Luke's First Week of Kindergarten!

This weekend was so busy with the Bernkastle-Keus wine fest on Saturday and the Fun Forest on Sunday. We looked forward to a relaxing Monday (Labor Day) and an exciting Tuesday. On Monday we took the boys to the B/X for lunch and to see the movie Cars 2...for the 3rd time. It just came out here over the weekend and the kids wanted to see it...again. After our movie we picked up a few last minute things for Luke because he was starting school Tuesday! Monday night the boys got baths, their teeth brushed, and they were in bed around 9. I stayed up to make chicken salad, because that is what Luke wanted for lunch tomorrow. I didn't get much sleep Monday night, I was so excited, like it was MY first day of school. 6:45 came and I got up and made wildberry muffins for Luke. At 7 Micah went in to wake Luke up. Micah had to lay in his bed and scratch his back while he complained at how it was too early to get up.

Luke: I can't get my eyes to stay open dad.
Micah: Keep trying.
Luke: My body is not built for early mornings.
Micah: Hmmm.

After Luke finally got up I gave him his clothes to get dressed and he finally made it to the kitchen for breakfast.
Tucker had no problem getting up and eating muffins.
Luke had already finished off one muffin and was posing with this one for the picture. While Luke ate I fixed his lunch while he gave me specific instructions on what he wanted. Chicken salad, crackers, carrots & grapes, and jello. Oh yeah, and two chocolate chip cookies. After he finished his muffins he set off to the bathroom to brush his teeth while I got Tucker ready and Micah got ready to walk him to school.
Micah wasn't happy that his little boy was off to school.
Here he is ready for his first day.
It wasn't nearly as cold as Tucker made it out to be.
Luke speed walking to get there.
Micah was able to catch up with him and give him some last words of wisdom before his first day.
Luke waiting for the doors to the cafeteria to open. The doors open at 8 am and the kids go to their assigned lunch table, each class has one. At 8:10 the bell rings and the teachers take the kids to their rooms.
Luke got his name tag.
One more hug before we had to say goodbye.
Luke getting instructions before going into the cafeteria.
On the way home Tucker threw himself to the ground and yelled, "I can't take it any more. I can't walk!" Really? Micah volunteered to carry him the rest of the way home. We live 7 minutes from the school.
This is where Micah picked him up. See the second pattio on the right? That is where we live. He just couldn't make it that far.
This is Luke's stairwell. We got there about 15 minutes early so Tucker could play. School gets out at 2:40.
There he is about to come out.

There's my big boy!

Walking home. The only information Luke would give me about his first day of school was that he liked his lunch. So here at Ramstein Elementary all the kids start school a week ago except for the kinder kids. Half of them started on Tuesday, which is when Luke started. The second half started on Wednesday. Luke got Wednesday off. I think that is a little silly, but hey, whatever works. Tuesday night I got a call from my girlfriend Summer who wanted to know if the boys and I would like to do lunch on Wednesday. Sumer has two kids too. Joselyn who is 5 and also started on Tuesday and Rylan who is 3. Of course we wanted to get together for lunch. Sumer and I both had Dr. appointments on Tuesday in the early am, so we planned to meet around 11. She gave me a call before we were supposed to meet to see if we would rather see a movie. She told me that Cars 2 was out and wondered if the boys would like to see it. Really? Again? So we saw Car 2 for the 4th time.
Thursday morning and my little man was ready for day two.
A hug goodbye for dad.
Here he is ready to go. I walked Luke to school alone today. Tucker didn't want to go, so Micah stayed. After I dropped Luke off I was staying for the boo hoo kindergarten breakfast. The principal called it the WOO HOO breakfast. It was really nice of the PTA to put it on so parents could meet.

