Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival 2012

It's that time of the year again!  I LOVE FALL!  You guys might remember me posting about this last year. The Finch Family ladies drove down to visit and join us at the Ludwigsburg annual pumpkin festival.  We took Vaiosina for the first time last year and she loved it.  I swore last year to go again this year.  It was so fun to share this with our good friends yesterday afternoon.  The weather was absolutely beautiful too.

 

The festival is held at the Ludwigsburg Palace, which in and of itself is a sight to behold. Last year's theme was dinosaurs.  This year's was Switzerland.  We saw a Swiss Army knife made of pumpkins, as well as the Swiss Alps, some Swiss farmers, cows and other things we really couldn't figure out.  The fairy tale children's garden was there and we went on a boat ride and visited Rapunzel's tower.

 

The best part, of course, was the food.  We had pumpkin bratwurst (which Vaiosina enjoyed much more this year), pumpkin fries, pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin soups.  I even snagged 4 bottles of pumpkin wine, which I remembered from last year.  It's so crazy to see how much Vaiosina has grown from last year. 

 

Yesterday also made us miss Malu.  Last year, we went later in October and it was so much colder.  I have fond memories of sitting on haystacks near the bonfire with him and with Vaiosina staring so intently at the flames.  I also remember Malu trying to feed Vaiosina to one of the dinosaurs.  Fun times. 

 

Anyway, here are some pictures!

 

 

The pumpkin festival goes until the end of October.  My mom will be visiting us and arrives on Tuesday. I'm going to take her to see this.  No reason to limit this year to one visit.  Plus, I need a reason to go back and get more pumpkin wine!

 

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!

Perfect Sunday!

What a weekend!  We had perfect fall weather...not too hot or cold...just perfect.  We slept in a little bit this morning and realized that we never turned our clocks back.  No worries because we weren't on any kind of schedule today.  We just took our time getting ready and had some fun in the process. 

When we finally got out of the house, we head over to the PX to see if Malu and I could get some Halloween costumes at the last minute.  All the local stores are closed on Sundays, so the PX was our only option.  No surprise...we got there and got stuck with the leftovers.  The good thing--my too-big pirate costume and Malu's executioner costume cost under $10. Everything was 50% off!

After the PX, we rode over to the library.  A friend who works there told us to stop by to make duct tape halloween bags.  Apparently, duct tape crafts are all the craze these days, so we wanted to see what all the hoop-la is about.  Who knew that duct tape comes in a million colors and you can make just about anything with it?  Sina wasn't too entertained...she had just woken up from a cat-nap.  She preferred to watch her mom, who was more into it than she needed to be.  Hey, what can I say...I'm a kid at heart!

Check out our candy corn duct tape bag!

When we got home, Sina and Malu took a much-needed nap.

Meanwhile, I got to work on Sina's Halloween treats for her daycare's Fall Harvest celebration tomorrow.  Since Sina is going to be an owl this year, I thought it'd be nice for her to give her little buddies some owl cookies!  To my disdain, I kinda hit roadblocks along the way as I tried to put these together.  I ordered candy melts online and they didn't make it in time; I ordered clear plastic bags for the cookies, but they ended up being too small; and I totally forgot to get ribbon to accent the tags I made.  So...I improvised.

Take a look at these...

Who needs a Cricut, right?  Um...I do.  After cutting only a dozen of these, my hands were in a world of pain (I think I suffer, to some degree, from carpal tunnel syndrome).  Christmas present, maybe?  Anyhow, in case you can't see, each card says "Happy H"owl" oween!".

Since the plastic bags I ordered were too small, I used ziploc bags I had onhand.  Then, I used some kitchen string as ribbon.  They didn't turn out so bad after all.

When Malu and Sina woke up (yes, it was a late afternoon nap), I had dinner ready (Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps) and we spent a few hours relaxing and playing around with our little girl.  Here she is enjoying a few clementines with Malu.

Yum!

Now, Sina is asleep and I'm enjoying the Twilight series marathon that is on TV! I'll be dragging Malu over to watch it with me.  I'll be using some ice cream to bribe him.  He can't stand these "silly vampires". 

What did I tell you?  A perfect Sunday.

I honestly can't wait for Halloween tomorrow.  I'm excited to see Sina in her cute little costume.  I'm excited to see her paint some pumpkins at school and share her owl cookies with her friends.  I'm excited to see her and her executioner daddy out there trick-or-treating.  I can't wait to share all of it with you guys.

Stay tuned for some more Halloween fun!

Ludwigsburg Palace

Yesterday, we spent a beautiful (but chilly) fall afternoon in Ludwigsburg, a city about 20 miles away from here.  The Ludwigsburg Palace is one of Germany's largest palaces built in the Baroque style.  It has an enormous garden, also built in Baroque style.  The place was just exquisite.  Beautiful.  The grounds were extensive and we walked just about every inch of it--even Sina!  And she didn't tire one bit.

