Fall Fun and Activities

We have had a good fall so far!! Ivy and I got started early on fall decoration crafts and decorated the house pretty early this year.  We made a fall tree, 4 pumpkin men, and some little pumpkins for the window sill.  Ivy loves doing crafts so she enjoyed making these very much! Actually the pumpkin men came from her idea.  She wanted to paint her butt again this year and sit on paper and so we did!! Hey if she wants to it and enjoys it why not.  Here are our crafts and how they are around the house. 

When You come  up the stairs to our door this is what you see!!  Ivy glued all the pieces on the pumpkin.

 

Then you enter in the house and in the foyer we have a fall tree we made.

 

 Ivy posing for you in front of the tree drinking her water!!  It would have been better if she put down her cup.

The rest of the pumpkin men we placed around the house on doors.  She likes them and chose their spots I think it looks very cute and fall festive!!

Hanging on the door to the living area

 Hanging on the sliding glass door to the patio. 

 Hanging on the door to her room.

Finally she made some pumpkins from painting her palms and she decorated them and we placed them on the window sill with my fall leaves.  I think it looks just right!!

Now of course Halloween is over but we did have our own Halloween fun.  I noticed a lot of people letting their younger children paint the pumpkins.  I thought what a clever idea since they are to young to carve.  So Ivy enjoyed painting her pumpkin as she loves to paint. Then I drew a face on it to carve using my fingers.

She is my little artist!!  She has such a creative Gene, I love it!!

We celebrated Halloween a week early since they had a Halloween In the DFG, which is a nice big park/ gardens.  We started off the morning with pumpkin pancakes ( recipe soon to come on my recipe page which I will get back to updating) then we carved her pumpkin.  Kevin cut the top off and Ivy cleaned out the pumpkin. 

Then I carved it.  This allowed us to light the pumpkin from Sunday to Friday and enjoy it all week.  Saturday November 1st it went straight to the trash as it was starting to get a little rot on the inside.

Later that afternoon we went to the Halloween in the DFG.  Grandmommy had given Ivy a ladybug costume this summer so Ivy wanted to go as a ladybug.  The costume has a hood on it but Ivy just doesn't like it since it's too big.  She wouldn't even let me get a picture of her.  So I took a headband that Olivia gave Ivy this summer and added some antennas on them and viola we have a complete ladybug .

 

  At the Gardens they had various activities for the children.    As you can see, Ivy loved the hay fight!! I hope you are all having a great fall and a great week.  I will be back soon with some more things to share!!  Take care!!

Dachau in the News

Well, this is just a quick post.  I was going to add this to my Oktoberfest blog but ,didn't think those of you who have already read it , would go back and read it again so I thought I would go ahead and do a quick post here.  I don't know if you remember this picture from the blog?

 

"Arbeit Macht Frei"

 or

"Work Sets You Free"

 

Well, the entire gate with that saying has been stolen!!!!  The guards noticed it first thing Sunday morning.  Now this is  a 75 by 37 inch gate made out of iron.  You have to get over an even larger fence before you get to this one.  How in the world did this happen??  You wonder who took such a thing, how no one noticed, and what is the reason behind it?  Was it someone who had family kept in the camp??  If I hear any further updates on this I will share. For now here is the link to the article.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/02/dachau-gate-stolen_n_6090396.html

 

 

Ok in 48 hours if not sooner there will be and Ivy post! Until then enjoy this little piece of news!!!



Oktoberfest

Well, I am sorry I have taken a very long break from blogging.  I am back and I will do my best to keep posting a few times a week as I have lots to share.  For those of you that do not know, we went to Oktoberfest in Munich September 20-24. 

We booked very last minute, 10 days before literally!!  We were blessed to get a room at the Park Inn.  It was not centered down town nor was it in walking distance to the festivities but it was a great quiet location with a 3 minute walk to the U bahn and a 10-15 minute ride to the center of town.  It was about a 15 min ride to Oktoberfest.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the hotel this time.  The only major complaint we had was the sofa.  It was gross with stains.  The housekeeper was nice enough to give us an extra blanket for us to cover the couch. 

So the first day we arrived in the afternoon and checked in.  We went on the very first weekend of Oktoberfest but decided it would be best to avoid the festival during the weekend.  After doing some research and talking with a few others we learned it would be too crazy for Ivy and it would be way too crowded for the stroller.  So after checking in we walked through the city a little bit then found a great local restaurant called Andescher am Dom.  Due to the number of people in town the restaurant was crowded so they offered table sharing.  We sat down with a local German couple whom we had a nice conversation with.  They helped us order some local Bavarian food and we talked a lot about Oktoberfest. They recommended Kevin order Schweinshaxe  and Ivy the spaetzle (which is a different kind of noodle in Germany).  We had a delightful dinner with them.

Sunday, we went  to the city center to see the Costume parade. I have posted just a few pictures here, but they just don't do the parade justice.   I have to say it was buy far the most creative and festive parade I have ever been too. It was mostly a  parade of the many different dirndl and lederhosen but they also had beer barrel floats and cannon and gun displays through the years.  We all enjoyed it!!  Ivy fell asleep for the last hour of the parade but it was a perfect time for her to nap.

After the parade I bought a dirndl and then we headed to Dachau  concentration camp.  If you are going to Munich this is a must in my opinion.  It is so emotional and heartbreaking to see what people inhabiting the concentration camps had to endure.  I can't even put into words what they must have gone through.  I was very shocked at the many different ethnicities, groups, and reasons for being imprisoned in those camps. Very sad but a huge part of German history that is very important. Here are a few pics from the camp.

 

 

  


  

 

 

  Then we headed to the largest beer house for dinner and a beer, Hofbräuhaus.  Look at these huge
 beers. Now we went early as it was more appropriate time for Ivy.  Later would have been very crazy and probably a lot of drunk people.

 

The next 2 days we spent at Oktoberfest.  Monday, Ivy fell asleep on the way to the festival and took a fairly long nap so we were able to sit outside and enjoy a beer.  Monday was nice, fairly warm, and they had outside heaters on the patio of the Hacker Pschoor Tent. After lunch we walked around and let Ivy ride a horse and a few other rides.  Here are some pics from that day!!!

 

 

 

 

 



Tuesday was family day so we went after Ivy's nap.  We ate a late lunch/early dinner at the Löwenbräu tent.  Ivy had a great time listening to music and goofing off.  Then we ended the day with more rides and a quiet evening at the Hotel. 

 

 Well I hope you have enjoyed hearing about our trip to Munich, Germany and Oktoberfest.  I have some more things and more Ivy pics to post so please check back this weekend!!  I hope you all are having a great week.