Views

On the right is the view from the little kids bedroom window. They've already named the pony.
Below is the view from my bedroom window









Noah out the front balcony

Hats!

Deanna got this picture of the guys out by the May tree celebrating. On most days there are at least one or two of these guys out at the table by the fountain. The kids practice saying 'guten tag' and the guys laugh at us. I need to learn enough German to understand if they're talking about the crazy americans!

Back to back

We started school this year living in a hotel room. While it was fun to walk the kids to school every morning past pieces of the Berlin Wall, by the time Emma started school we'd moved to our home. I woke up one morning, couldn't stand the hotel any more, and we just camped out in our empty house. Other than the air mattress deflating under us, it worked out well. Now we have all our stuff and the house is a maze of boxes, but the kids love walking to the bus every morning and back in the afternoons--we even got offered beer on Monday by the older men (wearing hats, Linnea!) sitting at the town fountain under the May tree. Since none of us were turning 18 we declined. Apparently the tradition is that every town has a fest night where all the youth who have turned 18 that year get completely drunk under the auspices of the town elders. Red hats are involved. Nobody in our little village turned 18 this year but it didn't stop the elders from celebrating.

Discouragement

Is finding out that all the pictures you've taken with the good camera have turned out blurry. So, now all the things I think I already have taken pictures of have to be redone. This is what happens when you don't download your pictures regular-like!
This is Noah, triumphant after peeling all the garlic. I thought the blurry was a random problem, but it looks as if our autofocus has gone out AGAIN. I don't love my good camera so much any more, and the little one is taking 20+ tries to get it to focus. My life lacks focus!