Veterans Day

Adeline's little school had a Veterans day parade around the school and an assembly. They asked Abe if he could dress up and join. Adeline was pretty excited about it and I think it was neat for her to have her dad there in his uniform. I think they normally have the parade go around the outside of the school, but it was a really cold, snowy day, so they did it inside instead.

Life in the hotel

Living in the hotel with 6 of us got old fast. Luckily it was two bedrooms and had a small kitchen, living room and laundry room (which were combined). Our room didn't have any extra space other than our bed, so there was no room for a pack n play. Luckily Anders still fit in a small pop up bassinet that I bought and we stuck it on a suitcase that barely fit on the side of my bed. In the other room there were two twin beds and there was room to set up a pack n play where Meika slept. It was super tight living quarters. The girls made the best of it and had fun playing together. The girls got some sort of stomach virus that lasted almost a week. I about went stir crazy!! We had really hoped that our house would be done close to the time we got to Colorado, but of course it got pushed back towards the beginning of December.

We tried to get out as much as possible, but it was freezing cold outside. We were able to go to the zoo while in the hotel which was a fun outing for the kids. Every couple days we would drive up to our new neighborhood and walk through our house. The kids would run around and pick which rooms would be their bedrooms. After doing an overseas move, I feel like moving from now on will be super easy!

Adeline's First Day of School- Ranch Creek Elementary

We are lucky enough to have Adeline's school a couple blocks away from our new house. When we first got to Colorado Springs, Adeline was really excited to start school. We had her start about a week after we arrived and since we were in the hotel for about 6 weeks, I would just drive her the 20 minutes to and from school. Her new school has a pick up/ drop off line. The first couple weeks of school I just walked Adeline into the school to help her feel comfortable. On her first day of school, we told her that we would pick her up in the pick up line. She was excited about it and was ok with it. Little did we know that you have to be there extremely early to get in line if you don't want your kid waiting forever. We did get there right before the school bell rang, but were close to last in line. By the time we got to Adeline, she was in tears. She had gotten so worked up and worried that we had forgotten about her. Poor girl. We maybe did the pick up line a couple times after that, but not very often. I would mostly walk in to go meet her and then after awhile we have a meeting spot right outside of the school where she can walk right up to my car. Adeline had a pretty rough time going to school for awhile… and still has them every so often :) This has been a pretty hard change for her and a struggle for me. There were a couple times that I was in tears because I was so worried about her emotional well being with being in a new school, new environment and making new friends. I felt for her and it was killing me! Luckily her teacher Mrs. Bull is awesome and has been great for Adeline. Adeline is doing a little better about going to school, but she still says she hates school quite often. Not quite sure what to do about that. I feel like she should like school at her age! I think she has major FOMO and doesn't like that she is the only one going to school. Once Norah is in Kindergarten next year, I am anticipating that things will be a bit better. She also cries about missing Germany and her friends and school. Poor girl. I just love my determined, brave little Adeline. She is the perfect little student and makes me proud!

Anders' 4 Month Well Baby

Anders 4 month Stats (more like 4.5 months)

Weight: 13.5 lbs 14th percentile
Height: 25 inches 51st percentile
Head Circumference: 16.75 inches 51st percentile

Halloween

Halloween was 2 days after we arrived to Colorado. We drove up to our new neighborhood that we would be living in and went Trick-or-Treating there. The kids really hadn't done it before since it is an American holiday. I guess Adeline had when she was really little, but that was about it. It was so much fun watching them run from door to door and having a good time. I also made me really excited to live in our neighborhood. I have never seen so many kids running around!! Because Halloween was somewhat of an afterthought with our move, I had purchased the two Care Bear outfits second hand for the girls, we made up Adeline's outfit (Vanellope von schweetz from Wreck it Ralph), and I found a random Bat hat for Anders. Next year I will hopefully have my act together! Meika was obsessed with her costume though and would wear it everywhere. The funniest part about it was that it was about 2 sizes two small and gave her a huge wedgie. I currently have it hiding in the house waiting to get rid of it, otherwise I will find Meika in it!

AFNORTH International School 2014-2015 School Pictures

The girls only attended AFNORTH for about 2 months before we moved back to the States. Adeline's 2nd Grade Teacher was Ms. Dittmer and she was awesome and so sweet. Adeline so far has hit the jackpot with every single teacher she has ever had. Adeline thrived the two months that she attended this year. It was hard for me to pull her out for our move because she had a little bit of a hard time in first grade and then has had a hard time at her new school in Colorado Springs… although she is somewhat starting to feel more comfortable. I wasn't going to put Norah in the preschool program because it was ALL DAY and was the same exact hours as the rest of the school (K-12). I thought that was way too long for a preschooler to be at school. Abe talked me into sending her though since she would only be going for two months, I had a new baby and I was preparing for our move back to the States. I had heard HORRIBLE things about one of the teachers and told Abe that if Norah got her, I wasn't going to send her. Well guess what. Norah got her and even though I really didn't want to send her, Abe talked me into sending her! It was nice having her at school with Adeline and I could really focus on Meika, Anders and getting ready for our move. However, Norah's teacher (Mrs. Geilen-Rosenberg) was the worst teacher on the face of the earth. She was mean and demeaning toward the kids (and parents!) and was flat out a bully. Norah's preschool teacher from the year before confirmed how horrible Mrs. Geilen-Rosenberg was, but didn't think that Norah would have a problem because she favored girls and Norah was such a good, sweet student. To make a long story short, in the 2 months Norah was there, she went to time out two different times and for 30-45 minutes EACH!! Norah was devastated when it happened. Once was for going with a friend to the nurses office because her best friend got hurt at recess and the other time was for standing on a chair…. she is in PRESCHOOL for crying out loud!! Every day, Norah would come home with stories and tell me who went to time out and why. Luckily Norah is my kid that will tell me EVERYTHING, so I was grateful for that. Norah always tells her new teacher (Mrs. Rachel) stories about her really mean teacher!

On the girls last day of school, I did go talk to the school about Mrs. Geilen-Rosenberg and how awful she was. I wrote down several things that she did to both Norah and lots of other kids in her class. The school councilor was furious about how she was treating those kids… but who knows if anything will ever happen with that! The school councilor was really nice and told me that whatever I was doing at home with the girls was working (even though I can't take credit!). He said that Adeline was really popular at school and it was popular in a good way. He said that she always knows who the underdog is and is good to take them under her wing. He commented on how sweet she was to everyone and was just a really good kid. It made my heart so happy to hear that!!

Anyway, on to school pictures. We had quite a bit going on and I totally forgot about them! It's funny because on a normal day, I at least would make sure that the kids looked decent, their outfits matched and I would do their hair. On this particular day, both the kids were dressed crazy. Adeline was wearing a pink shirt with red sparkly leggings and her hair was a mess. Norah was wearing a white and blue flower dress with purple and pink striped leggings with pink socks and a light purple bow that she picked out. Who cares that ONE day, right!? Well when Adeline got home she mentioned they had school pictures and it happened to be both of their classes day for pictures (there were two days). Total mom fail right there! And of course they were both put on the front row. They both weren't upset about it though, so there could be worse things!!

Random Pictures...