Bensheim Take 2!

So now that we have more time on our hands, we are able to participate in some of the family-friendly things around Bensheim. There is a place here called the Spielerie, which literally translates to "Playful". It is a member-supported game room basically with a really super stocked room full of board games for all ages. They also sponsor activities once in while too. On Saturday we went to our first event, which was a "Rubenschnitzen" aka Pumpkin Carving. I was super excited to see this as an event and to be available to take Jackson to it. Here in Germany Halloween is not celebrated to quite the degree that it is celebrated back in the States, and no where near the extent it is celebrated in St. Petersburg, FL. So to find some community event that was teetering on the edge of spookiness was thrilling to me. We didn't miss it! Now the next feat was to find the right pumpkin. Of course being from Pennsylvania, I had visions of taking Jackson to a u-pick-it farm to hand pick his pumpkin out of rows and rows of possibility. But apparently people don't do that here. I had to justo to the market and hope that there were pumpkins left, which is just what we did. In our luck there was ONE pumpkin remaining! I think it might have weighed 8 Kg. That sucker was big and HEAVY! And did I mention that the market is in the walking area of town? So I had to carry the heavy-a** pumpkin all the way back to the parking garage where we parked. Fortunately it wasn't too far and it did stop me from making any other unnecessary purchases at the cute stores downtown.

The event turned out great. We carved ourselves a pretty darn good jack-o-lantern and met some other really nice families. It was a small gathering, so it was kind of clear that we were the new ones. That was awkward at first, but onc

e we started talking to people it was fine. I'm never sure how people will feel about the fact that we don't speak German *yet. But many of the parents spoke English and Jackson just kind of got out there and started playing. After we carved the pumpkin, they had a campfire where they roasted dough on a stick - no marshmallows here. Jackson loved this. We made three and each one got significantly better. At first he just wanted to put the dough right into the flame. I guess he learned that trick from setting his marshmallows on fire, but the dough doesn't do that, it just gets all black and dirty. So after other adults started telling him to hold it above the flame, as opposed to IN the flame, he finally listened. We had a really fun night and ended the evening by eating Kurbis Creme Suppe and bread with Pumpkin seeds. It was a pumpkin feast! Then came the debate about the lighting of the pumpin..Jackson was sure that the type of candle needed was a birthday candle, not a boring little tealight. So we had to experiment with that. The birthday candle didn't even last 10 minutes, and he finally came to the realization that, "Mommy, you were right."

On Tuesday we went back to the Spielerie and became card-carrying members.