Danke shein

Last month, Army of Dad and I celebrated our German heritage by taking our children to Germanfest in a neighboring community. I look at these pictures and I sometimes wonder if I'm a cross between those stupid slide shows we used to watch of vacation pictures when we were kids and the scary and questionable antics of Bad News Hughes. We have a bonding moment over a Shiner for dad and Zemer's root beer float for Hot Rod . This second photo could have a caption that reads: A father and son moment at GermanFest when AoD explains to young master Hot Rod why he is in line for the good beer - Shiner or Widmer - and not the horse piss stuff of Miller or Bud Lite. I love the guiding hand on his back, too.

Then, what German Fest would be complete without the traditional German attire and dancing. This poor teenager must really love his family to do this.

Then, there is the gorgeous grin of my handsome son while he was climbing some monkey bars. The festival was spread out over a large city park, so the kids loved getting to play along the way. It really broke up the monotony for them.

Nagelschlagen is a German competition where a nail spike is hammered into a tree stump by each contestant. Each contest takes turns to see who can hammer the spike into the stump with least amount of hits. The winner goes to a finalist competition until there is only one Grand Champ. The dude in the yellow hat was ahead of the guy in the black shirt until black shirt smacked that nail in with one hard drive.

There was a carnival there, too. Typically, I don't let the kids do the carnival rides or games, but AoD was feeling particularly happy on this day. So, he bought the kids $20 worth of tickets and we spread out. Dad and Hot Rod to the scary rides worthy of making me recite the rosary while I took Little Bit to the safer and less scary rides. We did the carousel and she drove the cars, too.

This was a favorite shot of mine in honor of my sister-in-law, who was "conceived by carnies" (her birth parents met while they were both working at a carnival.) It makes me giggle. Although, it was a wee bit disconcerting to me that this guy was making sure my daughter's ride was safe. Not sure if it shows in the picture, but he was having a smoke during this ride.

Way up high, you can see AoD's head shining in this octopus of death ride.

Here they are again at the bottom.

One of the highlights of the day was the Side Street Circus. They were very entertaining for both the young and the old. There was music, magic, juggling and comedy. The kids enjoyed themselves, as did mom.

Hot Rod really enjoyed the juggling. Oops was a very entertaining juggler.

Little Bit enjoyed modeling my cowboy hat toward the end of the day.

Then, we have the redneck parents. This butthead kept belittling his son - in a drunken half-ass joking manner - that he could throw him higher than the boy could climb the wall. It didn't seem like a great motivator to me, personally.

Hot Rod wanted to climb the wall really badly, so we finally let him do it. He was doing great until he looked down and realized he was up really high.

This was about the point when he started to freak and wanted help getting down. Notice him looking down instead of up? We had a great time and I think this may become an Army of Mom and Dad family tradition for years to come.