Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival 2016

This was a second annual trip to the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival.
You can go here to see last years adventure. 

This year the Pumpkin Festival was all about the Zirkus (Circus)

The Barrel Organ-
is a mechanical musical instrument. The player of a barrel organ, traditionally called an organ grinder, operates a crank handler, which set a control system inside the instrument in motion.
  Often, a monkey sits on the barrel organ, clapping its hands or playing on a triangle. 

One of the most well-known magic tricks in the world is to conjure a white rabbit out of a black hat.
This display even told us how to conjure our own white rabbit.  Super awesome!    

The kids and I loving the Fall decor and beauty of Germany.

My favorite people at the Pumpkin Festival.

The Clown
A clown is a person who tries to make people laugh through his acts.  From the beginning of the 19th century, clowns were increasingly used in circus performances.  The outfit of a typical circus clown consists of various parts.  He often wears too large, colorful clothing, a wig and a red nose, and creates a witty inappropriateness through exaggerated contrasts.  A special feature is also the face make-up, which varies depending on type of clown.
The pumpkin festival had many clowns see below.

The Tiger
The feet of a tiger jumping through a ring of fire is part of a every good circus performance. It takes years of practice for the coach with the predator, otherwise this could be dangerous for the audience.  The art of training predators is controversial.  The conditions on which the animals are kept and transported are often criticized.

The Tightrope Artist-
Tightrope walking refers to an action in which once or more persons walk, dance, and perform other feats on a taut or slack rope. some for darings feats are jumping, sitting on a partner, skipping, riding on a unicycle, back flipping and forming a 6 man pyramid on the rope. 

The Circus Wagon
Wooden caravans are referred to as circus wagons or Vardos.  They serve as the circus artist' living quarters and as there means of travel.  Because of their size, the wagons are often pulled by tractors. 

Another clown.

Lots of clowns at the Circus. 

Brooklyn, Kayden, and Chandler having fun with the squash. 

We love trying the food at the different festivals.
We got salted, hot, and cinnamon pumpkin seeds. 

This year we tried Pumpkin Broughts with Pumpkin Kurbis (Ketchup)
and a Pumpkin Burger that was delicious.   

Pumpkin Ketchup.
Jeremy thought it was delicious,  the kids and I all tried it.
We didn't care for it.  But it was fun to try.

We even tried the pumpkin drink.  It was not good, at all.
It was like they forgot the sugar.  We didn't even finish it.  But we had to try it.

Here are some gymnasts catapulting onto the pyramid. 

The Artist Pyramid-
The highlight of a circus show is the artistic feats of the gymnastics. The artists often form a human pyramid.
This takes years of practice and trust between each person.

The Vaulter-
Vaulting is a type of sport, in which gymnastics and acrobatics are performed on a horse moving in circles.  

In addition to the gymnastic skills, as in all equestrian sports, knowledge and skills in handling the horse as a partner are most important. 

The Circus Elephant-
Circus elephants are tamed by humans, they are taught various tricks. They perform these tricks during shows.
Asian Elephants are considered more easily tamed, and are therefor more commonly used at the circus than African elephants.  

Kayden on one of the largest pumpkins.  Can you believe how big it is.
My boy is almost 17 and can sit on this pumpkin. Wow!

The Birthday Girl.  Brooklyn turned 14 today.  Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Just a boy and his Pumpkin.
My super cute Chanman. 

Jer and I look so little next to this Pumpkin.  I wonder how many pumpkin pies you could
make with this pumpkin?  Crazy!

The Knife Thrower-
Knife throwing is the art of throwing knives at a target, so that the knife gets stuck in the target with the tip  

In the circus, the knives land mostly around a person standing directly in front of a target.  Therein lies the thrill

Knife throwing is also widely practiced as a sport and as a hobby; knife throwers are organized in some countries in clubs which hold competitions. 

Chandler in front of The Circus Wagon.
This is Super appropriate because, he is our little actor.

Kayden the clown.  I think he could make a great living as a clown.

We got to see one of the master carvers at work.
This was so awesome.  It took him 4 hours to carve this face. 

He had a mirror above his head so you could see him work on the face.

Look at how cool these faces are.  

We were all super impressed. 

I wanted to take this cute guy home.
I would love one of these at my doorstep greeting all our friends.
We had such a wonderful day learning all about the Circus.  Thank you
Ludwigsburg for a super fun day.  We can't wait to see what next years theme will be. 

Birthdays at Europa Park

Brooklyn wanted to go back to Europa Park for her Birthday.  So she invited Bryton to come with her.
Kayden tried to find a friend to go with him as well as we were kind of celebrating both October Birthdays with a trip to Europa Park.  But alas two of his friends were out of town and the other one couldn't come.  Sad :(
So Kayden got to spend the day with Brooklyn, Bryton, and Chandler.
The kids were so excited to be able to explore the park for 10 hours without any adults. (We kept in touch via phone.) 

Jeremy and I had a fabulous day.  We go to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.
Having teenagers are the best.  They are so fun, full of life and INDEPENDENT.  How fun to have
the entire day with my sweetheart.  And just look how festive the park was today.  

I love this MAN of mine.
 The massive Pumpkin behind us is Eurosat rollercoaster.
They decorated the inside of the silver sphere with lots of Halloween decorations. To go along with the stars, planets, and meteorites.  You get to ride in a space craft to the top of the sphere.  You all count down together as is falls into the depth of the earth.  They had glow in the dark spiders, and the pumpkins inside the sphere were pretty wicked.

 

I just love how festive the park was.  Every lane was decorated and full

of fall and Halloween.

Eurpoa Park was completely decorated for Halloween.
For a Country that just recently started celebrating Halloween, they go all out.

Even the bushes were turned into Witches. 

The kids did let me snap a picture before they took off
for their day of independence at the park.

We go to the park 30 minutes before they opened.
So I got to steal a couple pictures before the kids left us. 

Our first ride was The Silver Star.  It is one of the biggest and highest rollercosters at Europa Park
It's one of my personal favorites.  The kids RAN to the ride, where Jer and I just walked.  (Again super cool to be able to go our own speed.)  We were a couple rides behind the kids.  But I was able to snap a picture of the kids.  Have fun loves.

I loved all the Halloween decorations.  

This picture was suppose to capture how cool the lights were on the
Halloween decorations.  Umm you can't really tell how cool it was.
Picture fail.  But it's still pretty awesome. 

Inside Eurostat.  Awesome, Right? 

What a perfect nice relaxing day.  Here the kids are all running around trying to
hit as many High Thrill rides as they could while Jeremy and I are like yeah this looks
like a fun ride.  It really was the PERFECT day.

We even go to witness a Halloween Wedding.  Well, of sorts.

I think it's funny we saw the kids back at Silver Star.  (No, we didn't plan it.)
We were both in the Front Seat line of the coaster. Again they were a good 4-5 rides a head of us.  But it was fun to snap a picture of them having so much fun.  They rode the Siver Star like 6 times.  Jeremy and I only rode it 3 times.
But we both rode Blue Fire front row as well.  Blue Fire is another favorite roller coaster of ours.  

This picture captures a little of the ambiance of the park at night.
Full of fall, lights and Halloween.  It almost makes me want to come back for
Christmas to see how they decorate it and how festive it is.  We will have to see.
We will definitely be making a trip back to Europa Park for sure.  We really love this place.