Scouts - AJ's Promotion

On Sunday was the monthly pack meeting for scouts.  It was a special one because it was Blue and Gold, which is when we celebrate the Scout's birthday.  They had it out at their camp Kachina.  Luckily the weather held and it didn't rain on us.

Getting ready for the meeting.

AJ also did all the requirements to become a wolf scout!  Michael was very helpful and was taking the pictures for me while I painted AJ's face.

Here I am getting ready to pin on his new rank!!  

Wearing the badge of the wolf!!  We are so proud of him!!!  He is really enjoying scouts and getting so much out of it!!!  I am so happy for him!

His brother was proud also and wanted a photo with him!!

After that the wolves had to lead a song at the pack meeting.  It was pretty funny.

They had a campfire, nothing like the ones we have out at the ocean, but it was okay.  Though we were so far back that we couldn't feel the heat at all.  :-)  But it was a great meeting and AJ is a proud new wolf scout!!!  He is following in his Uncle Al's footsteps!

MIchael's Karate Tournament

On Saturday February 22, Michael participated in his first every Karate tournament.  He was so excited and wasn't even nervous at all!  I think I was more nervous than he was.  ;-)  This one was only for 4-6 year olds, AJ's tournament is next weekend.  They split them up because it is pretty big.

All the kids had a chance to warm up and practice their Kata.  He was very serious about making sure he did it all right.

This was the whole group from their style, Karate Tech.  There were at least two other groups that were there.

Like all military functions it starts with the color guard and national anthem.  The lady behind them sang the German national anthem and the US national anthem.  At all events here in Germany they always carry both flags and do both anthems.  Even at the close of business at 5 pm when they play it they play both, which can get really long because the German one is quite long.  :-)

Then it was form time.  The first event they did their form in front of three judges.  Michael did a great job!!  There were over twenty in his group and only the top three received trophies.  I was so proud of him!!!

Next up was the sparring.  Michael was really excited about this, as you can see he was in line and already jabbing!

They had to wear mouth guards and this was the first time Michael ever had one in and he was being funny with it!!  He couldn't stop playing with it.

Down to business, Michael is in the red dots on the left, ready to spar.

Here Michael is landing his kick on the other player.  He fought so well!!  He won his first two rounds and then was fighting for first and second place.  He went against an orange belt which is one up from his yellow belt.  It was also their best orange belt from a different dojo.  He did awesome!!  It was tied at 2-2 and then the other guy landed the final punch.

Michael took second in sparring at his first tournament!!  So proud and so excited for him!!!!  Even cooler is that this is his sensei handing him his trophy.

Proud standing with his trophy!!!

So excited!!!  It was a great day!!!  We were there from 9:45 am 'til 2 pm so we were all extremely hungry and wanted to celebrate so off to the BX for some victory lunch!

Dynaikum

So on Monday February 17th we went to a really cool museum, it was a hands on museum called Dynaikum.  I had heard about it for awhile and we were finally able to go.  The boys, and I, LOVED it!!!  So much they were ready to go back right away!!  We met some friends there for her son's birthday.

The boys were really excited to see their friends!!

The animal for Pirmasens is the bull, there was one out in front of the museum.  While we were driving to McDonald's afterwards AJ scared me half to death when he saw another one.  I thought a car was going to crash into us with how loud he was.  :-)

This place was all hands on.  The cool thing was that it was in German and English, so we could read about all of the experiments.  Here the boys are rolling it up and letting it drop, then watching as it bounces up again.

Michael being silly with some of the materials.

There was a cool slide there, one was straight and the other has a big dip.  It was showing that both slides have the same speed.  There was a smaller version that you put two balls down it. 

This was showing a pendulum, if one person starts to swing then the other will swing also.

AJ making waves!

This one was really cool, you move the handle and the rope goes in different directions.

Okay there were so many cools ones, this one you had to peddle fast enough and it makes your own hover craft.  It was really hard to get enough air in there to make it hover.

AJ checking out the bone structure while riding a bike.

This one AJ was producing his own electricity.  He was able to power each one individually.

I liked this one, it is a relaxation one.  Whoever is more relaxed the ball goes away from that person, so you want to be the relaxed one.  And the screen measures your brain waves.  There was also a quiet box where you stick your head in it and it is all quiet.  I told the boys that I need one of those at home.  :-)

A little meditating before we leave the museum.

It was a beautiful day!!!  We stopped at the outside play area.  After that we headed to McDonald's for lunch.  We ate with everybody and then stayed a little while longer to play some Kings in the corner.  It was a great day!!!  There were a lot of cool experiments in the museum, some that we didn't even get too!!  So it will be one that we go back to.  The boys also said we had to take Daddy there!!

