Backyard Days

With a backyard like ours any vacation is of course mere conspicuous consumption. Here's a shot of this afternoon's backyard viewing of the Germany-Britain world cup game. Yesterday was the annual neighborhood flea market, where Karl got to try out some nice flippers from Klaus (he called them "Klaus's wings" this morning, when I didn't quite understand what he meant he explained, the "wings you can waddle with").



The greatest excitment was of course being allowed to see his first full soccer game. He entertained the audience of neighbors who were sipping cold seltzers and sodas with smartypants remarks that lacked a bit of the expertise one is used to when watching a game with die-hard fans.



One very fun part of the whole thing was that he got to do some neighbor-hopping, so he experienced each of the first half-times'goals sitting on somebody else's lap. He started with Pierre, who told him that the bone-shattering sound of the Vuvuzela from the next backyard was actually a dinosaur that ate something bad and is now really gassy. Karl kinda bought the story first, but when everybody kept on laughing about Pierre's remarks about the gassy dino he decided that this must be "a neighbor called dinosaur who is not so well". Well, to be fair, Pierre also did a great job explaining Karl the basics of soccer (two teams, one ball, two boxes). Karl also had his very own German flag that he got from the mattress store clerk (where we bought a mattress for Karl and Henri's great new bunk bed).



1:0 for Germany (Felicitas)



2:0 (dad)



2:1 (Frank)

Second halftime was first spent upstairs, later on in the backyard again, where Karl was swept up in the neighborhood's noisy euphoria outbreak about the 4:1 for Germany.