Palm Pool Party

Here are the girls in the Palmgarten "POOL".

For the Palmgarten Dorm Senior Tribute, the juniors decided to have a pool party.

Up, Up, Up they go to the grassy knoll behind our dorm.

And there stood a lovely water park. There was a slip and slide with a lovely array of items at the end" mushy strawberries, maple syrup, and chocolate sauce.

The end result was pretty impressive.

We also had a pool! The girls loved it and they made sure everyone, including me, got into the pool.

The cool seniors just chill out while they wait for the games to begin.

We played the Ninja Game. One girl starts with her hands straight up and her neighbors chop her and then she sends her ninja powers to another girl.

Here I am sending the Ninja powers across the circle.

"S" the self proclaimed diva stole my camera!

Then we had tributes of videos and songs. It was a fun and emotional night. To end the event Luke, the dorm dad, busted out in the song from the movie "Newsies" called "Santa Fe." It was amazing.

Senior Tea Party

All of the senior girls were able to invite a significant woman/mother to the Senior Tea with them to celebrate their graduation. Here I am with "K", I was her significant woman. What an honor.

Here is Katey with her mom Eileen. They are Palmgarten dorm subs and have made a huge impact with the girls in our dorm.

Here is Stephanie, the dorm Mom, with her daughter "J". They are matching! How cute it that.

Here is Sandee Shuman and her small group, most of them are Palm girls. Sandee and her husband are also dorm subs at Palmgarten.

"K" and I are sort of matching...but not quite as much as the dorm mom and her daughter.

Look at theses beautiful super models!!!

"K" was wearing her really awesome black and white heals...and they were killing her feel so she got "R" to carry her! Note the heals "R" is wearing.

On the ride home "K" though it would be a good idea to EAT my rose...no joke...she bite it!

As you can see by her face...it was not so tasty! Crazy Crazy Girl!

Here are all of the Palmgarten seniors and the staff ladies. What a wonderful group! I will miss these ladies next year.

Lizzy's European Style Bridal Shower

On Friday many of our girls were gone at a track meet or at soccer finals or a few girls were spending the night at friends houses and the dorm parents were off...so we were down to 9 total people!! We decided to take a van to Basel and some of the girls decided to give Lizzy an European Bridal Shower.
Lizzy is getting married to Brandon, an RA at a guys dorm. Their wedding date is July 9, 2010/

The girls love the city life of Basel. Many of them are from huge cities like Seoul, Korea or Paris, France, so they are at home in the small city of Basel, Switzerland.

The girls made Lizzy sing "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. It is a song about Romeo and Juliet.

The girls also helped her sing by the fountain. We had a few admirers....

We then went to the Muster, the biggest church in the city. The girls found that if you whisper on one side of the door you could hear it on the other side...very fun.

All of the lovey Palm ladies in their very stylish clothes!

The Muster is next to the Rhein River. It was a beautiful evening.

Here they are again. These girls live in Sweden, the Middle East, Paris, London, Turkey, Spain, France.

We ended our evening at Starbucks! Yumm! I asked some "Loaded Questions" and we all laughed a lot.

Saturday Night

Some of the girls asked me if they could come to my room and watch a movie.  No problem...I love hosting the girls in my room.  Only to find out that they love me for my comfortable bed and cool Echo Ranch blanket...HELLO!!! Where is the LOVE? After a funny movie we just sat around and talked and talked and talked...then they accused ME of keeping them from their homework.  I finally had to kick them out of my room at 10:30pm to do their homework....am I a good RA or what?  Oh and at one point there were 5 girls on my single bed that is actually smaller than an American single!!!  Tight squeeze, but they love it!

HOT LUNCH!!

HOT LUNCH!!! These two words make dorm students go CRAZY with JOY!! What Hot Lunch actually is, is when the dorm staff brings a home made meal to school for the students to eat instead of their packed sandwiches. They love us when we bring this.

Today we had breakfast for lunch. Stephanie with whipping up 2 dorm pans of Apple Pancakes!!! Yummy!

I am working on the bacon and the sausage! These Palm girls love their breakfast meats!!!

Steph checks the Apple Pancakes...they are almost ready!

Luke, the dorm dad, is very excited for this meal!!!

After we make the food, we load up the vans and drive to school to feed our hungry girls.

The students are still in chapel, which is right outside of the cafeteria. Stephanie and I lay out the food! Isn't it a nice spread?

Chapel is over and the girls descend upon the food. Girls who don't eat to much on a normal meal will pack down HUGE amounts of food on Hot Lunch.

The food is good and the girls are happy!

See they love their breakfast meats. Notice "K" in the blue shirt holding a sausage...

Here she is again, holding a sausage...it is almost like we never feed them...but we do! It was a sucessful HOT LUNCH!

Dorm Mom LOVE!!!

Thursday was a German holiday, so we did not have school. It was a lazy day that started with watching the movie Avatar. In the afternoon I captured most of the girls giving Steph, the dorm mom, a GIANT HUG!!! Now that is love!

A Rippling Brook

Kandern is a quaint German village with a covered bridge in the center of town. It is actually right behind the Rathaus (Town Hall) and leads to the Blumenplots (the center of town).

This past weekend was my weekend off and I stayed in Kandern at Jen, my small group leader's house. I caught these serene shots on my walk to Jen's from church. Just imagine the church bells ringing in the background and you have the full experience.

Junior-Senior Banquet

The Junior-Senior Banquet is a rite of passage for the Seniors. It is the goodbye party that the Junior class prepares for the Senior Class. The Juniors of each dorm prepare a tribute for the Seniors. It is an exciting time and the mark of the beginning of the end of the 2009-2010 school year.
Here are half of my graduating seniors as they walk up to the restaurant where they will meet their dates. They are all such beautiful girls. It makes me sad that they won't be here next year.
My sister RAs and I wait for the students to come inside. Our role is the role of the parent...to capture all of the wonderful moments of JSB.









Above are the Palm girls and their dates. Many are putting on the corsages or boutonnieres. It was a wonderful night to remember. The Juniors made an awesome video tribute for the Seniors.