Skiing Feldberg

We had a really, really busy weekend.  On Saturday we went to the new Lego movie at the BX with a bunch of us.  One thing about movies over here is they get sold out extremely quickly.  So the boys and I went at 10 am to get our tickets and 16 more for friends.  Then we had to go home and back for our ski trip.  We headed back to the movie theater and arrived 50 minutes early and there was already a line to get in.  It is crazy!!  We were able to get seats together and we all LOVED the movie!!  It was a great time!!!  We then grabbed dinner to go and headed home to bed.  We had a very early start the next morning, we had to be at the bus at 3:30 am for our ski trip.  The boys were sooooo excited!!!   Michael didn't want to ski again for the longest time and then a couple of weeks ago decided he did want to go.  So off we went.  I wanted to take the bus because it is about 3 1/2 hour drive to the mountain.

The boys looking like they were going back to sleep on the bus, but that didn't really happen.  I made them lay there for about 30 minutes and then they were up and watching a movie.  I think way too much excitement.  Michael and I slept for about an hour on the bus, but that was about all.

First getting there, the boys were so excited to see snow!!!  They have been waiting all year and we haven't gotten any in Kaiserslautern.  

They found a hug pile of snow to play on.  While they did that I looked for ski lessons for them.  I finally succeeded and found some English speaking lessons!  I was very excited!!  With never being there before, it was all new.

The boys ready for their lessons.  AJ was upset because he had to wear purple.  I tried to get a different color, but the colors are ages and purple was eight and green six.  The green was great for Michael, it matched all his ski stuff!!

They started out basically skating on one ski.  I have never seen this, but it was amazing.  It helped the boys get their balance and the feel of the ski.

I also LOVED this ski school!!  The boys were up on the "slopes" within 30 minutes.  At Garmisch they didn't ever get on the rope tow on the "slope."

AJ did so well that he was split off and went higher on the hill.  This was a cool tunnel that had a "magic carpet" that took them to the top!

AJ coming down the slope.  After this we took a break for lunch.  Luckily they had a restaurant with chicken for Michael and spaghetti for AJ.  There were no seats inside so we ate outside.  Michael said he didn't want to go back to ski lessons.  He was pretty adamant and either did AJ because he said it was too easy.  So I ran into the ski school and asked if AJ can be moved up a level for the afternoon and they said yes.  I just kept avoiding Michael on the subject until we arrived back at the lessons in the afternoon.  I worked with him on how to get up after he fell down and then he decided that he would ski for a little bit.  So I said I would come back in an hour.  AJ headed for the big hill and I decided since I rented skis, I might as well go on a few runs.  I off I went.  It was foggy, windy and cold but great to get back on the slopes!!!

Michael at the top of the higher hill working on his turns.

I was coming down to check on him and saw this - he LOVED going down with the hula hoop.  He was having some problems slowing down and stopping so this helped him keep his speed down.  The hour was up and I asked him if he wanted to stay and he said yes!  I was so excited!!  But he asked me to come back in thirty minutes so I went for one more run.

Michael coming down the hill on his own and doing so well!!!  Here he is on the "magic carpet"  When I got there he said he was done so I told him he had to say goodbye to his instructor.  So he was waiting at the bottom for him, but then decided he would go up one more time to say goodbye.  :-)

After that we dug, had a snowball fight and some snow fun while we were waiting for AJ to be done with his lessons.

Fun in the snow!!!!

Since AJ was able to go to the higher class he was able to change colors to red!  The boys after a great day of skiing!!!

My two little skiers and me!!  It turned out to be such a great day even if the weather wasn't all that great!!  AJ's instructor said he did so well and wanted him to be able to show me if we had time.

So of course we did!!  Here is is getting on the drag lift.

He is about mid way up, you can barely see the top.  It was a decent hill especially since this is the second day he has ever skied!!

Here he comes down, in the middle of the picture with the red vest on.  I let him do some  more runs because he was so excited to ski!!  They both did so well!!  While AJ was on the big hill Michael wanted to do some skiing on a smaller hill.  He was doing great with his stops, staying up and going nice and easy.  I was so happy with the ski school here and would definitely go back!!  It was such a great time!  We headed back to the bus and headed home.  AJ slept some and Michael not so much.  We arrived home around 10 pm, all pleasantly exhausted!!  Next year we will definitely have to plan a skiing weekend instead of just one day.  :-)