Wendish Fest

Today we attended a favorite tribute to our heritage--the annual Wendish Fest! 

We started the day by taking Mema to worship at her nursing home.  We sang songs before hearing an inspirational message.  Leah and John went to the front to sing "He's got the whole world in his hands" (sorry it's dark--my flash didn't go very far)

Afterwards, we took Mema outside to sit on the porch and took a few family pictures.  One of 4 generations of hands:

And 4 generations in front of the tree

Can you tell that Lucy wasn't in a smiling mood?  :) 

We headed to the Wendish Fest and enjoyed a great meal of sausage, beets, saurkraut, noodles, green beans, peaches, pickles and homemade bread.  Yum!

After eating, the kids participated in the stick horse race.  John placed 3rd in his age division, but Lucy only got a participant ribbon.  To say she was devastated would be an understatement--she is understanding the concept of winning!

She made up for it by climbing the greased pole ALL the way to the TOP this year!  Yay, Lucy!

She is truly a li'l monkey!  The kids also squeezed themselves into the tractor-pulled train

And we got a picture of the 4 girls in their bonnets--Nena did a great job of making them for us!  MANY people came up and asked if we had bought them somewhere...I think she should set up a booth next year and sell bonnets!

I saw a boy wearing this cute shirt:

And I totally want to get one of these for Opa:

The kids on the way home:

What a sweet, fun day!