Flowers and Trees

I just thought I would include some beautiful nature shots.
These trees look like they are on fire. They get various shades of red, orange, and yellow on the same tree at the same time. It is really lovely.

Whatever kind of ivy they use turn brilliant red in the fall.

Rock 'climbing'

We found this huge cave that is used for the town's volksfest (town fair-ish thing). There was a stage. The girls had run ahead and when we rounded the corner they started doing a dance for us.


My 3 girls!

Hiking in Velburg

This is just a town near us that has a castle ruin and a really neat cave. Unfortunately you cannot take pictures in the cave.

From the top of the castle ruins

Gaby
Two little hikers in the lower left corner
The ruins (must have been a very small castle)

Amelia's Birthday

Mia wanted a princess birthday this year. Pop the balloons on the trampoline
Mia had a case of bug bites that had gotten to a scabby stage so she thought she needed band-aids on all of them.
2 of her german/american friends Sarah (in the middle) and her sister Angelina.

Morgan's Birthday

Morgan has a very strange sense of humor. She loves cats so this year we made her a Kitty Litter Cake for her birthday. It is crumbled up cake and vanilla oreos mixed with a little pudding, sprinkled with more oreos (some with green food coloring) and the piece de resistance ?-- tootsie rolls! We actually made 2--one for her to take to school to share with all her classmates. Only one kid wouldn't eat it.

clouds and rainbows

The cloud formations here are pretty fabulous (except on the all gray sky days!). We do a lot of cloud watching. We find a lot of shapes. This particular day had been one of the blue sky days with lots of fluffy white clouds. A storm system moved in bringing rainbows too. I had been out walking the dog and had to hurry home to get the camera.

Swimming

Mia loves to swim--she has no fear of the water. She is jumping into a 12 foot deep pool. She also learned how to dive this summer. She does need a flotation device still. This is a neat one. It has foam pads front and back and as she gets stronger you take pads out (there are ten). She currently has half of them out. For some reason i can't load the video clips of her diving so these 2 pictures will have to do.

This is her straddle jump This is her Russian Dancer jump (sisterly influence)

Gaby the goggle girl