Everett's new life skill...

Everett's kindergarten here is different than most schools in the US. They teach mostly about his life skills and things that kids need to learn while growing up. This week he learned how to make vegetable soup, and most importantly how to chop vegetables!!!! Now no food is protected from this kid and a knife. He now wants to help me "cut with his knife" everything I cut. It is a great skill that I otherwise would have waited a little while to teach. He is GREAT at it!

Ya' never know what ya' gonna get!

Our kids are complete opposites! I mean completely! It is learning everything over again with the second child. Makes me realize even more that children come to earth with personalities, parents have influence, but really they are who they are. I just want to list here some differences of our boys if you don't have the opportunity to know them super well.

Good thing is, they influence each other to bring out qualities that they otherwise wouldn't have without each other.

Everett is very cautious, extremely cautious-- Liam on the other hand is a force to behold. He can climb any ladder, go down any slide, climb mountains, jumps off at any height, and loves to jump into deep pools with no floaties on with no thought that he can't swim.
--Liam's recklessness has recently helped Everett become more courageous. He now will climb rope ladders, jump off jungle jims and body slam his brother off of the couch (while they both laugh of course).


Liam loves the outdoors. He hates being inside. I can't tell you how much I live outside. He loves slugs, bugs, birds, and leaves. He loves to walk everywhere!--Everett on the other hand would be very content staying home all day. He is a homebody. I ask him what he wants to do after school and he always remarks, "stay home". Good thing Liam gets him out to do great things, and when he is there he loves it.


Everett is extremely intelligent. At 18 months old Everett knew the entire alphabet and could identify all of them. At two he knew the sound that each letter made. Liam could care less about numbers and letters. Liam loves colors however, where Ev didn't care to learn his colors until his was almost 3. Liam on the other hand has an infatuation with colors. He always has to know every color of everything. This week he got all of the colors right on a color wheel (so sad that he doesn't call everything yellow or pink now).

Everett is awesome socially. He always makes friends where ever he goes. When he went to nursery you just had to tell him his friends were there and he would walk right in and didn't care where mom and dad were. Liam on the other hand, cries thinking about the nursery room. Not just a little cry but a full on screaming for the duration of the time in there. He is almost 2 and still won't stay in the room. Major separation anxiety. Liam has only been able to stay with Grandma's without crying, or my sister Dawn I think one time.


Liam is bulky--Everett is thin

Liam loves animals--Everett has just recently stopped being afraid of anything with fur.

Everett didn't really care to talk until he had his words right. Lets face it he is a perfectionist. Liam on the other hand is one verbal kid. He is a parrot. He repeats anything we say. He can now say almost every word he knows in German and English and that is not a few words. He can say everything in sentences. And tries to talk about everything. The only problem we realize is he won't talk in front of people, just Steve and I.

The things they have in common--They love legos, trains, cars, and cookies.

The biggest similarity--They love each other!!!! They are best friends. They love to fight, hit, hug, kiss, play doggy, but most of all they love each other. When we drop Everett off at school, he mostly wants to kiss and hug and wave to Liam.

What we have learned is they rub off on each other for better or for worse.

But we are so in love with them for who they are! We love who they are, and we love that they teach us everyday. I am so grateful fo rmy kids--even though some days I could pull my hair out. TO us--they are the best!














4everett

Family Night - Paper Airplanes

For Family Night we all made paper airplanes and threw them around the house, and it was awesome. Everett had a hard time finding the right throwing velocity, but after a few training sessions, we were tossing these things all over the place. It was a blast. When you are in a new, foreign place, you spend a lot of time together as a family, and we have found some pretty interesting activities to try and keep our boys occupied. This was one of our many Family Night activities that went really well. But, Mommy was the one who had the farthest flying flight. Just Don't tell Everett... he is pretty competitive.

New Toy Purchase

Yup, you guessed it... ever since Lego Land, our family has been on somewhat of a binge of the Danish toys. We found a Lego set that the boys have been playing with constantly.

This is one of the many towers that we have seen recently

This is a house that Mommy and Everett built.

Everett Racing Lego Cars

This is Everett's favorite Legoland video, so I promised him that we would share it.

Liam meandering

This video captures the essence of Liam right now. He is such a little stud.

European Cities All Made Out of Legos

As a lifelong Lego fan, Steve was entranced by the millions of legos that were used to build several European city.

Here is Lego Venice.

Neuschwanstein (the cinderella castle)

Holland's windmills

Berlin's Siegessäule and the Brandenburger Tor

Hamburg Hafen with Lego ships

Daddy loves the Autobahn

You know, I love public transportation, and it struck me this week that it was no longer strange for me to ride on trains and buses all the time. It is just a part of life. I wish that there were a more robust, safe, and reliable public transportation system in the US. Nevertheless, I realized on our recent trip to Legoland, how much I love driving. Furthermore, driving in Europe is so much funner. The grid systems in Cali, AZ, and UT and elsewhere are very predictable. Driving in Boston and New York is enough to give a healthy man a panic attack. Driving in rural New Hampshire is a blast, but there is always the chance that the town sheriff will catch you going 2 miles over the speed limit. I have driven from coast to coast across the fine land of America a total of four times, and highway driving is fun, but again... predictable. There is nothing like the thrill of driving on the Autobahn. You grandmas and grandpas, have no fear that I was putting the lives of my young family at risk on our way to Legoland Deutschland. I was driving a VW Polo with about 25 to 99 horsepower, depending on whether we were going uphill or not. But to drive safely on the Autobahn, you gotta move at least a little bit. It was a little thrilling to have a Maserati blast by me, and I couldn't really count how many Porsches were flying along. Anyway, it is fun to drive in Germany. I love it.

Reines Fahrvergnügen (Pure driving pleasure)

Brazilian Soccer Star Power

When Delaine saw the all-time greatest soccer player at Legoland, she just couldn't resist...

LEGOLAND DEUTSCHLAND IST WUNDERBAR

Well, we had quite a time getting out the door on our way to Legoland Germany. We had already left and were on the road when we realized that we had left our passports at home, so we drove all the way back home to get them. That set us back about 30 minutes, but eventually we found ourselves speeding down the Autobahn with two very excited boys. When we arrived, Everett and Liam were stoked beyond belief. Liam kept telling us that all he wanted to see were the "kids." Everett just wanted to play with the Legos. We will probably have to post a couple of entries to give you all a sense for how cool our trip to Legoland was. Here is the first installment.

This is the boat ride where you can shoot Lego guys and other people.
Everett could actually make it work!

There is Everett and Mommy on a Legoland jungle safari!

Here are the boys about 10 minutes after their arrival in Legoland. Liam was so excited to see Bob. He kept trying to take the tools and facial parts off, though. Thank goodness for superglue!

OK, this was awesome! Everett was controlling one of the street cars in this miniature scale model of Berlin. He could have stayed here ALL DAY! He didn't even want to go on any rides! He just wanted to see all the cool stuff in the cities.

The entrance gates! When Everett and Liam saw this, they were so excited!