Part 3 Friends from Germany visit!!

We were so excited to have our friends from Germany come and visit us for three weeks, late August to September. We hadn't seen them for 7 years, the last time being when we went to Germany with a 4 yr old Hannah and a 9mth old Lauren. A lot had changed since then. I was hoping that the visit would go well for everyone, especially them, we're kinda used to our gang of four. It was wonderful, like we just picked up where we had left off.

Just a little background. We met Stefan and Silke out west almost 14 years ago. Ken and I were taking a vacation out west (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah) and met them at a bed and breakfast along the way. They had a similar itinerary planned so we traveled together, staying at the same hotel or bed and breakfast. Exchanging information and parting ways at the end. Not knowing that we had just started a wonderful, long lasting, cross Atlantic friendship. We have been to see them and they have been here to visit us. We look forward to many more visits.

Since we haven't been in Virginia long, we explored lots of the many neat things around us with them. It was really fun to see all that there is to do here in the Shenandoah Valley. The next several post will be about our time with our friends.

They arrived at the beginning of apple season, so we went to a farm north of us and picked the first apples of the season. We also found out that the farm still had peach trees and raspberries to pick. All of it was tasty, but for me the peaches were just incredible. The farm we went to had a little general store where you could buy all types of apple products, syrups, fruit jams etc. They had some bakery items and we tried apple doughnuts which were quite yummy. They also had a playground so the kids could run around while we enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

the old farm house

the orchards

off to go pick

Aaron had fun picking too, though not always the best apples, he really liked the over ripe ones on the ground

I think Caleb might have thought the apple was a strange ball, he had fun but wasn't quite sure what to do with the apple, but the dirt, no problem, just dig

yummy raspberries

We found out that Caleb really likes raspberries, it was really evident at the end of the day by his red spotted clothes

The peaches were a huge hit, sweet and juicy, with great flavor!

Cleaning up at an old well pump

A great picture of our friends ~ kind with just a bit of silly.

Fun on the playground, and a bit of physics with weight distribution. Good thing Hannah has long legs

Whats better than a good roll down a nice grassy hill. Aaron got inspired and just started rolling, guess it looked too irresistable.

Enjoying apple doughnuts on the front porch of the general store.

Our take home loot. We enjoyed it all. I made a traditional American apple pie, a first for our friends. They really liked it, I ended up making another one. They shared a raspberry sauce recipe that they eat over ice cream, tasty too. A nice drive, great views, lots of yummy fruit and good memories.

Part 2 NC visitors

Well my speady attempt to catch up was thwarted by my spending almost 4 days in bed with strep throat. So lets try this again. We were very excited to have our friends from NC visit us, just after our visit there. It made for a nice long extended visit. Great for us, since we've been used to seeing each other daily. Anyway, just some fun pictures around the house. We celebrated Lauren's birthday while they were here and visited a nearby cavern. Mostly we just played, visited and enjoyed our friends.




Grand Caverns in Weyers Cave, about 15 minutes from us

Becca and Hannah making a mammoth marble run.

Isaiah blowing bubbles to the delight of Eliana. We all enjoyed time out on the deck, with bubbles, playdough and the water table.

Well just because I really liked this picture, he happens to be eating a favorite snack, veggie straws.

Thought it would be fun to show a picture of the front yard with the newly laid sod. The house looks much different with a lawn of green instead of brown.

Catching up Part 1 Surprise Party

Well buckle up, we're going on a fast paced ride through the life of the Couch's the past month and a half. Seeing if I can catch up and then go back to the regular scheduled posting. I'm breaking it down into smaller posts so it's not so hard to follow.

We went to NC in early August and were there on Hannah's birthday and just before Lauren's birthday. I had shared with my friends that I wasn't sure how we were going to celebrate because here we really had no one to invite to a party. So I had planned on taking the girls to a paint your own pottery place and invite some of their friends along. My sweet friends had other plans....... While the kids and I were visiting Aaron's former occupational therapists, my friends decorated the Nelsen house with an Olympic Theme birthday, complete with streamers, signs, balloons, decorated tables, a cookout style lunch and a beautiful cake, themed games and a pinata!!! To say we were surprised is a huge understatement. I think it took us a moment to figure out what was going on when we walked in the door. It was a wonderful and very thoughtful surprise. My sweet girls were just thrilled to see all their friends and the party was just icing on the cake : ). I was speechless and so touched, though not surprised that I have such terrific friends.

