~Summer Is Over & Life Is Busy in Germany~

~Our little Coley Smoley on his first day of school. He insisted on wearing his "Bull Shirt" that we got for him in Barcelona. Does this look like a kid that is excited to be a Stallion at Patch Elementary School? He is loving school so far. I think if you will ask him.. his favorite subject is P.E. and his favorite school activity is trading Pokemon cards on the bus - that's my boy~
~Cole is in the "Multi-Age" program at his school. His teacher is Ms. Suhr and his class consists of Kindergarten, First & Second grade students. It is a new approach to learning that values the ability to work independently and to work at your appropriate level. They do most of their learning from teaching & helping their peers in their class - so far so good~
~What we love most about the multi-age program is that it is a lot of "hands - on" learning. The kids learned about many countries by preparing for an Olympics day. They divided 5 multi-age classes into different countries where they had to learn about this country and then make signs and name tags to represent what they learned~

~Cole was on Team Brazil! They came in 2nd place as a team and worked very well together- the most impressive thing for Steve & I was that we got to watch Cole run 2 miles during the Olympics - he even got 3rd place!

It looks like we have a little runner on our hands - he loves it!~

~For the Labor Day 4 day weekend - we made it to our local bowling alley. We love it here - it is a fun time for the whole family!~

~Cole is currently playing Fall soccer and he is on the Cheetah team! He is learning so much this year with 2 day a week practices and a game on Saturdays. If you ask him he will tell you that "I am the best goalie on the team." How is that for confidence?~

~September was very cold here - so we had to bundle up to try to stay warm. Kade can hardly wait for the chance to play sports also. He has been so patient... the joys of being the youngest! He is great about cheering Cole on and giving him high fives~

~Who's this tough guy? He has been chosen as the "Cheetah Team Goalie" - he loves it and really is good at it - let's just say I have to work hard to get all of the mud stains out of his uniform from diving & blocking the balls from the goal~

~Steve is very excited to have Garrett here. He is a new dentist at the clinic. We are having a great time with the Wood family, and we will have many more adventures with them in the next couple of years~

~We wanted to do something outside because it was a beautiful, fall day. We decided that German Putt - Putt golf would be fun. Once we got past all of the rules and the owners stopped wanting to chase us off the course.. we had a really good time.~

~In this little German village we found a water wheel right next to the mini golf course - we are loving it here. The boys are happy they have 4 new friends to play with~

~We are back to being just the two of us during the day. Kade is the best little guy to hang around with. We have fun going to playgroups, shopping, watching movies and playing together. I am loving this time we have together.~

~Cole was the "star" in his first play. This is a play about Greece & King Midas - Cole was a servant and had a couple of lines. This was definitely a fun way to learn about these subjects. He did very good.~

~This is Cole's first homework project and he had a really good time with it. His is the one with "2002" on it. I wanted to note that the freckly face drawing to the left is of Uncle Jesse. Jesse he thought you were important enough to put on his timeline (when you were born) I love the way he drew you. This was a way for the kids to learn about AD & BC. We had to do 20 years "BC" (Before Cole) & 20 years "AC" (After Cole)~