Columbus Day

We celebrated Columbus Day on the 12th by reading a quick book from my library, making apple and mozzerella cheese boats and drinking Spanish Hot Chocolate.  I love working in the library!  It is so easy to get books now and the school's selection is far better than the public library's here.

I got the boat and hot chocolate idea from my favorite blog, Shower of Roses.  The hot chocolate was incredibly rich and thick- nothing like what we usually have from the package.  We will definitely be doing this again each year.  Columbus used the stars as a guide with a compass so we made the chocolate and put it in a thermos and headed for the harbor area and Kaust Beacon.  This area of Kaust is so beautiful at night because it is nicely lit, but unfortunately this beauty hindered our star gazing. 

I'd like to comment on Eleanor's shirt in the apple boat picture- she loves this shirt and wears it at least two times a week.  Oma Christel (Julia's mother) in Germany gave it to her and it has become quite the favorite!

Here is the Spanish Hot Chocolate recipe:

Spanish Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

4 cups whole milk
6 ounces baking chocolate
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch

Directions:

Pour the milk into a saucepan and add the cornstarch, whisk to dissolve. Heat the milk on medium heat just until it boils, then remove from heat. Add the chocolate immediately and begin stirring until the chocolate is completely melted.

Note: If the milk cools off too fast, place the pan back on the stove on low heat to melt the chocolate.

Add the sugar into the chocolate milk mixture and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Taste the hot chocolate for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary.

Place the pan back on the stove on medium low heat, stirring slowly, but constantly. As soon as you see it thicken, remove the pan from the heat so the cornstarch will not thin. Ladle immediately into cups and serve piping hot.





Germany Trip: Home Away From Home

Julia and Frank were so gracious by letting us stay in their house for our entire visit to Germany.  Little Annica was amazing in that she never complained of our kids taking over her room.  Thank you soooo much Lohs!!!!

Their house is actually a remodeled barn and they live in the "hayloft" or top floor.  Below them are two other families.  They have a lovely view of the surrounding area and Casey and I enjoyed having the windows open at night and the stillness.  We never get to open windows in KAUST due to dust and heat so a bit of fresh air was certainly welcomed.

You can walk to everything in Duttenhofen including a nearby lake and some stables.  There was this quaint little trail through a small wilderness filled with plum trees and we got to see several rabbits running about.  August was the perfect time of year to go visiting the area.

Germnay Trip: Steindorf Playground

We played on the nicest little playground near Julia's parents' house in Steindorf.  It had a sandbox digger, a slide that actually slid the kids down a little hillside, and a cute little playhouse.  It was entirely surrounded by trees and shrubbery making it quite enchanting.  In fact, it is so hidden this is the first time I have seen it despite the fact that I have been to Julia's parents' house several times and have even stayed there for a month! 

Happy Birthday Mommy!

We celebrated my 37th birthday last week and I had a lovely day.  The kids made me beautiful cards and Casey made one of my favorite meals, crab cakes, and a scrumptious carrot cake.  One of Marcella's gifts was a game she made using cap erasers and buttons.  She did such a great job with it and we had a lot of fun playing it.  Basically, we each chose a color of eraser cap to be and had to roll the dice to move our man to the finish.  If we rolled a 5, a button got placed on the board.  If all the buttons got placed on the board before our men got to finish, the buttons won.  When we rolled a 6, we got to put a button back and got an extra turn.  Two longer versions of the game were to use all the eraser caps or to keep score with the dice rolls. 

On Friday we celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary by making a decade of the Rosary with cupcakes and coloring pictures of Our Lady while praying one decade.  The beautiful tissue paper covered cross and doves was made by Marcella and Theresa early on Thursday morning.  We came down for breakfast and they had it done!  It was a sweet way for us to end our weekend!

Belated First Day of School!

I was running through my pictures and realized I have not posted the girls' First Day of School pictures so here they are.  Both girls are havng a fantastic year and we are so happy with both of their teachers.  Marcella has a Mr. O'Sullivan from Ireland and Theresa has a Ms. Barrington from Fredericksburg, Texas!!!!  I guess we call it "Luck of the Irish" this year!  In addition to everything to do with 2nd grade, Marcella is taking piano for the first time and has joined the elementary school choir.  In addition to all that comes with being in Kindergarten, Theresa is taking swim lessons. 

The twins are doing so well now in Building Blocks.  It took about three weeks for them to finally settle in but now they go without a fuss and have become active participants in circle time and crafts as well as other fun things.  There are four teachers in their classroom: Alizza, Romana, Irene, and Sheila.  Eben adores Ms. Sheila and calls her "My Ms. Sheila."  I am fortunate enough to have Alizza's two children come to me at the ECC library and they are so sweet!  It is nice to be in such a small community where everyone mingles in all we do! 

The last three pictures were taken during Ramadan which was the week before school started.  KAUST had set up and "Old Town Saudi Arabia" scene and had put up festive lights in Discovery Square. 

Behavior Bubbles

Theresa filled her Good Behavior Chart at school up with stickers and as a reward got some fabulous bubbles.  She was very excited about this whole chart and talked about it all month.  She was very good at reporting who was dong a good job on class and who was not.  We had discussed what colors were available and she was delighted to get yellow- the color close to her favorite- orange!  The night she brought them home we had a bubble party in the living room.  They were great bubbles, the kind that make a lot that is.

I've also included a "Tool Time Eb" picture in this set.  He decided to go to work on his Number 8 one day after Building Blocks and worked so much on his car that he missed snack even.  He got his toolbox down and car turned over all by himself and was so happy fixing it.  Later his sisters joined in as well.

Last you'll see our Michaelmas picture.  We read the story of St. Michael and made Devil's Food Cake cupcakes and had fun stabbing them as the Archangel Michael did with Lucifer (idea taken from Shower of Roses.

Germany Trip: Koeln

Julia and Frank had a wedding to go to in Aachen, which is near Koeln, so we decided to visit the spectacular cathedral on our way home.  This was probably a mistake because Eben threw his biggest tantrum of the entire Germany trip in Koeln and then the girls were a little afraid to be inside the cathedral.....it was a little dark and the tall ceilings with arches and such were quite intimidating.  My vision of coffee outside the catherdal did not happen, but we still were happy to have had the opportunity to visit the grand cathedral.  The girls also got to see the people statues and we took a nice picture of the St. Peter's Fountain outside the cathedral for Marcella's First Communion Notebook.  We do not have a picture of the street orchestra we heard playing "Pachelbel's Cannon" or the Egyptian ruins on display, but these were also two impressionable sites we saw.

The final picture was actually taken in Aachen.  Only in Germany will one see a kiosk selling not only cigarettes and beer, but also GUMMIES!!!!!