Ludwigsburg

Well, Tuesday will be the beginning of our 3rd month in Tübingen. Wow, the time is flying by, especially now that the girls are in school. Sometimes it feels like we've been gone forever and other times it seems we just got here. It is starting to feel like home - albeit very different from home but we are pretty settled. The fall has been gorgeous and we have really enjoyed the colorful leaves - we are "pressing" about two hundred currently - Jay's books are sure coming in handy! The girls are waiting for the leaves to fall off the trees in the apartment complex yard so we can pile them up and play!! Our 3 dwarf trees in Texas don't measure up!!

This past weekend we went to Ludwigsburg - about an hour away. There is a huge palace there (only 452 rooms) built in the early 1700's with gardens around it. One of the gardens is a "Fairytale Garden" that depicts German fairy tales with animated figurines, statues etc. We were a little lost since we didn't know many of the fairytales but the girls enjoyed it. The real reason we went was to see their Kürbisausstellung (Pumpkin Display). This year's theme was "fairy tales" so as you can see from some of the pictures they depicted fairy tales using pumpkins. I never knew there were that many kinds of pumpkins. They do put squash in that category too though along with gourds. It was beautiful weather accompanied by hundreds of people but very enjoyable. Germans love flowers and all things outdoors and I think the whole state was there!! Karissa's favorite was Pippi Longstocking. That is her new hero since some German boys called her Pippi Longstumpf (the German name for Pippi) this summer when she was wearing pigtails. Enjoy the pictures, they are pretty self-explanatory.

This week we also celebrated Jay's birthday - we won't divulge any more than that! The girls had fun preparing for it. I struggled to bake a Banana cake - I had no mixer, no vanilla (can't buy it here), no counter space, finally found Crisco, and the cake pans are huge! They also do not have canned frosting!!! It was a challenge, it turned out kind of thin and dense but tasted pretty good. Anyway, we had fun and I have until April for my next cake challenge!!


Happy Fall!