"The Sentence Game"

My first attempt to play this game via Facebook was a rather drawn-out one--I started this story about a month ago and finally finished it today. In that time four other friends contributed by seeing only the last three words of what was most recently written and adding a bit of their own. The contributors are Me, Rey, Marion, Amy, and Nat. It's a random yet somehow entertaining story!

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a man with his 3 pigs. There came a time when he had to kill one because he was really, really hungry. The man was sad because that pig has been his best friend for years. And when the pig found out what the man intended to do, it ran away from the famous "Blue Wonder"-bridge crossing the majestic "ELBE"-river in beautiful DRESDEN (Germany), but, under the willow tree sat a small gnome who... had a hairy beard. In it lived a small gnome with a hairy beard himself, although noone would know it since he was always hidden. And that is the story of how he got into America.

Now how Amy and I ended up both writing about a gnome...go figure! We must have lived together in Germany or something...

Lakeside

We spent some down time at a lake this past weekend--here are my two favorite shots. Caitlin is really growing and discovering more everyday, it's sometimes surreal to realize we get to witness it so closely. She is such a joy to us!

480...

...diapers! There was a great sale!

And Caitlin's already started diligantly studying....

....her feet. She can't get enough of them and is pretty disappointed everytime she has to wear socks. Cute!

Weird, Strange, and Bizzare

This summer my Yahoo weather widget has looked like this a few times--talk about crazy weather! Who knew there could be sun AND lightening simultaneously?! Man, I learn something new everyday. I'd recommend this widget simply for its educational value!

A Sunny Sunday

We had a great time with friends Nadine, Christian and Mirja on Sunday! We rollerbladed in a huge park in the middle of Dresden, called the Großer Garten ("large park"). Whoever named it wasn't kidding--from one end to the other it's practically two kilometers! Mirja and Caitlin were content to be whisked along in their strollers and we took a couple breaks and watched the two of them interact--how funny! I had to add these other two Caitlin faces too--they're not of her happiest moments but I find them super cute nonetheless. She's started "complaining" nore to us--instead of flat out crying when she's tired, bored, hungry, etc, she now makes these faces and the little sounds that come out are more like whines or complaints. It's funny! And check out her tooth...it's getting big too!

Good Times

This past weekend was the annual City Festival of Dresden, which means rerouted trams, lots of yummy food, interesting entertainment, and throngs of people EVERYWHERE. We decided to brave the mobs Saturday night to support our friend Marion in a fashion show she was participating in. She modeled two outfits--one, typical Gothic with a huge, tall pointy hat, and one, renaissance servant. We also met up with some other church friends and Caitlin did super well in the baby carrier... she even managed to take a nap for a few minutes despite all the surrounding ruckus and activity. We have so many wonderful memories of this festival from past years with good friends and it's sad to think this was our last year to partake. It's too bad that good things do eventually come to an end...

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect €200...

Grady and I went head to head the other night as we busted out our new Dresden Monopoly game. It was a fun two hours, although I unfortunately had to finally throw my hands up in defeat! Then I took this picture of the end state of affairs...it was pretty sad. We had started by just dealing out all the properties so that the game would go faster and by the time we called it quits Grady had pretty much swept up all of them, not to mention having hotels on practically every single one...I was dishing out upwards of €700 each time I'd unluckily land on one-! When we called it quits I couldn't even mortgage my last two pitiful properties to add up to enough money to pay Grady what I owed him. But in my defense it didn't help that I somehow landed in jail at least four times out of my first six times around the board and missed out on all that "Passing Go" money. And then Grady landed on Free Parking twice, that lucky duck! All in all it was a nice evening spent together and great reassurance that Grady's the money manager in our family!

Quarter of a Year Old

Here are the three month portraits we had done of Caitlin, for your viewing pleasure!

Showering the Baby

At the beginning of June our friend Bri put on a wonderful double baby shower for Caitlin and me and the then-still-pregnant Kristi, who has since given birth to her cutie son Noah. It was a really nice afternoon with ladies even coming all the way from Chemnitz! We played fun games, ate a delicious brunch and even opened a few presents amongst the beautiful purple and green-themed decorations. It was a great time together, although Caitlin slept through the whole thing!

the then six-week-old Caitlin

Rolling Along the Countryside

Last weekend we took advantage of the sunny weather by going on our first "family" bike trip. We borrowed a child trailer from friends, strapped Caitlin's carseat into it, strapped Caitlin into the carseat, lathered her up with sunscreen, put a hat on her, and we were off! Albeit a bit of a bumpy ride for our little three-and-a-half month old, she ended up sleeping for a good chunk of the 10km ride out to Pillnitz where we finally stopped for a break. We took the ferry across the river and walked a bit around the beautiful, diverse gardens of the castle before taking the more adventurous (and even MORE bumpy...oops) bike path back into Dresden. The picture is from a stop we made about 20 minutes from home and as you can see Caitlin is still in good spirits! She had a bit of dirt on her after our whole excursion but a bath (her newest favorite thing) remedied that--I'd say we'll definitely plan for more bike trips in the future!

A Day in the Park

Mirja was born 15 minutes after Caitlin!Caitlin and her buds had a great time in the Grosser Garten on Wednesday! They laid out on the blanket and just enjoyed the beautiful day.

so many babies

Marcus was born one week after Caitlin

Helena was born within 10 minutes of Marcus...in the same hospital!

how are German babies different from English ones? watch below to find out!

Joy

I just LOVE that smile!

Those Good Looks

So where does Caitlin get her dashingly cute good looks from? You be the judge! Here's all of us at 3 months...

Allison (left), Grady (right)

Toothy Grin

That's right folks! The first tooth has made its appearance! (it's barely visible, but it's there!) She's been a bit fussier than normal and I've been trying to cuddle her whenever I get the chance. Poor girl! She hasn't had much time to enjoy life before the *joys* of teething-!
Does it seem like this "milestone" came super quickly to anyone else? Man, time's a flyin'.