Monday, November 9

Lichterfest

McKay's kindergarten hosted a Lichterfest / St. Martin's Day party on Friday evening. It was so nice to go to one of these with Ryan so we could keep up with the kids! With the room lit only by candles and some strings of lights everywhere, the class sat in a circle and sang songs about St. Martin. It was very cute!


The teachers handed out light sticks before the singing began which the kids loved! This is how McKay spent the majority of the songs, waving his light stick in rhythm with the music while sucking his thumb.

Frau Bachmann leads and accompanies most songs on her guitar which is very fun!

Madelien's mom accompanied a song with her super accordian. Madelien is the little girl who had a crush on Easton and followed him around. She's to the right of the blond bob and you can't see her well, but she's a real cutie.

My favorite song was about the wintry weather. They gave each kid a scarf to wave and throw around like the wind. A few times, the song has them lay on the grown and then pop up and throw their scarf up high. A real hit!



Here's McKay with the lantern he made in class. They painted on architectural paper that looks like wax paper without the wax. I love that stuff because they make fun window decor with it at the school! Gotta find some of that!

And more open flames. Fire hazard is not used as an excuse in these parts! There were even some little lit flower pots that Morgan almost burnt herself on because they were ground level. Good thing there were other more observant parents in the room who caught her before I saw her make her way to the open flames!

These fishing rod looking sticks have a light on the end that dangles a little bulb inside the lantern with a switch on the handle. It reminded Ryan and I of that big ugly scary fish in "Finding Nemo" that dangles a little light to attract its meal. I'd bought Easton a lantern when I got the sticks, but don't remember where I put it. Luckily, McKay was just happy to have his lil' dangling light on and let Easton carry the lantern on his stick. The lantern on Easton's stick still has the live candle lighting it.

This week on November 11, our town will have a lantern procession led by a man on horseback with a band accompanying the children and families singing. It reminds me of what we saw in Muerren, Switzerland for Swiss National Day, minus the man on horseback leading the procession. Neat tradition!

The kindergarten sent all of us home with our lit lanterns after a buffet of finger foods. I always wonder what to take to these things, but I made our favorite spicy taco bean dip with tortilla chips. I had a heck of a time trying to explain it to a couple other moms until the word "taco" came out of my mouth and then there were some "aha!" moments. My friend Heike brought a seven layer bean dip that was also a hit with discerning folks. [Ha-Ha-Ha!] I didn't get much to eat because I was chatting. I had fun talking to my English speaking friends, but felt bad I didn't branch out more since so many of the other parents do in fact speak English really well.