My little monster

Little h got face paints today...

Why won't she pose like this withOUT the make-up? 

I wonder what she'll want to be tomorrow?  If it doesn't wash off I guess she'll be a witch again ;)

Hat give-away winner

Yay! I finally finished the hat for the hat give away contest I had awhile back. He requested a monster but I had to try to man it up a little. I was a teeny bit out of practice so I had a make a couple other hats before I got it right but here it is. I hope the winner's husband enjoys it and still gets a little use out of it this winter since it took me so long to finish. It'll probably be cold in Kansas for a couple more months, hehehe!

I was thinking I should have another contest when my facebook fan page gets to 100 likes. Keep sharing the statuses and referring your friends and you could be chosen for the next hat give-away!

Why people need to watch their kids...

Someone (and it's pretty obvious it was kids) completely trashed one of our parks for 2-5 year olds. They splashed paint everywhere, wrote in it, and left hand prints all over. The paint was dry before it was discovered and attempts to clean it up have not been successful. 

In another blog post I wrote about obstacles. Well one of those obstacles was stairs being blocked off due to damage and vandalism. (This is at a different park.) Kids have been removing the bricks from the sidewalk and moving them to the playground. When it started it was just a few bricks missing. Now over half the sidewalk is gone. There are huge holes dug in the ground (nearly big enough to bury a dog or small child in.) 

and this is where the sidewalk is going...

This disgusts me. I saw a five year old unsupervised at yet another park today. Maybe I'm old fashioned but my child is four and a half. There is no way that she is anywhere near old enough to be out and about by herself. What has happened to society that we no longer pay attention to what our kids are doing? I don't know if people just don't care or if they expect others to take care of their children for them. This isn't something that happened in a span of a few minutes. The bricks at the playground have been slowly relocating for months now. The kids with the paint must have come home covered in it.


 I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the folks that haven't taught their kids how to respect other's property, also are not supervising their kids. I'm sure the lack of respect of the children is a direct consequence of this lack of parenting. I hope that the people involved are caught and that both they, and their parents are punished.  I'm tired of seeing children (especially the young children) out with no one watching them. Some are worried that pointing out these problems will paint Baumholder in a negative light but I say all you have to do is take a good look around for Baumholder to illustrate that for itself. 

(this one is DPW's lovely work)

Unfortunately this isn't isolated to children. There are cigarette butts, dog feces, dirty diapers, empty liquor bottles, pregnancy tests, garbage left around the parks and buildings. These things are obviously left by adults. When I find trash at the park near our apartment I pick it up, however this is bigger than what I can handle. Quite frankly, it shouldn't be left on the shoulders of a few that want where we live to look nice. 

Maybe if we get together as a community we can come up with a solution. The authorities have been contacted but that isn't going to stop this from happening again. Please share this with anyone in Baumholder so that we can raise awareness of what is going on in our community. Feel free to post any comments or ideas you have to help with this issue. If you have any additional pictures please e-mail them to me at hborstaddesigns@yahoo.com and I will post them.

Kaiserburg, Nurnberg Germany

Nuremberg happened to be on our way home from Prague....

The Imperial Castle is a gorgeous restored castle in the middle of Nuremberg, Germany. It was very easy to find although there is no actual parking at the castle. You need to utilize the public parking in the city and walk up to the castle. We were able to find a spot within a couple blocks. You can visit it for free, but you can also arrange for a tour or pay to climb the stairs to the top of Sinwell tower. The view from the top of the tower was amazing. Tickets can be purchased in the gift shop in the inner courtyard. There is also a restaurant just beyond the castle after walking through a tunnel. 

That's the gift shop behind us where you can purchase tickets.

Graffiti at the top of Sinwell Tower

The view from Sinwell Tower

Prague, Czech Republic

After visiting Poland we popped across the border back to Germany for more fuel at the Esso station, and then headed south into the Czech Republic to Prague. Just before getting to the border we found out we are supposed to buy a toll sticker to allow us to drive on the toll roads. Thank goodness there was a little stand at the rest stop where we were able to buy one because we crossed the border shortly after which was immediately a toll road and we did see a police car! The cheapest sticker was 12 Euro and good for 10 days. 

 There was a lot of construction on the autoban and our GPS got us lost for a short time, but after following some back roads, a lot of cursing, and seeing some of the countryside we eventually found our way back to the A8.

Sunset in Czech

Care for some Czech snacks? 

They're so cute!

 It was getting dark as we got to Prague but it was still gorgeous. The buildings were ancient and everywhere you looked you could see the silouette of a steeple. The Czech money only worth about $.05 but that doesn't mean things are cheap. It just costs ALOT of the local money to buy anything. Prices were pretty much what you'd expect to pay. We parked close to the Prague Castle at a parking meter. There was a money changing stand right next to the parking lot. For 5 Euro I was able to buy 119 Czech Crowns or CZK. it cost 10 CZK to park for 15 min (about $.50). The castle was enormous. There were police at almost every corner near the palace. They don't allow pictures of the castle unless you pay for a license and since it was dark it didn't seem worth it, so I have only have limited photos from a distance. We bought some souvenirs and changed some more money to bring back with us.