Portugal {Part 1}

This post is long overdue. I have been so busy with photography, I feel like I haven't had any time for my own personal stuff, sleep, being a good mom, etc. etc. I am happy to say that I am a lot more caught up now!

Our good friends from that we met in Ohio recently moved to England. As soon as they had their moving arrangements, we started planning a trip to Portugal together. We have to take advantage of the time we are so close to each other!

We rented a house in the small town of Vale De Parra. It is supposed to be walking distance from the beach, but it would have not been very fun and taken us a very long time to walk to the beach with 6 small kids. We both rented a car and were able to explore at our leisure.



The house had a pool and the kids were really excited about it. I never got in the entire time we were there because it was freezing and it wasn't HOT outside. Warm enough to be outside and enjoy it, but not hot enough to want to jump into a freezing cold pool! The kids didn't care!











Meika has become obsessed with hooded towels and robes. She would wear just only this all day if we would let her!





Our first day was mostly hanging out, catching up on sleep (the Huber's got in very late!) and the girls swam in the cold water. Later that evening, we drove down the road a couple minutes to Praia de Gale. This was our first beach we went to and it was amazing.







It took a little while for Norah to adjust to the salty water and itchy sand. Her skin kept "stinging".



Meika was pretty afraid of the water and stayed away. She just wanted to play in the sand!

















It ended up being a really fun evening on the beach. Supposedly it doesn't rain too much in Portugal. Of course in our forecast though, we had a handful of days with rain. The next day looked to be the worst, so we decided not to go to the beach and see the Silves Castle. The castle is on a hilltop in the center of town. The kids loved running around and exploring. However, it was not very kid friendly with deadly drop offs galore. We had to keep the kids super close by!









Looking out from the castle

















Kids playing hide and seek in the ruins...



Yummy lunch in the town of Silves. Kind of crazy with a 1,2,3,5,6 & & year old!!



Walking the streets...

Halloween

This year Halloween was kind of an afterthought. I have been so busy with photography and Abe has been super busy at work, that we just didn't have too much time to think about it. Luckily Norah was excited to be Wonder Woman and use a costume we already had. All I had to do was make her little power "bracelets" and make her a little crown. Meika dressed in an old kitty costume and Adeline requested to be a pirate. I did have to order hers ahead of time, but that was the extent. The week before Halloween we went to Portugal (that post coming up), so Abe carved some pumpkins with the girls before we left. Of course when we got back, they were completely rotted and melted to the ground.

On Halloween night, we attended the Trunk or Treat they have on base. We brought our Dutch friends and it was really fun watching them. They thought that it was a really fun experience and feel like they have a taste of America. I laughed when they said that though, because I still feel that that was far from a taste of America! The girls had a blast. Even Meika was participating and loved getting treats in her basket. I think she walked majority of the route too! I thought Norah must have been sick or something. She acted like she wasn't feeling good and made one of us hold her the entire time. By the time we were done, she completely cheered up. Later we realized that she wasn't sick, she was just completely afraid of all the scary costumes! Poor thing.

Here are a couple of pictures we took before we left for the event.









I can't wait to celebrate Halloween back in the States. It will be fun to go door to door and do the traditional Halloween stuff. Germany is catching on to Halloween a little bit, but it is very sparse here. Weird to think that next year, we will be celebrating Halloween in America!

Summer Evenings

We loved our summer evenings. I took some pictures towards the end of August and am just getting around to them. The girls spent most every evening running around the backyard, jumping on the trampoline and rolling in the grass. Adeline and Norah would play for hours on the trampoline and sometimes bring loads of stuff out there and play "family". We enjoyed sitting outside and watching them play.







super blurry picture, but I couldn't help but sharing...

Our first visits from the Tooth Fairy

Back in September, Adeline told me that her bottom tooth was wiggly. I figured that she was just saying that, because this was not the first time I had heard it. For months Adeline had been wishing that she would lose a tooth. I think seeing all her friends at school was making her antsy. I decided to humor her and wiggle it. Sure enough, it was wiggly! It took a couple weeks to get it really wiggly and it was to the point it would fall out at any moment. We happened to be at our local ice cream shop and Adeline really wanted a second scoop of ice cream after eating her first. Abe told her that if he could pull her tooth out, she could get a second scoop. Talk about peer pressure! Abe ended up pulling it out and Adeline had an audience because some friends were with us. She was so excited!




That night, she wrote this note to the tooth fairy.


A handful of weeks later, Adeline's other bottom tooth got wiggly and she ended up pulling it out herself at recess. When she got off the bus, she refused to smile and kept hiding her mouth from me. She searched through her backpack and then with a big grin, pulled out a baggie with her tooth in it. Such a silly girl. Here is her other note to the tooth fairy. Pretty sure the tooth fairy is not the greatest artist since she was put on the spot!



Her losing her teeth is a big reminder to us of how much she is growing up! Please stop!