Zebra

Yesterday Cadel wanted to wear everything stripes.  So here he is with striped socks, arm warmers, shorts (pin stripes so the pic doesn't show it) and a few big stripes on his shirt.  When I asked why he said it was because he wanted to look like a zebra, of course.

First day of school for the big kids

Summer flew by and we now have a third grader and a first grader!  Gus and Cormac were both pretty excited about starting school (we are talking 4 a.m. excited).  Last Friday we went to the "Meet Your Teacher" at the school.  Cormac's teacher is the former Math Lab teacher and he is very excited.  Gus' teacher wasn't there because she was settling her daughter in at college stateside, but we have heard good things about her.  They both have some friends from last year in their classes too.

These pictures don't even do justice to how much these two have grown.

 Maggie and Cadel start next week.  Here's to a great new school year!

Bamberg

We spent last weekend in Bamberg.  Our dear friends, Thomas and Ulli, invited us to use their daughter's apartment for the weekend (she was away on vacation).  Her apartment is right next to the one we used to live in.  It was so nice to be in the city center with all of the hustle and bustle.  We ate pizza at Thomas and Ulli's pizzeria.  We had breakfast at a favorite cafe.  The kids played for hours at the playground in the Hain.  We walked up to one of the beer kellers that has a big playground and the kids played for hours again.  It was a great trip.

Cormac, Cadel and Maggie picked out rubber ducks at one of the gift shops.  Cormac and Cadel wanted to take pictures with theirs in different places.  Cormac put his on the map of Bamberg.

Cadel wanted his next to flowers.

Cadel also picked out a postcard of one of the cranes by the river.

He decided it was so awesome that we had to go back a couple of times just so he could climb on the real thing.

On the walk back from the keller we took the boat across the river.  It's on a pulley system, but the kids didn't know this. The man driving the boat let the boys "steer" us across the river.  They thought it was awesome.

This is how she goes to sleep

When I went to check on all the kids last night this is how I found Maggie, lights on and all.

Wiesbaden

We went to Wiesbaden last weekend.  It is just west of Frankfurt (it's where Pat was born).  Pat signed up for the Wiesbaden Ironman 70.3.  It was a quick trip; we left late Friday and came home early Monday.

We were lucky to have some nice sunny weather for the weekend.

The finish line, expo and athlete garden were all located at the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden.  The pre-race meeting was inside and here is a glimpse of how pretty it is.

 

While Pat was racing on Sunday the kids and I were hanging out in the city.  We stopped for ice cream before lunch because why not?

We saw Pat leave transition 2 (finish bike and start run).

There was a park right by T2 so the kids played there for a long time.

Then when we went over to cheer Pat on during the run and watch him finish.

Here comes Pat on one of his third loop on the run.

Finish!

We stopped at the Rheingau Wine fest after Pat finished for a glass of wine and some poffertjes (small Dutch pancakes) for the kids.