St. Martin's Week

I know it has been a while since I posted.    We have been busy, busy, busy with celebrating Saint Martin's Day .    Now that we understand the German language enough to read flyers and signs and we have friends in our neighborhood, we were finally able to fully participate in all of the fun that surrounds this day.   Most of the festivities center around lantern walks.   Susannah made her lantern at school (Sarah Avery and I came to "help."   By help I mean that SA tried her best to tear up all the supplies while I tried my best to distract her with snacks.)   But Susannah ended up with a beautiful lantern that survived multiple evening strolls with her class, with our neighbors, and the final one with our entire neighborhood.   Since all of the walking takes place at night, my pictures are limited, but here are the ones from our last two weeks of life.......

There is a newly renovated playground in our neighborhood so we have been going there after school sometimes. 

SA loves it because she can climb on the equipment and feel like a big girl.

So fun!

Everyday, these two are playing together more and more.   And watching it makes my heart so full.

Wheeee.   SA loves to do this, even though it sometimes results in injury.   

She also likes to climb on the slide by herself.

There is also a zip-line at the playground and Susannah loves it.  

She calls it a "zig-zag" though.   

And when I correct her, she tells me that "zig-zag" is the German word.    ;)

I got my hair cut for the first time in close to  a year.  It feels good to not wear a ponytail everyday.   

Peter has had the last week off from work, so he has been taking Susannah to school and letting her ride her bike.   We put the training wheels back on because the steep hills are too much for her without them.  

SA wants to do the zip-line just like her big sis whenever we go to the new playground.  She cries when we take her off of it.   Little daredevil.   

Almost every night after dinner for the past week, we have met some friends to walk around the neighborhood with our lanterns.   The kids like to go in the graveyard across the street from our apartment because it is so dark, their lanterns seem really cool and bright.   I find this 1 part fun and 1 part creepy.   

Walking with her friends.   The kids sing their lantern songs while they walk and no matter how stern or angry a passerby on the street may appear, they always break into a smile when they see these guys with their lantern and hear their sweet voices singing "Meine Lanterne."

On Saturday, we went to brunch and then to the zoo.   Susannah can never decide between the American pancakes or the German pancakes.  

SA was more interested in playing with the leaves than eating her brunch.

We had a great afternoon at the zoo.

SA loved the seals.

And Susannah got to see a baby chick hatch.

Sarah Avery liked watching the 1 week old chicks.  

I can't believe how grown-up they look in the picture.   

Sunday after church, Susannah filled out her birthday party invitations.  

She has been so excited about taking them to school and putting them in everybody's cubbie.

She stuffed them and wrote the names.   She took it very seriously.  ;)

Shoo Shoo came back from Berlin to spend one last night with us.   (And let Peter and me go out for sushi!   Thank you Shoo Shoo!!)

Peter has been taking language classes every morning so he and Susannah ride to school together.  

SA and I follow on our way to the bakery for SA's daily bretzel.

Monday night was Susannah's kindergarten's lantern walk.   Last year, Susannah was recovering from a stomach virus and SA screamed the majority of the night, so we have looked forward to redeeming ourselves this year. 

It was a fun night, but still pretty high maintenance.  
Open flames + 40 preschoolers + dark forest + sleepy 14 month old = high maintenence

But it was worth it to be outside in the beautiful fall evening. 

Especially when the sunset lit up the sky.   This picture does not do it justice.  The sky was bright orange and the lanterns were twinkling along the trail and the leaves were crunching under foot.....It was pretty magical.

We stopped halfway through the hike to sing a lantern night song. 

Our next stop was a big bonfire and a few more songs.   Susannah's teachers passed out traditional St. Martin's cookies and cakes.    And then we made our exit as the wheels were starting to come off the Mallory bus as bedtime drew closer.  

SA and I have finally found some neighborhood friends and have joined a little crawling group on Monday mornings.   Last week, they had a baby pool full of leaves for the kids to play in.   Sarah Avery was a big fan. 

And that was our Saint Martin's week.    This weekend we have Fall Festival with Peter's work and next week we start looking forward to Thanksgiving!   Love and hugs to you all from Stuttgart!