German-American Volksfest, Grafenwoehr, Germany

I'm not exactly sure if that is the "town" that the annual German-American Volksfest was held as it actually takes place between Tower Barracks and Rose Barracks, and I don't know what the exact address of that area would be!  But boy was this fun! 

The German-American Volksfest happens every year on post (with the exception of 2013) to celebrate the good relations between the local Germans and the Americans.  It features beer, rides, face painting, bouncy castles, beer, games, contests, music, INCREDIBLE food and did I mention beer?

Waiting for the bus from the PX to take us to the Volksfest took FOR.EV.ER.  So our first stop had to be for a (very) late lunch.  The beer in the middle is mine.  The other things are (what else?) apfelsoft and water!

While I was finishing my beer, the kids played the "pop the balloons with darts" game and won these *amazing* prizes. Hooray for Poop Emoji's and slinkies!

Is this dinosaur (??) kung-fu fighting?  Anyway... the kids climbed up here and then slid down, in their lederhosen and dirndl. 

Jumping up and down in the bouncy castle = always a good time.

OH. MY. WORD.  He is the cutest thing I've ever seen!!!!!  EEEEK!!!!

Checking out an American medical tank.  (Note to all military personnel who may read this blog... I apologize for not knowing exact names of these pieces of equipment!)  Please note the fake injured body on the left! 

These German military men were so nice to the kids.  They let them play all over the tank (even inside!) and on the headsets.  They told me this tank had been all over the world, but mostly in Canada and Germany!

Those silly Germans and their Sprengkommando!  "We love to blow it up for you!"

Here we are, in all of our lederhosen and dirndl glory!  Todd and I both got stopped separately and asked if we would enter the AFN (American Forces Network, the radio station here) best dirndl and lederhosen contest.  We had a couple of beers and thought... why not!

But first... we ride.  Todd, barely fitting in the bumper car, gets crashed into by his ruthless daughter, Natalie.

Natalie was thrilled to take a selfie with C-Dub, one of the hosts of the morning show on AFN.
 

Every year, they make these awesome giant beer mugs.  This is our first one!  Even though it says next year should be the 60th Volksfest, it will actually be the 59th because it was cancelled in 2013 due to lack of government funding.

After we enjoyed the beer that was in that beer mug, we made our way to the AFN best dirndl and lederhosen contest.  Here we have the lovely Natalie Bailey, showing off her dirndl for C-Dub and Slim Shaylee.  And the creepy Eagle.  I love eagles and all of that, but he's kind of scary.



I tried to show Grant how to thumb his overalls but he didn't understand, so instead he walked down the catwalk like this the whole time and looked totally like a bored teenager.  But he totally did a somersault at the end of the catwalk, which was pretty amazing - especially since he didn't want to do it in the first place!  (Note:  He cried when he didn't win!)

I might be on my second mug of delicious beer here.  I thought, hey... let's take a selfie with the AFN crew! 

This is how it turned out!  HA!  I particularly like the photos and video of my AFN selfie.

Todd was next up to the plate.  He decided to ride the horse.

Then he did "the Todd" which is a dance he does at pretty much any song he hears.  Especially at weddings.  And yes, he always makes that face.

And your third place winner is... "Pauline Bailey!"  (Wait, what?  DJ Bob Sauce apologized ha ha, but I'm definitely used to that by now).  This is me explaining, "No, no... my last name is Bailey!"  (There was another contestant named Pauline... no kidding!)  I won a big old heaping mess of tickets for rides at the Volksfest (which weren't cheap and Todd estimated it saved us about 50 Euro!)

And the winner of the best lederhosen is... Todd Bailey!  He was actually surprised, believe it or not, even though his beard and amazing new sock-like apparatus was really what put him over the top.  Well there was never any doubt in MY mind!

Todd and the girl who won best dirndl both had to be live on AFN!

I'm pretty certain about half of our family photos are ruined by Grant, who has his hand down his pants. 

After our epic win(s), Mommy and Natalie took a stab at The Flash (aka: Tower of Terror, as we call every ride like this). 

Even though he ruins pictures by putting his hand down his pants, he's kind of cute and we think he'll keep him.

Natalie and Daddy on the Hawaii Swing.  Grant didn't want to go on this at first.  I'm telling you... he became MUCH more daring by the end of the evening!

I'm guessing they liked it???  Ha!  I don't ever see Todd laugh like this!

Next, we ALL FOUR decided to get on this super fast ride.  It had a long name, but the short name was the Tegernsee.  It went in circles and was super fast.  Grant LOVED IT. Go figure!

I turned around to take a picture of Todd (who you can see in the back) and I captured a picture of this poor, poor girl who looked so miserable behind me!  I don't do spinning very well, but she really looked bad!  Also, note the girl behind them!  Face in hands!  And the half shaved-half mullet hairdo really, really is the icing on the cake.

We loved it Mommy, let's go again!!!  (Ok, so we had a few tickets for this one!)  Classic Natalie and Grant faces right there!

Pretzels and pommes and some kind of meats!  Sounds like a darn good German meal to me!

I'd say Volksfest was a RESOUNDING success this year!  More than we had anticipated, obviously!  I still can't believe we won first and third in the best lederhosen and dirndl contest, ha!

Until next time, German-American Volksfest!

