Birthday boys

We had our final birthdays of the year at the end of last week.  Cormac turned 6 on Friday and Gus turned 8 on Saturday.  We had two separate parties on Saturday.  Cormac had a Star Wars party in the morning and Gus had a Wild Kratts party in the afternoon.  Because of the busy weekend I didn't get many pictures but here are a few.

Cormac had to wait ALL DAY on Friday to open his presents from family (Pat had been down in Italy all week so we waited for him to get home that night).  Cormac was ready to go the second Pat walked through the door.

Christkindlmarkt time is here!

We have finally reached Christmas market season.  Pat and I have been so excited for it.  On Thanksgiving we had our turkey early and then headed to Regensburg for the Christmas market.

Cormac, Cadel and Maggie rode both of the little carousel rides they had at the market.

Friday we took the train to Nuernberg.  It didn't go as well as planned.  It was cold and Cadel was diabolically opposed to cold that day.  So we walked about half of it and then trudged back to the train station. Here are Cormac and Cadel sharing a hot chocolate.

Here is the only moment during the trip that Cadel was pleasant.

Saturday we went to Parsberg (the town right next to us, 1 km away) for their little market.  Cadel was really into the cold then because it had snowed and he played in all of the snow.  Cormac tried a lebkuchen (German gingerbread cookies specially for Christmas) and loved it.  The others had some also and liked it, but Mr. Sweets Cormac had two enormous ones.

First snow of the season

It happened Saturday night/Sunday morning. The kids were thrilled to wake up to some white on the ground.  It wasn't much but enough to need playing in.  They were dressed and ready to go by 8 a.m. (I'm certain the neighbors really love us now).

It didn't take long for the boys to figure out it was the best kind of packing snow to make snow balls.

Which led to the construction of a snowman.

Maggie thought the snow was "yummy."

Cadel's job was to make sure the snowman had a carrot for his nose.

Final Flag Football

Gus' final flag football was last week.  He really seemed to enjoy this one and it was fun to watch him.

They all received medals from Coach at the end. Coach called Gus his "speed demon" when Gus got his medal.

Team picture.

Halloween

 The kids had a good Halloween.  This year Gus chose to be Mario (again--he was two years ago as well but, of course, we had to get a bigger costume).  Cormac was Darth Vader.  Cadel was Ezra from Star Wars Rebels.  Maggie was a kitty cat.

 Yesterday afternoon the Chaplain's office was hosting a Halloween Carnival on post so the kids dressed up (except Gus--he was too cool for school) and we went to that.  They had a good time playing the games.  Cormac was the very first winner of the day at the cake walk.

Yesterday evening we took the kids over to one of the neighborhoods in our town where a lot of Americans live so they could trick-or-treat.