May Day- Labor Day

May 1st is also the German Labor Day holiday.  Prior to that, on April 30th, the Germans like to bring in May with some degree of festivity.  Our little town, for instance, had flyers up on community bulletin boards around the neighborhood advertising a May Pole and food and drink at 4pm on the 30th.  The larger town was having a dance to "dance in May".  Both May Poles and dancing are high on Emma's list of things she loves so we put these events on the calendar.
Mid morning of the 30th our neighbor across the street with the trampoline and the kids, came over and called up to our balcony, "Stephenie!".  Would we like to come on an annual Labor Day walk and BBQ at another garden plot they owned  the next day? Four other families would be coming.  The usual, bring a dish to share, own meat to BBQ.  Yes! The kids were excited.  I was fighting off jitters.  A BBQ with friends in America has the potential to make me feel nervous... what was this going to be like?  Stores would all be closed the next day and we had festivities to attend later that day, so the kids and I did a little more schoolwork and then headed to the grocery store to get supplies.  Hmm. Salad to share.. not potato salad!  Broccoli Bacon?  
We raced back just a few minutes before 4 and I grabbed little containers of yogurt and rolls for snack and threw Anneke in the backpack and we took off toward the city center to see the May pole festivity.  We arrived just as the truck was leaving the fire station after putting up the poles. :(

Two poles they need for May? Hmm. Not what we expected.  Where is the party? 

Apparently this is it, and it is mainly for adults... later that evening... OK. Well, we finished our snack and headed home.  Later that evening JB took Emma to the larger town to watch a throwback of Lawrence Welk dancing.  Emma had fun.  He also had to pick up sausages for the BBQ which I had apparently left at the store.  :(
The next day was Labor Day.  We were scheduled to leave the neighborhood at 10:30 for an hour walk to the garden.  We met several other families and Emma quickly walked ahead with a couple of the older girls.  The trail was steep.  We winded up and around and back... pretty much to where we started! And then veered off again... taadaa.  This family owns another couple acres literally in sight of our street but up the hill.  The have fruit trees, a garden and a fire pit.  The first order of business was to make stick bread!  To do this, you need a stick, cleaned.  Then you wrap a yeast bread dough around it and roast it over the fire. 

Yumm!  Then you begin roasting various meats and feast on yummy salads.  The kids all played a version of soccer in which you just randomly kick the ball in various directions and no one is quite sure who is on their team or what direction their goal is.

Our kids were right in the middle of it.  We did get rained out, though. 

The party headed back down the hill for German cheesecake and rhubarb custard.  Emma asked if she could go up to the park and play more soccer with two other kids.  They came back awhile a later and these three, Emma and Darian and Sophia, joined the large group of teenagers- incl one exchange student from France- playing UNO.

I could not possibly be more proud of my little Emma who joined everything, laughed, had fun and was comfortable being "out of her comfort".  
It was sure an honor to be invited to this family's tradition, their garden and home.