At the Animal Shelter with the Girl Scouts

Part of a project for a bronze award Mia's girl scout group is visiting the local animal shelter and bringing some donations

Mia had asked neighbors and friends  for donations and we had quite a lot

 

At the end Erika and Ha jointed who had arrived the night before from Denver

 

After the trip to the animal shelter we showed Erika and Ha some playgrounds in the nearby Bahnstadt

We stopped for some fresh strawberries at a farmers roadside stand and then had a lzay afternoon at home

At the evening we watched the European song contest

Sports Festival

Like every year in spring Mia's class participated at  a big out door festival. She did really well

Mother's Day

Mia had decided to made a spcial breakfast for mother's day

It turned out pretty well

Fairy-Tale Paradise

When Mia wanted to do something with a friend we decided on a trip to the Märchenparadies - the fairy-tale paradise on top of the Königsstuhl. Its a bit old and more for younger kids but it can stil be fun for fourth graders

It was a bit chilly but sometimes the sun came out

Rietburg

A friend of Ji had recommended the Rietburg an old castle overlooking the Rhine valley from a hill in the Palatinate Forrest for a trip. So on a sunny May day we drover across the Rhine to check it out.
To get up we could use a chair lift

The view was really nice

Then we started a little hike in the woods - including some climbing on rocks

..and of course break here and there

Down in the valley in Edenkoben wes topped for a break

Oriental Land

Another trip took us to a to an amusement park west of Shanghai almost half way to Suzhou  We could get there by metro but it was quite a long trip.

In one section there were statues of famous scientists  - the children saw them more as play options

Issac Newton"s apple

There was also a big playground with looked very much like the ones in Arlington

The climbing was for older children

 The park bordered lake Dianshan

The favorite  section was the one with all kind of different bridges

Another section was for the military with an original size model of an aircraft carrier

The submarine was an original but we didn't want to pay to get inside

Back in Shanghai dinner with an interesting desert - read bean topped with vanilla ice cream