Eight Is Great!

On August 17th McColley turned eight! He started the day by opening all of his birthday presents:

McColley was good about showing all his new cool stuff to his brothers and even begrudgingly shared his presents with them:

We let McColley choose what to do for his big day and he decided on a trip to the Staatliches Museum Für Naturkunde Stuttgart (The Natural History Museum). We started out at Museum am Löwentor:

Museum am Löwentor is the 'primeval' section of the museum and McColley really wanted to check out dinosaurs. We accidentally scared Pearson... didn't realize he was T-Rex snack height!

McColley was VERY excited that the museum included sea monster displays - they are his favorite prehistoric animals:

We took a quick break to color in some dinosaur drawings:

Then before we left we meandered through the temporary 'Horns' exhibit and tried on some horns of our own:

Then we walked fifteen minutes to the other half of the museum - Schloss Rosenstein:

Schloss Rosenstein houses the biological exhibit of today's animals:

Outside the museum is a lovely English-style garden... or course we had to wander around!

We ate dinner at home and then McColley finally got to blow out his candle!

Our New Home

We arrived in Stuttgart on the 4th of July. For the next 24 days our home was a hotel:

The boys did their very best to make it as home-like as possible:

Then on July 28th we completed our home inspection and moved into a house full of loaner furniture... the cats weren't quite sure what to make of all this strangeness:

We now live on the second floor of our building (our apartment is highlighted in blue). We do have two parking spots but they are not next to each other:

Our household goods were delivered on July 6th. The boys were VERY excited to see all their things again and there was a quick game of dress up as things came off the truck:

Our community has seven parks but the boys have two favorites. Pearson loves the Goldmine Park which features a train-themed climbing area:

All the boys love the large sandbox and water play area:

We spend most of our time at the Red and Yellow Park because it is right out our front door (and it is the most 'happening' park):

We are all enjoying our new home and community!