The Snow Band

We got the reduced (too good to pass up) version of Wii Guitar Hero. So now, we are all practicing for our up and coming gigs! We should be visible in the near future.

Not to worry, we will only be preforming from the living room. Here are a few candids of us getting ready for the house tour!

Bouncy balls

Compliments of the Lowe family, the kids have had a blast with the bouncy balls. They even took every pillow in the house to make a soft obstacle course. Here are a few candids.

Here is even a short clip of them in action! (it starts out sideways but eventually goes normally.)

Final launch

They did a few launches, Joe's rocket did well. Anastasia's did well, too, but the parachute melted on upon re-entry. Oops.

Rocket test

Tom took the kids to the big football field to test the rockets. Joe and Anastasia had fun, but got muddy and cold and wanted to come back. There was however, a successful launch!

K'nex roller coaster

Here is Joe with the project from Uncle Jon. He needed tech support from Daddy and Dr. Floyd. He had a great time assemblying this and testing it out. Joe claims that it will remain in the diningroom for quite a while. Just not certain where we will be eating....

(I am unable to change the film so that you do not have to tilt you head sideways. Evidently, I need some tech support, too. :))

Lego Assembly

Joe was beside himself after getting the Lego Star Wars Set. He had a great time putting it together. Anastasia received her first pink set and had fun buliding her house.

Budding Artist and Video boy

Here we are assembling the art easle. Anastasia was thrilled with this and has all of her supplies together for all of her art projects.

Joe was excited with his new Bakugan Wii game. He even let others play in the 4 player mode.

Nerf Gun test round

As all of the new Nerf guns were tested, boxes had to be stacked to protect the innocent. Joe and Anastasia tested both big and small. We had one small one that came with the Wii Nerf, one new weapon for each child, and even the big kid--Tom got one for Christmas.

All of a sudden we were in the middle of a battle zone.

But everyone had a good time.

Christmas 2009

We had a very nice Christmas. The kids were so excited by what Santa brought for them. They assembled most of the day- Lego star wars ships, Lego houses, art easels, and Kinex race car tracks. They had to take some eating breaks and Nerf gun war intermissions. They Ribes joined us as they just got into the UK and we had a great celebration.

Note: Anastasia changed her clothes with each new outfit unwrapped.

Return trip

We dressed for dinner our last evening there. We drove back the next morning and really had a relaxing time. Here is Joe attempting to recycle on our way back to the Munich airport.

Drive into Austria

As we were headed to the castles, we drove through Austria. We were pretty excited that the EU did away with borders since we were not carrying our passports. We had fun and the mountain pass was incredible. We rented a BMW X5 which was certainly the vehicle of choice.

We stopped at the Christmas market and walked around town, we had a great trip.

Bavarian Castles

We visited Linderhoff castle, had a semi private tour with us, the guide and two Germans. Joe liked the room with mirrors that looked like it went on forever and Anastasia's favorite was the pink room. We drove onto Neuschwanstein and his Hohenschwangau, but the kids wimped out on the 20- 40 minute hike. Here are some pics.