Pumpkin Festival Take Two

I decided to be brave and take the kids to the Pumpkin Festival in Ludwigsburg on my own.  The whole 2.5 hour drive out there it was pouring rain ... I mean, a serious downpour.  I kept repeating in my head, "what was I thinking?  what are we going to do?".  When we reached Ludwigsburg and drove into the parking lot the sun was shining and there were blue sky's!  I couldn't believe it!

My little man enjoying his sweet ride in the stroller

This years theme was Swiss (Switzerland).  Everything was centered around things that happen or these that are famous in Switzerland.  It was a nice little lesson for the kids.

Above are Evan and Paige in front of some oxen with the farmer in the background - can you just picture it happening in the Swiss Alps?

Anika's turn

I loved the flowers.  Where we are there are no more flowers, but the colors on the trees are gorgeous!  It was nice to see some flowers again.

The kids in Heidi's cottage.  I'm so glad that a couple of weeks ago we were able to watch Heidi so they actually knew who this was when they saw it.  They were so excited!

Practicing one of life's important skills

If you ever go to Ludwigsburg Palace don't forget to take a stroll thru the fairytale land.  Last year we had no idea this was here.  We saw Rapunzels tower from the gardens by accident and walked up to it to show Anika but we had no idea there was so much more.  It is HUGE!  And so much fun for the kids!  I mean, how fun is it that they get to experience being a Frog Princess on a chair that raises up and down with a water fountain and Lilly pads?

The kids got to ride this little boat thru more fairytales, such as Pinocchio being swallowed by a whale 

An old witch sticking her head out the window taunting us to come inside like she did with Hansel & Gretel

Here the kids were 'trying' their luck.  I was laughing so hard at them.  They had to time it just right in order to jump the stones and get across to the other side of the pond without getting sprayed by water from between the stone steps.  Evan was the one who got the luck!  The kids were being so silly!  The best part was that there was no rhythm to when the water would or would not spray and we tried forever to figure it out.  When they thought they had it the water would spray them!

This little donkey would spit out golden coins (filled with chocolate) if you put in 20 euro cents.  As we were walking by some lady was trying to catch her coin as the donkey spit it out at her.  She got two so gave one of my kids one.  I told her no thank you because I knew it would create a fight.  We then spent the next 15 minutes trying to get everyone a chocolate coin.  It was actually funny to watch Paige trying to catch them.