Toothless performer

Despite having two parents who would rather spend their evenings at home quietly reading our Em loves to go out and loooooves to perform.  Tuesday night was the first grade musical performance, with songs from several different countries.  It was so much fun to watch her throw herself into her performance.  And, the snow which started on Tuesday night continued through the morning which resulted in our first snow day of the school year.  The second snow day was Thursday.  At this rate we'll be in school straight through the summer! 

Because we had nothing better to do with our money

Before

After

shoe thief

"Hey, have you seen my boots. . . Oh.  ?"   

Look  how teensy tiny her little toothpick legs look in my boots!

Christmas festival at Burg Lichtenburg

On the watchtower steps

Ritters camp (knight's camp)

 Christmas festivals are found all over Germany from the weekend of Thanksgiving until Christmas.  There are lots of shops, hand-made item and lots of yummy food to try.  Generally speaking, we don't shop a whole lot, but we do eat plenty.

Waiting for the Baumkuchen to cook

Certifying that the Baumkuchen is safe to eat

eating our way through the castle.

This midieval-themed market is held on the grounds of Burg Lichtenburg on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It is one of our favorite places to visit, with a museum full of fossils and one full of musical instruments, and a gigantic xylophone outside the natural history museum to bang on.  Unfortunately the ground below the museums was completely soggy and muddy so we didn't stay to watch the knights slip around in the mud.  Fun day anyway!

Trier

The Porta Nigra, a Roman city gate

We ventured out to Trier with the intent of visiting the Christmas market, which we did, but we found much more to look at and enjoy in the Roman ruins around the city.  Plus the Karl Marx house, which was covered in scaffolding. 

We conducted exhaustive testing of the acoustical qualities of the ampitheatre.  Also, my kids were wondering why they haven't ever seen a gladiator fight.  Bloodthirsty little tykes.

Thanks

For new dishes (pretty colors and wildly mis-matched, just like us) and that most of the new goblets survived their first outing at our table. 

Giving thanks

And for little 'me, too!'

For toothless grins. 

Lee, during the 'facts of life' talk

That's impossible!  Wouldn't you have to be in, like a DEATHLY embrace?

Reason to love fall

Garmisch-Partinkirchen

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Fall colors on the Linderhof grounds

Riding the tram to the top of the Zugspittze

in the Linderhof grounds

 Grandma and Grandpa came to spend a week with us.  After warning them that the weather this time of year is usually cool, windy and rainy we ended up with a week full of sunshine and the prettiest Autumn weather we've seen.  Even the gas station guy in Garmisch told them we were in Garmisch for the best 3 days of the entire summer.  We visited Rothenburg, took the cogwheel train to the top of Germany (the Zugspittze), tried leber knodel, and wandered the grounds of the Linderhof.  We intended to drive the romantic road out of Garmisch, but the fog came down to the valley and stayed there all day.  Bavaria is a truly lovely place to visit, and I'm very grateful we've been able to spend so much time there.  I love seeing the fields of grazing cows, sheep and goats while hearing their bells.  And, while the kids would rather spend all their time in the hotel pool, I have hopes that they will remember some of the other parts of their trips here. 

Lovely valley colors

Speaking of which. . .

Never in a million years

Our last morning in Garmisch Mom, Dad, and I parked at the Olympic stadium and took a walk along the river.  We were all shocked by the ski jump--it's height, and steepness simply do not transfer to the television screen.  Most of the morning the top of the jump was obscured by clouds, and this shot was taken from some distance away so the scale is all off.  Even the landing zone is practically vertical.  Seriously, ski jumpers have to be some sort of insane to even attempt that jump. 

Mom:  It DOES NOT look that steep on TV

The closest any of us will get to trying ski jumping

Mom and Dad's week in Germany turned out the be the nicest weather we've had in months.  Mom would turn to me and tell me (sarcastically) how much the rain was getting her down.  We had sunshine for the ENTIRE week, until their last morning when we had fog and frost on the fields.  Since they left to go back to sunny CA we've had clouds and rain, which is much more typical for this time of year.  We're so glad we got to have a fun visit with the gross mutter and gross vater!

