Atkin Family

Swimming 6/5/2011

We came home from church today and Max asked Elise if she wanted to play in the swimming pool her. They couldn't resist the beautiful weather. They both absolutely loved it until it finally got to cloudy and cold to stay in any longer.

Elise being just like Max and jumping in. She is a little fish. She really liked to jump in an make the water splash every where.

Max jumping in and Elise cheering him on.

By this time Max was getting a little cold but if he was asked as he is standing there shivering he would say that he wasn't cold, that he was getting warmer. He was not about to get out if Elise was still going to play and I don't think Elise even felt the cold. We finally had to convince her that it was time to get out for the day.

Blutritt 6/3/2011

Weingarten has a big procession every year the day after Ascesion where they take a sacred relic around town. The whole procession is horses and musical bands. It brings about 3000 riders every year. Elise loves seeing horses so we decided to go watch the horses. The whole parade lasts for about 6 hours but we went for about an hour to an hour and a half. Elise loved watching the horses and when there was a break so that the cars could go through the line Elise would look and then point to more horses across the intersection and yell "More" so we all knew that there were more horses coming.

These two reminded us of Spencer's parents Clydesdale team Forest and Finly. There markings are very close even if they are a little bulkier.

Fun with our family

Elise loves playing with her friends, Passcal and Max. I don't think they care what they do they just like to play anything and everything together. We didn't stage this picture they all just copied each other.

Elise with her unique outfits. I was trying to put things away and for some reason she thought her swimming diapers should go on her legs (at one point they were on both legs) and was trying to put her sandals on that are too small.

Elise just couldn't handle the work load:) Actually she couldn't keep herself awake any longer unlike the other night when I told her it was time to go to bed and she pointed to herself and said "No, Elise, Awake, no sleep, Elise, Play, toys." In case you didn't understand her broken sentences she was definitely not ready for bed and it should be quite obvious to me that she still "needed" to play.

Elise loves playing with her daddy. She can turn anything into a game including chasing daddy around with an empty laundry basket.

Elise sometimes wakes up and cries if Spencer has already gone to class. So I started telling her that Daddy had to go to class but that he would come home and he would play with her. So now Elise will say "Daddy, Class, Bus, Daddy, Home, Play, Elise." Well one morning she was awake before he needed to go and when he started getting ready to leave she asked for the key, went and put it in the door and informed Spencer that she had locked the door and that he couldn't go to class and that he had to stay home and play with Elise. Needless to say Spencer was tempted to sluff today.

I think I let the dough raise to long:) Just kidding it had only had about the amount of time it needed and I have made the recipe before but for some reason it raised a little higher this time. Elise thought it was so cool that the dough was coming over the top of the bowl.

Elise loves puddles. Every time it rains she wants her boots and then will just walk back and forth splashing in the puddles.

We tried to wake Elise up Sunday morning and she opened her eyes looked at us and pulled the blanket back over her head. Apparently she wasn't quite awake yet.

Elise's new style. I think maybe she got her style from both of her Grandpas. At least we will blame them.

She thought her style was soooo cute.

We went on about a 4 km walk around the neighboring towns in a different direction than we had walked before. It was a cloudy day and was perfect for a nice walk around. That is one really fun thing about living somewhere instead of just visiting, you are able to see an area more in depth than you ever could just touring around. I know we don't live in a huge area but Spencer and I love just seeing the everyday things there is to see around us.

Elise and her baby doll that she plays with at church. She loves finding the baby doll every week.

She is such a good little helper with most everything.This was her idea and she did a pretty good job cleaning up under her chair. Although she is not always so helpful. I was making bread the other day and Elise was helping me measure things and pour them in. Although I stepped away for two seconds and I turn around to see Elise pouring more salt onto a spoon and dumping it into our bowl. Luckily it wasn't very much because there was no way to take it back out.

Elise is too big. I can get her hair in pig tails now but she looks so big. We also found out that Elise is a creative escape artist. She can't quite reach the handle on the door (which you just have to pull down to open) but she was very determined to get out the other day and so she pulled the car seat over to climb up on. I wanted to see what she would do so I quietly waited. She very quietly opened the door, slipped out and then closed the door behind her. I don't know if I would have heard her if I hadn't seen her get the car seat. Now we have to watch the door a lot closer or lock it from the inside so we don't lose our little one.

Elise helping me learn German. She has to do whatever we do but it is very cute.

Elise decided we needed hats on but I think we need to switch:)

Elise has discovered clothespins. She loves to put them on everything, her fingers, toes, ears, shoes or mom and dad's ears.

Elise doing morning exercises with us. She loves to do what we do.

Mai Baum (May Tree)

So in Germany they do something called the Mai Baum. It is the biggest part of an old tradition that is still celebrated. All the towns put one up so each city has one like this first picture. Also a guy will put up a simpler May tree in front of the house of the girl he likes, like in the second picture. We should have taken pictures sooner but honestly didn't think about it until the end of Mai but here are the two of the May trees we saw.

Bike ride to Rohr 5/21/2011

So today we decided to take a bike ride somewhere. We did some looking and there was supposed to be a small lake about 16 kms away so we decided to try it. It was up hill a lot of the way and we almost decided not to go that far but it is hard for us to give something up so we kept going and finally made it. It was a very pretty ride and we made the ride home in about half the time. I think all together we were gone about 2-2.5 hours.

Elise loves riding the bikes.

Elise decided Mom's helmet was better than hers.

Eating our snack of cookies and apples that we brought with us.

Going on Vacation- Down the driveway 5/17-5/24

So we knew when we came that there would be one week in May that we would have to move out for a week. They had already promised the apartment to someone else. So at first we were going to stay with the Schmids but then Melanie and Martin offered so we decided to stay with them. So we moved down the driveway for one week. We are so blessed to have such great friends. Elise really loved being able to play with Max more and staying at their house.