Leo and his Legos

OK, I guess I am floored by this, but Leo really has a gift with legos.  He comes up with the most amazing things.  He likes to build planes (actually they are all spaceships of some sort and they all must have guns and other 'shooters'.  He even made a WALL-E thing that actually looked like the character... and he has not even seen the movie.  So Russ came up with the idea that he would draw a plane and then see if Leo could make it with legos...  we were amazed at what he came up with!  Is this normal?  For a 5 year old?  I have nothing to compare it to so I don't know...  I am pretty impressed with my little boy though!

Here is what he came up with

We are moving to Germany

Mixed feelings here folks.  I am very sad that we will be moving so far away from family, especially my new little niece and nephew... but I am very excited to move to another country for a couple of years.   We will be at Ramstein AB...

In the lower left corner is Mannheim... Ramstein is about 45 minutes or so to the west.  So we are close to France (and about 3 hours from Zurich).  There are 4 places on our 'list of places we want to go to'  that we did not make it to when we were in England.  Those are Rome (and the Vatican), Greece, Czech Republic (Prague), and Auschwitz... morbid I know, but I am so interested in the history!  

A plus is that Russ' sister Deanna lives in Nuremburg, Germany so we will only be about 2 hours or so from her...  don't really know the logistics or time schedule yet, but we will keep you posted!

Air Show

We went to the Kansas City Air Show this past weekend... We knew a few of the Thunderbirds, Tony Mulhare is the T-Bird announcer and a friend of Russ' so we got VIP passes and got the 'front row joe' seats and free food.  The kiddos loved it and Emma had a blast collecting autographs...

Leo and Alaina... their first date...

Thunderbird #2 Chris Austin went to the Academy with Russ.
Emma getting #6 Dyon Douglas' autograph.

Daddy showing Leo how it's done.

The Bus

OK, I am not one to make excuses for my kids.  If they behave badly, there are consequences.  I try to be consistent with my discipline and if someone else needs to reprimand my kid (within reason) I am okay with that.  But I am NOT okay with the bus driver yelling at my kid and then yelling at me because of my kid.  Here is the story:

Said bus-driver would not let Leo, Gabriel and Owen (friends of Leo) off the bus until 'the parents' walked over to see what was going on.  Leo and Gabriel are both sobbing and she is yelling at them telling them they will never ever sit together on the bus again.  Their crime?  Star Wars play punching and bouncing up and down on the seat.  Okay, I get it.  She wanted them to stop.  They didn't stop after being asked three times.  I understand her frustration... been there.

(Please keep in mind that the bus ride is less than 1 mile... no stops... takes all of 4 minutes... she must really be high strung).

Will Leo get in trouble and have consequences?  Absolutely.  BUT!  The bus driver's behavior was completely inappropriate.  She was livid and kept saying, "I will not put up with this anymore"...  yelling at us!  With a mean face!  So the other mom said "So how long has this been going on?"

The Bus Driver said "2 weeks".  EXCUSE ME?  You have been dealing with something for 2 weeks, never tell us about it... until of course you blow your lid and scare the crap out of 3 little boys and then turn your anger on me???????  Leo was crying so hard he couldn't breathe!!!

How in the heck can I fix a problem that I have no idea is going on?  How can you sit there and let your anger build up so much and that you behave that way... when a simple "by the way... this is what you need to work with Leo on...", 2 weeks ago!!!!  would have worked.  

COMMUNICATION PEOPLE!  Seriously!  

Again, I am not excusing his behavior, but she handled it so inappropriately.  I was quite ticked off... of course because all of my perfect replies came to me right as the bus drove off... I had to just put it on my site...   do ya'll still read this?  :-)

Jedi Neighborhod

The light sabers are out in full force... even Russ joined in, notice what his shirt says!  (it says Geek Squad)  haha

A Fun Weekend

So it was our BFF's (code word for "the closest friends we hang out with the most at Fort Leavenworth") daughter's birthday.  The party started at 2 and involved a large water slide...  The party (for the adults anyway) ended at 11:30 in the evening!  Fun was had by all.  

Leo was a crack-up, after downing the pinata, he started hacking at it while it was on the ground with this crazy laugh!  Silly boy!

School is going great.  We are into the second week and the kiddos have adjusted really well.  Emma started piano lessons (she begged for them, it was not my idea) and has practiced almost every day at our neighbor's piano.  she loves it and wishes she had lessons every day.  I am not making this up!  I had always wanted lessons, but never really had the opportunity,  but Emma is eating them up.  She also starts Girl Scouts in 2 weeks... again her choice.  I did tell her that she had to do at least one physical activity and she chose soccer over dance this time.  

