Muttertag und Fruhlingfest

Warning:  This post is photo heavy!  View at your own risk!

Muttertag und Fruhlingfest...that's German for Mother's Day and Spring Festival, and that's what went down this weekend!  What a special weekend it was for me as a first time mom!  Malu will say that the entire week was a celebration for me because we ended up going out to eat almost every night.  I think was truly because we didn't have any food in the house and neither of us felt like or had time to go grocery shopping (it was a busy school/work week for us).  So nice try, babe.  Either way, it was kinda nice (and we're not doing it this week!).  On Saturday evening, however, he took me on our usual walk into town for dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant.  Not only was it the start of Mother's Day weekend, we were also celebrating the fact that Sina turned 9 months old the day prior!

Beef with broccoli & fried rice.  My favorites!

My sweet girl

We finished the evening at home with this fantastic recipe for No-Fried Fried Ice Cream--a recipe that I found after Cinco de Mayo and is absolute heaven-in-a-bowl.

I'll be posting the recipe on my cooking blog soon!  We then cuddled up on the couch and started watching the Lawrence of Arabia DVD that I borrowed from the library (hey! I'm catching up on old flicks!).  That didn't last too long...I fell asleep.  I was exhausted!  It was still a lovely evening. 

On Sunday morning, Malu and I shared a good laugh when he presented me with a card that he'd printed out here at home.  Remember how I said it had been a very busy week for the both of us?  Well, I don't think he ever got around to getting me an actual card.  I also don't think he realized it until Saturday evening.  Not only that, the gift that he ordered me didn't get here on time. So, this piece of paper had a very sweet message as well as a picture of the sewing machine that will be arriving in the mail here soon. 

I've been wanting a sewing machine for quite some time, so I'm as thrilled as can be (and I can't wait to learn how to use it!).  So even though the paper card thing was kind of ghetto...it was sweet.  After all, it's the thought that counts, right?  Thanks babe!  Oh, and forgive the early morning hairdos in this photo!

That day, Malu took Sina and I to the Spring Festival in Bad Cannstatt, which was about a 20-25 minute drive.  It was a gorgeous day and we just had to be out in it.  For some reason, I was expecting this festival to be out in the countryside, with green grass to sit out on and shady trees to lay out under.  Ummmm....nope.  It was just your typical carnival in the middle of this town. And instead of grass or trees, they have huge beer tents and beer gardens (biergarten) throughout the fairgrounds.  Darn it.

We decided to walk around for a little bit...and of course, to try as much fair food as our bellies could handle. Since we were there earlier in the day, it wasn't too crowded, which was nice.  The party-goers usually don't arrive until afternoon/evening, although some people were out there getting their "drink on" pretty early.  Also, it was nice to see a bunch of people sporting their dirndl and lederhosen (traditional Bavarian garb).  I was almost tempted to buy both Malu and I are own outfits just to fit in!

Anyway, here are some of my favorite pics...enjoy!

At the entrance to the festival

There were huge beer tents (some that were invitation-only) and small biergartens like this one that we had lunch at.

We enjoyed a meal of dampknudel with sauerkraut and 1/2 meter-long feuerwurst (like bratwurst).

Don't worry mom...Sina didn't really eat this, but she sure as heck wanted to!

Another view of the ferris wheel.

I wanted Malu to try out his first real crepe.  See all those Nutella jars?  We had that and fresh strawberries in ours. Yum!

And what's a fair without balloons?  At this point, Sina was still waking up from her nap (before I took those pictures that I posted yesterday).

We decided that carnivals aren't as much fun when you have a little baby.  Or maybe it's that way when you don't have some other people with you to hold on to the baby while you go on the cool rides or into the beer tents to throw back a mug or two.

Still, I wouldn't have changed that day for anything in the world.  I had my two main squeezes with me and that's all that mattered.  I'm so thankful to the both of them for making me feel so special this weekend!

If you made it to the end of this post...I applaud you!  I'm exhausted just from uploading all of these pictures!

Hope everyone's having a great week so far!