mayer's birthday

my little peanut turned 6 last week and i'm still adjusting to it all. mayer starts asking when his birthday is as soon as the weather starts getting cooler. after halloween, it's all i hear about. every year for the last 5 years, we have had a party. this year since we were going to be in the states until the beginning of december, i just didn't want to have to rush around after we got back and throw something together. so back at the beginning of november i had a brilliant idea and i gave mayer his options. we could either 1) have a party OR 2) we would get a babysitter for grayson and mayer could spend the whole day with just mommy and daddy and we would go out and do whatever mayer wanted to do. he instantly picked option #2 or what is now know as the day of mayer.

troy and mayer on the day of mayer

so the saturday before his actual birthday was the day of mayer. and what did that involve? well...first up was bowling. mayer is actually getting really good and is starting to figure out how to line up the ball with the pins. of course troy won. next on the agenda was the movie arthur christmas. cute movie complete with sour patch kids. next was supposed to be sushi for dinner but i couldn't find a restaurant that was open early enough, then it was dinner at ikea but the thought of ikea on a saturday night did not have either one of the bigger people very excited but at the last minute someone decided he rather have taco bell. and last was a trip to the store to get his friend a birthday present and to also play at the huge playplace.

on his actual birthday (dec 12) mayer took star war cupcakes to school for all of his buddies. and when he got home there were presents and decorations waiting for him. his friend justin came over for a little playdate...can you still call it a playdate when they are 6? after that troy got home from work and it was present time from all the family. and then it was time for cake. i debated whether or not to post a picture but it's not horrible and mayer knew instantly who it was supposed to be. my little man is starting to get into star wars and is all about darth vader. and all he asked for was a darth vader cake...if he only knew what fear looked like on his mother's face.

that's a whole lot of the dark side sitting on those cupcakes.
 behind them is mayer's list for his day of mayer

an awesome gift from uncle jeff and aunt amy and lena

my attempt at a darth vader cake. the foil stuck to the black icing.
mayer's favorite part - the light sabers.

it is hard to believe my peanut is 6 and it's a little crazy to watch him become the person he's becoming. he is a very funny, sweet, energetic, smart, and sensitive little man. grayson fell the other day and busted his lip and mayer was crying. troy is a little freaked that mayer will be 7 next year...my thoughts - let's get through 6 first. happy birthday mayer!



this video is for grandma and grandpa. it's mayer opening their gift. by far one of the best toys. it comes apart and makes a million different vehicles and boats. and both boys have been playing with it.

the states

a little over a month ago we embarked a bit of an adventure. we headed back to the states for three weeks. the first adventure was trying to get out of germany. we decided we rather not spend a small fortune to fly commercial so we opted for space a - or a military hop. a free flight on a military plane, the trick is that it's very much a first come, first serve system and then there are different categories. i could try to explain it all, but that deserves it's own post and is boring. basically since troy was with us, we were category 3 and we weren't first on the list but we weren't last either. so there were several flights going out the day we wanted/needed to leave. our first try was to charleston, sc. it would have been an easy drive to my parents. we made the list for this flight and literally, as we were walking through security to get onto the plane, they threw everyone off the plane - the reasoning - people and cargo on a cargo plane require 2 loadmasters, there was only 1 and rather than call another guy to work they opted to throw all the people off the plane and add more cargo, which only requires 1 loadmaster. so back to the terminal we went and waited a couple more hours for the baltimore flight, which we got onto. this was great and also sort of a huge pain. it was great because it is a commercial plane, so it was like a regular plane...with seats and each seat had it's own tv and there was food almost hourly. the downside....it was going to baltimore, which added an extra day of driving....lots and lots of driving. but we made the flight! the kids did fantastic. after landing in baltimore and getting the rental car it was almost 10pm. The kids slept for a little bit in the car, troy and i tried not to sleep in the car. we had been up for over 24 hours by this point. we drove until about 2am and stopped at a hotel. troy slept and i stayed up with the kids, who were beyond wide awake since it was around 9am to their little bodies. we got up around 6 and had breakfast and started driving all over again.

