Matthews Family Herald

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" from Joshua 24:15

Here in Germany, there are places called Tierparks or, Animal Parks which are like mini-zoos and they are free to enter and to see all the animals. They way that it seems they are able to fund the place is through the restaurant and concessions stand within them. Additionally, a pony ride can be purchased for the children, which appears to be immensely popular.

Our family met with a few other homeschooling/home fellow-shipping families at this Tierpark and we all enjoyed having our kids ride ponies. It rained really hard just as the last of our children were able to finish their rides and so we were thankful to God that He held off the rain long enough for us to finish.











Both images are of Hannah enjoying her ride.










Here's sweet Eddy Deree on her ride. Children her age had to have their parents walk alongside them so I was happy to have that chance to see her enjoying the pony ride.









Here's Nathan riding in his newly acquired Ephesians 6 Armor of God costume, minus the helmut.









Here's a good shot of all the kids together outside the Tierpark entrance.

(AS ALWAYS, CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM ENLARGED.)













Through a youth program here in our area Micah was able to become a certified Level 1 Scuba diver. Here's a picture of Micah suiting up with his assigned diving partner.













Here's a shot of Micah in "full battle rattle."













This Tom Cruise is ready to dive! We are extremely proud of him. Since the course, he's had a chance to go diving again "on his own dime." It costs about 25 Euro to rent the equipment for the day so it's not too bad.



With Eden's birthday gifts finally in we were able to celebrate her birthday with her own Strawberry Shortcake party. While I was in town, Heather and Hannah worked hard decorating the house with red and white paper ribbons hanging all around. I was able to pick up some ballerina movies, ice cream, strawberry juice packs, and lots of pizzas.

The images below show Hannah posing with Eden and her cake. Eden opens her gift bag and pulls out her gifts, Strawberry Shortcake theme dolls. She'd already opened her Shortcake DVD episodes
















Our Well, our Daughter and her husband (our son now too!) just gave birth to our first Grandson! William James was born sometime last night! Many thanks to God and congratulations to them. The kids have not stopped calling me "Old Grandpa" and referring to me as "Grandpa, can I" do this or that. They are having a blast at my expense!

They also like to tease Hannah by saying "Aunt Hannah" really fast, which sounds like "Antenna."

They love making Eden yell too by continuing to tell her "You are an Aunt now" and knowing she thinks they mean an "Ant" now. "No, I'm not!!" She yells.

The fun has already started and I haven't even gotten to hold William James yet...
















This is of Hannah while out a lake trip we (the family) took with a friend of mine from work.
















Nathan's white teeth...












Eden following her shirt's instructions...










Get back in the house, Eden!












This strange ride was a Pirate Ship park on the Heidelberg University Hospital campus that the kids have long wanted to visit.









This display at the Pirate Park was trying to suggest that ape people learned to make music on stones propped up like these and that they must have pounded them to make sound. silly but fun to play with.









Hannah and Eden here with two of their friends who came by to visit.









This was our 4th of July with Mom's famous cake









Micah at work on his latest spray-paint masterpiece. He made some cool stuff.









Eden and my co-worker's friend playing in the sand together at the lake trip I mentioned at first.

This past year we have traded out all our old movies for only Godly and biblical valued based ones. I have purchased a collection of bible story cartoons- that really aren’t so bad- seem to be pretty accurate with ok production and graphics as well.

Eden’s favorite ones are Samson and Delilah, and David and Goliath. She often plays pretend about these two. The other day, when I had told her something to do that she didn’t want to do, and then had to scold her, she wrinkled up her nose, narrowed her eyes, and snarled at me in her most fierce manner, and whispered, ”You Philistine!” Later, when she was upset with a few of her siblings, she waved her arm at them and said, “You’re all Philistines!”

Last week, we went to the PX and bought Dad a basket ball goal for Father’S Day and had to have an employee load it out in the car for us. This employee’s name happened to be David. All that day, Eden kept asking about David, where’s David? And on and on. I thought it a little odd and strange that she would have this strange fascination for the PX employee, but didn’t make the connection until the next day when she was pretending to be Princess Michal (pronounced "McCow") and declared that she was gonna marry David at the PX! (Strangely, the young man there at the PX does look a lot like the cartoon character on the DVD.)

Just a little proof of how media influences kids

(Post composed by Mom)

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