Bunnies

For the past ten days, we have been Bunny sitting some neighbors baby bunnies. Our neighbors are in the States for summer furlough and spent the last days frantically trying to find people to take care of their animals. Personally, I feel that missionaries shouldn't have pets while on the field. You are always needing to deal with this pet issue every two years and it seems to be getting harder for people to offer help. I think it imposes alot on other people. I had one women come up to me during the last day of elementary school and asked if I could watch her cat and dog. I didn't even know her and she was asking me. I changed the subject and quickly moved my attention to Sarah who was getting into trouble. Anyways, it was fun for the kids but boy do rabbits stink! I am happy to hand them over to someone else.

Sarah loved the baby bunnies but she wouldn't touch them to save her life. Anna held them all the time and petted them. One peed on my couch so I didn't allow them inside again. Yuck!

Since Jeff actually agreed for us to bunny sit, I made him clean the cage feed the bunnies and place ointment on one of the bunnies eyes twice a day. I think he is ready for them to go as much as I am.

In other news, Sarah received a cute dress in the mail from G'ma Benjamin. I had her wear it to church on Sunday. I love this pose of her and the look on her face even though she is sitting down.

One of our dorms is transitioning from an Elementary/ Jr. High dorm to High school dorm so they cleaned out all of their legos and Bionicles and gave them to Jacob. It was like Christmas for him all over again. He is playing with them nonstop these days. Which is good because he has stopped bugging his sisters.

Date Night

Last night, Jeff and I went out on a date. I look at this as my yearly outing to eat at a nice resturant and see my yearly movie in a theater without worry about cost. Truth be told we only do this outing once a year. This time, Jeff and I went north to Freiburg. We heard that you can see movies in English there. Normally, we have gone South into Switzerland but it is expensive thus the yearly movie outing. We found a Mexican resturant for dinner and it actually had items on the menu that were familar to us. Our past experience with Mexican themed resturants in Germany has been a let down. They offer things on the menu like Fajitas, but it is filled with zuccini and potatoes and other items that just don't seem to go with Mexican food. My only complaint was that they sprinkeled Chili powder on the food.

After dinner, we walked down the quaint streets of Freiburg and found the movie theater. We saw Oceans 13. We both wanted to see Spiderman 3 but it already had its one showing of the day. The movie was pretty good and it was cheaper than in Switzerland. Now that we have found a new place to see a movie, maybe just maybe I can squeeze two outings in a year. We will see. The kids were all tucked in bed when we got home and the babysitter was still smiling so I know that it was a success overall.

View of the pedistrian zone in Freiburg a very quaint town in the Black Forest region.

Tennis Lessons

All last week, Jacob and Anna spent every morning taking tennis lessons at BFA. This was offered for the week for elementary students. They really had fun and learned some good fundamentals of tennis. Every thing went well until the last five minutes of camp on Friday when Jacob got whacked in the mouth with a tennis raquet. The rusult was a chipped front tooth. Jeff called a local dentist and was able to make an appointment for him to repair the tooth. Fortunately, Jacob found the chipped portion of the tooth and the dentist was able to fix the tooth now you can't even tell that it was chipped at all. So a little adventure to a great week of fun activites it keeps us all on our toes.

A couple of times during the week Sarah and I would bring lunch after lessons and have a family picnic by the creek next to the school. Jeff would come and join us. Here is Sarah enjoying her tuna sandwhich.

The Big 08!

On Friday, June 15th, Anna turned 8. She was so excited to have her special day. We really wanted to have a fun party for her but all of her friends were gone either on furlough for the summer to America or on family vacations around Europe. So we had a family party and will plan a bigger fun day with some good friends in a couple of weeks when they come to visit. Despite the small gathering, Anna still declared this the best birthday that she has ever had. That makes a mother's heart proud not to mention the stess that it saved me!

Anna's prized gift of the day, A Hannah Montanna digital camera from Papa and G'ma Bontrager. SHe also love the two skirts that they gave her.

Anna opening up her gifts from the Benjamin side of the family. She got some neat reading books and also a great new dress.
Anna blowing out her birthday cake her favorite flavor, Chocolate! We finished it off for my birthday a couple days later.