I should share that the party had been planned for Monday night, but at the last minute we changed our arrival plans to make sure Aaron wasn't sick. When I called my sweet friend to let her know, she didn,t let on at all that I had just thrown a huge monkey wrench into her plans. So everything had to be rearranged!







The cake is decorated with flags that say "Happy Birthday" in each of the languages of the countries represented at the Olympics. Do I have creative friends or what?

The lost Olympic game of the blanket toss. Lots of fun.

Discus throwing

Caleb had a blast with this sombrero, guess he was representing the country of Mexico

Aaron just had a blast with all the activities and people. He probably enjoyed the cake and ice cream the best.

Intently painting pottery.

August is also Leslie and my birthdays. Last year I took us to have a pedicure. My first one ever. This year a sweet friend treated us to one together, so we could spend some time with each other. It was wonderfully sweet and pampering. I'm the one with the fancy neon green shoes!

Mega Post

Well, I started this post two weeks ago. It's been so busy, now I'm even further behind!! So here is a quick run down of recent happenings since the last post. We've had 1- sprained ankle, wierd rash, case of strep throat, infected tick bite 2- spider bites, fun weekend visitors, trips to NC 3- rounds of antibiotics, birthdays (all us girls) 4- trips to the doctor 5 - more weeks of horseback riding lessons 6 - weeks since we "officially" tried to start back to school 7 - pallets of sod. Okay, that's as far as my creativity can take me. Here are some pictures of us just doing everyday stuff.



Well he's just cute and oh so busy.

My nature loving girl. She was so thrilled when this butterfly just flew up and landed on her. He stayed for the longest time, even flew off and came back to rest in her hand. Our yard is full of a variety of butterflies and we've enjoyed watching them.

Our school curriculum has a cookbook with meals to go with each of the books we do. Lauren loves this, as did Hannah, especially when she can make it into a restaurant. We had some friends over to be "customers". She had a blast being, waitress and chef.

We ended up with a large deck off of our "walkout" basement, which ended up being about 10 feet off the ground. Wasn't sure what we we're going to use it for, and now it's one of our favorite places. The sand and water table has been a huge hit. We also do bubbles, playdough, and plasma car riding. We can also watch the birds, gophers and deer from this spot. Despite Ken's best efforts, grass just won't grow on dirt that's like cement and lots of rocks. So the backyard hasn't been that comfortable to play on, well unless you're a prickly weed or poison ivy. So this deck has been great.








The grass wasn't much better in the front yard, as you can see by the weeds that Aaron is playing in. We opted to sod this with some grass that Ken found that he really likes, a summer zoysia if you're interested. Anyway, it needs to be planted in the summer, so lots of dirt spreading and sod laying later and we have a nice front yard. Aaron really enjoyed the giant mounds of dirt to play in. Perfect for his trucks.

Caleb is turning into quite the tool baby. He loves to help Ken with projects, his favorite being the power drill. Here he's working on his own project.

Some pictures of Caleb working on attempting to feed himself. He's very interested in doing this, though frequently gets distracted by the fun of it all and forgets to actually get the food to his mouth. He also usually ends up forging his spoon and just using his hands. This time he ended up with an after dinner bath !

Helping out in the kitchen. He loves my pots and pans and has figured out that the shelf rolls out, which he then loves to sit on.

Caleb really likes to snack, especially on Veggie Straws and pretzel sticks. He is so funny because he always likes to have several in each hand and then alternates bites from each.


Sometimes you just gotta sleep. He fell asleep while eating. Also a great shot of his curly hair that likes to stand up on top.

Well you're still not caught up. We've also had a fun surprise party thrown by our NC friends for Hannah and Lauren, a visit from our NC friends and now visiting friends from Germany and many site seeing trips with them. We have an upcoming trip to the beach, my brother's wedding
and starting our participation in a homeschool co-op.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some fun pictures soon