Playmobil Funpark, Zirndorf, Germany

It's summer, and we have been traveling like crazy (with still MUCH more to come).  But there have been a few "down" weeks where we haven't traveled anywhere because... believe it or not, my husband still has a job and actually has to work!  The kids have gone to summer camp on the base for two weeks this summer, but this week---- as we prepare for our next vacation, I decided to keep them home with me.  The first half of the week was fairly miserable.  I'm not even sure it got to 60 degrees yesterday.  Rainy, chilly, and cloudy.  But I knew today would be better, so I decided to take them to the Playmobil Funpark, just outside of Nuremberg!

 

 

The King and Queen welcome you to Playmobil Funpark!

 

 

While we waited in line to have our bags checked (there are special signs outside talking about the recent terrorism related incidents in Bavaria requiring that all bags be checked and please, for the love of everything that is holy, do not bring your knives inside the park!), the kids had their faces pressed against the glass to the HOB Center (an indoor play area) that they wanted to go to first.  Immediately.  This was good because I never know how Grant is going to react to things like this.  He can be pretty timid about climbing structures, but he went right for it!

 

 

They laughed on this for about 8.3 seconds before moving on.

 

 

The HOB Center had a HUGE area where you can just go crazy with all of the Playmobil toys (which quite frankly is an amazing sales pitch for all of their stuff).  The kids were having fun here in the campground room.

 

 

Kiddos playing with the Playmobil campground sets (and Lego-like windows and fake flowers galore!)

 

 

Me:  "Guys, come on.  You know there's like, a million more things to do in this park, right?"  FINALLY, I dragged them out of the HOB Center and the first thing we spotted was this jumping contraption. All I can think when I see it is... they would NEVER have this in America!  Amazingly (hear that, United States?) not one kid got hurt as I sat there for 20 minutes!

 

 

Daddy-mack will make ya JUMP JUMP!

 

 

The next stop was the go-karts.  The line was insanely long, and European kids haven't the foggiest idea how an actual queue works (which we already knew but really sucked when the kids were totally spaced out watched the karts on the track and about 12 kids cut them in line!) This picture cracked me up.  Natalie in a full on SPRINT to get to a cart!

 

 

They both give this ride a thumbs up!

 

 

I have to admit... I was a little nervous about how Grant would do on this.  He was INCREDIBLE.  He was even faster than Natalie! 

 

 

Here they come, around the bend!

 

 

After we had a pretty decent pizza lunch, we naturally had to get... EIS!  Lemon sorbet and chocolate chip is pretty standard for these two!

 

 

Then we spotted these slides.  OH THESE SLIDES!  They are totally the dry version of Adventure Island slides in Tampa, ha!  Even I got on them ... with my backpack on my front.  I have to admit, these were pretty awesome. 

 

 

There were only three slides, but the kids must have gone on them all at least 3-4 times each.  And to get TO the slides, you had to go through a series of rope obstacles.

 

 

 And extremely wobbly logs.

 

 

Awwww.  Sometimes they like each other!

 

 

Grant is totally ready to hit up the tube slide with me!  It was so much fun!

 

 

The next stop was the Baumhaus (Tree House).  Much of it was set up high in the trees - see Natalie in the window up there?

 

 

This picture is only funny because about 5 seconds later, he declared this was too hard and got down to take the stairs.

 

 

The kiddos high above in the Baumhaus.

 

 

"Help Mommy, we're trapped!  We're prisoners!"

 

 

Right next to the Baumhaus was the PIRATE SHIP!!!  Ummm, Natalie, you're super cute and all of that but there are some kids behind you who want to get by.

 

 

She literally quoted Leo here... "I'm the King of the World!"

 

 

There were also neat little Tom Sawyer-esque wooden paddle boats that people paddled on around the pirate ship.  I wouldn't say they were boats... more just a few logs tied together.  It always surprises me that there are ZERO park employees nearby with so many kids on so many contraptions in which they could fall from.  I know, I know... personal responsibility is something we aren't used to in the States.  I really love it, but I'm just not used to it AT ALL.  I get so nervous with all of the kids around me and parents not giving a crap what happens to them.  I saw a few kids get banged up over at the go-karts but the "suck it up" mentality is alive and well here.  (To be fair, there were still plenty of concern and hugs!)

 

 

Arrrrrgh!  (This is what happens when I say, "Give me your best T-Rex impersonation!")

 

 

 

Their laughter is just infectious to me.

 

 

Grant wanted to take a turn on this SO BAD but there were some older boys on it who wouldn't slow down and as he tried to hop on, he got thrown off.  It's so funny because even though he got a little banged up, he was waaaaaay more concerned that he wouldn't get a chance to play on it!  Finally the kids left, and Natalie and Grant hopped on.

 

 

Me:  "Grant, it's August 3rd.  What's going on with those leaves?"  Grant:  "IT'S FALL!!!!!"

 

 

Natalie has been dying for a skateboard.  I'm glad she was able to try this out first!  She said it was really hard!

 

 

Grant wanted to play on the big cheese.  I told him to show me his best "big cheese!"  He's so funny!

 

 

Wait Mommy... you mean we can have another treat before we leave?  (Nice Natalie.  Your mouth is incredibly blue!)  As we were about to leave, Natalie declared, "Other than Space Mountain, Playmobil is WAY better than Disneyland!"  WTF.  Really?  I spent a thousand bucks on that place (if not more!) and only about 30 Euros here.  You mean I could have saved us a ton of money by just driving an hour to west Nuremberg!?!  Sheesh!

Stay tuned because the next time we visit, Daddy will be with us!

 

Until next time, Playmobil Funpark!