Look how old I am!

Today is Banana's FIRST BIRTHDAY! I had visions of posting pictures here that captured her personality throughout this first year. But then Blogger decided it didn't want to publish any of my pictures, so I decided to try Flickr. Here is a link that I hope will get you to some cute pictures of our baby. If this works I may have to use it more often (don't hold your breath!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33845174@N00/sets/72157594331550983

Oktoberfest 2006

Oktoberfest (ock-toe'-burr-fest) is a two-week festival held each year in Munich, Bavaria, Germany during late September and early October. It is one of the most famous events in the city and the world's largest fair, with some six million people attending every year. Other cities across the world also hold fairs, modeled after the Munich event, also called Oktoberfest. Beer plays a central role in the fair, with every festival beginning with a keg of beer tapped by the Mayor of Munich who declares "O'zapft is!" (Bavarian for "It's tapped!"). Visitors also consume large quantities of food, most of it traditional hearty fare such as sausage, hendl (chicken), käsespätzle (cheese noodles), and sauerkraut, along with such Bavarian delicacies as roast ox tails.

The first "Oktoberfest" took place on October 12, 1810. Our version of Oktoberfest took place on October 7, 2006 at Aspenhof. We followed tradition as beer played a central role in the event and large quantities of food were consumed. We started with the lighter fare like grapes and cheese and worked our way to hot items such as chicken wings and party rye pizzas. Roast ox tails were NOT served. The fall colors were in full swing at the country and the weather could not have been better. Click on the photo below to view some pictures from the event.

My Favorite Pictures

Miss M's first day of school
C.B. in the backyard
Big D playing with his food Miss M with her baby cousin
Big D enjoys his fruit
Big D with a Banana
C.B. washing his cares away
The whole gang at Banana's Baptism
Miss M and me at a Leader-Daughter weekend

Me and my dad at the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dogtown

Cute and Sweet

You might think I am on a food kick judging by these last two posts. Maybe I am, but I couldn't resist displaying this picture of the cake we had at my nephews' double baptism.

Click to enlarge

The boys' moms (Terri and Debbie) and I worked on this together, and I think the team approach really paid off! Believe it or not, it even tasted pretty good under all that fondant icing.

Ice cream with a Banana

Sorry this took so long; but between problems with Blogger and my laptop on the fritz it's been a little hard to keep this going. Not to mention keeping up with school, scouts, church, and everything else that is life here at the Reddy Zoo. Anyway, I'll try to be better. Enjoy!!

Ice Cream!

Yummy!

Uh-Oh...that was a BIG bite

BRAIN FREEZE!!!

Insert raspberry noise here...

Lake Wappapello

Funny name...fun camping trip. We went with Uncle Dave and Aunt Tara for four days and had a blast. Here are some highlights:

C.B. looks pretty serious about fishing

Big D puts a fish back into the water

C.B. uses the FORCE on his brother

Yes...we actually brought lightsabers along on our camping trip.

The Banana with her Daddy

Aunt Tara with Miss M and C.B.

Uncle Dave & Aunt Tara found "Rocket" in the road.
Rocket was awesome in the turtle races.
He won every race but one. What a champion!
Aunt Tara with Banana
Miss M with the Lake Wappapello sunset in the background
Miss M and Dad drive the boat
Big D found a toad

Our bathing beauty, Banana

Welcome, Baby Luke!

The Reddy Zoo is proud to welcome it's newest nephew/cousin, Luke Michael. This little bundle of joy was brought into the world on June 6, looking a bit like a clone of his big brother. We are happy to have our seventh nephew and thirteenth cousin. We are awaiting the birth of one more cousin (boy) this summer and the adoption of two more boy cousins from Russia by next year's end. We LOVE our big family!!

Bathtime for Baby!

These are just a couple of cute pics of the Banana having a bath in the kitchen sink. She had a great time splashing water all over everywhere. She did get clean eventually.

So long for the summer to Sunday School

We closed out our FIFTH year of Sunday School this weekend with a wonderful last class and end-of-year picnic. All the kids were good listeners while Miss Joan read a story, they worked hard on their crafts and clapped for each other when special prizes were handed out at the end. Miss M, a Sunday School alum, was on hand to help the younger kids. The teachers expressed their gratitude to Miss (Aunt) Joan for all her hard work these past five years, since this is her last year. She helped make this one another great Sunday School year. C.B. is already looking forward to the next one when he will be old enough to go with Big D - yeah!