Celebrating Bonfire Night at Preschool

Bonfire Night is one of our favorite English holidays and it's like the 4th of July in November. This year we get to celebrate it at preschool and since they opened the day up to siblings and parents, Harry and I got to go along to school today.

They set up different stations around the room for the kids to do different activities. Here is Addison drawing pictures of fireworks with Grace on the left and Jessica on the right. Helping her is Miss Julie, one of her teachers.

Harrison jumped right in to decorate some rocket biscuits to eat. His friend Luke is back behind him.

Addison has a go at decorating her rocket biscuit.

Earlier in the week the kids painted little firecracker rockets but they had some rocket decorating today as well. Addison quite enjoys arts and crafts and she loaded up her fire cracker with loads of puffy stickers.

Harrison wanted to draw some fireworks as well...he pretty chalk on black paper. He had a ball and sat next to Grace very well.

They also had hotdogs and tea and biscuits for parents to buy to join in the fun. At the end of the party they piled together a big "bonfire" of sticks the kids picked up earlier in the week on their walk. They put a torch (flashlight) in the middle and pulled all the draperies to get it as dark as they could. Then all the children gathered around and sang songs around the "bonfire".

Happy Halloween - 2010

It's Halloween 2010!!! We are so excited for our big annual Halloween party tonight but also sad since it will be our last one in England. To get ready for our big party we wanted to make some Halloween sugar cookies and the kids really got into making, decorating and eating up lots of cookies.

Harrison was pretty insistent to do them all on his own, but did finally let mummy help out.

Our two little trick-or-treaters - Buzz Lightyear and Belle from Beauty and the Beast....what a super cute pair.

It's amazing how the size of our ISE children's group changes...first year we had 6, then at least 15 the second year and almost 22 last year...now down to a smaller group again. We were short 4 in this picture as the Kieser 6 were a little late...silly Holli marked the start time down wrong, but they got there in time to go trick or treating.

One of our newest ISE families were even able to come - the Epley's. Here is Kyle with little Cheeseburger Cameron.

Trick or treat!!!

Here we are at Wright's front door. Jane told me that the kids had started making Halloween decorations well in advance to the holiday as we set up a big influence on them when we put up all our decor the first of October. (most people on our street if they do celebrate the holiday start setting up decorations around 3PM on Halloween day and trick or treating starts around 5:30PM...so funny!

Of course a fun picture with Lellie...can't believe it is has been three years to the date that I met this little lady...what a sweetie.

Addison and her little friend Louisa. Dear little things hadn't seen each other for almost 2 months and they got only about 1 minute to say hi before they had to keep on treating and Addie to get back to her party. I felt so bad for them both, but they were so cute together.

Hi Molly and Lana!!! Love that hat Lana.

Gotta love American parties in the UK as you sooooo appreciate all the goodies that get imported for such occasions.

My little man digging into the Halloween goodies.

Ah...the Beales' family minus Gemma, but with Emily's other half - Kyle...he's a sweetie. They all got into the spirit this year. Kyle even had a blow up ghost around his neck until my kids got a hold of it. What another amazing get together and hopefully fun for all.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

After a good lie in this morning, the kids and I brought Grandma and Grandpa out to Hill Farm to pick pumpkins for Halloween.

It was a bit muddy and of course we forgot to bring out wellies, but we still had a great time making our way out to the patch to find some good carving and cooking pumpkins.

Look what we found!!! We picked out 6 pumpkins - 4 to carve and two to cook.

Harrison got a fun ride back in the wheelbarrow.

What I thought was pretty unique to this place with pumpkin picking is that you actually pay by the circumference of the pumpkin, not by the pound. I have never bought pumpkins at a patch in the US, but this seemed to be a pretty good deal to me. You just walk up to this board and see which is the smallest hole you can fit your pumpkin in.

When we got home, Grandpa helped washed up the pumpkins along with our shoes.

That night we jumped right into tradition to looking up crazy faces to carve on our pumpkins. I usually draw and everyone else carves.

This year Kevin picked out a skull with flames coming out of it.

