romancing the weekend...

Here's to a great weekend for everyone! Enjoy... 

kristin@palmengarten.de

Yay daisies! 

He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me...

The new Pocky Girl! It's Pocky... 

Look Mommy, a red leaf! 

Ok, not the wrong thing in the mouth... 

This is my lipstick, Mommy! 

Pocky, yay!

missing germany #8

This Friday was quite special. Bryan was off to his friend Ryan's home for a play date - not the special part. It's a perfect autumn day with 18 centigrade and a clear blue sky, thus I decided to ride a bike to school to pick Kristin up - I can only manage biking with one kid, however. Yep, picking Kristin up with the bike was the special part. Besides being a great workout, the ride also allowed me to take some exciting pictures along the way to school... yep, I will certainly do this again, if I only have one kid to pick up from the preschool. 

Instead of allowing me to make a pit stop at Grueneburgpark (a public park), Kristin wanted to take a walk in Palmengarten (one that requires an entrance fee, though it doesn't really matter since we have a season ticket, just that I had to go home first to fish out the ticket from my bag). She was exceedingly well-behaved today. Or maybe it's the weather... it was so good, I felt so good... I didn't care if she was whining a little, errm, actually, I can't remember if she did whine, did she? 

By the time we came to this pond in Palmengarten (there are several in Palmengarten), Kristin refused to move. So I decided to start taking a few photos since I couldn't tear her away from the pond and its little drain...

Anyway, it has been pretty warm the whole day. I saw no harm letting her play with the running water: 

In between, I thought I could make a few photos to send in as a photo assignment to Digital Photography School (DPS) which has the theme of "bubbles" for the week. 

I took over a couple of dozens, deleted many... and am still having problems deliberating on which one to send in... 

These are the shots I'm happy with:

Shot 1, shutter@1/60, aperture@6.3, ISO@400, on sub-auto at aperture priority mode :  

Shot 2, shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400, on manual mode: 

Shot 3, shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400, on manual:

Shot 4 on manual with shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400 : 

Shot 5 on manual with shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400 :

So which one, my friends? Will appreciate some critiques... :)

missing germany #7

Remembering Frankfurt, this is Alte Oper (the old opera house): 

The fountain: 

The water: 

Remembering Grueneburgpark, this is the Korean House (built to commemorate Frankfurter Book Fair 2005 during which Korea was the country featured). Looks like I was in the Far East... 

The Japanese Wall: 

I wanted to return to take more shots. But on our way home (on bike), Kristin refused to let me make a pit stop for more photos... sigh! 

Biking and taking photos in this wonderful weather... that's something I'll surely miss... 

missing germany #1

I think I'll miss "the lazy Sunday afternoon in a park" like this one:

At this age, the kids are always fascinated by the things they can find in a park, e.g. wild flowers like daisies and buttercups, dandelions (they go crazy over this one!), stones/rocks, and at this time of the year it's about right for them to start their leaves/acorns/chestnuts collections. 

Today we were out exploring Guenthersburgpark. Fabulous playgrounds for kids! Hanging out there is almost fuss-free for the adults because the kids will definitely be able to find something to do on their own! 

Besides, kids like to hang around too... ! 

Of course, they'll have a swinging good time in the park! 

Note to self: Gotta remember to write about parks in and around Frankfurt.