May Day

Every year Tim gets to enjoy a holiday on the day after his Birthday! May Day its called. It is a spring festival that takes place in Germany and other European countries to celebrate the onset of May. A tree is cut down, its lower branches lopped off, and then the top of the tree is decorated with ribbons. The tree is erected in the town square and stays there for approximately one month.


Local fountains(there's at least one in every town) are decorated with ribbons and flowers as part of the celebration.

Why moms join facebook

Tim and I have been doing some major housecleaning as we prepare for a move this summer. In the midst of loads of sorting yesterday, I found these pictures and couldn't resist posting them on facebook, much to Luke and Tyler's delight!
....old buddies, Travis Smid, Luke, Tyler, taking a break from playing Superman!

Luke's 10th(?) Birthday with friends Billy, Reid, David, Tyler

Happy Birthday Tim

Today Tim is celebrating his 50th Birthday! I say "celebrating" because it keeps on happening! Its 10 pm and as I write this, someone is at the door delivering some Birthday cards to him! He has also been getting phone calls from the U.S. tonight with well wishes!

I baked a cake to take to school and also ordered a Schwarzwaldkirschtorte(Black Forest cake) from our local baker which was delivered to school this morning. Herr Niehues has baked for many occasions at BFA and is well known and loved in our community.

This cake has a story.....Herr Niehues made a similar cake early this morning with "Happy Birthday, Tim" written on top. He wanted to make it extra special for Tim because it was his 50th! However, on his way to deliver it to our school, he had to brake suddenly and well....you know the rest of the story. Tim's Birthday cake "went everywhere" and made a very big mess in his van! He quickly went back to his bakery and whipped together another cake in probably 10 minutes(he claims he can put together a Black Forest cake in 1.5 minutes!) So this is cake # 2 which was also very beautiful and tasted delicious!
The baker and the Director.

Tim received over 70 Birthday cards!!

....and 50 notes from BFA students!

....along with a nice letter from AARP(American Assoc. of Retired Persons)!
It's been a good day!

Istanbul from a bus

These pictures were taken on our way to the airport to catch our flight back home to Germany. Istanbul is Europe's most populated city and has the world's 4th largest city proper - thats how huge it is! And it is the only city in the world that is situated on 2 continents - Europe and Asia!

The Grand Bazaar - Istanbul, Turkey

Tim and I are in Turkey where we have been attending an ACSI Administrator's conference. Yesterday we visited the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, one of the largest covered markets in the world.....58 streets and 4,000 shops! Sensory overload is what it was! Truly a fascinating(and very crowded) place!


Sea of humanity!

The Grand Bazaar continued........

Glass lanterns for sale

Shopping for 6 girls in my small group at BFA

At every stall/shop you have to bargain in order to bring down the price. This Turkish shop owner came down to half price for some silk scarves that I purchased. They cost approximately $3.50 each.

A sea of color everywhere you look - absolutely stunning!

The Blue Mosque, built in the 16th century.....probably the most famous landmark in Istanbul

Hagia Sophia - originally constructed between 532 and 537 A.D.

Our new little friend, Moriah, from Kuwait

"Luke" by Luke

Luke drew this self portrait two years ago during his junior year in high school. It won a Gold Key award at a Scholastic competition in Ohio and then it traveled to NYC where it was entered in a national competition

Another artist in residence

So I guess there are four artists in our family! This is a self portrait that Tyler recently produced in his Art class. He has a wonderful teacher(a Taylor 2007 grad!) who is encouraging Tyler in developing his hidden talent!

My dormant hobby

One of my hobbies is making large banners, but I haven't made one for a long time! These are two of the banners that I made for Black Forest Academy. They depict the themes for two different school years.