we finally made it to florida. grayson's little alarm clock refused to let him go beyond 4am almost every morning, but he adjusted pretty quickly to naps and bedtime. mayer fell asleep around 5pm the first few days but after that he was fairly adjusted. troy had a business trip to vegas the 2 days after we got to florida so he was gone the first week we were in florida. and this would be when i did a good majority of my shopping. in hindsight, i should have combined all the bags into just a few instead of just throwing them all into our bedroom, it was probably a bit of a shock for troy to walk into a room full of shopping bags but whatever. it all resulted in 2 boxes having to be mailed back and one extra suitcase....not too bad if you ask me. and some of it was birthday and christmas presents for the boys. flordia weather was awesome, i did pack a couple shorts and t-shirts but i had no idea it would be so warm a majority of the time we were there and that resulted in more shopping.  we got to the beach 3 times and i hit target 4 or 5 times and starbucks every time i left the house. i figured if i overdid it with target and starbucks i wouldn't miss it as much when it was time to leave. i decided mayer was old enough for his first dolphin cruise and it was awesome. i don't know that i have ever seen that many dolphins before and that was my third cruise. the boys had a great time playing with grandma and grandpa. there was a lot of lego building, coloring, book reading and playing in the back yard - mayer had to show grandpa his soccer skills. another big moment was grayson's first haircut. i was not looking forward to it but it was time. he did awesome. he pretty much sat frozen the whole time. and i was very happy to see his hair was still curly when it was all done. my mom and i were able to sneak out a few times for some margaritas and shopping...not always in that order. although, it was pretty awesome/scary when the waiter asked if we wanted our margaritas to go....uhhh, what?

mayer and grandpa

grayson and his first haircut

playground at the mall

mayer and grandma

grandma and grayson playing around

another playground at another mall

the beach! and grayson is happy - even better

one of my favorite pictures

grandma and mayer with uncle jeff's legos

grandma and the boys at a shell beach

mayer and grandma on the dolphin cruise

captain mayer turning the boat around - he took his job very seriously

grandpa and the boys

the saturday after thanksgiving we got back in the car and headed back up to the virginia/dc/philly area. troy's sister recently moved from philly to alexandria and since we were going to try to fly back from bwi, we thought it would be awesome to stay with her and her family and spend some time with our nephews. it was a bit of a nightmare to drive on thanksgiving weekend and i instantly remembered how much i disliked northern virginia/dc's traffic. it was great to see shaina, tom and jake and to meet our newest nephew, ben. quite adorable. mayer and jake instantly started playing and it they went nonstop until we left. the day after we got to virginia, we went to philly for the day to see almost all of troy's family...where there was another new niece we had to meet, again quite adorable. it was awesome to have the boys get so much attention and to have them see most of the family, it was a long day but worth it and that night we went back to virginia. the next day we just hung out with shaina and the boys. and then we learned there was flight back to germany that night and there were no flights for the next couple of days and since troy had to be back to work by friday, we packed up and headed to bwi. a huge thank you to tom and shaina for letting us stay with them for those few days - it was great to spend time with you. at baltimore, we kept our fingers crossed we would make the flight. even with troy being with us, we were towards the bottom of the list but we made it. i think it left around 10pm so it was pretty easy for everyone to fall asleep. on a side note....my camera died 2 days before thanksgiving and i forgot to bring my charger so i have no pictures from thanksgiving or virginia/philly but we've got the memories :0)

it was a very busy 3 weeks. full of family, driving, starbucks and shopping but it was great!

