Whoops!

Sometimes when I take a really long break from blogging, I feel kind of embarrassed to come back, like it's only illuminating what a bad job I've done in the past months. Oh well.

My last post was in May. Since then Dylan parents went back home and James turned 5. (how did that happen!!) In July we had some surprise visitors who were friends of a friend. They stayed with us for a few days and made fast friends with James and David. That was fun. James and David also had their kindergarten Olympics, where their kindergarten competed again other kindergartens in our town in various "sports" like soccer, wheelbarrow racing, and tug-of-war. James played on the soccer team for his school, and they got 2nd place out of 4 in the tournament. Dylan and I both found it comical that James was more upset about losing, than the fact that he didn't get a chance to play at all in the second game!

In August the kids started their summer vacation from kindergarten. The kindergarten takes 3 weeks off plus 2 weeks which are optional. Most parents keep their kids out the whole time since the older kids are out for 6 corresponding weeks, but James and David went for part of the week last week, and there were still several kids there. This week the boys are back at home, and next week they'll officially start the 2014-2015 school year. James will be a "vorschulkind" this year, which is similar in substance to kindergarten in the US, but different in that they are still in the same class with 3 and 4 year olds (at our kindergarten, not at all of them), and still in the same place they've been the last two years. Kids start elementary school at 6 years old with grade 1.

Our weather hasn't been very nice recently, so we've spent a lot of time at home. I've been pretty bad about taking photos, and writing things down for the blog. As we enter our last three months here(!) I'll try to do a little better. Here are some photos!

James is about in the center running around the field in a red and white shirt. This is at the run-through for the olympics. I guess I didn't get any pictures on the actual day.

James and David modeling their new T-shirts from Nana and Granpa.

Daddy's birthday presents, they wrapped them themselves.

We've been going on a lot of "nature walks" when it's not raining and I get tired of being cooped up inside. For some reason James felt he needed to bring a sword on this particular day.