Message for Uncle Jeff

Wangen Joint Choir Event 02 May 2015

There were three choirs singing together in the lovely Wangen city hall. Two of the choirs were from my school, Rupert Ness Gymnasium in Wangen, and one choir was a local adult choir. 

The kids in my choir, the 5th - 7th graders, are in the rows in front of the stage; the teenagers in the school's intermediate choir are on the stage to the left; the local adult choir are all dressed in black and red on the stage behind us.

My best friend Franzi is on my left, and my other best friend Chiara is on my right.

We sang 14 songs, and here are the three that Papa made videos of. Enjoy!

[Papa says sorry about his camera work!]

"September" by Earth Wind and Fire

"Mango, Mango"  by unknown

Sing along!

Mango Mango, Mango Mango (etc)

Kiwi Kiwi Kiwi, Kiwi Kiwi Kiwi (etc)

Ananas [pineapple], Banane 

Ananas ...mmmmmm!

And here's our finale, "Eye of the Tiger" by the band Survivor

Carnival Parade in Achberg

It's that time of year, and Anika always dances in the local parade and subsequent party in the town hall with the 'Prinzen Garde', the 'Prince's Guard'.

Click on any image to embiggen it.

Anika goes to Carnival as Bibi of "Bibi & Tina"

Here's the original Bibi, a teenage witch from one of Anika's favorite movies:

Before we continue, you'll have to pardon me that I am the world's worst photographer despite having at least one camera that could win Pulitzer prizes if the user had two clues to rub together. The light in my house is terrible for automatic settings, which is generally all I know how to use. And my subject has the attention span of a caffeinated chipmunk. 'Hold still' to her means she stays in the same room. So, if you can imagine: It's 6:55 on a dark and icy February morning and she has to leave in five minutes: "Could you grab the camera and get a few pictures before she leaves?" Oh, sure.


Anyway, here are some pics of our 'Bibi'. Click on any photo to embiggen it.

Cartwheel Practice -- I've almost got it!!

Swimming in February

Here I am at the outdoor portion of Limare, the swimming hall in Lindau. The boy is my classmate Ben who happened to be there. I went with Papa but played almost the whole time with Ben. Then Papa and I went out for sushi afterwards. I love sushi!

Anika Popstar

Hier komm ich! Alle sehn mich an!

Ich kann was ich kann!

Nichts laesst mich zweifeln!

Hier komm ich! Funkelnd, leuchtend, hell!

Sensationell bin ich!!

(Here I come! Everyone watch me! I do what I can do!

Nothing makes me doubt myself!

Here I come! Sparkling light and bright! I am sensational!)

Guitar Lessons!

Had my first guitar lesson yesterday!  Came home and called Oma and played her the song I learned!

Ski Course

Over the winter school holidays and I got to take a ski course in Hopfen with my classmates Max and Robin. In only 5 days we went from total beginners to being able to go all the way down the big slope. Super FUN!!!

 Going up the lift with Robin

Coming down the big slope

FUN!!!

Everything is Made of Atoms

Today day Papa told me that I, and everything in the world around me, is made up of little bits called atoms and all those atoms were all made in the belly of stars which exploded and sent their atoms out into the universe.  I just couldn't believe it, and I just looked at him for about thirty seconds like this:

Princess Leia is in da house

Deadly with a Light Sabre!

 Charming when she wants..

 but cold-hearted when necessary!

Christmas song

I've got a bit of bronchitis right now, so my voice isn't so great. But here's a song I recently learned:

Best 12 seconds of my Birthday Party!!

Best Birthday Card this year!

Hey Tooth Fairy!

Nice aerial views of our village

Our neighbor, Mr. Toepfer, went for a hot-air balloon ride in August. Here are some photos -- and don't forget you can click on them to see them larger.

In this picture, you're looking south towards Switzerland across Lake Constance. We live in Esseratsweiler, or "E-Weiler" as we call it. Makes it sound hi-tech.

Here you are looking south right down our street, with Lake Constance in the background.

This picture is looking west across the village. I've marked the important things. The Dornier factory makes industrial machines to stretch foil and cellophane, but they work quietly, we never hear a thing. It's much more common to hear saws from the various woodworks in the area.

Here's our house! You can see how many trees we have, lots more than most. The Toepfer's cherry tree in front is huge, they gave us about 15 kilos of cherries this summer. At the bottom of the picture you can see the yellow old-folk's home, it's between the 'Landhaus' restaurant and an old silo factory. The tee-intersection in the lower left are the main streets to and through the village.



A warm November day, let's go for a walk!

Here's our house. The neighbor's cherry tree is about halfway done dropping its leaves.

The cows are still out, usually by this time of year they've gone inside for the winter.

Light sweatshirt weather, mid 50's, warm in the sun.

Fall means long shadows.

Someday...

Biggest oak tree around. I bet it's older than Grandma Margie. See me in the photo?



It's been so warm the last weeks that the trees are late turning.

Happy cows come from southern Germany.



Special thanks to Uncle Tom for the Canon camera that made these great photos!

The trail behind me starts at the end of our street, about 100 yards south from our house. The cows are just over the hill, and the big oak tree another quarter mile further on. It's not far.  If you want to see our village on Google Satelite view, click here: http://g.co/maps/mtavd . The big oak tree is the dot that stands alone in the very center of the picture, two-thirds of the way to the bottom, just a bit south-southwest of our house. 

Boo! Happy Halloween!!

We found a hedgehog!!

We found a little hedgehog near the busy street though the village. We took him home and called the animal shelter, which is what you're supposed to do, but the girl there didn't know what to tell us. We set up a little fenced area in the garden to keep him safe, but he wanted out so badly we finally let him go.

We just hope he stays in our yard and doesn't go out in the street and get hit by a car.

Hey Tooth Fairy!

Just in time for Halloween.