Kindermarkt

Germans have this great thing called Kindermarkts.  They are basically yard sales for children's items.  In the spring and fall, almost all towns host a Kindermarkt.  They usually take place in a church (or anyplace with a lot of open space) and you can call ahead and reserve a table for anywhere from 6 - 10 Euro.  On the day of the Kindermarkt, the sellers show up an hour before start time, find their designated table (provided), and start setting up their items for sale.  And then the mad rush begins and lasts for two hours. 

Today Silke and I participated in a Kindermarkt in the nearby town of Weisloch.  I am so happy that Silke agrees to allow me to tag along because I would never know where and when the Kindermarkts occur if it weren't for her!  This is actually the second Kindermarkt that Silke and I have done together.  She is always the one to find out the logistics and then call to reserve our tables.  We did our first Kindermarkt together earlier this year and were VERY successful.  I made 200 Euro in two hours.  I was so excited!  So we decided to try it again today and unfortunately had a much different experience.  There were basically too many sellers and not enough people buying.  Most of the time we just stood around.  And the people who were buying were trying to get it for nothing (much like in the U.S.!).  I walked away with 47 Euro which, I guess, is better than nothing.  However, it was so depressing packing up all my merchandise at the end of the day.  Oh well, until next time!

Silke works her table.

My table.  Will I ever get rid of all of this stuff??

The competition.

Corn Maze Fun!

Autumn is officially here in Germany!  And with autumn comes all those fun activities that only come around once per year.  With that being said, we decided to take advantage of a beautiful weather day and tackle a Maislabyrinth (aka corn maze)!  We went along with the Lincicums and had a great day!

The girls check out this cool old tractor at the entrance to the farm.

Would love to know how old these tractors are!

This farm had A LOT of pigs!  Leena came to the realization that "pigs really stick"!

 

More pigs!!

Entering the corn maze.  The stalks of corn were at least 7 feet tall and very thick!  We could be in here for a while!

Knepper family corn maze shot!

This question most frequently asked... which way do we go now??  How to decide?  For the first 45 minutes or so, we followed the kids.  The adults decided to take over when we realized that we may never get out!

Our entrance cards into the maze included a "question of the week" for the adults and the kids were told to look for six pigs hidden in the maze and to write their names down.  Our question of the week was "How many km long is the Great Wall of China?".  The answer to the question was found on a sign hidden in the maze.  For those of you who don't know, the answer is 6,700!

We actually found the exit after about 1 hour and 10 minutes in the maze! However, at that time, we had only found five of the six pigs and this was unacceptable for the kids!! So, we stayed in the maze and fortunately found Jule, our final pig, in only about 10 additional minutes or so. After the question of the week was answered and all six pigs were found, we ended up in the maze for about one hour and 20 minutes. The kids had a blast and never once complained of being tired!



The girls loudly rejoiced when they found the final pig, Jule.  Here they are writing the pig's name down on their entrance cards.

Yea!  We are done!!  Now where did we see the exit??

When we finished the maze, we sat down at a picnic table located right outside the exit of the maze to have a snack.  While we were sitting there, we had two different groups of people (both German) come up to us to see if we had found all six pigs.  When we said that we did find all six, they asked to see our entrance cards so that they could write down the names of the pigs that they could not find.  Too funny!  After you finished the maze, you were supposed to drop your completed entrance cards (along with your name and address) into a ceramic milk jug.  I guess they just did not want to return uncompleted cards!

Leena's First Sleepover!

Well, the day has finally come... my "baby" is old enough for her first official sleepover.  And by official, I mean a sleepover that is not at a relatives house and where mom and dad are not there.  I figured I was around 7 or 8 when I had my first sleepover, so I knew the time was coming.  We had a family move in down the street from us and they have two girls - one in 5th grade, Charlotte, and one in 3rd grade, Sophie.  All of the girls hit it off immediately.  Charlotte celebrated her 11th birthday party on Friday and invited Leena along.  Then after the party, Charlotte was allowed to have two girls sleep over and Sophie was allowed to invite one friend to sleep over and she chose Leena.  She was so excited!!!  So, we packed her bag and away she went!  Needless to say, neither one of us got much sleep.  I was up almost every hour during the night wondering if Leena was okay (even though I knew she was!).  The next morning, Greg walked down the street at 9:30 to get Leena for a soccer game.  She was in tears when she got home because she watched movie after movie after movie and she was awake to see the sun come up!!  Greg took her to soccer anyway and Leena was too tired to even get out of the car.  She ended up sleeping in the car while Greg refereed the game (Father-of-the-year award coming soon)!  Afterwards, I made her lunch and put her in bed.  I remember those days!!!  There never is much "slumbering" going on at slumber parties!  Luckily we have the weekend to catch up on sleep! 