fall soccer

mayer's fall season of soccer started right when school started. and a little side note, his coach is someone i went to high school with and i haven't seen her since - very random. alright, back to mayer...he has developed some serious skills either that or they are genetic and he totally scored the schultze soccer gene just like his uncle. mayer did really well last season but he actually started playing offense and defense this time around. he scored goals, kicked the ball out when the other team was trying to score, helped out the other kids on the team. his coach came up to me at the last practice and wanted to make sure mayer moves up to the next age level for the spring season. so that's exciting, plus he loves to play which makes it even better. here are a few pictures from the season. we never got one of him scoring a goal - we were too busy celebrating :)

fests, fests and more fests

i love fall - by far my most favorite time of year. i love the food, the weather, the holidays, the leaves falling. i'm not too fond of the frost on the car at 7am when i have to take mayer to the bus stop but beyond that, there is not too much that can get me grumpy in the fall. and now i love it all even more. why you ask, well because there's the volksfest/oktoberfest, kurbisfest, wurstmarkt (wine festival) and all the christmas markets start up around thanksgiving. i think there is also a onion festival and a cabbage festival but we haven't checked those out yet...and i'm thinking we may not, but you never know. so in september is the bad durkheim wurstmarkt, which is the wine and sausage festival. you may vaguely remember a picture of me holding probably the biggest glass of wine ever - this is where i was and of course we went again this year. it's like volksfest but wine instead of beer...yay for me! it has a ton of carnival rides and games and of course wine and yummy food.


right after wurstmarkt, volksfest/oktoberfest kicks up. this year we did what you are suppose to do - went to the tents and got drunk with all of troy's co-workers. his office bought a table in one of the tents and so we got a babysitter and went and got our chicken and beer on. so wurstmarkt is clearly for me since troy is not a huge wine drinker and volksfest all for troy since it's all beer. our table was right in the middle of the tent, right in front of the stage so it was just crazy from the beginning. i think the only time we sat down was to eat, other than that, we stood on the benches the entire night singing and drinking. it was good times but we learned some valuable lessons for next year. the biggest lesson is that jenn cannot consume 3 liters of beer - i tried and drank 2 but my limit really is 1...very valuable lesson. 

before anyone drank anything

not the angle of the camera, the beer really is bigger than my head

troy's security system - can't misplace the beer tickets

and finally october brings kurbisfest in ludwigsburg, translated to pumpkin festival. last year was an ocean theme, this year was a dinosaur theme. mayer was in heaven! this year we went with some friends and saw even more of the castle grounds than last year. we also ate lunch there - the menu is all pumpkin, all the time. quite possibly the best spaghetti i have ever had, i would totally pay another 8euros to go through the gate to buy another bowl or two. they also have pumpkin champagne - i did not have high expectations for this. it sounds weird and like it would be a pumpkin mess. it is super yummy! almost tastes like peaches. and now we are only a few weeks away from all the christmas markets opening. so excited!!



mayer up by the castle

at one of the playgrounds

bonus of going somewhere with friends - get to get a picture of the whole family

mayer's favorite dinosaur

grayson and jillian checking out the pumpkins

lunch!

the castle grounds have a maze and this is the center,
 if you step on the wrong step the frogs shoot water

mayer's big day

i know i was supposed to post about mayer's big day on his actual big day - but that day was so crazy i thought i would wait and see how the week played out, so this is actually mayer's big week. plus now that mayer is gone all day, this is what i'm left to deal with all by myself...sure he looks cute and innocent.

alright, back to mayer since this is all about mayer. kindergarten fun actually began on friday before labor day. he had his open house to go the classroom and find all of the most important things. his teacher put him on a little scavenger hunt to find his cubby, mailbox, seat, drinking fountain, bathroom and, of course, the playground. when we walked into his classroom, mayer instantly sat down at his spot and started coloring. it's so comforting to see mayer so relaxed and comfortable in a new environment - it was only me that was nervous about what was coming up. i spent most of the weekend quizzing him on what to do to get on and off the bus, who to look for, only go with his teacher or mommy and daddy, don't lose your bus pass, etc.. i am so glad my issues didn't transfer over to mayer. he answered all my questions and then asked what was for lunch - clearly not affected by my ocd with the situation. after the open house we headed over to the food court to attempt to get taco bell - i say attempt because, taco bell is brand spanking new to these parts and ever since it opened a couple weeks ago, it has been nearly impossible to even go near the place. we had success since it was a training day on the base (training day = official way of saying "random day off") so most people were gone for the labor day weekend.

