Fruhlingsfest

The Stuttgart Fruhlingsfest is the annual spring festival that is a smaller version of Oktoberfest.  It takes place for three weeks between the end of April and beginning of May.  It's the largest spring festival in Europe, so that's pretty cool.  It opened on April 21 and closes this weekend.  After several failed attempts to make it there with my friends, I finally made it there this past Tuesday.

The group of girls and babies that made it on Tuesday.

 Our first stop was a beer tent, where we grabbed some lunch.  It was pretty deserted at this point because the tents had just opened.  That's always better when you have a bunch of kids.

 

Like most places in Europe where they serve food, there was a play center for the kids.  That's probably the thing I'll miss the most when we get home.

After lunch, we strolled around the grounds and Brady rode some rides.  He wasn't afraid at all (probably because of the two previous trips to Disney) and I can't wait to take him to Kennywood and Cedar Point someday!

A couple of the other kids also rode this ride.  It's similar to the Dumbo ride in Disney where there's a joy stick you pull to move the cars up and down.  I kept trying to get Brady to pull it, but he either couldn't hear me or was too busy hanging on for deal life ;)  He love helicopters and calls them hellcopies.

Today is Andy's 29th birthday and since he hadn't been to Fruhlingsfest, we begged him to come with us and enjoy some fun on his birthday.  He agreed and loved watching Brady ride the rides.

 The Dumbo type ride again.  We were again unsuccessful in getting him to pull the joy stick to make the elephant fly.

Second try today and again in the helicopter.  As you can see he got the hang of the joy stick and got a little bit of air time.

One of Andy's favorite things is bubble tea, which he used to get all the time in Oakland.  He misses it all the time and every time we've seen a sign for it here in Europe, we've just eaten so he's passed it by.  Today he saw it and it seemed like the perfect birthday treat.

Sharing his bubble tea with Brady.  We won't still be here for Oktoberfest, but Pennsylvania's largest Oktoberfest is in Canonsburg (located between my parents and Andy's parents).  I'm so excited to take Brady for the first time in his lederhosen.  I went almost every year growing up and I can't wait to share it with him!