Packed for her first sleepover and ready to go!!

Leena and Sophie - Sophie is in 3rd grade, but only 5 months older than Leena.

Leena and Sophie at Charlotte's Rock-n-Roll themed birthday party.

Sophie, Leena, and Charlotte at the birthday party.

Kürbisfest - Ludwigsburg 2012

This weekend, we attended the annual Kürbisfest (Pumpkin Festival) in Ludwigsburg.  We visited this fest last year and loved it!  I can't believe that we have already been here a year and it sounds strange to hear myself saying "when I was here last year....".   Anyway, each year this fest has a different theme and this years theme was Switzerland.  Not as cool as last years theme (Dinosaurs!) but I did not let that stop me from going again.  The fest is held in the gardens of Schloss Ludwigsburg and in addition to over 400,000 pumpkins, the garden is filled with fairy tale themed exhibits.  We went with the Lincicums and spent over 4 hours exploring the gardens and all the pumpkins!

Leena, Taryn and Maddie chillin' in front of Schloss Ludwigsburg.

The girls in front of the Swiss Flag.

The girls pose with a tiny portion of Schloss Ludwigsburg behind them.

Leena in front of a pumpkin Swiss cow.

Checking out the hundreds of different pumpkins for sale.

Fun in the hay stacks!

Another Swiss cow, but this one is complete with utters! 

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!

Alphorn player

The kids in front of the Matterhorn.

Of course, a Swiss knife!

Above, Leena checks out the over 450 varieties of pumpkins from all over the world - most from the USA!  In addition to looking at the pumpkins, you could eat them in every way imaginable... pumpkin soup, pumpkin dumplings, pumpkin rice ladle, spaghetti Kürbinese, Pumpkin strudel, pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin quiche, pumpkin Rösti, pumpkin chips, and pumpkin sparkling wine (see picture below).  Just to name a few!!!

Going on a fun boat ride through the garden!

Taryn on the same boat ride!

 

Petting this sweet goat in the garden.  Taryn wasn't too sure at first!

All aboard!!

The kids made their way through a labyrinth and found this fun fountain.  Each step that Taryn took across the bridge made the water squirt into the air!

Rapunzel's Tower!  You can just see her hair hanging from the balcony above and Maddie and Taryn yelling below "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"  The best part was, after they yelled the magic words, the hair would actually come down!

Another neat exhibit with Rapunzel's Tower in the background.

Maddie and Taryn checking things out.

The kids inside Heidi's house.

Three monkeys!

 

Who knew Germans would be so good at carving pumpkins!

Cute pumpkins, but my favorite are the mice on top of the Swiss cheese pumpkins in the background.

Cool fountain.

After a long afternoon and a ton of walking... ice cream all around!

Leena really enjoys her double chocolate bar!

Taryn chose the BIG cone and I ordered it without realizing just how BIG is was... 25 cm!!  Needless to say, she never saw the bottom of that cone.  Lesson learned, think twice before ordering BIG anything over here!

 

A visit from some stateside BFFs - the Ledfords!

We were VERY excited  to have some of our American BFFs visit - the Ledford clan!  They flew into Germany in route to a family reunion in France and made a quick stop at our place on both the front and the back end of their trip.  We only wished we could have seen them longer, but it was great to spend what time we could with them.  We have known the Ledfords since Taryn and Austin were one year and Leena and Kolby were three years old.  Needless to say, the Ledfords have doubled the number of kids in their household since we have known them!  The kids have always got along sooooo well - and the adults too!  Here are some pics of our only full day together.  We spent the day exploring downtown Heidelberg.  We hope to catch up with them Stateside next summer/fall!

Taryn and Kolby relax outside a store on the Heidelberg Hauptstraße.

Gotta have some Eis!!  You would have thought they all just saw each other yesterday.  They just picked up where they left off last summer!  We have missed these guys!

The newest Ledford additions.  Ainsley on the left (3 months) and Kennedy on the right (18 months).

We didn't see this coming!

Stopping for a shot in front of the Hotel Zum Ritter.

Five little monkeys.

The Japanese tourists could not get enough of Ainsley and Kennedy!!

Kelly and me on the Old Bridge.

Stopping for a break.

Re-energized!

Riding the funicular!

A stop at a Heidelberg Spielplatz before we head home.

Just like old times!!