblegum by Phillsboo at DAC

Bye 4 now

Florian's home!!

And we are all rather excited about it! He walked in, and once Pocoyo had finished (yep he lost out to the TV this afternoon!), the kids were all over him, so I made the most of it, and let them be! So nice to have a break this week! After they had built "swimming ships" (Richard), "a wall" (Robert), "a lion" (Florian) ,they went into the garden and I had a chat with Leigh (more about that further down my post) and made tea for us all in peace! Wow, what a change that makes. Unfortunately Daddy being home didn't mean they ate any better!
It was the last day of Kindergarden today, which means 3 weeks of the boys - I will have to come up with some fun things to do, otherwise we might all go insane, within days! No, I love them to bits really, just need some sleep!!!! (again, I was up to them both!)

Now about my chat with Leigh - she has made me my very own Logo Watermark for my photos! She did three versions and I had a very hard time choosing, and I may mix and match until I finally decide, but for today, these photos have the version on that I liked best!
These are photos of our outing to a nearby farm (on our holiday still), they had pedal go-karts for the kids to go on and they even had one, where Richard could reach the pedals. He was great there. We got there and he couldn't really do it, we had to keep rescuing him out of the hay, as he couldn't pedal and steer at the same time, and pedalling was all new to him too! Well after 15 minutes he had it all worked out, and off he went, no stopping him! So cute! And Robert, well, Robert he just had a BALL! And so did Florian and I!





I also got a couple of new layouts to show you, Michelle Herron has joined forces for this one with Lioness3 Legacies and they have come up with a fun doodley Kit called Lexi Doodles (available at ScrappinFreeStyle)

I used it for the "Scrapper Say What" Challenge at Been there Scrapped That, where there are lots of ice-cream related quotes. I chose the one that had "scream" in it, as I have heard my two doing a lot of that this week!

Credits:
lexi doodles by Michelle Herron and Lioness3 Legacies

And then I spotted these photos of my nieces and made this layout for them!

Credits:
lexi doodles by Michelle Herron and Lioness3 Legacies

Bye for now