Fasching

It's Fasching time again here in Germany. It is similar to Carnival or Mardi Gras in other countries. It is really celebrated on Fasching Dienstag (Tuesday next week), which in England we call Shrove Tuesday. The children are given the rare opportunity to dress up. Today all three of mine have gone to school in costumes, as today is the last school day before the Fasching holiday. yesterday Jemima also had to wear fancy dress to her ballet class too!

(Jonah is a character form his favourite computer game..Minecraft.)

Skiing in Ochsenkopf

We have been having temperatures of between
-14 oC and -20 oC for several weeks now.

On Saturday we headed north to the mountains near Bayreuth to go skiing. We drove to Ochsenkopf which is only about 1.5 hours away from where we live. This is a different place from the Bayerischer Wald near the Czech Republic, where we have been before. The children are getting more confident skiing now and after one attempt to use the tricky draglift on the beginners slopes, ventured on the cable car up to the top of the mountain and skied down with Pete.

Getting ready ....it was at least -14oC!

Jemima:

 Jonah:

 and Elijah:

 Remembering how to do it;

Waiting at the top before going down for the first time:

 What was at the top of the mountain looking the other way:

 Pete and Jemima return a second time:

 Followed by Elijah and Jonah:

My beautiful daughter:

Down for a second time:(Jemima,Elijah and Jonah)

 Jemima and Elijah:

 Elijah and Jemima:

 Pete on his Snowboard:

 Jonah:

 And me.....after taking the photographs I put my Nordic Walking poles into action and spent an hour walking down the mountain:

 I was nice and warm with my four top layers and three pairs of trousers on under my 'duvet' coat!!