The past weeks the weather has been not our best friend here. Most of the days, just like today, everything is just grey and it is raining the entire time. However we also had some nice days on the weekends and we used that time to go on some mini trips with the kids. Here in our state we have visited most of the “sights” and by now we have an idea what the kids like to do.
On one of the weekends we had some enjoyable hours at St. Peter-Ording beach again which we had visited back in August already. The weather was great, sunshine and warm water. This time we even had swimming clothes for the kids and they loved to play in the shallow water. Both can’t swim yet (don’t ask me why, but everyone refuses to learn swimming from me inlcuding my wife) so we could not go very deep with them. During the time of our visit there was high water once again just like last time so we had no chance to go discovering animals you find during the low water such as crabs, shrimps and all kind of small fishes. Appearently the day was so exciting for our Nathalie that she fell asleep immediately when we went back to the car and she was placed in her safety seat.
Last weekend we revisited Zoo Gettorf again. We have been there last time in 2017. Surprisingly on the day of our visit this time they had a family day event and thus the tickets were much cheaper and there were many events in the park. Nathan enjoyed some pony riding (Nathalie was terrified sitting on the pony) and everywhere you could get very close to the animals. Nathan also wanted some children make-up but the queue was too long at each station. Needless to say the kids had also here tons of fun. Best thing about this zoo is the distance. By car we only need 30 min to get there and this makes me wonder why we have been there only twice so far.
This weekend is another story entirely. As mentioned before the weather is really letting us down so we are bound to stay home with the kids. I must say there are more enjoyable ways to spend time with the kids. Especially Nathalie gets really grumpy after some time (Thundergoat) so it is really hard to keep both somehow entertained. In case you have some ideas for such days, please let me know! We have tried board games, drawing, reading, watching shortly some TV but it all doesn’t last long.
By the way, no crazy stories from China in the past weeks. Would love to keep you updated but it is eerily quiet for now. Something like that never happened before so I expect each day now some disaster striking in form of some really weird stuff.
What are your ideas about spending time with kids during weekends?
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Crazy Chinese Family 
Kids always pass out after the beach. Something about the excitement, the sun, the sand. You’d think we would go more, given that we live a mile from the beach, but this is the mighty Pacific, with collarbone smashing waves. And my child has no fear of the water, so it’s a little nerve-wracking. Easier to take him to the pool!
Nathan was the exact opposite on the ride back. He was watching where we are going for the entire 1 1/2.
Here the waves are rather small as can be seen in the pictures, however I remember many beach visits with really big waves in my youth so it was regulated who was allowed more than ten meters in. Big waves were always my favourite:)
Big waves are the best. Unless you have to worry about a small child.
Yeah, I always sneaked off secretly with other kids for some jumps into the waves until the parents came fishing us out. Wouldn’t let nathan do this either except I’m there throwing him into the waves…but first he needs to learn swimming. Going already twice a week to our pool downstairs but he is terrified of having his head under water so I let him just practice some kicks with the swimming boards and basic movements
I have some nieces that hated getting their faces wet when they were younger. Both swim on teams now. Nathan will get there.
I enrolled Baby D in Mommy& Me swim classes at 6 months. He loved the water way too much.
The weather always plays a big part on how to plan trips with kids.We love to do out of town trips when we have both free times from work. I think the big change on our part when it comes to spending weekends or leisure times is that we always look a place where Natalie can play, either a Spielplatz, indoor playground or when the weather is nice, we stay exploring outside. My daughter hates the Autobahn and the moment we exit from Ingolstadt, she screams and knows that she’s going to sit for long! Lol. I guess the only time she didn’t whine was when we mentioned that we go to Legoland or something with Ninjago. Here in the south, we are blessed with fine, late summer weather, right now its great at 20 deg but in the mornings, its back to 7-12 deg. Soon comes the cold.
There’s always something for the kids but normally we don’t have anymore energy after work and Kindergarten!:-((
We usually go 2x in the Library during the week, there she can play with other children while playing Lego ( again!) and now she starts her swimming course and cycling as it is very common here in our neighborhood that Children clutter the streets with their bikes and Roller.
We roll our days like this!
Our kids are thankfully totally fine with our car trips. Sadly we have no real indoor playgrounds anywhere nearby (well there is one but it is a rip off and badly maintained). In fact there is not much here to do at all and also the library is super small. In my youth it was a big one but they moved to a premise only 1/5 the size of the old one 😦
No one wants to learn swimming??? My son has been going for lessons since 6 months but then growing up in South Africa we had so many swimming pools that it has always seemed dangerous to me not to know how to swim.
On the weekends I often take my son to the park or to the indoor “soft” playground in our local leisure centre if it is raining. We also invite his little friends to play often. This weekend I did baking with them and they loved making some muffins and then we went to the fun fair. Otherwise they are generally happy to just all run around together.
They have no interest at all and our son is even terrified of having water over his head. I mean i taught so many kids and adults swimming and now with my family I fail miserably.
Here in Germany around 90% of the kids could swim by the time they were in elementary school and this rate dropped by now to under 50%!
Trying always to paint with the kids at home and do some handicraft work. Thankfully Nathan is now (again) interested in learning reading, writing and basic math which he does on his own sometimes for an hour or more
For now my weekends are just running behind my crawling son and maybe going for a walk, so I’m just here to take some ideas from you guys, haha.
Don’t worry, it will get worse once he can walk! The same day Nathalie did her first step she climbed up the stairs nonstop of the bunk bed in the kids room 😱
Great pictures of the kids at the beach and the zoo. I’m glad you had a few nice weekends.
When our kids were that age, we lived in the Philippines. On ordinary weekends, we went to the pool. With year-round sunshine, they learned to swim almost as soon as they could walk. We always planned overnight trips to the beach and the mountains with other families. That way, our three girls had other children to play with, and we had other adults to talk to.
Sadly here the sunny days are already gone till next year.
Biggest problem for us is our own little company when trying to plan some activities. More often than not we are actually busy also the entire weekend so we can only try to squeeze in some time with the kids. However we also go to some “longer” trips such as Legoland this summer for which we then work ahead and then start working again as soon as we arrive home till late night.
Next week we even have a three day trip to Poland together with my father and brother, but I will have more about that in another blog post. Needless to say that the children are already very excited