Pumpkin Contest

I know I'm running late with this post, I'm just happy to finally find the time to write one!!!

 

One of the first memories I have of my relationship with my husband was carving pumpkins together in his parents back yard.  And since that time (many years ago), we have decided to share this fun time together with our daughter.  Her school was having a pumpkin carving contest and we happened to have a free weekend afternoon so we headed out to the farms and bought a few decent sized pumpkins.  In years passed we didn't take it so serious, but this year we wanted her to have something worth entering.  So of course my husband and 5 yr old picked out the biggest pumpkin they could find.  But see, we forgot just how hard it is to carve a thick pumpkin without the proper tools.  (Hey... Halloween only comes around once a year, it's easy to forget.)

 

We started with the medium sized pumpkin to practice.  And like I said, this year we weren't joking around so we even printed out templates to help with the design.  But after the hard work & time my husband put in just to get this pumpkin carved we realized the large pumpkin was going to be quite a challenge.  (The medium pumpkin turned out well, and looked quite scary at night!  But due to the strangely warm weather it rotted fast.)

 

 

Due to the amount of work, we decided we weren't going to carve the other small & medium pumpkin, we were running out of time & patience.  So instead of tracing around a template to cut, I just drew the template onto the pumpkins and let my daughter color them in.  (By the time she was finished coloring you couldn't see the template anymore, but she had fun.)

 

 

Now it was time to carve the large pumpkin, the one we actually wanted to enter in the school contest.  But we were tired, it was almost dinner, and none of the templates I could find seemed simple yet prize worthy.  Then my husband came up with the great idea to carve the school initials into the pumpkin, brilliant!  (It was the only one like it in the contest, we were quite proud!)

Did we win the contest?  Unfortunately no... but hey, the pumpkin hamburger deserved it.  Did we have fun?  Yes!  Did my husband come up with an idea for next year?  Yes, but that's our secret!

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Irrland - Germany

This summer we had a weekend of fun family activities in Germany.  Besides Movie Park we also visited Irrland.  It's a huge park, I mean massive!  There's everything from swimming pools & slides to mazes & bouncy houses.  And it only costs €5 per person!!!  There is no way to truly experience the park in one day, but due to the low entry fee and the fact it's actually not so far from Eindhoven we'll definitely return.

We set up shop in Irrland North, in a centralized spot so the kids could find us.  Since there is limited food in the park we brought out own.  Almost every table includes a bbq grill, so we were sure to stop off at the grocery store on the way.  We made a day of it, eating, drinking, and playing at our leisure. 

Things to keep in mind, again the place is huge.  Be sure to rent a wagon to load all of your items in because you can't just pop back to the car.  And the walk from one section to the other is quite long.  Like I said, bring your own food.  You can buy drinks there but if you've already packed food you might want to pack drinks also.  There is tons there to rent, from little boats to bikes, so be sure to bring cash.  Don't forget your towels & bathing suits, because someone is bound to go in the water.  And bring sunscreen too, well, that's if you're going in the summer.  Most of the park is out in the open, and nobody wants to go home sun burnt.  Get a map on your way in because finding your way around at first can be overwhelming.  There are plenty of bathrooms, loads of parking, and endless activities.  There are also two towns close by if you do happen to forget any supplies.  Also, if you visit their website there is a great virtual map, my daughter loved looking through it before our trip.

We highly recommend a day (or two) at Irrland!  (FYI - it's also great for b-day parties.)

(Wish I had some original pics from the park but they're all full of family & friends, and I doubt they want their pics plastered on my blog!)

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Coming Soon!

I know I recently promised more posts... and they're coming soon!

Keep an eye out for the following posts about our summer!

Movie Park Germany

 

Irrland

 

Noordwijk

 

Lowlands

If I don't get to blogging this week, next week school starts and I should be getting back to a more fixed routine!

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

BBQ in the park

A couple weekends ago my husband arranged a bbq in the park.  For some reason the moms panicked, it sounded like more effort than it was worth.  Were we really going to drag our charcoal grill to the park?  Is a bbq in the public park allowed?  What happens when the kids need to pee?  Can we really keep the food and drinks cold that long?  What about dishes, blankets, etc?  We came up with an immediate lists of why not to have a bbq.

But then as the week passed and the weekend neared, I started to change my mind.  I realized how ridiculous we were being, and even if it was a huge effort it would be worth it.  Hey, we only live once (trying to think about this more often). 

And you know what, it turned out to be great.  The kids played and played.  The Dads cooked, the Moms relaxed on the blankets & soaked up the sun.  And we even spoiled ourselves by bringing along music, between the Surface & a guitar we were set!  After all was said and done, one family walked home & the other biked.  And us, we loaded all the bbq supplies in our SUV, left it for the night, and walked home ourselves.  It was a great day!

The point of this post - enjoy life & stop making everything such a big deal!

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica