Oma Turns 60!

While birthday celebrations are very important within Eva's family, 'round' birthdays are even more important...instigating a special amount of preparation

This round birthday was no different: Eva's mother turned 60, and her dad spent what seemed like weeks getting everything prepared. To add to the excitement, my parents flew to Germany for the celebration...and to visit the grandkids (visiting us is a mere bonus these days ;-)

While my parents used to be avid bowlers, they've never kegeled (the German version of bowling). Quinn had a blast.

Kocka celebrated his birthday a few days prior and got a Bayern München jersey. Kocka is a huge Bayern fan...and Eva's mother is a fan of whoever is playing Bayern München. Such pictures like the one below will not happen often.

Both kids got hussied up for the occasion. Miss Emily was looking super sweet in her blue dress.

Notice the resemblance to Mama!

Kids can often do things that puzzle their parents, and Quinn's stabbing of one of the many birthday cakes was a prime example. I still have no idea what he was thinking: he wasn't trying to be mean, but I had to explain that it wasn't nice to stab such a nice cake.

Definitely the best Tanta Nina cake to date.

The sandbox got plenty of play time.

We gave Quinn our small camera...to let him experiment. We also wanted to get a feel for what he thought was important. While there were many pictures that were out of focus, he mainly took pics of people.

There were lots of pics of his cousin Lea.

Thankfully, Eva's dad spend the weeks prior to the celebration to build a rather complicated tent system. The weather was cold and rainy...and we definitely needed the tent. Who would have thought that it would be cold and rainy in late July.

Similar to other 'round' birthdays and with wedding celebrations, the friends put on shows and read poems for the person of honor. The 'knee' burlesque was especially hilarious.

The kids played while the adults played. Miss Emily keeps trying out bikes and rollers.

Family pic I.

Quinn loved having extra people to convince to play games with. He hates losing. I wonder where he got that from ;-)

Emily on the playground the day before.

Quinn testing the fireman's slide.

Looking like a model.

Quinn kegeling...