Sunday, June 10, 2012

Hup Holland, Hup!

As some of you well know, the Euro 2012 Football Championship kicked off this weekend.  Some Dutch friends came to visit and watch the Dutch team play!  It was a fun weekend.

Everyone got decked out in orange, and we even had Dutch M&M's!








One of the orange props was this little lion's main...




Our little Dutch lion munching on my leg...



Then Papa's...


Legoland, Deutschland!


I have fond memories of visiting Legoland in Denmark when I was a kid.  And now they have one in Germany, so we decided to take Luna last Thursday, which was a public holiday.  Only half of southern Germany was there with us...

Tess decided it was time to break out the carrier and give it a whirl on my svelte husband.


Some friends of ours joined us with their two little ones.  Was the perfect way to split up when it came time to take the older ones on rides.  Although the stroller set risked a bit of ennui setting in!


In addition to the rides, there were tons of fun play attractions, too.



The moms braved the pirate ship and a slightly tilted stomach post-ride.


Everybody got wet on the water fight ride.



That's Bas and Alex waving back there...


Paresh was brilliant with the kids while we waited for food.


And all agreed the best part was the actual "Legoland."  A miniature version of almost all the big attractions in Germany made entirely out of legos.  Very much like Madurodam (See post HERE) but ALL lego!



Many of the cars, buses and trains all moved, of course.


This version of the Allianz Football stadium in Munich is apparently the largest Lego structure in the world - based on number of pieces used...


Naptime.


Frankfurt skyscrapers...


Alex and Paresh decided they liked our Christmas card last year so much they wanted to get a family picture in front of Neuschwanstein for their own card this year... and Luna decided she wanted to be in it, too.



Then we found the water park section.



Little Indie was unbelievably brave with the huge water geyser features!





And so irresistible to the camera operator!



I was watching and waiting... just knew she would eventually get it!  And she did, but after a few stumbling dazed seconds, she recovered and headed right back in for more!


They have a huge Star Wars thing going on... perfect for the BIG kids.



Thoroughly tired and ready for the long drive home!


And at this point of the day I am always reminded of this Norman Rockwell painting, depicting the family day trip - before and after... one of my favorites... 



Friday, June 8, 2012

And it's a... Butterfly!!!

We checked it this morning before we went to the store... and thought the chrysalis looked a bit different.  An hour later... the butterfly was out!  The top sides of his wings are quite colorful...




Sunday, June 3, 2012

Projects Lately...

Luna found this caterpillar, Bas put it in a jar and the next morning we had a chrysalis!  Wasn't planning that one!!!  Now we are waiting for it to come out a  butterfly, or moth or anything alive would be nice really...

More pictures later (hopefully.)


And one day walking out of the grocery store the local Gartenverein (Garden Club) people stopped us to give Luna her little pot with planted pumpkin seeds.  They give them away to all of the little kids from town, and the children are supposed to then re-plant them and raise them up to see who gets the biggest pumpkin, come September.  I really wasn't planning on doing anything with it, and left it sitting on our patio table - no sun, no water, etc. until I saw that it had sprouted, despite my neglect!  So I went out and got a huge pot for it, so that it can get a good full sun spot in our garden.

More pictures later (hopefully.)


And last but not least, we made some little cherry pies today...  they we re a little bit odd, but fun to make.