Halloween-i-licious

Halloween was kind of a mess this year. 

Have you ever made sugar cookies?  And by that I don't mean frosting them.  I mean, have you actually ever MADE them, like from scratch?  

Well, let me tell ya what.  It's a huge pain in the b-u-t-t.  

Growing up sugar cookies were a staple at our house around the holidays… Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day.  And in my mother's true fashion, she always made it seem like a breeze, with never a hair out of place (although, I must say, she did use a lot of hairspray).  

Em REALLY wanted me to make sugar cookies for Halloween this year since she has made them a few times with her Nana.

Really how hard could it be?

So one day after school we mixed up the dough.  Well, it turns out you have to let the dough chill for a couple of hours.  That does not bode well with a three and five year old. After being asked about 15 times when it was time to make the cookies, I finally rolled out the "chilled" dough.  First the dough just stuck itself to the rolling pin… not enough flour I suppose.  So I doused the pin in flour and then successfully rolled it out onto the countertop.  The fun part came as we cut out the little Halloween themed shapes with the various cookie cutters. 

 Then it got tricky... I tried to scrape the cookies off the countertop to put them on the pan.  Um, they kind of were like really stuck to the countertop.  Does that mean the dough wasn't chilled enough or that I was supposed to flour the countertop? We may never know.  What I did know was I had a disaster on my hands.  The shapes completely fell apart as I tried to transfer them to the pan.  Ghosts' were were getting decapitated, bats' wings were breaking off, witches faces were morphing into indiscernible blobs.  It was a big, gooey, truly FRIGHTENING mess.  At this point Ben came home from work.  We took a break, ate dinner, and afterwards I made Ben roll out the rest of the cookies.  I'm not ashamed to admit, he did a much better job than me.  The cookies were finally baked…  never mind you couldn't really make out what the shapes were.  They were edible cookies, that's all that mattered.

It was time for bed (yes the process took us this long) so I said we'd frost them another day, hoping the girls would forget all about it.

A few days later we were talking to my mom on FaceTime when Em told her we made sugar cookies.  My mom asked excitedly, "Did you frost them?!?!"

Thanks a lot Mom.

So, it was back on.  

What da ya know, frosting turns out to be a huge mess too with several different bowls of different colors and lots and lots of sprinkles.  But we had a good time anyway.

Caroline frosted a total of ONE cookie, and ate a total of about 500 sprinkles

The cookies were finally done!  This may be the first and last time we ever make sugar cookies!  I think we'll leave that realm to Nana.

In other Halloween news… On Halloween Day I volunteered in Emily's classroom.  It was super fun to see her in her element

Her class paraded around the school in their costumes.  

In the meantime, C got her face painted at preschool

Getting ready for trick-or-treating. Of course, both my girls were princesses.  As if there was any other option.

And our little Tyrolean boy, or Prince Philip, which ever you prefer 

Trick-or-treating around the hood

Overall, it was a blast, but I'm glad it's over until next year!

Fall, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

So, fall in Germany rocks.

The past two autumns we have spent in sunny California.  As much as we loved living in Monterey, we didn't exactly experience fall in the traditional "changing of the season" sense.  

So it has been fun to have fall in full swing here

Right here on RB as we were walking to the playground

And October rivals August for the best month of weather since we've been here.  Lots of blue skies and sunny days.

The girls playing tennis for the first time.  Notice C's racket is about the same size as her

Out for a morning stroll, just outside the front gate.  

The vines are beginning to change color... magnificent greens, yellows, and reds

The Neckar River.  Some random elderly gentleman stopped me and asked if I wanted to be in the picture.  At least I think that's what he asked me

The park on the other side of the river

Here's an exclamation point for ya, Mom.  My mom couldn't get over how much exclamation point signs there were here in Germany.  She found it very alarming

More tree climbing with Ellie on the way home from school

The park across the street from our building

 We spent Saturday exploring a nearby town, Tubingen:

And can't resist throwing this one in.  We can't get enough of this little guy.  

The Alps!

Here's the LAST installment of pics from our adventures with Pat and Nancy

We went to south-western Germany to the Bavarian Alps!  We stayed at the popular resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen

The first three days were a bit of a let down, since there was an inversion and we couldn't see jack squat.  We just had to IMAGINE we were surrounded by mountains.  

And I had arranged for our family pictures to be taken at this pristine lake at the foot of the tallest mountain in Germany.  Oh boy, it was going to be BEAUTIFUL.  I got the girls up early, bathed, curlers in hair, baby decked out in his lederhosen, you know... all that's involved with getting the family "picture perfect." 

We showed up at the lake at 10 a.m, only to find it completely covered in FOG.  As in you couldn't see the water, or a tree, let alone the beautiful mountains behind it. 

Boy, was I not happy.

So we cancelled our photo shoot.

Sob, sob.

And instead we took a cable car up to the highest mountain... the ZUGSPITZE.  

Doesn't that sound like the perfect name for a formidable German mountain?

Luckily, we were able to ascend ABOVE the clouds and for the first time saw the sun and blue sky

The ZUGSPITZE... (I think it looks more impressive when it's in caps... haha... no pun intended) is 2962 meters high... that's 9718 feet!!

On top of the ZUGSPITZE. Caroline, not so impressed

Can you see the tiny cable car to the left?

People clambering up to the very tippy tip top.  No thanks, not for me.  Back in my heyday I would have, no sweat, but I've turned into a total wimp since I've had kids.   If I slipped off the top of the ZUGSPITZE, who would take care of my little James?  Although I gotta say that would be an amazing way to go

And in keeping with typical German tradition, there's always food involved no matter what the attraction.  There were like six biergartens up on top.  

 Gwampa and Em having fun cross-dressing, or rather cross-accessorizing  

  C achieves celebrity status

See how cute she was ready for the family pics?

The next day we went to Neuschwanstein Castle, home to Ludwig II. 

 I consider this the Eiffel Tower of Germany.  It's the most visited attraction in the country.  It was crowded, but fun to visit anyway.  

The surroundings are the most impressive part.  As Nancy said, Ludwig knew all about location, location, location!

There's plenty of intrigue and mystery surrounding Ludwig II.  He only lived in his castle for a few weeks before he was found dead in a lake!  Yes, along with his psychiatrist who had just deemed him mentally insane the day before!  They were found in waste deep water... and Ludwig was an avid swimmer, so who knows???

The next day we went to the Partnachklamm Gorge... it reminded me of the Narrows at Zion

Pat and Nancy stayed back with the kiddos so it was fun to have some Ben and me time

That night it SNOWED.  

Beauty

And the Beast

We went shopping in the Christmas town of Oberammergau.  It took me the whole trip to learn how to pronounce it

And the Linderhoff Palace... Ludwig's summer "villa"

The girls played lots of hide-and-go-seek with Grandpa.  

And Caroline insisted on sleeping in the closet

And the last morning of our trip... Lake Eibsee

So NOW the sun comes out!  This is where we were supposed to have our family pics

Ben and I got to bike around the lake and the views will not soon be forgotten!

Yep, that's the ZUGSPITZE in the background

And we were able to FINALLY get our family pics taken that day, but at a different location that was much less impressive and sadly, they didn't exactly turn out as hoped.  Either James' foot is in Caroline's face, Em is holding her crotch, or my thighs are looking as round and plump as ever.  So, maybe I'll post them another day, purely for entertainment purposes 

The train ride home... the end of our journey.  James was a champ for the whole trip