I came home to see Micah and Tucker back asleep on the couch. I woke them up to get ready because we had another lunch date at 11. My dear friend Brittany Humphry's brother and his girlfriend Mariel had been in Israel on vacation and were also spending a week in Germany before heading home. Since they were only an hour away we decided it would be fun to do lunch. It was so nice seeing them. We had schnitzel at a restaurant called Paradox. Afterward we took them for spaghetti eis at Dolomiti's.

When we were finished it was time to pickup Luke. Luke was much more talkative about his second day of school.

Luke: Some of the kids were mean to me today.
Me: Really?
Luke: Well, not all the kids. Just the girls.
Me: Why?
Luke: Well, not all the girls. Just one.
Me: Why?
Luke: Something about drooling boys and girls rule or something.
Me: sigh. Did she say girls rule and boys drool?
Luke: Yeah. Can I say boys rock and girls suck?
Me: (surprised) No. Actually Luke that's not a very nice work and you really shouldn't say it at school.
Luke: Oh, okay. Can I say boys rule and girls drool?
Me: Yeah, you can say that.

We got home and I told Luke to get changed because he had to go to karate. He gets out of school at 2:40 and karate is at 3:30. He informed me that he wanted me to take him out of karate. I am not taking him out of karate! He didn't want to leave his toys, he just got home! Then I dropped the big bomb on Luke.

Me: Grab a change of clothes, I have football practice after karate. (That's right. I play powder puff for Micah's squadron.)
Luke: NO!!!
Me: Joselyn will be there. (Summer also plays football.)
Luke: She will?! Okay. I'll go.

Does someone have a crush?? We got home around 7, finally. The boys got baths, brushed their teeth, I cleaned their ears, trimmed their nails, read a book, said a prayer, and off to bed they went.

Friday was about the same as far as how the morning went. Micah took Luke and picked him up today. Micah told Luke he couldn't play the Wii until he told us ALL about his day. This is what we learned. He had a fire drill and learned to play hop scotch. He at all his lunch and played on the playground. And, a girl in his class likes him. Apparently every time Luke looks at her she giggles. He knows she likes him. But, it's NOT his girlfriend. Oh how I love Fridays. Here's to the weekend!