Vier Frauen

Uploading this picture of us girls in our dirndls kind of startled me.  Look how tall D is! 

The agony of defeat

Me first!

I live my life in a state of constant competition.  Or, so it seems were you to listen in to the near-constant chatter from my 3-year-old.   Cries of:  "I win!", "I beat ya", or "I run a fifty miles!" provide the background noise I am accustomed to tuning out.  All my boys are relatively competitive, but No seems to take this to it's ridiculous extreme; it matters not if we are strolling along the bike path or getting a drink from the faucet, he is always the fastest, first and the winner.   It is amusing because he is so young, and so clearly deluded, but hopefully as we teach him to value being kind and compassionate over being first he will grow out (or learn to pretend he has grown out of) his first instinct to declare his supremacy over all. 

At least that's what I keep telling myself. 

Rub a dub

Our friend, Misao, had his Eagle project this month.   Downtown is a garden where are located large dinosaur sculptures.  They've been there since 2002 and have never had a bath, so we took brushes, buckets and enthusiastic preschoolers to give the dinos a bath.  

The gartenschau had a fall exhibit with the theme of "Noah's Ark"
There were cute squash animal sculptures all over

some of us had more fun than others

This guy only got washed up to his knees

One of the favorite tasks was to get water
out of the creek.  We didn't have a lot of
buckets, so water bottles were pressed into service

Summer

Our summer has been lots of fun.  Now that it is nearly officially over I figured I should sum up:

The boy is my more-or-less constant companion.  He wants to be right in the middle of everything, especially if it involves the use of machines.  

and finished a quilt top on her own

Deanna learned to sew

No embraced his 'tough guy' side

We visited the castle at Bad Durkheim and the kids played in the 'goblet of fire'  Not any fire, just an abundance of kids.  

Krazy King Ludwig's Kastles

Our last big trip of the summer was to Bavaria and the last of King Ludwig's castles.  We saw Neuschwanstein, which Ludwig built, never finished, and lived in for only a few days before he was deposed and died under mysterious circumstances.  It is famously the basis for Disney's sleeping beauty castle.  It was huge.  Also, Ludwig was a great friend of Wagner and wrote the composer lengthy letters about the throne room and banqueting hall based on Wagner's operas.  He and Wagner also shared a disdain for Ludwig's parents, one letter tells how glad Ludwig will be to live in Neuschwanstein, where he will no longer share the 'polluted air' where his mother lives in the valley bottom.  Issues, eh?  

My favorite was the Linderhof, where the gardens were marvelous and the little 'huts' all over the grounds are fascinating.  My kids' favorite part of the trip, however, was the swimming pool at our hotel in Garmisch.  So much for getting them a little historical edumacation.  

The Alps

Linderhof fountain

The Linderhof--only castle Ludwig completed and lived in
It was his retreat from 'real life' in Munich.
Modeled after Versailles

Hohenschwangau  (swan castle) where Ludwig grew up

out of the mouths

Emma, this morning, as she prepared for school:   "Mommy, do you just sleep all day while we're at school?"

Rothenburg

Still one of my favorite places.

Versailles, 17 July

Is it wrong of me to not love such a cultural touchstone?  Let's just say that the huge crowds and the French disdain for efficiency combine in this place to make it rather less than pleasant to tour. 

Charlemagne.  They're not impressed

gold gates.  sparkly!

Halls of fancy furnishings, expensive paintings, fabulous tapestry, amid the hordes of people who stop right in front of you to listen to the audio tour.  Sadly, the famous hall of mirrors is dingy and many of the mirrors have been vandalized.  It was reminiscent of our Loire trip where the stairwells of the fabulous chateaux were defaced with graffiti.   We ended up skipping the one part I really wanted to see--the gardens, because we were fed up with the whole experience. 

Mont St-Michel, 16 July

Mt St-Michel

The abbey built at the top of the hill was once only reachable at low tide.  Nowadays, however, the modern causeway allows access day and night and for ample tourist parking.  I want to come back in the slow season to stay here and watch the tide come in. 

Look!  Deanna is nearly smiling!

Omaha Beach, 15 July

Mine Eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord