Life: Idiotropic

Luci's been off of school this week for fall break. Fall break here, unlike the 2 days off in the U.S., is a bit longer.The German schools get two weeks off. The Dutch and Americans get one week. It would be a great time to take a vacation IF the kids all had the same fall break... but they don't. This week Luci is off, but next week when she's back in school, Tiara will be off of dance, then the week after that both Tiara and Arianna will have fall break from their school. I may keep Luci out a couple of those days so I can sleep in (sleep in??? Did I actually type that??? No... not sleep in, uh, um, take a field trip... yeah... that's it!). Kirk will be working, so we won't do any BIG trips, but I'm sure we'll do a few girl outings... just the little dance troup and I.
Feeling guilty for being indoors on a beautiful blue-skied autumn day, we took a nice walk on Monday to our village vegetable stand to check out their incredible pumpkin selection. Yeah, I'd just been to a different one the day before, but Luci wasn't with us then and she needed the outing. More importantly, she needed to walk. The child, while exhuberant and energetic at home, hates walking and whines after only a few feet. I'm trying to train her feet to move down the sidewalk in a smooth manner and her face to smile while doing so. Today I was successful in getting her all the way to the vegetable stand without once being carried or riding in the wagon. The smile wasn't there, but it will come. I'll make a walker out of her yet.

Our stand is phenomenal! It spills out of the big arched doorway from the courtyard within. One little door leads to the home where the owners live. Another little door leads to a "closet" where they keep a few veggies, the eggs, and local honey. The entire courtyard was lined thickly with piles and piles of pumpkins and other types of squash. It was so beautiful. Martha would have a hay day there with a couple of her staff photographers. A couple of my American friends showed up there too and we were like children in a candy store looking at all the cute shapes and pretty colors. Luci picked out a lot of little ones, so we'll make pumpkin vases for the teachers next week. Elise spent most of the time in the wagon, observing, but not asking to get out and peruse which is unlike her. Still, towards the end I was able to coax her out and she liked touching the cold pumpkins. Here and there, peeking out from the pumpkin piles and hanging from the walls were these little witches that looked more like someone's grandmother than a scary thing. Burlap kites in fall colors hung from the walls too.

After we got our pumpkins I went to the Greune Warehause to look around. The place is great. You can get plants, toy tractors, boots, sesame seeds, and baking pans all in the same location! It smells like grain and the people who work there are very nice. We got a few big leaf decorations for our window. I'll post pictures when I figure out how to actually keep them up there. They are "fall" leaves and have done very well at "falling" down everytime I put them up.

That evening Tiara had ballet class and I had the little ones with me, so they all got muffins at Bagels & Beans, then we took a nice leisurely walk back to Tiara's ballet studio taking time to cluck at every chicken, baa at every sheep, and inspect ever tree for holes where the little goblins live. Arianna and Luci called out, "hello, little goblin, are you in there?" Walking down the narrow stairway back to the street we passed this spot of wall where this little striped snail lived. He's really a pretty little guy living in an unlikely spot. The little three and I all stood watching him for a minute. Arianna wanted to take him home.