The most amazing thing about the day is that we found out that this was the first time ever that Grandpa Mike has carved pumpkins. You can certainly tell that he had a great time from the ear to ear grin on his face. Harrison did a great job helping him out. So glad that we could share a lot of firsts over the past few days with Grandpa and Grandma.

Leisure Day in Munich

Today we wanted to focus on letting the kids have a little fun time as we made them go through a lot the past few days. Number one priority was to make it to a playground and our destination was the Englischer Garten (or English Garden) - largest city park in all of Europe! We stopped by the infamous spot on the Eisbach which is a tributary of the Isar River where they do river surfing. Obviously not the season for surfing yet but those waves are pretty amazing.

As we made our way up through the garden we did happen to come across a little playground and we enjoyed a better part of the morning there with the kids.

They absolutely love those huge swings that they can lay on. With them both bigger now they enjoying laying opposite of each other and it was so cute to see them hold each other's hand while they rode.

I think she's a future Olympian!

With all the fall foliage around it was a good time to just get some fun little pics of the kids to really capture their innocence in an amazing place.

I LOVE this smile!!!!

We came around to the calmer part of the river and it was so beautiful to see the little waterfall, the light shining through the golden leaves...it was a magical place!

We walked across the street towards the Odenplatz, but stopped to check out the Hofgarten. In the middle is this amazing little temple building in the middle of this amazing Italian inspired garden. There were fountains in the four corners with statues of fish and more and what was really cool about them was that they were covered with seashells of all shapes and sizes.

Lining one side of the Odenplatz is the Residenz (royal family home). During the time of Nazi occupation in Munich, people would show support of the monarchy by rubbing on the brass lions' noses. When we were here two and a half years ago, we got our little baby Addison to rub this same nose. Can't wait to do the same thing when she a few year's older...

One thing I love about Europe is that it's anything goes when it comes to advertising. This looked like an anti-diarrhea medicine, but Addie thought this lady looked awfully funny...so did we.

Of course no trip to Munich is complete without visiting the HofBrauhaus. It's definitely a bit more commercialized than some of the other beer halls in the city but it was a must to bring Mike and Sally to.

Mike, Sally and Kevin all enjoyed a good ol' German beer during our meal. Just a warning to others...there is no children's menu at the HofBrauhaus so if you kiddos are picky eaters like mine you'll want to bring something for them to eat. For as much as Kevin and I LOVE German food...little Addison Marie dispises it. Sad thing was that they didn't even have pomme frites (French fries) for her to at least munch on. I think she ate two peices of bread with butter, but she didn't mind as she got to dance with Grandma and Grandpa to the Umpa-Umpa band playing inside.

After a little more souvenir shopping, we made our way to the closest Tram stop which was just beyond the Isartor (Isar Gate). It is highly decorated by a painting depicting a battle involving Luwig der Bayer in 1322. The main tower was built in 1337 and it looks amazing even amongst the modern hustle and bustle of the city.

We had an interesting trip to the airport. We had all of our luggage and car seats while on the little tram, but we jumped off after about 5 minutes to catch one of the S-Bahn trains out to the airport. We had to walk about 1/4 mile with everything and down a very steep and long set of steps to make it to the platform. The weather had finally warmed up so it was almost 18 C (about 68 F) and it was a beautiful day. Sitting there waiting for the trains just put me in awe of how amazing the train system was in this country and how I wish it was as easy to travel to places in the US by train because I would do it all the time.

We situated at the airport after have a bit of debockle with Luftsana about our car seats. Apparently in London they felt they were approved seats to use on flight but in Germany they said, "No, No," so we had to figure out a way to check them but not get damaged (we are not lucky at all on those things).

We had a good flight home and enjoyed our little cheese and butter sandwiches on board - well at least Harry and I did. The best thing about returning on this European holiday is that we had a driver pick us up at the airport...it is totally the way to go!

What an amazing trip back to Germany...and we can't wait to go again!!!

