Dylan is 5

I will choose to write in red as today is a RED LETTER day. Dylan is 5!! I was telling him this morning about the first time we saw him and umbilical cords and belly buttons and then when we brought him home to live with us and to be a part of our family. He listened intently and I can tell it is something we will have to tell again. He still loves Spongebob and was excited that many of his things were a Spongebob theme. We had a Patrick cake and he chose to have toasted sandwiches for his birthday meal. Now we are enjoying a nice relaxing Sunday before a new school/work week starts. The sun is shining again after every day this past week haviing brought snow to our area. Not much but when you have had a taste of spring weather, you don't care to see anymore snow. One more week of school and then two weeks of spring break.

Lately

Ralph spraying the beds....a surprising choice of color! You guessed it...ORANGE!

We were removing some old posts and Liam liked the holes they left.

Hannes Potter found these glasses in the dirt. One man's junk.....

It has been awhile since we showed signs of life on this blog. Things have been busy again with painting and digging in the dirt. We had a great week of warm spring weather and this week the newspaper shows snow every day. Strange. Anyway, the days are full and animated, boys eating, sleeping, playing, fighting and growing. I just try to keep them in food, clothes and love. Not always in that order, but usually. Dylan was sick one night this week and after throwing up about four times in a few hours, there was nothing left to throw up but his stomach didn't want to believe it. After one trip to the loo, he stood there in his spongebob pj's, looking very pale and shaky and said 'mommy, I think I might be a little bit sick.' It was so funny. He has since forgotten all about it and didn't pass it on to any of us. Whew.

Tarzan

Dylan

I loved this picture we got of Dylan on Sunday down by the lake. It is hard to get a 'normal' picture of him without him making a face.

A package from Grandma

A package from Oregon arrived yesterday, much to the delight of two boys. There were all kinds of goodies in there, including two boxes of quaker oatmeal maple and brown sugar. They polished off one box by evening.

My two lunch customers. They ordered a sandwich and a bowl of veggies. I hope they leave a hefty tip. (reality check--do dirty dishes count as a tip?)

A week in the snow (and rain)

TV Eyes

This was at the Verkehrshaus, a transportation museum in Lucerne. One of our rainy day plans.

No, Eugene was not with us, but we got stuck anyway. The snowplow driver was happy to give us a tug.

Snow bunny

Old fashioned VDB music makerssleeping loftSimon, Eric and Jael

Hannes with the train set at his Ralph's cousins' place. Their dad is a train engineer. Hannes

Our chalet at dusk

Keeping hold of Dylan Barbara, chief cook I have been gone from this site for a week...now we are back and reality has already hit! It was a beautiful Monday and the boys were both excited to go back to school so what more could I want?! We visited a pretty place called Axalp, where we were able to ski for two out of the seven days we were there. We shared a chalet with some of our good friends, Ralf and Barbara and their three kids, Simon, Jael and Eric. There was a sleeping loft upstairs for the 5 older kids and Liam slept in a little room off of ours. Axalp isn't high enough to have missed out on the unusual late winter rains, so we had a little rain to contend with. We had some bad weather alternative plans though, and it worked out well. Hannes and Simon are pretty much done with the kids slopes. Dylan, Jael and Eric are still needing a little more time on them but made lots of progress. Ralph fashioned a rubber strap to keep Dylan from disappearing down the hill too quickly.