Our day began at the Wednesday farmer's market. Saffron wanted baby eggs. As is the case with most times at the market, we ended up buying a few other items. Today there was no need to go to the bakery as there were plenty of vendors selling baked goods. We bought a croissant, brötchen, cheese, Kalamata olives, and an apple. Most of these were for breakfast.

Although the sun was peeking through the clouds, I felt a light jacket was warranted. Saffron, on the other hand, refused to wear a jacket. She claimed she was not cold. I was not able to convince her otherwise as she has a mind of her own and one can rarely change it unless she feels the need to change it. At one point she stated her hands were cold but only her hands which she remedied by placing them inside the front pocket of her dress. I believe she was asserting her choice of not thinking she needed a jacket this morning.

The lady at the stand where we bought an apple inquired as to why my daughter was not wearing a jacket, asking Saffron if she wasn't cold and eyeing me as if to wonder why a mother would possibly let her child out of the house without proper clothing. She then continued to tell Saffron she would have to stay home alone if she gets sick.

We walked around the market twice to make sure we did not overlook anything. At one point, Saffron looked into the bag with the croissant and noticed we were given the incorrect item. So, we walked back to the stand where we bought the pastry and stated we were given something which was not a croissant. The lady looked confused and stated "Das ist ein Butter Hörnchen".

I merely thought the Germans had yet another name for a croissant, as was the case with the first bakery we visited last week. The sign in front of the croissant display at the market clearly read "Butter Hörnchen". It turns out the lady had placed the wrong sign in front of the croissants. She immediately took the other bread back and handed us a croissant.

Walking a few stands down and around the corner from the croissant lady's stand, we came upon another bread vendor. I ordered a small ciabatta-type bread with sesame seeds. It was more like a roll but flat.

After my handing the vendor the 1€ coin, he asked if he could give Saffron half a roll of what turned out to be brioche. I agreed, thanked him, and we walked away. Eyeing the bread she was eating, I asked her for a bite since she stated it was the best bread she's tasted. It was soft and flavourful but not greasy as was my experience making brioche myself once.

We turned around and ordered two brioche breads as those were the last two left. I'm sure that was the vendor's plan all along, but I did not mind as it is important to support local vendors instead of the big chain stores.

After breakfast, we walked across the street to the playground. The swing set was Saffron's first play equipment of choice. Back and forth she swung as she smiled over at me saying "hi" and swinging higher each time.

She then switched to climbing the rope structure and mentioned how her sister Cinnamon taught her to climb a certain way this past summer. I worried she might lose her grip and fall, but she was careful.

The next item was a zip-line on which she rode three times waving and blowing kisses as she passed by each time.

Saffron finished her time at the playground this morning by jumping along the rubber bridge - smiling and laughing as she jumped.

The toy store was our next destination. I made sure to note the subway stop for future reference by photographing it. We took the U7 from Wilmersdorfer Strasse to Berliner Strasse at which point we switched to the U9 to Schlossstrasse.

The Werken Spielen Schenken toy store is a large store with multiple levels. The puzzles, games, and books are on the main level, the craft section is downstairs, and the model trains are upstairs. The choices are many and the prices are better than at both KaDeWe and Galeria Kaufhof.

As we entered Saffron walked to the Schleich figures whilst I made my way to the enormous puzzle section. There were three aisles of puzzles, mostly Ravensburger which I prefer for their quality. I bought puzzles for the children for Christmas and saw other games I would have liked to buy them for my home. Unfortunately space is limited in my luggage and other items will have to wait for another time.

After our two trips to the toy store and the Hugendubel bookstore next door to the toy store, we returned to Karl-August-Platz. There were a few food trailers from the farmer's market still parked on the cobblestone plaza.

Saffron requested to go to the playground by the church. The same area where the weekly farmer's market are scheduled. She chose the rope hammock as her first choice of play before moving on to the balancing teeter-totter where she played with a girl named "Ana".

As we left the playground, we observed a group of three teenaged girls by the church on the grass holding a large plastic bottle of what appeared to be cola. They were laughing and shaking the bottle and it appeared there were about to film the ensuing scene of them spritzing cola at each other.

Saffron asked what they were doing. I said they were being silly and doing stupid things. As a mother, I imagine having to wash the girl's white sweater covered in cola - if that is, in fact, what they were doing.

My daughter then looked over at me and stated "I will also do stupid things when I'm a teenager". I have a few more years to enjoy this time of playgrounds and toy stores.