Our Return to Munich

Monday morning we took off for the city centre via the tram. It took about 20 minutes to get into the stop by the Sendlinger Tor gate which is really close to the hotel we stayed at the last time we were in Munich. It was so amazing to be walking the same streets we ventured on just a couple years earlier but now with two kids and Kevin's parents. It felt like going home again.

For a new thing for us to see we stopped into the Asamkirche which is one of Munich's most ornate and unusual church's. The church was built by two brothers who intended for it to be their own private church, however, the church hierarchy demanded it be open to the public. The last time we were here we couldn't get in so this was a treat. It is absolutely amazing inside but dark in a sense that it was a bit creepy.

Down the street a bit we discovered a little plaza with a fountain and some stone cattle. The kids were so excited to check them out with Grandpa Mike. They even took a "ride" on them for a while.

We made our way up to one of my most favorite squares in all of Europe - Marienplatz. It's dominated by the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) which holds the famous Glockenspiel that chimes at 11, 12 and 5PM every day. I got a nice picture of Mike and Sally in front of the Mariensaule which is a large column in the square built to celebrate the end of Swedish invasion.

Grandpa helped the kids explore the different sculptures around the base of the Fischbrunnen (Fish Fountain).

Harrison wanted to "help" Grandma Sally take pictures of the fountain.

Since it was pretty darn chilly outside we thought we'd check out an indoor site, so we checked out the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady) which is the largest church in Bavaria. In continuing with tradition we said a special prayer in the church as we lit a candle...thanking God for the wonderful blessings of being able to be in this place (and for a second time).

One of the most interesting stories surrounding the Frauenkirche is the "Footprint of the Devil." Stories say that the architect promised the devil that you wouldn't be able to see a window from the inside of the church in return for the devil to help him build the church. Of course there are windows throughout the church, but it is said that after the building was completed the architect took the devil to a point in the middle of the church where no windows could be seen eventhough all the church goers were sitting in sunlight. The devil got so mad that his stomped his foot and left a mark still visible in the stone floor. Kevin checked out the theory and it seemed to be true.

Afterwards we found a place just beside the church to have some lunch!!

I had a boiled beef with sausages and fried potatoes - ohh so yummy!!!

Harrison was so tired that he was throwing a bit of a fit and he planted his face down on the bench at the table. Funny enough he fell asleep like this and laid on his tummy for about an hour!!!

Kevin enjoyed some lovely German stout...this was an amazing place and we stayed for about 2 hours enjoying dinner and drinks.

Then we made our way down to the Viktualieanmarket via the Marienplatz again. There was a little construction going on and of course we had to pose by the little CAT that was out and about.

What a beautiful city! Standing the edge of the market we look back at the Old Town Hall right behind Kevin and St. Peter's church on the left.

Look at all that meat Harry!!!! Love those sausages!!!

All year round this market has some of the most amazing foods and goodies. Addison thinks it's pretty cool.

Eventhough the beer gardens weren't open yet, we got to enjoy running around a bit. It was just a few weeks ago that these streets were jam packed with beer drinkers from all around the world celebrating Oktoberfest here in Munich. That would an event Kevin and I would love to check out some day, but maybe when the kiddos are a bit older.

We made our way down Neuhauserstrasse which is one of the most important shopping streets in the city. Sally found a trendy German handbag to purchase for her boss (not a cheap one by any means - about 125 Euro!!) Here is our whole family in front of the Karlstor gate at the end of that street.

After a pretty big couple of days and big walking morning, we all made our way back to the hotel. Kevin and I snuck back into town for an hour or so to do some shopping. I was pretty set on getting a really nice bread/meat cheese platter, but when it came down to it they didn't have the kind I was really wanting. I did happen to find a little butter press which I had been searching out ones at English antique fairs, but this was new and looked like something I could use to make meals special. One problem I had was that the instructions on how to use it were in German and she didn't have any English instructions left. Guess I am going to have to have Emily translate as she just got an A in German this year.

We stopped by and picked up McDonald's food for myself and the kids to enjoy at the hotel, so that Kevin could take his mom and dad out for a nice "quiet" dinner out.