Sommerfest in the Kita

I am feeling monumentally tired today. I know in about half an hour I am going to have to drag myself round the supermarket with the kids in tow which is never a pleasant experience, and I think that might be making me feel all the tireder. Dread.

Yesterday, was also a big day. I cycled all morning looking for a Brio Wooden Thomas the Tank Engine for Hamish's birthday (no luck) and then we spent the afternoon at the park and then went to Kita for their annual Sommerfest. I haven't been to one of these before, but they seem to be very important in the young children's calendar. I am starting to see the phrase 'Sommerfest' appearing everywhere, and indeed we're going to another one next weekend at Orla's new school.

I'll be honest though: I wasn't really looking forward to going to it. In fact, I'd already lied when they put me on the spot and asked if I was coming. I couldn't find it in me to commit to an afternoon of tangled German conversations and politeness. I have my moments of being totally anti-social, but then I found out that Stevie would be home from work early and having someone else with me to help me through the boring awkward moments makes it manageable.

So I lied again and said the fictitious birthday party we were attending finished early and thus, hallelujah! here we were! And actually we had a good time. There were games for the kids: welly throwing, egg & spoon race, some other games that took place in locked rooms that neither me or the kids could work out what was really going on, and there were even some things for us adults too. My particular favourite was the Race with your child in a wheelbarrow. It seemed to bring out my competitive streak to the point where I even employed dirty tactics in order to secure a win - such as blocking my opponents path in order to gain a lead. I may not be proud of that but hey, I won some coloured pencils!

The kids mostly enjoyed being in the pen that was filled with hay and flinging it around. The theme incidentally was 'the farm' or 'farmyard'. Stevie didn't manage to work this out and wondered why they had washing lines (obviously belonging to the farmer's wife') with knickers hanging. He assumed it was just the teachers washing that they'd hung earlier in the day. (And after that housewarming party we went to, well, who can blame him for wondering about German knicker habits).

Stevie's favourite bit was checking out the staff photos. As you can see from the photo above he was particularly taken by Steffi who he said seemed to have "had her work Kita photo taken while out on the piss". "Still", he said, "at least she's bringing a little glamour to the place". So there was something(/one) for everyone to enjoy, and today we are all still enjoying the 6cm diameter green stamps of goats that we all have on our arms to prove we paid to get in. Oh I do hope mine stays on for a week! Its very sophisticated!