Missoula Children's Theater presents.....

Beauty Lou and the Country Beast

The play features Beauty Lou and her 6 sisters, her imaginary friend, her dog Fleabite Clyde, farmhands Slim and Dusty, the neighborly Country Folk, and the Barnyard Critters. It was a western adaptation of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.

Sister Bobbie Jo....
Sheep Sarah....
All of the sisters....
...and Critters

The entire cast....

The Missoula Children's Theater visited Baumholder this week. The program was offered free of charge for children in 1st-12th grade. They practiced 4 hours a day for 5 days to prepare for 2 one hour shows today. They did an excellent job, especially in such a short time!

The Missoula Children's Theater began 40 years ago. They are traveling to all 50 states and 17 countries this year.....that is 65,000 children in 1,200 communities!! The girls had a wonderful time and I think got over their stage fright:)

A fun afternoon pick'n blueberries.......

We made some time for blueberry pick'n while we were still in Florida. We loaded up the kids and drove to the fields off of County Line Rd. The blueberries were delicious! No one could resist eating a few, well maybe more than a few, of the warm berries as we were picking!

We put Ian in the stroller so we could keep track of him

as we were all concentrating so hard on finding the BEST berries.

He found a way to get in on the action though.....

We should have went earlier in the day because it was HOT and HUMID by the time we arrived in the afternoon. Oh well, we still managed to pick a bucket of berries and the kids had a great time!

My husband can't resist hot boiled peanuts!

We stopped at a roadside stand to get a couple of bags.
Colton and JC placed their orders.....

We just can't get these in Germany!
They were DELICIOUS.

First Hair Cut and Pay it Forward

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Mickey's Barber shop used to be regular stop when we lived in Florida. It has been around for what seems like forever. It is not fancy, but has friendly barbers that give great haircuts! We had to stop by so Ian could get his first haircut at Mickey's.

He did quite well.......well, the lollipop may have helped!

Mickey is such a nice guy that he didn't charge us for Ian's haircut. As we were leaving, a kid came in to get his haircut for his graduation that evening. He asked if they take credit cards. They don't, so the kid was going to leave. Mike, Mickey's son and also a barber, told him he could just bring the money back later and he'd cut his hair now so it was done for graduation. The kid said he would be charged a fee ($1.50) at the ATM machine and he didn't want to pay so he was just going to leave. So, my husband gave the kid the $10 he was going to use to pay for Ian's haircut and said consider it a graduation present. The look on the kid's face was PRICELESS!

The BEST sweet corn around!

We were in Florida not too long ago and were able to stop by Frazier Farms in Brooksville, our hometown. They have the BEST sweet corn around!!

They also sell glasses of ice cold sweet tea and lemonade....

The kids had a great time picking out out the corn, but it was more fun eating it!!

Eis Cafe

A glimpse at the menu.....

The kids love to go to the Eis Cafe! We made a pit stop by the local cafe on our way to the fireworks on the 4th.

We have the Minnie Mouse....

The Snowman.....
Cherry Delight....

...and Schoko Spaghetti Eis (my favorite)

Such a YUMMY place to spend a little time!

Sunday Flower Picking

This is one of the many things I love about living in Germany! Farmers plant fields of beautiful flowers that are open for people to stop and pick. The best part is that they are on the HONOR system. There seems to be one of these fields in most Villages. The one we visited today is near our house which makes it really convenient to have fresh flowers!

They all have a sign posted with the flower prices.
The little yellow arrow is pointing to where you slip your payment into the can.

The kids were ready!
There are knives left out to help cut the flowers.

There were still a few sunflowers left so we went searching for a few to pick!

This Gladiola has a new home today!

My friend CeCe gave me this vase before she moved to Ansbach last year.

.....and it was perfect for these sunflowers!

I'm so glad we stopped today!!
All of our flowers only cost 4,80 Euro.

Happy VERY BELATED 4th of July!

We usually spend the day at a festival at one of the local bases, but not this year! We spent the day relaxing, went to dinner INSIDE Chilis which is a real treat if you were to ask the kids, and then ventured off to the fireworks display around 10:30 at Baumholder.

It was GREAT!!!! It has been like 95 degrees here lately and there is NO air conditioning so it has been miserable (to say the least). Skipping the daytime festivities was nice for a change....less cranky kiddos (always a plus!).

Fun piggyback rides were going on......

However, it was still impossible to get all of the kids in one picture AND look at the camera AND smile! Really, it was just asking too much! So, here is what we got......

I'm out of here!

....come back Ian!

The fireworks and music were fantastic!

I'd say this was a wonderful 4th of July!!

The video below was filmed by my 8 year old Sarah (has camera around her neck in picture above). There is some commentary and at times she thought it would be fun to have the camera dance to the music....enjoy:)