Fall Fun

Our neighbor's beautiful flowers.

I love fall! I love the crisp air, the beautiful clear skies and especially the food! It's been really fun getting into some of the German fall traditions this year, now that the kids are in the German school. A few weeks ago, my big boy and little boy sang with the Kindergarten in the village church for Erntedankfest (Thanksgiving). I couldn't see my little boy's face very well, but in one of the songs the kids waved their arms above their heads while singing the chorus, and I could see his stubby little arms sticking up by his head. He was also being a clown and dancing and clapping, so I got a few glimpses of that too. My big boy did a great job and was taking it all very seriously. :) Our boys were so cute!

Pumpkin fish!

We also visited one of our favorite parks that has a "Kürbisfest" every year. They have themed pumpkin displays set up throughout the fall season. Last year, the theme was fairy tales. This year it was marine life. So fun!

Three out of four Jack O' Lanterns. I need to carve baby boy's today.

For Family Night this week, we carved pumpkins while listening to Wee Sing Halloween, had french onion soup (and cereal) for dinner, and then pumpkin cheesecake and eggnog for dessert. Yum! It was a fun night. The kids drew pictures to show us what kinds of faces they wanted on their Jack O' Lanterns (my little boy just said that he wanted his to have a baby face), and then they danced to the music. Wee Sing Halloween will always make me think of Halloween with my kids because last year we checked it out from the library and they listened to it almost every night at bedtime for about a month before Halloween. And during the day they sang the songs all the time. I loved it!

Something else going on this time of year in Germany is preparation for St. Martinstag on November 10. The kids make lanterns at school and then carry them in a parade. Baby boy and I went to my daughter's class yesterday morning to help make her lantern. It's a pretty big deal here, so it will be fun to participate in that.

For breakfast this morning, I got started early to make Pumpkin Pancakes. Unfortunately, I didn't have any pumpkin, so I just made regular pancakes. As it turned out, most of them burned on my cast iron pan, and the texture was different than my actual pumpkin pancake recipe so the faces were hard to cut out and looked like a mess. And then, after finally getting one that looked good, I dropped pancake batter all over it as I was scooping some batter onto the pan for the next pancake. Fortunately, the kids didn't care. :)

Once the kids get home from school, we'll get their costumes ready, get the house cleaned up a bit (hopefully) and then make some Halloween Soup for dinner.

What are your favorite Fall/Halloween traditions or recipes?