Fun Forest

The Fun Forest has to be one of the coolest places we have been since visiting Germany. We almost didn't make it, we didn't get home and in bed from Bernkastle-Keus until after midnight, and everyone met at the shoppette at 9 am Sunday morning. Well we drug ourselves out of bed and woke our poor children up and made it to the shoppette in time to go. I am so glad we did because we had an amazing time with the same group of people we attended the wine fest with the day before. Micah works in the 721st AMXS and until last month has worked the flightline. The group of people he works with are amazing! They get together a lot outside of work and have all become good friends and like family to us. Rachel Martin, who is leaving Germany next spring, planning this trip to the Fun Forest. The Fun Forest is 8 obstacle courses that are in the trees. You are required to wear a harness, helmet and gloves, take a quick class on safety, and complete a "beginners" course before you are allowed to go to the obstacle course. Once you have done all of this you are on your own. Tucker was too young to do the kids course, which stunk, but Luke was able to. Luke was actually 1 month too young, so we may have told a small fib on his information paperwork so that he could participate.
Here are Rachel and I after getting our harnesses. Although we did take lots of pics not all of them were really good, and my internet is running a little slow. I tried to put the best pics together to try and show how cool these courses were.
This is our group getting some instruction before taking to the "beginners" obstacle course. I did not get pics of this because Micah and I did it together. Luke had to go with Aidan, a friend of ours little boy, to get his instruction on the kids course. The guy talking to us took Tucker over to two trees where he hung a hammock and pushed Tuck in it while Micah and I completed the beginners course.
And, of course, every time I go through pictures on our camera there is a self photo of Micah.
Micah and I had to take turns watching Tuck so the other of us could do some obstacles. Here I am on the number 1 course.
This isn't a great picture, but the course is up there in the trees if you can make it out.
Here is Luke after he got his harness on and was getting ready for his instruction.
This is the kids course.
A friend of ours, Krystal, who is Aidan's mom, is VERY pregnant and was not able to do the obstacles. She was super sweet and kept an eye on Luke while he mastered job of hooking and unhooking and rehooking (I know it's a lot of hooking) his harness straps to the cables. Once he got the hang of it there was NO getting him off the kids obstacle course. We had to bed him to take a break and come eat and get a drink.
This is him going through a net section with Krystal watching.
Here he is going across floating blocks of wood. This was so incredible, if you look closely you can see two red cords hooked above him to the wire. He had to hook himself and rehook himself every time he finished a part of the obstacle course while leaving one hook always attached. It was so impressive to watch him do this every time without ever messing up. It was also incredible to watch him go through these obstacles with such each and balance, I know he has a harness and he can't "really" fall, but his NEVER did! On a side note Tucker got really bored of watching and getting to do nothing. And, if you know Tucker, you know that if you take your eyes off him for 2 seconds he's gone and you can't find him. Well I made that mistake at the tent while eating and by the time I found him he was exactly where Luke is standing doing this obstacle course with NO harness! This may not seem like a big deal, but the area where Luke is in the picture is about 5 feet off the ground and those blocks are just hooked by cords and move every time you move. I could not believe how well Tuck was doing and I really wished he could have done it too.
This is Luke switching the hooks to go on to the next obstacle.
Here Luke is crossing the net section again.
Here is he climbing to the top.
He is going through that tunnel.
And now down the rock wall.
Across the moving platform, which is about 4 inches wide.
About the only thing Tuck could do was grab hold of the zip line, pick his feet up and swing. He thought this was so cool! A few times he let go with one hand to throw "webs" because he thought he was Spiderman.
Here Luke is harnessing himself to the zip line. This was by far his favorite part.
Here he goes!
Here is Tucker playing in the hammock.
Okay, so some of the older, but young kids, quit the obstacle course due to pure exhaustion. when this happened the place was pretty busy and the few workers were forced to pay attention to groups in need of their assistance. Luke begged and begged, so we took one of the younger kids harness and put it on Luke and took him over to the adult side. Now the reason he couldn't do the adult side is not because he was incapable, but because he was too short to reach most of the wires. So, we took him the the "beginners" course, which was NOT difficult, but a very short practice course. The same one me and Micah had to do before we were allowed to do the real thing. Pics to come in a minute.
Here is our family of climbers.
I know I told you there would be pics of Luke, but here are some of Micah. Do you see that platform? The one way up in the trees? That is where Micah is. He is getting ready to do the zip line across the lake. It was so awesome to do!
There he goes!
If you see that little white speck, that is Micah. It was one of the coolest things ever, once you get past the difficulty of jumping off the platform, of course. :)
This was our spread. There were about 25 of us and Rachel and Jhared brought brats and hamburgers and grilled out for everyone. The rest of us brought sides and we had a great lunch.
Tucker really enjoyed hanging out with the guys. Here he is bouncing Dustin on the ropes.
Here Dustin is doing Tucker push-ups.

Here are the pics of Luke on the adult practice course. The group behind him is getting instruction on what to do. Doesn't he look like a pro?
He finished the first section and smiled with confidence.
Here is is going across again with Micah in the background following.
Luke was able to stand on strategically placed blocks to hook himself to different cords. I couldn't believe he understood how to do this, the adult hooks were much more complicated and had to be locked and unlocked every time you moved one.
At the end of the practice course there was a zip line. It wasn't as big as the one going over the lake, but it was much larger than the kid one. Another side note, Micah came back across the lake using the zip line. After making it back there is a small obstacle and two other zip lines to get you to the bottom. When he made it to the last zip line the platform was about 10 feet off the ground. Bill Metz, one of the men in our group, lifted Luke up to the platform where Micah was and he got to do a huge zip line. He was so excited. And we are so lucky we did not get caught!