Fathers Day and Birthday Happenings

This has been a good week for blogging. Unfortantely, I have not been near my computer to do so. As a result, I will work backwards to fill in the gaps of the past week. I am starting with today, Fathers day AND my birthday today! Yep, I turned 36 today, wow, can't believe it but so far I have been too busy to notice the aches in my back it will probably hit me in the morning.

As for today, we enjoyed a nice family day after a hectic week of having house guests and the comings and goings of many activities it was just nice to be as a family and go for a drive and picnic. After picking up Subway sandwhiches, we drove about 25 minutes to a quaint town on the boarder of Germany and Switzerland and ate on the Rhien river with the view of an old cover bridge that you can walk across to connect the two countries.

The kids had fun walking around and seeing all the sights of the area. I had to get a picture of the three of them by the wall. Soon, there will be a fourth one to welcome into our family.

Sarah was fascinated by a dog swimming in the lake below so I held her while she watched him swim and get out and jump back in.

I couldn't ask for a better day to celebrate and share with Jeff -a wonderful husband and father! We had fun trying to make the other feel more special today but I think we both turned out to feel equally loved.

House guests

For the past two weeks, we have had people living with us. Our home has been very full and become a busy place. It is nice to have so much activity around and knowing that we are helping out people who need a place to stay. Currently, a family of four is living downstairs for the week. They were asked to vacate their apartment while their landord did some repairs. We offered our basement apartment for the week. Tonight we had a nice dinner with them after a fun afternoon of playing on the slip n slide that we bought in France yesterday. The kids all have fun playing together and Sarah toddles after them in excitment. We all go to bed very tired at night. More guests are on their way to visit us for the summer which always helps us with being seperated from family and friends.

Taking the Plunge

Yesterday we went to our local swimming pool- you know the one with the new speedo rules.

This was Sarah's first time at a pool and she took it all in.

All three kids playing under the water.

Jeff was able to find "apporpriate" swimware at the last minute.

After a couple hours of swimming, Sarah is ready to dry off and enjoy some sun. It was a nice time and Jacob and Anna are begging us to take them back.

Summer Fun

This morning in order to keep the kids from being bored (all ready!) I took them outside and gave them a bunch of street chalk. They spent a long time drawing on our street. Sarah had fun experimenting with it as well and just watching. Needless to say it was a goood photo op for mom.

The kids playing in front of our house. The green tarp in our driveway are new windows waiting to be installed on our upper floor.

Sarah trying her hand at some creative street chalk art. We are suppose to have thunderstorms tonight so tomorrow we can start over fresh.

Here is a close up of Sarah she may look like she is smiling, but she was really crying about something and wanted to be picked up.

Last day of School

Wednesday was the last day of school for Jacob and Anna. The school day ended with a fun field day of two hours of games in the high school gym. Jeff and I went to watch the kids play and say goodbye to their friends some they may not see again because families move back to the States. Even at their young age, Jacob and Anna understand how hard it is to say goodbyes.

Here is a picture of the entire elementary school after their last game. The Principal prayed and then there were many hugs goodbye. Anna proudly announced to Jeff that she was offically a third grader now!

Spring Concert

The elementary school held their Spring concert on Sunday. At the last minute, Jeff and I were able to score on some free babysitting for Sarah so we could actually sit and enjoy the whole concert. That was a real treat for us! Jacob and Anna did a great job. At one point, Anna had to say a scripture verse from memory. She forgot part of it but carried on like a true star. Some of my pictures turned out dark and I forgot to lighten them up before I deletated them so just use your imagination.

Anna is in the center of the group.

Jacob and Anna after the concert with the t-shirts they wore. It says, "Sitzenkirch, one cool school."

Last recital for Jacob

I am a bit behind in my posts, I guess that reflects the busy last week of school that we are in. Last week, Jacob performed in his last recital for the school year. The recital was held at his elementary school. He was the first student to perform and I think the only one who actually took a bow at the end of his number. He did a good job and didn't make any mistakes. Now for a summer break and then back at it next year!