Playmobil Park

I think there are two reasons to why I have long periods between posts: a) how many pictures I have to go through to weed out, which then I don't and end up posting a lot of picture...and b) sometimes I really don't want to write a lot. I know some of you are saying "Yay!" Cuz I tend to write a lot (it helps that I type pretty fast too). But hey! I like to document things so that when I eventually make a blog book, it will all be in there.

For this post, I don't have it in me to commentary much. We'll see. hehe. But I will a little.

There's a place near Nuremberg (sound familiar? "Nuremberg Trials") called the "Playmobil Park." We decided that instead of putting on a party for Spencer's birthday we would take the kids somewhere fun (since there is a lot to do in Germany). Our friend, Brooke, gave us this idea. It's totally for little kids, cheap and perfect for a few hours of fun. It's similar to Legoland, but only by the fact that there are "models" of the Playmobil pieces. But it is geared more towards little kids, just like how Playmobil, in general, differs from Legos. There are no roller coasters... only play things, climbing things, water rivers, and little shows here and there. It was perfect and I loved it. We will go back often.

It was a 2-1/2 hour drive, so we left quite early,and just came back at night. Christine, another one of the girls' BFF's, came with us. I was a little worried it might be too young for them...but in true X&X fashion, they found lots of fun things to do. By the way, did I mention we love Christine? :)

There are lots of pictures...have fun browsing.

Randi, recognize his outfit? We LOVE this outfit. He wears it often and it helps protect is white skin. Plus it's stylish. Thanks, girl. You always know how to treat us right...

This next picture I posted just because I wanted to show the split second right before he fell out of this water river. Yes, he fell out. The plus side? I got to say, "I told you so" in response to Brian's retort of "He's fine," when I asked him to "stand closer just in case he fell out."

This next area was a huge room that had little tracks on it with trains. In order to play with them, you had to sign up on a list and when it was your turn, they gave you the bottom wheels that had the motor, and a remote control. The kids got to control it all around the track, going fast, slow, frontward, backward...take the people out, rearrange the scenery. I think it was my favorite place. hahha. Spencer had a good time too...especially cuz of his obsession with trains.

In the next picture, you can see the girls playing with a whole bunch of pieces. This was the most impressive of the rooms by far. They had large themed sections where kids could put together sets of play pieces (I keep wanting to call them Legos...but they weren't). There was a pirate ship, a play house, a farm, a princess castle. And within each one had bins of the pieces that matched that theme. The most impressive part was that they had employees gathering up broken pieces and throwing them away or fixing them. And all the pieces were clean and looked new. It was like they opened new boxes every day. I was pretty dumbfounded. It was a very good, clean feeling that all these kids' hands weren't all over everything.

The area for toddlers was sectioned off. So smart! Only give them a little place to play and corral them so that they didn't get trampled on, or couldn't escape easily.

Remember, what I said about Spencer's hair...plus "sweaty baby"? This is how I used to style his hair when he was sweaty. This was also mixed with sunscreen so it made it even funner. His hair has since been cut.

Do you love Xanthe trying to imitate the characters?

Of course...Spencer found the rocks...

Can you see Xoe way up there? She was making me really nervous.

Yes, that is Xanthe...then Xoe, catching "air" on this swing.

Can you see the girls in the background playing on the swing? Spencer was having a good time in the sand, and even let me bury him...

Spencer thought it would be funny to step all over Xoe.

Then when we were trying to dig her out, I accidentally threw a huge shovel of sand in Xanthe's mouth. What did I do? I laughed hysterically, of course.

Hopefully if we have family come over here, we can make this a for-sure stop. The kids would love it.