Palace Adventure

Last weekend, in between rain showers, the sun poked its head out for a bit and we took advantage of the moments...

on Saturday, we took the bus to the Chinese Pagoda in the English Garden Park (this park is splendid... groomed and manicured at the south end, wild and free at the north end - and absolutely massive!)

There was a live band playing on the second floor of the pagoda.  The girls loved it (and yes, Kate danced...a little).

 Val saw the horse & carriage rides and desperately wanted to go on one...maybe another day :)  But at least they got their picture with the horse in the background! :)

 We walked through part of the park - every one of us walked a part of it.  Even little Miss Elsie.  We saw loads of people having a picnic, riding bikes, or in paddle boats on the lake.

 We, however, kept on walking, because we were on our way to dinner with a couple of colleagues from Micah's work.  You may remember a certain post of mine of facebook, which included our littlest terror knocking over beer and throwing food on the floor.  Yes, this was the night.  :)

But along the way, Val saw this hotel and LOVED the doors.  Just had to have a picture of them!

 On Sunday, the sun was out in full force and we took the tram 45 minutes to the other side of Munich, to Nymphenburg Palace.  The palace is, of course, huge, but the park behind it was our favorite!

 With some manicured garden-like lawns, but also some untouched growth except for the paths through it), it really was a beautiful sight.  There are a lot of buildings slipped in throughout the park included a hunting lodge, small chapel, guest lodgings, etc.  The girls loved it... especially Elsie (ha! See pic of her below).

 One favorite activity: Playing "Pooh Sticks" on the bridge.  Thanks to Winnie the Pooh, the girls learned the game.  Each participant drops a stick on one side of the bridge, then all run to the other side to see which one comes out first.  Highly entertaining!  But watch out for the other pedestrians crossing the bridge :)

 Back at home...we had a little downtime in our "back garden."  It is nice to have a bit of our own personal space outside.  Although by the end of the week this week, we had 6 neighbor kids visiting, eating cookies with us and looking at our "Frozen" books.  It seems everyone around the world is obssessed with Frozen.  Makes for a great connection for the kids!  

Sometimes though, the girls just like to hunt for "treasures" outside.  To them, a "treasure" could be a rock, leaf, snail, or bit of broken pottery - whatever they can find...

 The stormy rains came the very next day and this last week was filled with lots of time in doors or dodging rain drops as we ran to and from the tram/supermarket.  We are thankful for bits of dry weather or sunshine to get outside and play.  And we're hoping for more consistently good weather in order to do some more exploring soon!