Summerfest

Putting together the photos for the GermanFest post last week reminded me that I never shared our Summerfest pictures from earlier in the month of July...

My parents received some free tickets from their neighbors, which they in turn gave to us, so we headed down to a fun day in the sun.

The girls are not ones to pass up a photo opportunity with the Racing Sausages.

My poor girls...they are always asking me if they can dye their hair strange colors...mostly, I think, because there is a coach at the gym who makes it look very cool. Their dark hair just wasn't made to hold the bright colors ~ this spray in temporary color barely showed up within 5 minutes of application, and I know the magenta, blue and purple colors were caked in there because the girls' hairbrush bristles were full of color as they brushed later that night. At least they were able to savor a few minutes of having rock star hair.

We also spent time at a stage where the kids could do karaoke. Where they rocked the above mentioned super cool hair!

The Marines were there testing everyone's strength:



I can't remember the last year before this one that we went to Summerfest, we've been before, but not often. Thank you, Mom and Dad for the tickets ~ we had lots of fun!!

Birthday Anticipation for a Little Girl Who Can't Wait to be 6!

This little one has been waiting to turn 6 since about the day after she turned 5. Earlier in the Spring, when her birthday was still about 94 days away, she started the unofficial countdown to tomorrow ~ the BIG DAY! She would sometimes even ask me more than once in a day how long until her birthday and when I responded with the same number she had gotten earlier that day she would tell me, "Aaawwww, that's what you told me yesterday!?" No, baby, that's what I told you two hours ago...

She had a tiny, early celebration last week with her friends at church, and then again a day later cupcakes were shared with our friends and neighbors at G & G's house.

So, no official 6th birthday yet, but still two small parties ~ she is the baby and knows how to work a birthday to her advantage :-)

We can't wait to celebrate her actual birthday, and after all the time she has spent anticipating it, we hope to make it super special!

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart Kamele!!
We love you more than you could imagine!!

Montreal

Last week, Dave spent the week in Montreal for work. I knew his family would like to see some of the pictures he took. As I looked at them, I was wishing I could travel with him more often when his work takes him to neat places.

This photo and the next several are The Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. Dave said it was beautiful. The indoor ones are a little grainy, they're just cell phone photos that I had to add a little fill light to...





Dave said the city had a very European feeling, which I don't think he was expecting. He liked it a lot, everything from the cobblestone streets and cool architure, to the shopping he knew his mom would love. We just might have to plan a family vacation :-)

Dave really enjoyed seeing all the Olympic facilities that had been set up when Montreal hosted in 1976.


This photo is for our little world record lover, Alyssa. Daddy was standing in the tallest, leaning man made tower in the world. It was a great place to view all the special buildings put up for Montreal's turn to host the Olympics.








A blurry picture a French-speaking person offered to take for him.

Although this isn't the greatest pic, I knew Dave's mom would like to see some of the shopping that he encountered everywhere. Many of their malls are either built underground or serve as a connection from building to building because of the harsh winters, everywhere he went there were plenty of shopping opportunities. While this looks like a department store, it's the airport. You have to pass through a shopping area {not just the typical souvenirs/postcards/magazine type of shopping, but real shopping, shopping} to get to your gate. Dave was worried his mom would likely miss her flight in this airport :-)

1001 GermanFest Photos

Rebekah is our little "wildcard" ~ unpredicatable and sweet, and did I mention ~ unpredictable? Day to day that means I'm not sure if I am going to have my quiet little duckie who is content to follow me around, shadowing every move I make in stealth mode as if she's trying not to be noticed by anyone, or if she'll take the role of charming and boisterous chief negotiator of the house. She's very good at both.

At German Dance, this unpredicatable nature usually translates to never being quite sure if she is going to dance at any given practice or performance. Anything from a change in dance partners to the slightest change of direction that the wind is blowing can convince Rebekah that conditions aren't quite right ~ and there is usually no moving her once she has taken that position. I think what it comes down to is that she is a little s-h-y. At GermanFest last weekend, she was all smiles for the entire two days of performances and I would have never guessed her hesitation to be in front of an audience...


The big dance stage.

Check out the happy smile as they march in for their first dance. This is about when I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing she was going to be just fine up there.

I'm not sure exactly what she is doing here, but I thought it looked like she was checking her outfit to make sure everything was in place. So silly.

She and Claire (her most frequent dance partner) are getting pretty good. Their teacher frequently jokes that the little ones have the "cute factor" going for them so not every step has to be perfect. I see so many improvements from their posture on up, it's neat.

Uber concentration during the clap dance.




Kind of an unusual sight to see a floating sea foam green convertible. The kids were all amazed. We were trying to take the group photos from above as the car began to pass by, so you can imagine how well that went.

GermanFest, Day 2:

Emma's friend, Willow joined us on Sunday as Rebekah geared up for a second straight day of parades and dancing.

Sweet friends.



In the children's parade.

Our proud little German girl. She and I ran in the 5K race opening night of GermanFest. Our time was painfully slow, but I'm just happy she'll run it with me!!

No festival is complete without sampling some of the fried food.

And here's our attempt to burn the kid's tongues off with fried mini donuts. Despite multiple warnings of how hot they were, no one was willing to wait.

I love Willow's face in this photo. I'm sure her mom will be sending her over for many more playdates :-)

Rebekah played a game where she spun a wheel to win a prize. She won this awesome foaming beer mug trophy. Very GermanFest and definitely an appropriate raffle prize for a child :-) She sure was proud of it though!

To me this smile says "GermanFest Dancing? Officially conquered!"