Leo Michael will also be starting soccer in September, he can't do Cub Scouts until he has completed Kindergarten and has zero desire for piano... so just soccer (and daily neighborhood Jedi Light Sabre battles) for now...  

I am training to run the Army Ten Miler... yes I know... that is Ten miles... I am scared.  But so far I have managed to go 7 miles so only 3 more to add on.  A group of girl friends are training together and we will all fly out and run it.  It is in Washington DC in October and you run from Monument to Monument... I am very excited!

more soon...

Home from school!

No complaining about the homework!  That's a relief!

The first day of school was a success!  Leo was beaming when he got off the bus... Emma was just ready for a snack.  Yeah!  I am officially a mom of 'school-age' kids!  Now I have to figure out what to do with me.  Definitely have to catch up on my scrapbooks... haven't touched those in years!!!

The Kindergartner and the 2nd Grader

Yes, there were tears... mine of course!  The kids couldn't wipe the smiles off of their faces.  They set their alarm and were up and getting dressed before we were even out of bed.  I had originally wanted to drive them on their first day, but Leo was so excited to finally get to ride the bus that I let them.  The only thing Leo was concerned about was how to buy lunch at the cafeteria, so he requested I pack him a lunch... which I was planning on doing anyway.  He said he wanted to see how the other kids bought their lunch first.  Other than that, no misgivings.  Emma has quite a few of her friends in her class, so she is excited about that.  Open House was last Friday so we had already dropped off school supplies and met the teachers...  here we go!  I don't know what I am going to do with myself!!!!  But what ever it is, it has to include cleaning my train wreck of a house...

Mr. Man with his cool Star Wars back pack...
Lovely Miss Emma, in school girl plaid

Leo, Johnny and Gabriel... the new kindergartner gang of Infantry Barracks
  Alice, Maggie, Emily and Kaitlyn (Sally age 3 is convinced she is going too...)

The 15th Anniversary of my 21st Birthday

Well!  I got a new camera for my birthday... we couldn't wait long because little Mr. Man Leo starts kindergarten and Emma starts 2nd grade on Monday... so my b-day was a good excuse to buy a camera.

Russ really surprised me!  We were just going to have a sitter and go out to dinner, nothing fancy.  He arranged the sitter and everything, the only thing he would tell me is "wear a sun dress".  So we get to the restaurant (more on that later) and as the hostess is leading us past all of the two-person tables, I keep thinking where is she taking us!  I am not paying attention at all just wondering where we are going when she brings us to this long table with 10 of our closest friends!  Russ had totally surprised me... and then of course our friends delight in telling me all of the funny things they had to do or say in order to keep the surprise.  It was very sweet.

Now for the restaurant... we went to this Brazilian place, where initially you go to a buffet area and load up on salads and side dishes etc.  Then they give you a disc and one side is green and one side yellow.  When you are ready, you turn the yellow side up and they just start bringing these spits of meat around and carve it right onto your plate.  Sirloin, different types of beef prepared in all sorts of ways, turkey, chicken, veal, lamb, fish, pork...  they must have come by 30 times.  You just said, "Sure cut me off some of that one... more please..."  I know I ate an entire cow!  At one point I was just done and turned my little disc over to the 'stop.. no more side' when the guy comes around with a steak stuffed with... CHEESE!  no way!  So I had to turn my little disc back over and try some of that...  ugh!  It was so yummy!

Well, we had a wonderful night ... but Russ still owes me a date night just me and him  :-)

Check back on Monday for pictures from the first day of school!

The Camera

So!  I guess you are wondering why no pictures have been posted recently.  I had made a decision to post pictures once a week... well, little did I know that Russ (with the camera neatly concealed in his shorts pocket) would be pushed into the swimming pool this weekend.  You got to give Dave credit, he asked Russ for his wallet and his cell phone... which Russ naively handed over only realizing way late in the game what Dave's intentions were.  Anyway, our trusty camera has gone to Davy Jones Locker... a silent death at sea.  So, I will continue to make posts and I will also go back a few months and post some photos that you haven't seen yet... but no new ones until we pay for back to school clothes and budget money for a new camera.

I promise you will be entertained by some pics we have taken over the summer though!  And oh by the way... its a million degrees here and we lost our air conditioning over the weekend... so walked around in a perpetual state of sweatiness all weekend.  They got it back on today, but it is taking a while to cool back down.  

There have been some developments on our assignment over the past few days, but nothing solid quite yet... will keep you posted.