haggis and fresh squeezed lemonade

no. trust me. i did not and would not try haggis. that is one part of my heritage i would like to abolish. but i did get to enjoy some fresh squeezed lemonade. today was a day of culture. and yes, much like the rest of the culture i've been fortunate enough to experience it was sponsored by gramma and papa. sponsored being the technical term which means "paid for by".

we headed out this morning to the scottish highland games in livonia. my great gramma tally was born in scotland and came to the states when she was (i think) around 12. so our scottish heritage is not so far removed from us. as is demonstrated by our stunning achievements in frugality. our look and cooking ability might not be from our scottish side, but it's in there.

we first stopped off at the dancing tent. a competition of traditional scottish dances. thankfully, we got there when the little girls were performing and we were not subjected to men dancing in kilts. whew!

then it was off to the activity field. this is where we spent the majority of our time (since nathan and i had to split early so he could head to work--yes, i actually got him to go to the games!! can you believe it? it really was a fun family time for us, which we don't get very often b/c of work). at the field we watched some scottish feats of strength. first up was the caber toss. this is where one man takes what looks like a telephone pole and tosses it as high as he can in an attempt to flip it in a straight end over end flip. he is judged by the straightness and degree of his toss. if the caber doesn't flip, they judge the degree to which the end was raised. think of a 90 degree angle from the ground straight to the sky. they see how close he came to the 90 degrees. if it flips, they see how straight it was. for instance, they would call a perfectly straight flip a 12 o'clock, slightly right would be a 1 o'clock and so on.....

then they did a stone put, and some hammer throws. nessie was there. well, some poor sap dressed as mascot nessie that is. i didn't go for the photo op though; i've always been leary of people dressed up in mascot costumes. i used to hide under the table at chuck e. cheese. seriously.

we looked up our clan's tartan. hiddeous. of all the cool plaids that i love and ours is way too much red for my liking.

i was really surprised at how many people came out for this. and double surprise came at how many were in traditional scottish garb. i saw a dad with two little boys all in matching kilts. that was too cute.

we headed home early to grab lunch and give nathan a power nap. after that connor and i took some serious nappage.

around 6:00p nicole and i headed out to enjoy our hometown heritage--the allen park street fair. we walked up and did a quick lap. first stop....the lemonade stand of course. i LOVE street fair lemonade! we did one lap and as we headed back toward southfield, we both said, "that was fast." we seem to remember as small children being dragged around for at least two laps by mom and aunt claudia. first lap, to see what you like and price check. second lap to get what you want, and sometimes a half lap to go back for that "must have". i like my way much better.

so overall, an exhausting yet exciting day.

thanks gramma and papa for taking us to the games!

this was the dance competition--these girls we actually pretty good.

believe it or not, this kid is only 16. i believe the caber weighs about 120 lbs.

this was the winner...i think. he had a couple of 12 o'clock tosses.

ace is eagerly anticipating the caber toss.

at the activity field. (from right to left) josh, dill, papa, and a very nice chinese couple, haiying and jane. haiying and jane are here from china studying. papa meets with some chinese students from wayne state and that may be where he met them. gramma made a funny observation before we left the house. she said to them, "you've come from china to study how people in scotland live." but i guess in america you get such a mixture of heritage that everyone studies some place from their background.

hopester and ava bava trying to stay in the shade


one of the many bagpipe marching bands
gramma and papa--stylin' and profilin'