**THE TREE**

 

Here is Michaela with her yellow playdoh star that she made when she was three years old.  Little Playdoh Star is too old and brittle to go on the tree anymore, but every year we pull him out and take his picture.  :)

Maybe to a normal person our tree looks tacky, but I think it's awesome.  :)  Every branch has several ornaments on it and his lights are colorful and blinky.  It's a giant, fat tree ...and it's filled with "stuff".  :)  I think trees with "themes" or trees that match are blah and boring.  Of course, if you have a boring, themed tree that matches your curtains and couches ...and it makes you happy, then I'm happy for you and your tree.  :)

Christmas Trees turn into members of your family.  You become instantly biased and love your tree no matter how funky it looks.  :)

That said, the day after Christmas I start looking forward to the moment when I can toss my tree off the balcony and vacuum up all the pine needles! :)

Michaela + Math = Dubai

In February, Michaela is going to Dubai!!  

She is going to Dubai because she is smarter than all of us put together. :)  


My little 13 year old daughter will be going with two other middle school kids from the school to participate in a Hungarian Math Competition called KOMAL ...and it's insane. I can't even begin to figure out the answers ...I get half way through the questions and I'm completely lost.  


She has been studying with "her math team" once a week during lunch, and Happy helps her at home when necessary. She is thoroughly annoyed with me every time she asks me a question, because, although sometimes the question looks familiar, I am never quite sure on exactly what to do. Good thing Happy is smart.  


I have cut and pasted some of the questions that her math coach gave her to practice on. Let me know if you figure out any of the answers!!



KÖMAL Questions:  
If 73 hens lay 73 dozen eggs in 73 days and 37 hens eat 37 kg of wheat in 37 days, then how many kg of wheat are needed to produce a dozen eggs?  


If the last digits of the products 1.2, 2.3, 3.4, ..., n(n+1) are added, the result is 2010. How many products are used?  

Solve the following equations, where x and y denote positive prime numbers. a) xy(x+y)=2010, b) xy(x+y)=2009.  


The sum of six consecutive integers is multiplied by the sum of the next six integers. Prove that the product obtained in this way will always leave the same remainder when divided by 36.

First Grade Baking Day!

Scotty on Christmas Cookie Baking Day.  :)

Andrea was beyond excited to get to hang out with Scotty's class.

Scotty and one of his best friends.  They are the same age, but his friend is the son of the Heavyweight Boxing Campion of Germany... or something like that, he is as tall as me.   :)  For the record, Scotty still says his best friend is Clay, who moved back home to America.  :(  ...but I love the loyalty.

She never did make a cookie...  she just kept adding flour.  :)

More Geburtstag pictures

 Happy's Birthday is almost over ...so here are some more pictures.  :)

Lego from his mUmmy.  :)  ...just like every year.  Scotty loves it!  :)

One of Happy's favorite ice creams is an Ice Cream Sandwich ...but of course you can't get them here in Germany ...and you can't import them.  So we had to make our own ...AND if you are going to make your ice cream sandwich, you might as well make it a big one.  :)

Glücklich Geburtstag Glücklich

Today is Happy's birthday. It's the day I go through his Christmas presents and decide which ones I can pawn off as Birthday gifts. :)

I think next year we will have a "half birthday" for him because, like everybody else with December birthdays, he kinda gets ripped off a little. :)

The highlight of his birthday was a super bright flashlight which I'm sure will be very useful at somepoint in life... Not quite sure for what though. :)  Is it obvious that he bought the flashlight for himself ...and it was too expensive so it turned into a birthday present.  However, I'm pretty sure that his Birthday Flashlight will burn the retinas of one of our children at some point as well.  It's that bright.

So if you are wondering what to get the guy who has everything... You get him a special flashlight that can light up a room in the middle of the day. :)

Off to go hide the dangerous flashlight so the kids can't find it.

Happy Birthday Happy, we love you!!!

Croutons

I decided that my first post in over three weeks should be about the fact I make my own croutons. :)

Sierra took a pretty picture of them so I figured I should share.

What this really means is that I have finally downloaded all the pictures off the camera so I can start to write more. :)

Real Thanksgiving. :)

Here is the real Thanksgiving blurb ...and here are some of the crazy village children. :)

There were four families who all got together for Thanksgiving this year and that made for a lot of people ...most of whom were kids. Ages: 13, 11, 7, 6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, .5 :)

My girls are the oldest and the two of them are at the point where they are stuck between the adult table and the kid table. Maybe we should make a teenager table? Look at what a loving table it would be.

Here is Pooz with Krista. They see each other every single day and they hang out all the time... so often that they act like sisters most of the time. :) I'm glad Poozie has friends... Three year olds don't often have friends, like real friends... but my little Andrea is already building her village.

Michaela also has her own little village going on... She is headed to Norway the day after Christmas for a week of skiing with her best friend's family who moved from Hamburg to Norway last year.

...and hey Grandma, check out my pie!!! It's my best one yet. I nearly forgot to put the evaporated milk in this time, which I've finally learned is called Kondensed Milk here, but at least this time I remembered the eggs!!!

AND. My pie has that little line in the middle. It's where I stabbed it with the knife to see if it was done. To me a pumpkin pie needs to have this line in the middle because I'm pretty sure every pie my mom ever made had a line in the middle from being poked with a knife. ...and so this pie ...with it's line in the middle, is how a real pie should look. A pie without this line in the middle looks weird. :) j