Forrest Playground in Leimen

A colleague had recommended a playground in the woods outside Leimen which is only a 20 minute drive away.So on a sunny Saturday morning we drove there to check it out
A climbing three was not really an official part of the playground but still was fun

There were some goats that liked the bread Mia had brought

 Later we went for a little hike and Mia also fed some deer

After a few hours in the woods we drove down the street for a few minuted and stopped at a fancy beer garrdem

Mia helped some other children to look for tadpols

The same lake was also used for some wedding shots but all worked out

There was also some art work Mia enjoyed

Project Day at School

Friday afternoon all parents were invited at school to see some presentations related to the recent class project. Mia's class had done something about the Forrest

They had set up a food path for exploring with closed eyes in the class room

.After it was Mia's turn she helped one of her class mates

There was some reading material as well

There were also cakes donated by the parents

 Some activities in the gym

Later many children stayed to play in the school yard because the weather was so nice - a few days earlier it was cold and there was even snow in the morning

Technologie Museum Mannheim

On an unusualy cold day with a mix of sun and sleet and hail showers we went to see the Technology Museum in Mannheim which featured a special beer exhibit

In the first part the steps how beer is made were explained

The exhibit also covered advertisement and beer coasters that are made out of cardboard. Children could make their own with different stamps. We now have quite a few at home

The dangers of alcohol were mentioned as well

Of course one could sample some beer at the end and pose for a funny picture

In other parts of the museum one can see a replica of the first automobile ever with a for stroke gas engine that was build 1888 in Mannheim by Benz

In the back is an Opel 4 - the first mass produced car in Germany starting in 1922

Helping with Dinner

Saturday we had invited some neighbors over for dinner and Mia helped a bit with the preparation and wanted to see how the Chinese dumplings were made

All the kids . and the adults - enjoyed the food

A new baby at the zoo

On the way back from the Explo we checked out the new orang-utan baby that was born at the Heidelberg zoo on March 21. Before we entered the zoo there was a brown bear very close to the glass that a lot of children wanted to see - including Mia of course

After an hour at the playground we finally saw mother Sari and her baby Berani

Explo Exhibition

One option for a recent field trip of Mia's class was a trip to the Explo exhibition in Heidelberg. Since Mia didn't know what is was she signed up for a trip to a farm instead. Since the exhibition is only a ten minute bike ride from our place away we decided to check it out this Sunday.
The space was not very big but there were quite a few interesting displays about science and nature.
First we checked out a cabin with mirrors on all walls:

Then it was time for a little break at a table

A optical display were part of a text was readable when looking through a glass cylinder and the other part was npt needed a little explanation

 Then we took some pictures in a little room where heights seemed a little bit off

Mia trying use a laser pointer to point out the mouse hole where a sound comes from - something that apparently come naturally to n owl. Its not so easy for a human.

Checking out shadows

A nice set up of mirrors where a face is mixed up with the one of the person in front of you

Bike Tour to Ladenburg

On a sunny and warm day tried a longer bike tour to Ladenburg which is about 10 km away. A few days earlier we had bought a new bike helmet for Mia and some saddle bags for the bikes since biking stuff was on sale at Aldi - so we were good to go.
To make things easier for Mia we stopped for a few breaks. One was at an airport for model airplanes we we could watch from the fence

 

Then of course we stopped for water

On the last part to Ladenburg the bike trail went past the river Neckar

In a park by the ferry to Neckarhuasen we had a picnic and some ice cream

On the way back we also had a few stops

One was at a beer garden in Schwabenheim a small village right by the river

It was also a good spot to go down to the water

On the last few kilometers we even saw a bee keeper at work