Oktoberfest, way out west

Where can you find all colors of people sporting lederhosen, hundreds of drunk Grandmas, brautworsts for sale next to kettle corn, cheap carni rides, a cowboy cover band and an accordian band called the Dummkopfs? At the Oktoberfest! Way out west in Tempe, Arizona. We might have been the only people not staggering around with beer steins in hand. We were there early in the night, so the drinking people we very friendly and lively. Take for instance this couple who were drunkenly happy to pose with us.

No, I wasn't drinking - not quite sure why I have that wild-stare in my eyes.

Having never been to an Oktoberfest before, I hadn't foreseen the blatant exposure my kids would have to drinking. The Kinderfest activities and rides is what attracted us to the festival in the first place. I guess it gave me a good opportunity to re-enforce to my kids that we don't drink.

Here is a picture of our Oktoberfest gang, watching a performance of an accordian band play the Chicken Dance. Andy, Jane, Spouse with #1 and #2

And here are #1 and #2 whetting their taste for carnival rides - the AZ State Fair begins next week.

Yesterday was picture day at preschool for #1. I found her practicing poses in the bathroom, so I pulled her out and tried to convince her to look natural.

#2 loves hiding places: in his laundry hamper, in between the mattress and his sheets, the kitchen pantry. Yesterday I found him in the cabinet under my bathroom sink. Q-tips were everywhere, as well as unwrapped tampons and sponge curlers. I caught him in the act of stuffing his mouth full of Hall's menthol cough drops (the gross kind). I decided he needed to learn his lesson so I just let him finish stuffing. Unwrapped, they do look like a yummy cherry hard-candy, I didn't blame him for assuming so. A minute later he was gagging and forcefully spitting out the drops. He was so disgusted he tried wiping the flavor off his tongue with the back of his hand. This is a picture of him looking for trouble in my pantry.