Lots of fun in November

November was a busy month! I got a half of a huge pumpkin from my mother-in-law and made three pumpkin pies, three batches of pumpkin muffins and some pumpkin soup. Andre always gets enough of pumpkin soup really quick, but I like it--especially the pies! Ha!

 

 

At Kindergarten, it was Lantern Festival. All the kids, parents, grandparents and whoever else come for an afternoon of food and play. At the end, everyone pulls out their lantern and we do a walk around the neighborhood in the dark. The boys really enjoyed it!

Elliot knew exactly what he wanted to give me for my birthday. I had some really soft fleece and flannel that he had used for his Papi's birthday present. He had asked me to make a heart pillow for his Papi. He picked everything out and I sewed. He told Papi he wanted to make a heart pillow for my birthday. Papi--could you please sew it? Papi said yes. Guess who ended up sewing her own birthday present? Me! Hahaha! Elliot really put some thought in it! And his heart too.

 

 

Nolan also knew exactly what he wanted to get me for my birthday. A dress. Papi tried to talk him out of it by asking if we could color a picture for Mommy? Maybe a picture of himself? Nope--he wanted to get Mommy a dress. Okay. So he and Papi went shopping. They walked in a store and Nolan spotted his dress right away--it was glittery. He was so proud I could have cried! Such a sweet boy.

 

the dress

 

Nolan would just love to go to school with Elliot!

Hiking Day with our Kindergarten

We had a hiking afternoon with our kindergarten--I took the boys and they did great.  I had the boys take their wheels since I knew we had to also get home.  Most of the parents had a car and could then drive home. Since Andre was at work, I decided that letting the boys have their wheels instead of walking the whole way might be a good idea!  The hike was about 30 minutes and then the kids got to play for about an hour.  It was a fun afternoon.

It was pretty hot, but I had enough water with me!

Cheeseballs!

They just ran and ran!

 

 

 

Elliot's 1st Day of Kindergarten

We have the first day of kindergarten in the books!  Kindergarten is the German word for day care/pre-school.  For the young ones (one year old), it is day care.  The older the child gets, the more it turns into pre-school and pre-K. It is a false friend in German and English--so NO, I did not spell it wrong! :)  Elliot will be four this month, so it will be more pre-school for him.  Kindergarten is a huge part of the system here--they have Kindergartens all over the city.  We picked one that is close to his elementary school.  When he starts school, he will already have little people he knows.

 

We are actually very late in sending him.  In this part of Germany, most of the children start at one year old.  The rest start before or at three years old.  We are very thankful we could keep him home until almost four!