Lefties

My poor left-handed daughter 🙂

Kiddie Cargo Trikes

Europe is awesome for kids! We went to an indoor play arena for kids win the homeschool group last week. I think my 32 year old kid had the most fun. At the place they had a few different cargo trikes for kids. They are apparently made by Winther but I couldn’t find anything on their website. Sorry the pictures are so blurry, she moves fast!

She was not able to pull Daddy on the trike but she tried really hard!

Fasanerie

This past weekend we found a wildlife park in the woods just outside of downtown. The best part is, it’s free!

Cady fell asleep in the car on the way there so she hung out in the stroller for awhile while the rest of us fed the deer.

Not wanting to play yet.

Topper wanted me to take his picture, which is rare.

Oh, now we’re playing!

Did you know there are European Bison!? I had no clue. I thought they were an American thing only. These guys were longer legged and not as wide as American Bison. I took the picture of the sign and then my phone died.

Fasanerie also had bunnies, pigs, wolves, bears, goats, wild boar, sea otters and sheep. I’m sure I’m leaving out something we saw. There is also a large playground, biergarten and snack bar. Since it is free I am certain we will be back and often. There is even a city bus stop outside the gate so we don’t have to use a car to get there either 🙂

Bicycle Painting

I taught a class this week on bicycle safety and maintenance for our local homeschooling group. The kids had fun and learned a lot and at the end of the class we made a painting with the kids’ bicycle tires.

Field Day!

Last week we got together with our homeschool group and had Field Day! I remember Field Day was one of my favorite school activities when I was a kid.

For ours we had four teams, Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. For some of the activities the teams were divided into Bigs and Littles.

Activities were:
Bean Bag Balance
Three Legged Race
Ping Pong Ball Blow
Egg Walk
Tug of War

Cady and her friend ready for the race 🙂

Topper blowing the ping pong ball.

Cady kept wanting to give up but she did make it across eventually.

And then the Dads got in on the ball-blowing fun.

Afterwards we feasted on hot dogs, baked beans, Mac n cheese, chips and team color cupcakes. We had a great time. The kids are got little medals to take home. I was surprised when Topper got competitive during the tug of war and an older brother jumped in to tell his younger brother to “PULL!”. He got right in his face just like a Drill SGT. Hilarious, I love homeschoolers.

The Coolest Park Ever

Germany has some amazing playgrounds for kids. Our new neighborhood has a bunch of themed playgrounds that are CLEAN, and well maintained. This particular one is my favorite. It’s called the Race Track park which I think works I guess although I’d name it something different and make the miniature roads more of a feature because that is my favorite part.

The mini roads and road signs are too adorable and are the perfect size for Cady on her balance bike

Like lots of German playgrounds there is a hammock 🙂 I love when the playgrounds have these. Especially when we are there in the middle of a school day and the playground is empty. I can hang out in a hammock and read while the kids play.

We wandered away a little bit and the kids ate some blackberries off a bush they found 🙂

One last shot of the park and Topper’s bike.

I really wanted to use this park for my co-op bicycle class next week but since we are using some paint and making a mess we need to stay away from the pretty park.

Well none of THAT happened.

I just read my last blog post from June again. The move didn’t go as planned, we had family visiting right up until the moving truck arrived and to top it all off we discovered that we were expecting our third child right before family arrived in Germany. (Exciting, but not great timing)

So, needless to say nothing we had planned for this summer has gone according to plan. We haven’t started the new school year yet since we went almost a month with no mailing address and our school books have yet to arrive. It also turns out that my worst pregnant symptom is extreme exhaustion, so I’m pretty much worthless right now.

We have done some traveling and participated in summer co-op in our new home so I will just photobomb the rest of this blog post. Enjoy.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been busy around here helping friends move, watching extra dogs and driving an hour north every other day (it seems) to participate in events in our soon-to-be new community. Can we move already!?

Also the weather has been cold and rainy and yuck!

We went for a trip this week to Ludwigsburg to pick up my new Didymos wrap. Sadly no pictures yet.

Topper joined the Boy Scouts yesterday at their bridging ceremony. He had a great time and made a new friend. Unlike last year he is really excited about scouting and can’t wait to get started. Especially when he heard he can earn something for playing video games. *rolls eyes*. Oh well, whatever gets him excited.

In the next few weeks we will start our summer reading program. I’m doing a Roald Dahl theme. We will read a few of his books this summer, the kid friendly ones. We will also do some crafts and projects and *gasp* watch the movies.

So, look for new posts and pictures in the coming weeks. I also have some exciting things coming in the mail that I want to review soon.

Babywearing in Miniature, Doll Wrapping

You don’t need a “doll wrap” for your kids to wear their dolls, most scarves are the perfect size for kids to use. The one Cady is using here is a stretch jersey scarf I paid 3€ for at a junky tourist shop.

That’s Sofia in there, Cady’s Bitty Twin from American Girl. The carry is a Ruck Tied in Front 🙂

When They Won’t be Wrapped, Ring Sling Scarf Tutorial

I posted last week about the gorgeous Steampunk-esque Olive Hemp Gears ring sling we had custom made by Zanytoes Boutique. I still love it, it is not going anywhere. Cady still won’t go near it

So, what to do with this piece of cloth? Why, use it as a scarf! I was searching for some mention of someone else doing this but couldn’t find any. I wanted a way to wear the slings for transport rather than stuffing in my purse. We are well past the diaper bag stage. Yay. I started fiddling around and this is what I came up with.

Now I’m extra glad I went with Copper rings instead of the Purple or Lime that Justin wanted. So here is how you do it,

Start with the RS like this

Then put it over your head 🙂

Pull the middle “loop” through the rings

Then from underneath the rings pull the other tail into the loop and just kind of tuck it in there

If you pull the tail through the rings from the top like this

You end up with this variation instead

I’ve also done this with my Natibaby Doodle RS which is a size large. I saw this on Pinterest

I put the tail with the rings on the right side and then just kind of left the rings tucked into the bottom loop.

I hope this is clearly written out and easy to understand. Feel free to contact me with any questions.