Helga

While walking around the duck pond in the center of the park in Berlin, we met a pug named Helga. Now, we all love pugs, but Ben REALLY loves pugs & this might have been the best day of his life. The kids played with Helga for almost an hour. The pug's owner and I sat, equally content with the energy being burned up. Random people were taking pictures of the pure joy in all of their faces. Such a nice day.

Another pug came by and they just ran and ran.

Sweet Helga

More of the park in Berlin

We found a little cafe around lunch, but all they had for us was a pretzel and ice cream. The kids were happy with that!

Another playground

My little explorers

Garden of Beasts

In the Garden of Beasts was a wonderful book by Eric Larson that Matt & I read in Germany. It was about Berlin during Hitler's rise to power & a University of Chicago professor who was there with his family. Good read. I don't think this was the "Tiergarten," but it was beautiful. Our hotel was just around the corner, but we had no idea that this giant park was there. It must have been miles and miles of parks. The entrance was set back and the kids & I decided to check it out on our last full day in Berlin. We were not disappointed.

Ping pong tables

One of the many playgrounds in the park. They are all made with beautiful reclaimed wood & have natural elements that just let the kids imagine and discover. We especially loved this water spout that we could move around and damn up. So fun!

This is what we found behind the hidden entrance.

Reporter Lil: All of Paris!

The roving reporter is at it again, this time, at the top of Le Tour Eiffel

reporter Lil: Mona Lisa

Lily's very detailed report, on location, at the Louvre.

Reporter Lil: Notre Dame

So, I know this is completely out of sequence, but Lily wanted to share this with her class :)

Legoland Berlin

I guess it wasn't really Legoland, it was a Lego discovery center and way overpriced, but you'd never know that from my kids' description. They had a blast & it was a nice way to spend an afternoon after seeing some heavy Berlin sights that morning.
A few bad things about Legoland Berlin:
It's expensive
Little kids can't go on the one ride and the older siblings can't go on alone AND since the little kid can't be left alone, no one gets to go on.
The ONE ride that both kids can go on appears to be scary, but is, in fact, lame.
There were a few boys playing with the earthquake simulator (pretty cool. you get to see if your building would hold up) and Ben was playing next to them. He didn't realize that a pile of Legos had been set asdie by one of the boys and took one. The boy hit him and Ben was so shocked that he just stood there. Eventually, he ran to me and cried & the boy's grandma did nothing. We've noticed that most parents have a pretty relaxed approach with their kids. They let them work a lot of stuff out on their own. Since the grandma wasn't doing anything and the boy clearly wasn't going to apologize, (plus, I don't know how to say, hey punk, check in with my son, in German) I thought it'd be best if we moved on. I guess that's how boys learn not to take Legos from random piles here.
A few good things:

Bubba & R2



Sassy Indy