Kristalwellten

After touring the Giant and making sure everyone had some lunch, we turned the kids free in the Swarovski Garden.  And they couldn't have been happier.  They loved the huge green spaces that they could run and play in and I loved the way the crystals, seemingly everywhere, sparkled in the sun.

1,400 Sq. Meters.  Over 800,000 hand placed crystals.  A black mirror pool.  The crystal cloud is truly the crowning masterpiece of the gardens.

And you can walk right into the middle of the pool to get a water level view!

 Crystals everywhere.

 The Playtower.  What the kids had been waiting for all morning.  It is four levels, all interconnected by webs, slide, and trampolines allowing kids, young and old, to play for hours without getting bored.  And that is what they we did...

 We even ran into S., a friend from Stinkerbell's class and jumped with her for a bit.

 

  The kids loved this one.  The top floor is made of see-through cabling that turns the whole floor into a trampoline (even though they have a special one in the center).  You can watch the floor below you as you jump (and vice versa - we could see them above us).  A bit disconcerting.

They jumped and they slid...

  and every once in awhile they took a break.

   

And then they jumped and slid and climbed again...

We finally dragged them outside again with the promises of the hedge maze.  Shaped like a hand, MadHatter couldn't get enough of getting lost and finding her way back out!

 We extricated them from the maze, and the outdoor playground (not pictured) and the gift shop and the ice cream cart...after a time.  We wanted to get to the gas station for some groceries before it decided to close too.  It was Sunday and with Monday also being a holiday there would be NOTHING open shortly.  We stopped at the only gas station open and did some expensive, but necessary shopping (we were out of beer and wine after all) and took it back to the house.  We were going to get some use of that big back yard after all.

The kids quickly talked the dads into a game of futbol.  And the dads took no mercy on the girls...

Stinkerbell was tired of getting scored on so she took matters into her own hands and while everyone was standing around gabbing and taking a break, she scored the kids first goal...

And MadHatter "graciously" celebrated her first...She already has a victory dance down...

 

And L - he just tried not to get trampled as he played with his trucks...

Game over the girls wanted to try out their hair color kits that we had picked up the day before.  Stinkerbell and L-M picked out bright blue and MadHatter picked magenta.  Since it was semi-permanent and had no ammonia or bleach we didn't know how well it would actually work but we gave it a try.  The blue definitely worked better than the magenta but that could also be because MadHatter's hair is almost black it is so dark.  See if you can tell that we actually did anything...

We were all exhausted and the kid fell asleep almost immediately.  Fresh air and the sunshine will do that to you and we haven't had nearly enough of it this spring.