Apple Picking in Mainz and Ramstein Bazaar

I am the most excited about the apple-picking, so I am just going to start there even though the bazaar came first. I have been wanting to take Jack to pick apples for a couple of years now but it never works out and I was determined this year. Garry leaves for California tomorrow for 2 weeks and I thought that he would enjoy going with us, so we made plans to go today -- perfect timing when it comes to getting ripe apples! We drove to Mainz, which is about 50 minutes away and Garry almost killed us on the Autobahn a few times...apparently my MINI has a few blind spots that his Mustang doesn't have and I have pretty much decided that I probably need to drive from now on. That man wasn't meant to drive a MINI. Anyway, it was a cool, overcast day and we arrive (still breathing) at the orchard, Apfel Happel. It is SO cute! They have it decorated really nicely and it wasn't crowded while we were there. The owner was excited that we were American so that her young teenage daughter could use us to help her practice her English, haha! It was so funny (and made me wish I could speak German). They had samples of each kind of apple that they grow outside so that you can taste each one. Jack and I tasted about four of them and it was incredible how different they where. The one we liked best was the Elstar, so we went to the rows and picked some of those. Jack had so much fun looking through the trees to find the biggest and ripest apples!

Back to Friday. Jack did NOT want to go to school and he gave me absolute hell about getting out of the house. At one point, I accidentally called his jacket a "sweater" and he went nuts because he didn't want to wear a sweater. I explained that I accidentally said the wrong word but it was too late. He fell to the ground, closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, declaring "I am dead now." You can believe that I didn't have time for that mess, so I threatened to make him for-real dead if he didn't get his booty up and get to the car STAT! We ended up compromising by letting him wear a different jacket but I was not optimistic about his behavior. When I went to pick him up, his teacher said he actually did great except for one little incident. They were on the playground and Jack told her that he didn't have to line up to come inside because he "is King of the Castle"! She said "I guess I will just have to take a sticker away, your majesty" and he jumped right in line, haha. She knows how to handle him!

After school, we went to the bazaar on Ramstein. They had all kinds of German vendors there, filling two hangars with stuff! Jack got a bubble gun, Garry bought a cowboy hat (yes really, lol) and I got an adorable little Polish nativity scene!

I have to add in one Jack-ism. When he gets irritated about something, he has started yelling "I WANT A REFUND!"

*in line at Burger King* "I want to go home to Bruchmulbach! I WANT A REFUND!"

*sitting too long in the car* "I WANT A REFUND! I have to pee!"

It is so funny when he does it. I never know what this child will say.

Happy Birthday 'Merica!!!

We got to spend our first holiday in Germany and it was Independence Day! It was a really great day!  I have a LOT of photos from this day, so this is pretty much going to be a photo-blog.

(I make the photos I love most extra-big.)

Jack wants to type something:

  der grandmama, you r prette cool. i mes you.

Yeah..he typed all of that himself. The only thing I told him is where the "Y" is and how to end a sentence with a period. My barely five year old can spell "grandmama".  O_o

Mugging in front of the ferris wheel.

On our walk to the carnival, he found some weird red berries.

Okay...I adore this. He "stuck a fevver in his cap and called it macaroni" all by himself.

Ooh he is handsome!

He had his hardcore face on....

...until he started bumping into people, haha!

Then he mugged for the camera some more.

Daddy won him a Spongebob

He hit 25 balloons in a row!

Behold, the fearsome Bald Eagle!

He loved his Spongebob

Some of our food

Sweet Tea!

The Ferris Wheel

Ferris Wheel Time!

 Going up on the Ferris Wheel with Mommy!

View from halfway up

View of the cars from inside our car

View of the American and German flags near the flightline

He rode the firetruck ride but he was apprehensive of the fake fire extinguisher

He looks skeptical.

My Captain America! SO handsome!

He liked his face painted

His one turn on the bounce house

Just before he got mad when I didn't let him crawl back up the slide and into the bounce house.

Meal #2, before fireworks

He almost lost it!

Some brilliant mama brought bubbles!

Mr Cross-Eyes

Oh my gosh, he is so filthy! D:

I kinda love this photo. He looks like a dirty little pagan wizard child with a crystal ball, lol.

FINALLY!!

Fireworks!

These were really pretty.

Illuminated by a red firework

Had to make this one big! It was so colorful!

Jack was pretty transfixed

So colorful and pretty!

EDIT// I had to edit this blog right quick to include something that just happened. It is like 2:00am here in Germany and Jack won't go to sleep and he got mad at me because I shut the computer and started to walk out of the room. I told him we were going to sleep and here is how it went:

Me: "Jack, we are going to turn off the lights" *walking toward the bathroom*
Jack: "You are mean and I don't even know you anymore. You are not my Mommy. I don't even know who you are. I don't know your name. I don't know your birthday. I don't know where you were born. You are like a stranger or something..."
Me: *sitting on the potty, laughing like crazy*
Jack "...and I guess you could be a bad guy cause you are a stranger now. And I don't know what your favorite color is and...  Mommy?  MOMMY WHERE ARE YOU?!!!"
Me: "I am in the bathroom."
Jack: *peeks in to make sure I am there* "Well, I am really a good kid but you are a stranger in there in the bathroom and I don't know you and I don't know where you came from and I don't know how old are you..."