It's Friday. There are new releases. There are also new photos, and new adventures. So today, I'm more interested in sharing adventures. Hope you don't mind.
Lilacs are in Full Bloom right now. Everywhere. You walk down the street and literally get hit in the face with their scent. I love them. I wanted photos, but only had my itouch while walking to Kindergarten pick-up today. It had to do:



sharing my love, and perhaps finding the intoxicating scent impossible to resist:
I wanted to try some kite-flying with the kids today. Just because the thought of defeat does not daunt me...so in sweltering August-like heat (in May), we walked to the field playground, which is always breezy.
On the way, when we emerged from between the houses and the kids saw the dandelion-smothered field they exclaimed:
"There are thousands and thousands!"
before taking off to run through chest-high grasses most likely teeming with ticks.
Since we were officially there to do some kite-flying, I missed the running. I was putting kites together. There wasn't quite enough wind...
The only way to get the kites up, was to run against the wind. It was hot today. Running was hard.
Flying D's Bat Kite:

Kite has just crashed...
We finally gave up on kite flying and went to the playground where the kids moped around in the heat for a while. They didn't want to go home, but they didn't want to play either. Right when they decided to go home, I made G blow some dandelions for me. And then she didn't want to leave after all.
Some swinging - as high as she could go:
And then we headed home where someone got stung. Badly. Why? He likes to off road his bike into bushes and piles of dirt and trees. Unfortunately, those grasses he was trying to trample, share their space with stinging nettles...ouch.
Two meals on the balcony today, the kids love eating on the balcony. D. was grumpy at dinner though, he fell asleep around 5pm and we had to wake him...
Thursday.
A few words on yesterday's adventures:
I made G bike to the Umweltgarten with me (D got to ride in the bike carrier). Thought we'd take a short trip through the animals and then head back out again and get some ice cream. What I didn't expect, was how much G enjoyed the park, not just the animals, but the flowers, the bees, even the playground!
First: pet the goat.
Then wander towards the playground, stopping at the Ökoschule to try all the doors. Toilet? Good. Mr. D. needs it. Sit at the wooden tables and have a drink. It is hot.
on to the playground
Mommy, will you take a picture? (always!)
As we were getting ready to leave, the kids were again distracted by random things in the meadow next to the EcoSchool (Ökoschule).
So was I, like pretty flowers:
The most interesting thing of the afternoon occurred when we passed the glass box with the honeycombs in it. An employee (beekeeper?) wandered through to clean it up. Both kids gravitated right to him to see what he was doing, and he was happy to tell them!
The honeycombs go through a centrifuge and when the honey has come out, the honeycombs get moved to this wooden box with a glass lid. It sits out in the sunshine and the sun melts the wax out of the comb and it drips into a tray. The man was cleaning out the trays that hold the honeycombs and showed us the wax as well as pool of leftover honey which he then let us taste. Yum! Fresh, sun-warmed honey. So good!
He talked a lot. He explained plenty to us, and asked me about 50 questions dealing with English and The States. Finally, we headed out for: