Late Summer and Dressing Up

So I confess, I love the outdoors and I love a good opportunity to dress up (nothing suss). Add carrying a lantern to this and I am a happy camper. Luckily I have managed to produce 3 kids who think dressing up is hilarious and we always manage to drag Herr F into the fun too. (Note: Over the last couple of years I have dragged many a friend along on my love of dress ups and theme parties as well.) So with the weather playing along and giving us the most beautiful 3 weeks to end summer we got out of the house lots and joined in festivities to celebrate the end of the summer and the beginning of autumn.

The outdoors trifecta;

perfect warm, but not sweaty weather, 

bike tour 

picnic in the (magic European green) forest.

We bought the yearly pass to the windmill this time and so far we have been three times so it has already paid for itself. We have asked the bee man the same questions over and over again. The kids  raced back and forth to the bakehouse until we had bought the last of the braided rolls without sultanas, it was late in the day so we didn't really buy that many and there were 6 kids.

We watched and learnt about the Dulmerwildpferde- the wild horses from Dulmer. I think this picture says it all. The mouse is fascinated by horses at the moment and I am very happy to relive my childhood love along with her. That said, my facilitation of the horse dream will never extend to buying one so, like me she is getting used to the idea early that she to will always have the disappointment yet financial benefit of never owning her own horse.

For the record the Wild horses are actually wild and a few are caught each year and tamed.

These little people of mine always amaze me. There was a story time during one of our visits and the lady was wandering around reminding kids to come along to listen, so we did, wondering how long the kids would last listening to fairy tales in German. Fortunately a decision was made to change the venue from the smokehouse to the old home as not even I can stand the smell in the smoke house and no ambience was lost.

The treasure chest was opened, an object was selected, the bell rang and the story began. Herr F and I realised how beautiful and relaxing it is to be read to and nearly fell asleep sitting on the table. Three stories later and the Mouse started poking the Bear so when the majority of people left Herr F took her for a walk but the Bear and the Monkey wanted to stay. After each story I asked if they wanted to go but they were very keen to stay. So with just 5 kids the storyteller continued and after another three stories when the treasure chest was empty the Bear and the Monkey walk very contently outside and started recounting their favourite story in English. I am so jealous of those little brains.

We do sometimes travel further afield...

The windmill is just around the corner from our house but a few weekends ago we decided to have a train adventure. We visited the Roman museum in a nearby town as it was the big weekend were they set up all the tents and stalls. I always forget how far the Roman Empire reached and the impact. The Bear has been planning a toga party for the past year and loves all things historical (wonder where he gets that from Herr F?) so even with a 1.5km walk from train to museum there wasn't a lot of complaining from the longer legged family members. The one with with shortest legs complained the entire way, but it was worth it. We dressed up, built a roman house with friends we met there, wrote on gold wish papers, heard the water organ and the horns, made the windmill game and pressed our own Roman coins

The brown purse was made by the Monkey and  has the windmill game stones inside it.

Now she wants to ride a horse in a toga!

He's always happy to join in, especially when slaves dress him.

We rounded off the summer with the Lambertusspiel. Lanterns and singing in circles, not just once but twice, once at the kids school and once with the Kindergarten. I loved it! Most of the kids loved it and Herr F politely watched on. Though, if you have heard me sing you would feel really sorry for the people on either side of me. 

The second time around we got the hang of the words better and the Monkey was thrilled to be taken as the farmers wife (de Kirmis-Frau) in the platt German song whose words are still a mystery except for "pottlekker" which is pot licker and was shouted around the house lots by the kids the next time we baked a cake.

She desperately wanted to wear the farmers basket and apparently there is a photo at kindergarten of this. She woke everyone up for the next week by singing "Der Bur der kommt" and pretending she was wearing clogs. We live on the first floor and our landlord lives below; bet he loved that week.

The German version of "There's a hole in my Bucket" is called "Dumme Liese" and it is poor Liese that is asking all the questions to Heinrich  as opposed to the English version where it is Henry who asks constant questions as he is lazy and trying to get out of work. These feet don't belong to us but the father who played the Bauer- de Bur-the farmer at the kindergarten Lambertusspiel. 

Just had to get a clog photo.

Back to School

The holidays couldn't last forever,something I think we were all grateful for. As much as we love spending time together, the grocery store isn't always the best place to let democracy reign. Armed with the list of school supplies and a good friend to help us through the maze of lined, unlined and graph books we headed en masse to the big shop to make sure we could get everything under one roof.

This photo was taken quite early in the piece. Everyone was being very 'helpful' wanting to make sure I got everything on their list, even if they didn't have a list (ie the Mouse). As the next two hours past it got a bit chaotic because you have to make sure it is A4 or A5 and if it is portrait or landscape layout. LUCKILY I am a massive fan of stationery and enjoy the attention to detail. Still I was pushed when it came to the crayons and mistranslated water soluble for non water soluble...yes another trip was needed to return and replace but I did that one alone. As the hours ticked by the Mouse was the first to wander to the picture books which were very helpfully located in the same aisle. The Bear was the next to peel away and find a magazine so that left the Monkey and I to try and work out if buying a fountain pen was really necessary. The answer is yes but last year's colours were much cheaper.

Luckily there is still time on the weekend for playground fun. What started as a quick 10 minute pause on the way home from the library turned into nearly 2 hours of rollercoaster sickness on this little piece of equipment.

Fun for everyone that is...

especially when you find the right balance.

