{the simple things} Halloween witch

Hello everyone - just checking in very briefly. Why, you ask? Well, because it's November. November, folks! And that means I'm right in the middle of my holiday plan - by calendar week, that is. Yep, I have a plan of all the to dos until Christmas, by calendar week. And top priority right now is to complete the second half of our annual family photobook, which is the traditional gift to the grandparents and usually gets sent to the printing service by November.

So, for this week I'm just posting a little picture from Halloween.

Linking up with


























How about you? Anyone else started making gifts and working off their to do list yet? Or am I the only crazy person here?

Cheers,
Swenja

{the simple things / embrace the camera} family fun

How did it get to be September already? The air feels like fall, even though it's been really hot here this weekend. For us, September also means big brother's birthday. He turned 6 last Monday, and as a tradition we always take a family trip on their actual birthday and then do the party some other day.

Well, more on the party later, as I still have sticky floors, a ton of leftover cake, bunting and balloons all over my driveway and backyard to deal with.

So for today's simple things I wanted to share a few photos of our family trip. We went to a nearby park that has all kinds of animals plus a really nice playground, featuring a giant yellow slide as the highlight. First time my husband went down the slide with both boys, big brother commented that while he thought that was nice, he was done with it now. Little brother just smiled and screamed "AGAIN!!!!" at the top of his lungs, before turning around and running to climb up the stairs again. He couldn't get enough, and eventually big brother decided he might give it another try, too.

We've been here a couple of times before, but we haven't seen the latest addition to the playground yet: a wooden pirate ship.

They also have these large inflated pillows to jump on. This time it was little brother's turn to be skeptical.

Big brother loved these though and could have spent the entire day on them.

And then there are lots of animals to see and some they brothers also got to feed. Awwwww, isn't that cute?

This guy was just a tad bigger...

Every other time we've been there, we went in the morning. Since big brother has school now, we went after school and were at the park much later than usual. Maybe that is why we have finally seen the lynx. Big brother was quite excited, we have always looked for them and never before even caught so much as a glimpse. Now here he was, sitting there and eating dinner.

I didn't realize sheep could be this loud. This little guy came running along the fence after us. We named him Karly - after a song on big brother's favorite CD (for German readers: if you don't know the Mukketier-Bande yet, you absolutely have to check it out. It's music for kids that somehow manages to be only very mildly annoying even after listening to it a million times a day).

I'm off cleaning floors and eating some cake, but I promise to be back next week with some details of the party.

Happy Sunday!

Linking up with the simple things and Embrace the Camera.

Swenja

{embrace the camera} family sunday part 2: funny carts & kitten whiskers

I still can't quite believe it, but it looks like I'm actually doing embrace the camera two weeks in a row. Amazing. Of course I cheated and just had lots of pictures taken on one day. But since we went to two events that day, it sort of counts, don't you think?

Well, after spending the morning watching tractors, we went to little brother's new preschool in the afternoon. When I say new I mean it's been around for almost a year now, but the building is new. And huge. So they did an open house last Sunday and invited everyone to have a look around. 

And what do preschool teachers do when they invite people? Right. They play games. Preferably in a way that makes all visiting parents and other adults look a bit silly. Not sure if this is a habit or just comes with the job, but whenever you go to a preschool event, you have to be prepared. You can't just chat with other parents, have some coffee and watch the kids play, no, you'll be likely to join the fun.

So we tried to ride these funny little things - you just push your feet against the handle and they go. You also steer them the same way. What looks easy when the kids do it (even little brother), actually takes a few minutes practice when I do it. And even then I ran into all the traffic signs. Oh well. The brothers thought it was pretty funny.

So. Preschool teachers. They set up this circuit that the kids had to do, getting stamps for each station they did. So far, so good. Here's the catch: mommy and daddy got one of those cards, too. Yay. And while I did duck quickly enough, pointing at my camera, daddy got a card. 

So we built block towers against each other, raced those funny little carts and he painted with the brothers. At the end, there was only one thing left on his card: getting his face painted. The brothers and big brother's best buddy had all gotten kitten whiskers. So yeah, of course I suggested I'll do that part and he'd get my stamp. And yes, of course I was the only adult there doing that. So since the entire town saw me with my face painted, I figured it doesn't make much of a difference if I show it to the world. My pleasure. 

How's that for embracing the camera?

Meow,

Swenja