What do Germans love to do in summer?

Yeahhh, 100 points if you said it: "Grillen". As soon as the first rays of sun come out and the temperature rises just a bit, THE Germans take out their barbecue equipment and go bananas on their balconies, in the garden, in a park, wherever possible. And also all sort of stuff can be put on the barbecue: of course various meat, sausages, barbecue cheese, fish, vegetables like corn, mushrooms, tofu spits, zucchini, and so much more.

A few weeks ago when finally some sun came out, even the cashier lady at my supermarket asked me if I would do barbecue on my balcony. And well, no we don't. And in fact just the last weekend was the first time in 2013 that we opened the "Grillsaison" at my parent's garden. And here some pictures:

And here meet the "Grillmeister"

 And at the same time the marinated chicken spits were done on the electric barbecue as well.

Normally you'll also find all kind of salads, bread and sauces or dips as well on a "Grillparty".
And then we enjoyed all this.

Puppet Theatre "Der Hase und der Igel"

As some of you know, I work in a kindergarten and I love theatre. So a while ago I found this great puppet theatre at my Kita and got the idea to show the kids a puppet play. I came up with the story of "The Hare and the Hedgehog" (oder "Der Hase und der Igel"). I got some felt and made these hand puppets. I used a hot glue gun to glue the felt together and out came some pretty puppets: A rabbit and a hedgehog man and hedgehog lady.

This is what they look like:

I took my idea from the children story and changed it here and there a bit to make it funny and interesting for the kids. In the the end of my story the rabbit doesn't die but rather he becomes friends with the hedgehogs and they'll share a big yummy ice cream.

Although it was a bit challenging to operate 3 puppets with 2 hands at the same time (when they are running the race), it worked quite well and was fun. I heard the kids laugh at the places I thought they would and talk to the puppets when it seemed appropriate. Surprisingly the kids sat quietly most of the time. This is usually a big challenge for them. 

Sorry didn't take any pictures of the puppet stage but here just the background with the hedgehog's house:

Tulips to pick

Driving along the B5 on our way to a little longer weekend trip we passed this beautiful tulips field. It's just at the entrance of  Ribbeck. Read about the sweet little place Ribbeck in a previous blog entry here

See an older post of mine when there were sunflowers to pick.
here


You pick the flowers yourself (knife provided) and leave the money in the box.

Colors of Spring