For those of you that didn't know, Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Wurttemburg.  This palace was once the primary residence of the Dukes of Wurttemburg.  I wish we could have seen the inside, but the place was bustling with activity.  I think there were two weddings going on, some band event was being held in the courtyard and the annual Pumpkin Festival was being held in the gardens (which I'll post about later).

Here are some pictures from our stroll about the palace grounds.  As you can see, there's a huge pond and water fountain in front of the palace that Sina could not take her eyes off of.  She would have stayed in front of it forever.  She also loved the roses and all the other flowers.  As we walked through, I thought about my Grandma Ines, who absolutely loves roses.  She would have been in heaven visiting this place.

She's staring at the water fountain.  We had a difficult time pulling her away.

She and Malu played hide and seek.  So cute!

The courtyard.  Some of the original buildings still exist, after several refurbishments. One of the two buildings on the right-hand side is one of the oldest preserved theaters in Europe.

The colors of fall are omnipresent here at our for-now home.  We love taking drives through back roads and along the highways just to be in the middle of it all.  I hope you all are enjoying the fall weather in your own neighborhoods.

Anyway, I'll try to post about the Pumpkin Festival tomorrow!

Have a great week everyone!

I Love Fall!

I love everything about fall.  The cool weather, wearing sweaters and layering, the leaves changing colors, hot chocolate and pumpkin spice coffee (thanks to Keurig K-cups!).  Last week, after getting home from Berchtesgaden, we took a late afternoon stroll along the many trails in our neighborhood.  Actually, every part of Germany (that we've seen) is laden with walking/biking trails and people are always out and about...even in the rain.  What's especially nice is that there are biergartens and restaurants along all of these trails, so it's not unusual to be deep in the woods and come across a nice, quaint place to stop, rest and eat.  Anyway, we probably walked for almost two hours along this trail.  It was beautiful!

Sina wanted to get out of her stroller and walk with her daddy.

~LOVE~

~LOVE LOVE LOVE~

~REFLECTIONS~

~A BEND IN THE ROAD~

Not really sure what this was, except for the obvious fact that there were a dozen or so figurines mounted on this tree stump.  It was kind of creepy.

Another thing about fall....FOOTBALL!  Well, really, I don't follow college or professional football, but I like to watch it whenever I have the chance--even if it's pop warner football.  The nice thing about being at a small post is that the community is very tight-knit.  So when the high school has it's homecoming game...everyone on post is out there.  That was yesterday...and we had fabulous fall weather.

Sina just loves being out on our football/soccer field.  We take her out there from time to time for picnics and just to roll around.  I knew she'd love being there, so we laid out a blanket, had some snacks and watched the game.  Well, sort of.  Sina was more interested in the crowd, danced to the band music and, played in the grass along the sidelines. 

I enjoyed a frito pie and Sina enjoyed her baby goldfish and raisins.  From time to time we curled up together in our fleece blanket because of the cool breeze.  Heaven!

In a few hours Malu will be home and we'll be enjoying some baby back ribs that I have cooking in the crockpot!

That's another fall thing...comfort food!

Happy Sunday everyone!  And have a great week!

Berchtesgaden!

Wow, this post is long overdue!  It's been almost a week since we returned from Berchtesgaden.  We were fortunate enough to spend our Columbus Day weekend there.  What was extra special about it was that we spent it with some dear friends...the Smith Family.  I've been friends with Paul since high school.  He and I also went to the same college, graduated and commissioned together over 10 years ago.  Paul and his family recently moved to Heidelberg, which is a little over an hour away from Stuttgart!  So now we have more friends that we can link up with from time to time...anywhere in Europe!

Berchtesgaden is in Bavaria; way down south near the border of Austria.  In fact, we had to cross into Austria only to make a loop back into Germany to get to our hotel.  We left late last Friday afternoon. The Smiths weren't going to link up with us until late Saturday afternoon, so we just took our time getting there.  By the time we got there, it was already dark, so we just went out for some dinner and turned in for the night. 

The next morning, we were able to actually see take in the beauty of Berchtesgaden and the hotel that we stayed in, which was nestled in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps.  Check out our view.

We had a nice breakfast and lounged around at the hotel.  Later in the day, we decided to go to the Konigsee (a lake nearby) to see if we could go on a boatride.  We were very disappointed when we discovered that we'd missed the last boat.  Not only that, it was cold and rainy that day, so we were itching to get back to our nice, warm hotel room.  Still, we enjoyed strolling around the shopping/dining areas near the Konigsee.  The lake is beyond beautiful.  You can't really tell from these pictures, but the water is so clear! 

At the dock, there were tons of ducks and Sina simply adores them.  She sees so many ducks in books, videos, and has many toy ducks for the bath.  I'd venture to say ducks are her favorite animal.  She kept pointing to them and saying, "duck!"  and was content to sit there in her stroller amidst the cold and rain to watch them.  She threw the biggest of fits when we pulled her away to

head back to the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel, our friends had arrived and we ended up meeting them at a restaurant nearby for dinner.  It was nice catching up over a really nice German dinner.

