It's About Time…...

……that I update the blog.  Summer break has come and gone.  I can't believe Hannah started 2nd grade this week.  She is getting so big and independent.  I love the age she is at, but I also miss the "little girl".  Pretty soon she will be driving and going off to College.  Time please slow down just a little bit.  Evan and Nora both start twice weekly Mothers Day Out next week.  Hannah said that I will have all this time to just sit and relax.  I wish, my to do list is already a mile long (maybe on the first day I will actually crawl in bed and watch a movie…..we will see).
We started our summer break with a trip to Germany.  The entire family spent 3 weeks in Cologne.  It is always so good to visit my old stomping grounds.  After 2 weeks Scott gets antsy and is ready to return home, but the longer I am there the more comfortable I am and I am ready to stay for a while.

We enjoy being out and about and explored Cologne and its surroundings some more.  Of course we had to do our annual trip up the Dom cathedral (it is a tradition now).  Evan walked up almost the entire 533 steps and of course Nora wanted to walk too.  She did great for a long time, but she really slowed us down, so we carried her part of the way.  Hannah is a rockstar and walks it up all by herself (not that we could carry her anymore anyways).

Quick stop at the bell tower

We made it to the top

This is what a typical family picture looks like

This is as good as it gets

The obligatory selfie :)

And the selfie photo bomb

The girls

Oh that cheese face

The many faces of our kids

After climbing the cathedral we worked up an appetite for some ice cream

And then Nora decided to chase pigeons…..I remember Evan doing this last year in London

Evan was just running around and made a new friend.  He went up to her and held her hand:)

We took another field trip to Schloss Stolzenfels.  It was a bit chilly and rainy that day.  And note to self……don't take our kids on an hour long tour of a castle where they have to be quiet and can't touch anything.  Not quite there yet!

Pretty walk up to the castle

I had to draw a treasure map for Evan.  He followed it up to the castle:)

It was a beautiful view

The gardens were gorgeous

Quick pitstop for some lunch after our tour

We also took an excursion up to "Drachenfels".  I have great childhood memories of going up here.

Lots of climbing and a great view of the Rhine

Oh the silly faces

One last field trip to the gondola across the Rhine river.  I don't remember the last time I have done this.

You can only for 4 people in each gondola, so we had to take two.

The view of the cathedral never gets old to me.

Ich liebe meine Stadt :)

We played on the playground across the river.  Look at this cool slide.

Oh and we only got one picture during our annual trip to the costume store.  The Clubine's are ready for Halloween again!  We love buying costumes in Germany, there is almost a guarantee that nobody else in Northwest Arkansas will have the same costume.

We also took our annual trip to Phantasialand.  Fun was had by all.



They had all of these cool spiderman, lion or other boy face paint choices, but Evan wanted a butterfly just like his older sister.


Enjoying some rides, hula hoop jumping and balloon animal sword fights



I think we rode these frogs 10 times in a row while we waited on the bigger kids to finish a ride

We also celebrated my brothers wedding, but that will be an entire post on its own next time (hopefully soon and not in 3 months).