A Halloween Kind of Weekend

Well Germany has found its cold streak. Its been in the 50s here, on a good day. And yesterday (Saturday) was one of those. We heard about a local pumpkin patch in a nearby village, so we looked them up and headed out to visit it.

Halloween here in Germany isn't like it is in the states. There aren't halloween decorations up in everyones yard, nor are there halloween seasonal shops where you can go and buy costumes. Its definitely an American thing. Therefore, finding a pumpkin patch that we could go to was great! It was run by a German farmer, and it wasn't anything like the states, but it made us feel at home -- you'll understand as you look through the pictures. :)

We headed out about driving with Josh and Lindsey (who is Scarlett's sitter from time to time), and drove about 15 minutes away from base before we arrived to this pumpkin patch. It was in a gorgeous area, full of rolling hills and cows on the hillside. There was just a small plot of land that the farmer had planted pumpkins, which became the pumpkin patch. Absolutely nothing fancy, but just a piece of land full of pumpkins.

When we first arrived at the pumpkin patch, Scarlett had her first encounter with a "Moo-Moo Cow," as quoted by Joe. At first, the cow wasn't sure about Scarlett, but soon warmed up to her, as he let her pet his nose and even slide a thumb into his nostril. That gave us all quite a laugh.

Josh & Lindsey with the "Moo Moo Cows"

Daddy & Scarlett 

After she had her fun with the "Moo-Moo Cows," we went up and went on a "Hay rack ride." However, this hay rack ride, had no hay in it. It was a tractor trailer that we stood in, while we went to the farmers farm. When we were at the farm, we were able to see pigs, horses, cows and chickens. ....this is what reminded us of home, as I'm sure you could imagine.  :)

Our Hay Rack Tractor Ride

Scarlett All Bundled up for the day! She had her Halloween outfit on from Kaylie, which arrived here just in time! We got it on Thursday and I made the headband for it on Friday night --I'll post this at the end of this post. It came together great. :)

More of the "Moo Moo Cows"

The pretty horsey at the farm

Scarlett wasn't so sure about the horse. She didn't really want to pet it, like she did the cows. She just kept chewing on her thumb. No, not sucking on it, just chewing on it.



Scarlett still nervous about the horse - as you can see she is starring at him.

The piggies, which love pumpkin apparently.

These next pictures are of Joe and Scarlett chasing the chickens. He found it necessary to chase the poor little chickens. But, of course took Scarlett with him when he did it. I should have recorded it, but didn't think of it at the time. My bad. But, here are the pictures. We were all laughing so hard. It was great fun!

After the chickens, we headed back to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins, but not before Scarlett fell asleep. She was completely tuckered out from seeing all the animals that she didn't even get to help pick her pumpkin --but, maybe next year. :)

Such a sweet 'lil thing. :)

After we got our pumpkins, we headed home and had a nice evening in, while we worked on some crafty projects that needed to get done around the house...

First Project: I put the sewing machine to Joe's uniform. He needed his name tapes and operational badges sewn on some new tops that a friend passed down to him that he had grown out of. So, now instead of Joe's one top that he had, he now has FOUR! :)

Joe ironing his operational badge to size

Second Project: On Friday night, I made Scarlett's headband/bow to go with her halloween outfit. All babies look like little boys right now according to Germans, which I do agree with on some level, so I had to differentiate her somehow. The bow worked great and no one thought she was a boy! :)

Found some great ribbon at the craft store for super cheap -- $3! 

Made little bows out of them...

Covered a barrette in orange ribbon, which then clipped on to
an adult size headband....

....and viola! Its done. And it only cost me $3. 

Project Three: Scarlett's Baby Food. I bought a Winter (Butternut) Squash for $4 and a can of pure (not pie mix) pumpkin for $2. Between these two, I was able to make 7 weeks worth of baby food for Miss Scarlett. So, here's the process I took. :)

     

After I cut the squash in half, I scooped out the seeds, and then placed the squash in two inches of water in a baking dish, then into the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes....