As school finishes ridiculously early, sometimes for the Monkey at 11:30am there is a bit of time for box fun. I tell you these kids love boxes and are now looking to build the box car a petrol station and snacks stall.  They get homework everyday and it takes us a bit longer than the average family but we are all learning together. I did have to put in an emergency call to Herr F to buy a junior dictionary as our very tiny English/German dictionary that is falling apart wasn't really helpful.

Buses, Trains, Aeroplanes and a CAMPERVAN!

In the last couple of weeks of the Germany summer holidays when the weather was really lovely, we, yet again, packed up the kids and headed off on a 9 day 'holiday'. I say holiday in inverted commas as our 'holidays' always seem to involve a lot of schlepping, walking and waiting. All, of course for an amazing adventure but never to just lay in the sun and read a book. So all packed and ready, up at 5:30am off we go  for one of the sunniest countries in the world... Ireland.

Bus, train then plane and finally we land in Ireland. The poor Mouse didn't understand the Leprechaun joke the passport control chap made and really thought she might not be allowed into Ireland. It didn't help that I had dressed her in green.With many reassurance that she was allowed to continue with us we headed out wondering if the cousins would recognise us and us them as it had been nearly 7 years since we last saw each other. Turns out they were thinking the same thing and that we had nothing to worry about as the family resemblance is strong. We were pretty confused as we were lead by the Irish part of the family past the airport car park and through the industrial area. So being a good mother I asked what the deal was. As it turned out the surprise was we got picked up in their mobile home. So we all piled in and took the long way back to their house. 

The long way was brilliant, (thank you hatted driver) and it really was a long way to Tipperary. We saw little towns, even smaller laneways where we all breathed in, and a playground for the kids as we stopped for lunch. We won't mention the dinner stop, suffice to say it did have a lovely pond in the drive and as we watched the trucks filled with cattle pull in we didn't tell the kids it wasn't a farm. I can't complain as 

all my children tried out the 'facilities' in the campervan and I sent a couple of the last hours of the drive with my head on the most amazing pillow in the world warding off a headache.

 The highlight of the day apart from finding a service station when we had been driving on E for half an hour, and the point of the long drive home was Jerpoint Abbey. The family has an ancestral link to this area and the Abbey ruin is the focal point. The weather was amazing, the treasure hunt for the kids really got us looking around and the tour by an amazing guide filled in all the details. Basically we all made ourselves really at home in the couple of hours we were they and explored every nook and cranny.

  By the end of the day kids who were too shy to talk to each other at the beginning were planning who would sleep where and what games could be played and what the dog was called...Jack of course.

 In the next week, castles and 1000 AD villages galore were visited,

Lakes were explored and attempts at skimming stones were made, 

Storybook images came to life...Enid Blyton's "Caravan Family" of course.

The Shannon was sailed upon,

and many a fantastic meal was prepared and share. Millions of thanks to the Irish crew.

With bags and sunny weather all packed and ready, tearful goodbyes were said (I can always get others to cry along with me) we boarded the bus to Dublin and took the quick flight to London.  

Luckily for the kids it is really difficult to find a family hostel in the high season in London so we actually forked out decent money and managed to get a really lovely apartment near Kings Cross. Energy levels restored by a short nights' rest the walking got shifted into high gear. The waiting got left out as we decided that a good overview of the city by foot and Tube was preferable to waiting in line to go in.   

Luckily we managed to visit London on the weekend they shut down the major roads for a cycle race so we got to explore Big Ben, Westminister Abbey and Buckingham Palace without traffic buzzing by (yet another reason to praise the humble bicycle)

Trying to pass on my fascination with the Tube onto the kids. Mostly it worked, except when they had to stand up.

As per request from the Bear we visited the Olympic Stadium. Herr F and I were skeptical but it was a worthwhile trip to see a really wonderful public space...until the Monkey fell over and took a sizable amount of skin off her hand, knee and hip so with clouds gathering and many more things to see we headed back to central London.

I love the juxtaposition of the old Helter Skelter slide with the new Orbital viewing tower. 

London isn't London without a lion photo!

A fantastic installation artwork at the Tower of London. Ceramic poppies are being installed and it will be finished for Remembrance Day in November.

Sometimes you just have to say yes. They all wanted to go to Legoland so much and after much deliberating we decided on the one in Windsor whilst we were there. To give up one of our 4 days in London to go to a theme park was a parental stretch but as the kids repeated over and over again "Everything was AWESOME" at least if you were under 10 so it was really worth the day.

I suppose we owed them some real kid activity after they came with us to our highlight the "British Museum". It was the one thing we were willing to line up for but some how, probably due to pouring rain and possibly using the exit not the entrance gate (by accident) we walked straight in. I have never been there in high summer period before so was a bit shocked at the amount of people but we had our list of things to see and our very own historian to give the tour.

Two out of three really interested isn't bad. Or maybe she is really, really interested, can't quite tell.

We have just finished reading the first two Harry Potter books with the Bear and the Monkey so a final stop at Platform 9 3/4 was essential. The fact we had walked past it everyday and said the line was too long meant it was make or break on the last morning so an early morning walk to the station just for the photo was in order and surprise, surprise there was no line. Just the way we like it.

Notice the Mouse was the only one to pose with Voldemort's wand.

Just enough  time left to grab lunch...

and make that much needed phone call to the Mouse's best friends...

  

before we caught the train all the way from London back to Germany to rest our feet and switch our brains back into German before school starts.