Lubeck, Germany

Last weekend, we packed up the kids and took them to Lubeck, Germany for a Christmas market. We had a great time. Lubeck is a beautiful medieval city in the northern part of the country. They have one of the best Christmas markets in Germany. We spent our time shopping for Christmas decorations, eating yummy sausages and sweet treats. Of course, when you're travelling with three kids, you can't do that much sight seeing. So we also spent much of our time going to parks and taking advantage of the amusement rides at the market.

The medieval gate at the Lubeck entrance:

Enjoying some tubby time at the hotel.

The kids do like to travel. Dylan informed us that he likes staying in hotels. Elizabeth kept saying that she missed the hotel after we had left. I wonder if they'll be bored with their life when we finally move back to the states...

Karate

We've signed Dylan up for a Karate class. He goes every Saturday. It's in Danish, although the instructor will speak English if need be. She tells us that she needs to use less and less English with him as time goes by. He has also learned how to count in Japanese.

Busy little night owl

It takes Elizabeth a very long time to settle down at night. We usually put her to bed around 8:00. However she does not fall asleep until at least 8:30. On this particular night, she found my makeup bag in the bathroom, took it back to her bedroom and went to town trying on makeup. This is how we found her. We also found a large glass of water balancing on a book that was laying on her bed. I can't believe it didn't tip over. She's such a flopper. Eric and I are not sure how she sleeps in her bed at all. It's filled with books, her lunch bag (seen to the right in the picture), her back pack and the toy of the day. She's too funny!

Halloween

I haven't had a chance to update the blog much lately. It's difficult to get much done when you go to bed at 8:30. We've spent the last few weeks fighting colds, which is compounded by the fact that Tricia is teething and not sleeping much at night these days. Poor thing is getting quite a few teeth in all at once. Needless to say, I've been tired a lot lately.

We were able to celebrate Halloween here in Denmark. The international school sponsored a trick-or-treating night. I was even on the planning commity. We picked a neighborhood that had a lot of expats on it. Then we went door to door and asked people to volunteer to hand out candy to the little ones. We supplied the candy and the balloons and even carved pumpkins for the front door steps. It was a huge success. We sold over 200 tickets. Can you imagine 200+ kids crowded onto one street for trick-or-treating? It was a mob scene. We had a great time nonetheless.

I hosted a pre-trick-or-treating dinner at my house. I invited a few families from Dylan's class over. Here's a picture of the bunch. Dylan is in a great class. All of the kids get along really well, and so do the parents!

You'll notice that Dylan is not in the picture. He was inside with me arguing about the fact that he did not want to go as a knight, as we had planned. At the last minute he changed his mind and wanted to go as a pirate. Things were so busy that night that I never got a chance to get a good picture of Dylan in his costume. We'll have to make up for that next year.

After dinner, we headed out for some trick-or-treating fun. We had a great time. 15 houses, volunteered to hand out candy. Eric informed me that he used to do 200 houses back in his prime. But 15 houses was just enough for my young trio.

My little lady bug:

My little princess:

Carving Pumpkins

In preparation for Halloween, we decided to carve some pumpkins the other day. The kids were pretty creative this year.

Dylan started out wanting a cyclopes pumpkin, but then changed his mind after I cut out the eye. His pumpkin looks a little deranged. He said he thinks it looks scary, a look he was going for.

Elizabeth is wearing new princess costume and shoes:

It was Dylan's idea to take a family picture. We gave it a "shot".

It almost worked. Unfortunately, the girls were really tired and not in the mood for pictures anymore.

Legoland

We took the kids to Legoland over the weekend. It's a Danish amusement park with a lego theme. We stayed one night in a pirate room at the Legoland hotel. Fun! We had a blast. The park is on the small side and perfect for young kids. We ate junk food, went on a few rides and saw lots of interesting lego sculptures. We had a blast.

Eaten by a shark...

Here's Dylan with Tom and Jerry. He's getting to be such a smartie pants. He knows that there are people under those costumes. After he posed with them he turned to me and said, "Wouldn't it be a nice surprise if that were grandma and grandpa under those costumes". So sweet. How long will it be before he realizes there's no Santa?? Elizabeth is not so knowledgeable yet. She wouldn't pose with them. She was too scared.

Here's a picture of the kids taken from our pirate room

Dylan's self portrait

The teachers had the kids paint a self portrait in school the other day. Dylan painted this all by himself:

I think it kind of resembles him. Don't you??