 After it came out, it was steamed and soft! Smelled great and kept the house warm. :)

 

Then I scooped out all the squash "meat," added it to the blender with a bit of breastmilk to thin it out and placed it into the freezer containers (ice cube - like trays). So easy!

 

 

The second part to the baby food was the pumpkin. Which, I cheated on, but it is just as healthy... I bought canned, pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) for $2....

 




added it to a mixing bowl, added breast milk, mixed with a fork, put in the ice cube type trays, and when we ran out of those, put into muffin tins....

....and two hours later, I had 5-6 weeks worth of homemade baby food! So easy and tasty for Scarlett! :)

 

We took video of Scarlett trying Pumpkin for the first time this weekend too and we posted it for you to see. Its not super exciting, but we thought you might enjoy an "insider" look at feeding Scarlett. We fed her pumpkin for dinner after the pumpkin patch, which we found it fitting, but it took Scarlett awhile to agree with us.

Video link: http://vimeo.com/30975117

Project Four: An area rug for Scarlett's room. Scarlett's room is an awkward shape (5 walls, one at an angle) and has a lot of floor space. Our house is all tile and white walls, so anything we can do to add color, and create a sound barrier so it doesn't echo, the better off we are.

Scarlett has been putting her self to sleep since she was about 3 months old, but only after some snuggles, first, of course! However, this means that she cries for 5-10-ish minutes and we would like to have a barrier for this, as we have a neighbor, whose living room is opposite of Scarlett's room in our apartment building.

So, there is the need for one. However, I don't want to spend $250 on a rug that we may never use again and we won't get much out of it when we try to resell it. So, I came up with, what I consider to be a pretty ingenious idea. :)

First I bought a slip-proof rug liner for 18euro ($25) --you know, those things that go under rugs so they don't slip when on tile/hardwood? yeah, that thing. (Its below in the picture) Well, it has a great grid on it that I am using to tie fabric through...

 

Then I took left over fabric from the creation of Scarlett's nursery --aka Scrap fabric, which means I didn't have to buy it = free fabric. I cut this up and just started tying the fabric through the square holes and eventually it will turn into a rug, but for now, its a work in progress.

What is done so far.... Well, I actually have about 15 more rows done right now, but no pictures of it to post. I'll take them and post them again soon in a future blog. I'll keep you updated on the progress of it. :)

 

Last but not least, we spent last night (Sunday night) carving our pumpkins! Yes, it was Scarlett's first holiday! Well, other than the fourth of july, but thats not a big holiday over here, so we didn't count it. So, her first festive holiday is Halloween! And after our exhausting day at the pumpkin patch, we had to carve and celebrate the holiday!

This is Scarlett's little pumpkin this year. Its super cute and very Scarlett like -- tall and skinny. ;)

This is Joe and I's pumpkin. Big enough to carve a fun picture into! 

and the pumpkin guts!

....And of course we let Scarlett play in the pumpkin guts!

 

 

 

WHO COULD SAY NO TO THIS FACE?! haha! :)

We also took video of Scarlett playing in the pumpkin guts. We took this on Joe's phone, the only phone nearby, which equates to the sound not being good, at all. However, we did catch it and we thought you might enjoy seeing her play in it! It was fun. It seemed to be a love/hate relationship with her. I don't think she like the coldness of the guts, but loved the feeling of it.

Here's the link to the video: http://vimeo.com/30991222

Just an fyi: She does eat quite a bit of it, however there are no seeds in it. And she had pumpkin the night before. We figured its organic enough that it can't hurt her. :)

And here is the end result of the pumpkin carving:

"Trick or Treat" for the big pumpkin and an "S" for Scarletts. Fitting. :)

As far as updates for us, other than what we have been up to, there isn't much that is new. 

Joe & Alyson are still working and loving it.

Well, if you can believe it or not, I think that is everything that I had to update you on. Lots of pictures, but lots of fun events! I hope it wasn't a photo bomb that was too much to handle, but rather, we hope it was one you enjoyed! :)

Hugs to all across the pond.