mayer's teacher, mayer and his other teacher



just sitting and coloring

and since it was labor day weekend, troy was also off on monday, so, sunday night we asked mayer if he could do anything he wanted, what would he want to do. you wanna see a kid literally explode, ask him this question and then immediately follow it up with "okay, that's what we'll do". so we asked mayer what he wanted to do, without missing a beat, he answered "LEGOLAND!!!" and then we said "okay that's what we'll do tomorrow". his eyes bugged out and he said "really?!" we figured since it was mayer's last day of freedom, we would let him have the day. monday we trekked on over to legoland and it was great - there was hardly anyone there and mayer went on all the rides several times and was worn out. so i had high hopes he would go to bed early since the following morning had a 6am alarm going off. before bed, we got out his clothes, made his lunch and made sure everything was ready to go.

tuesday morning came quickly, i decided to get up a little earlier since it was the first day and who knew what was going to happen. troy went in late to work so we could all take mayer to the bus. first, mayer slept through his alarm. that child can sleep through anything. there was a minor freakout about his outfit (even though, as mentioned earlier, we had picked it out the night before). and we had just enough time to take a couple pictures and it was time to head to the bus stop. mayer realized he knew a couple of the other kids waiting for the bus and they were all starting kindergarten. the bus showed up and he barely let us say goodbye and he was on the bus. that was the weirdest moment for me....and yes i cried. perception is a weird, weird thing. some days he looks so small and little and other days he looks so big and grown up. on this particular day it was a combination of looking so small but doing something so big. thank goodness troy was there. he drove home while i cried. i was so happy and proud of mayer and also so sad he's not my little peanut anymore. and in hindsight, i am also so glad grayson and i had a busy day, it didn't give me much time to really think about anything. grayson and i started going to a mommy and me tumbling class (think gymboree or little gym) and tuesday was the first class. and right after the class we headed over to grayson's buddy's house for a little playdate which then turned into lunch at a biergarten that was just perfect. this was the first time i have been able to go to lunch with anyone - last year i had to pick mayer up at noon everyday. anyway, we just ate and talked and let the kids play and it was perfect weather for it. by the time we got home, i had just enough time to straighten up around the house and then we left to pick mayer up. the bus pulled up, mayer jumped off and we headed home. the first thing i asked, was what he did all day and he said it was too much to talk about. so i asked what his favorite thing was, he said lunch and recess...and of course the bus. we were home about an hour and then it was off to soccer practice. the poor kid had quite the day, but handled like a champ.



 wednesday through friday went much the same (i did manage to stop crying). we get up, get ready, go the bus around 7am. and around 320ishpm the bus returns. everyday i ask what his favorite thing was for the day and what the snack was....i know what's important to mayer - it's always food. everyday, so far, has been a different answer as to what his favorite activity was for the day. he seems to be doing just fine. i wish i was as well adjusted as mayer is. as for grayson and i, well, we are figuring things out. grayson decided this would be a great week to work on getting molars 2, 3 and 4. so, in addition to adjusting to the new schedule (earlier wake up time in the morning, which lead to an earlier naptime), he's also waking up a couple times during the night due to the pain of the teething. i feel like i have a newborn all over again and getting up every 4 hours. plus all the fun of the fussiness during the day due to the pain and probably lack of sleep. i know it will all get better and we will adjust - it was just a rough week and i'm beyond exhausted.....and i just ran out of eyecream. 

here are some memorable quotes for the week:
me:"mayer fill in the blank. i think kindergarten is going to be ____."
mayer: "i think kindergarten is going to be exhausting"

me: "mayer what do you think about your teacher?"
mayer: "i think she will be great...in about a week"
apparently she needs a week to really get into the whole teaching thing

me: "what was the biggest surprise on the first day of school?"
mayer: "snack time"
me: "why was snack time the biggest surprise?"
mayer: "because i didn't know what it was going to be."
aahhh, my literal little peanut