The note that comes home from school announcing the annual turnip parade always cracks me up. “Please be sure your child brings a knife and other cutting tools to school on ____. ” And don’t forget that the 5 graders get handed those mini-flame thrower-things to light all the little kids’ candles with. Pure Swiss awesomeness! (In their defense, it is against the rules to have knives at school just for fun. Some kid in Nick’s 2nd grade class brought a pocketknife to school, threatened another kid with it, and got in a lot of trouble. But, if your class is going on a walk in the forest, then you are allowed to bring one, cuz who knows what you will need to cut. They just use a common sense approach, which I really appreciate.)
Anyway, Sophie and Noah carved their turnips in school, with the help of the fourth and sixth graders. That means Sarah was in Noah’s class helping the kids carve. But she was very sad that she didn’t get to make one for herself. So while she was at school, I carved an extra mini pumpkin we had leftover from Halloween for her. She was very happy.
Alexandra had chosen her turnip out of the big box of them at pre-school the day before, and we had brought it home to keep it safe from the other kids. 🙂 Thursday morning we were supposed to go carve it with all the other mommies and kids at the preschool, but she didn’t want to go. To be honest, I didn’t feel like it either, so we just carved it at home, and everyone was happy.
Sarah, Alexandra and I walked together with the group from her preschool, and Sophie and Noah walked with their school classes. Nick waited at the school for Chris to come, and they took these pictures as we came back. Walking outside at night is always so magical. I just love it. It’s especially fun when you are in a big group and everyone is singing fun songs, and people are waving out their windows at you. Such a simple, fun tradition.
When we got back to the school, we sang a few more songs accompanied by the jr high band, drank some Punsch, and the kids ate their chocolate breads. It was kind of sad this year, though. Normally, there is always hot soup to eat as well, but the group in charge of that didn’t want to do it this year. 🙁 I made the same soup at home for when we got back, but it just wasn’t the same. So I am starting a grass-roots campaign to have it back again next year. If the Elternverein doesn’t want to do it, maybe I can get enough parents together to just do it ourselves. 
Otherwise, it was a wonderful evening, and next year, Sophie and Sarah and I are making pumpkin lanterns together. 🙂