After breakfast the next morning, we head out to the infamous Salzbergwerk, or Salt Mine where the famous German-brand, Bad Reichenhall, salt is produced.  A portion of the factory, which has been in operation for over 500 years, is open for tourists and is such an exciting place.  I think we adults might have had more fun than our little kiddos.  Anyway, they gave us typical salt miner garb to wear throughout the tour.  I was very pleased that they had them in all sizes...even for Sina!

Here we are with the Smiths (L to R: Paul, D.J., Cassandra and Joey)!

Isn't she the cutest?

Getting ready for our train ride!

So they load everyone on a little train that takes us deep into the salt mines.  On this tour, they take us through the entire salt-producing process as well as the history of the mine.  There were two slides that everyone went down on in groups....awesome!!!  Before we head out on the tour, though, we took pictures!

At the deepest part of the mine, about 140 meters, was Mirror Lake.  We went on a raft ride across it and witnessed a holographic light show on how salt crystals form.  For a few minutes, it felt like we were on an Epcot Center ride.  Too cool!

After the Salt Mines, we attempted to go to the Eagle's Nest, which is high in the mountains above Berchtesgaden.  The place is widely known to once be a retreat for Adolf Hitler.  Sadly, we could not take the bus higher up the mountain to the Eagle's Nest due to weather (snow!).  Instead, we hung out at the Dokumentation Obersalzburg, an exhibition on the history of Obersalzburg (which became the second seat of power after Berlin during WWII) and the Nazi dictatorship.  I was able to get a cool picture of the view from the top of the Kehlstein Mountain.

After this, we wanted to take our friends to the Konigsee not only see how beautiful the place is, but to eat as well.  We were lucky that it hadn't rained the entire day, so we were excited to get out there again.

Of course, the ducks made another appearance and our little girl was entranced.

After a hearty meal and some shopping, we head back to the hotel...but not without a group shot!

On the way back to the hotel, we wanted some coffee and dessert.  So we stopped at a restaurant/hotel on the way.  We just happened to stop at a place that was filming a movie on Hitler.  No kidding...there were actors getting their make-up and hair done and pictures taken in WWII garb.  It was amazing!  No pictures though.  Sorry about that.

Time always flies by when you don't want it to.  We could have stayed in Berchtesgaden forever!  I mean, we practically stalled at breakfast just so we could hang out with our friends and breathe in the fresh country air a little bit longer.  But all good things come to an end.  Thankfully, this won't be our last adventure, nor will it be our last time with the Smiths!  Thanks for joining us you guys! 

It was a crazy busy week and now Malu's at drill for the weekend.  Sina and I are solo for another day and a half!

Sorry for the long post you guys...have a great weekend!

Mesilla Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze

Today, we joined a bunch of our friends for a full day of fun in the sun at the Mesilla Valley Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch in Mesilla, New Mexico, which is about a 45-minute drive west from our house.  Man, you wouldn't know that it's autumn here in this part of Texas or New Mexico because it was so hot out there today.  Must have been in the 90s.  Despite this, it sure felt like fall the way we were out there amidst the cornfields, pumpkins and bales of hay. 

There were 18 of us altogether and we started out with breakfast at the Cracker Barrel here in El Paso.  Big mistake...when there's only one Cracker Barrel in all of El Paso you should probably steer clear on a Saturday morning.  It was packed.  But the food was delicious as usual.  I love that place.

Baby V had no idea what was going on, so I think this trip was a little bit more for me than for her.  Excuse me for being selfish :)  Would you believe that our parents never took us (as in my siblings and I) to a pumpkin patch growing up?  Perhaps it's because we lived in Hawaii when we were really young.  And by the time we'd gotten to a place that had pumpkin patches...well, we were too grown up by then.  Malu and I can't wait for Baby V to get to the age where she understands what these pumpkins and mazes are all about.  It's going to be tons of fun.  But she did try to lug this big pumpkin back home with us!  Isn't she cute?

What I really ended up snagging was one small itty bitty pumpkin for Baby V and two medium-sized pumpkins that I can do some baking with.  I plan on making my own pumpkin puree.  Yummy!

Anyway...just wanted to show you guys some of the pictures I took.  This place was amazing!  They had hayrides and other rides for the kiddies, the corn mazes (one for kids and one for adults), a country store (where I scored on some fresh honey and sweet potato pecan butter), arts and crafts vendors, and food (which I managed to steer clear of--I know, surprised me too). 

Afterwards, we joined our friends Leah and Jay for an early dinner at Landry's where we had a three-course meal.  I had a dish that had bacon-wrapped stuffed shrimp and bananas foster for dessert.  We were stuffed!

Now, my two loves are crashed out on the couch...and I'm going to join them. 

Thanks to all of our friends who were out there with us today!  It was tons of fun!

Oh, and don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $40 gift certificate to a CSN Store of your choice.  Giveaway ends October 13th.  I will announce a winner on October 15th!