Kolache Festival

Last Saturday, May 7th was another fun day. First, it was a great day because it was the first Saturday after finals, and Jared was able to have fun without having homework hanging over his head. It was the beginning of his month break.

When we first moved to Oklahoma, we somehow learned about the annual Kolache Festival that is held in Prague, Oklahoma. We knew that it was something we would want to attend. Kolaches are a Czech or Bohemian dessert: they are a sweet roll with fruit and a crumbled mixture of sugar, butter, and flour on top. Jared has Bohemian heritage on his maternal grandpa's side; his Great Grandpa Kauer lived in the Czech (we are pretty sure). His Grandma Kauer has made kolaches every year for Christmas and other occasions since Jared's childhood. 

Prague, Oklahoma is a small town of 2,500 people, but they attract some 25,000 people for the Kolache Festival each year. 

Allie admiring the lady dancing in a pretty dress.

Unfortunately, we missed a lot of the festivities earlier in the day, such as a parade, but we did catch some traditional Bohemian dancing in traditional dress. The youth from Prague compete to be selected as the Kolache King, Queen, Prince, and Princess (depending on their age). They wear traditional clothes from where in the Czech their ancestors come from, speak a salutation in Czech, and some other things the week before that we don't remember.

As a side note, Nikki was reminded of her childhood and lifelong friends, the Sals. Their dad was from the Czech Republic and they had some dolls that had dresses similar to the girls in the above picture. They were beautiful dolls.

It was at least 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so Nikki was not excited about the idea of using a porta-potty. We decided to walk down the street to see if we could find anywhere that would allow Nikki to use their restroom. When we rounded a corner onto a new street, we found the Prague Bakery. There had been a booth selling kolaches by the dancing, but they had been in the sun all day and were very sweaty. So we were excited about the bakery for two reasons: 1) buying kolaches from an air conditioned environment, and 2) a potential bathroom for Nikki to use. We were successful in both counts. Though the bathroom had a sign stating, "No Public Restroom," the lady told Jared that she just couldn't turn down a pregnant lady. This was one time when Nikki was grateful to be showing A LOT.

We were excited to compare the kolaches to those that Jared's grandma had made his whole life. Both are delicious, but they are different in a few ways. The ones we bought at the festival were a little more fluffy. And we also got to try a few new flavors: cherry, cream cheese, blueberry, and pineapple. We loved the pineapple, and we have found a recipe so that we can try making some ourselves.

Pineapple, Poppy Seed, and Cherry Kolaches

 

Blueberry, Cream Cheese, and Strawberry Kolaches

After visiting the bakery, we decided to head back to the dancing, but we found a park instead (it was right behind where the dancing was). The park was Allie's highlight of the adventure. Luckily it was in the shade, because she ran herself ragged and was drenched in sweat by the time we left.

We think that we will probably go next year, unless graduation is the same day. And we will make sure to go earlier in the day so that we can catch the parade and other festivities that we missed this time. But we still had a great time this year.

Here's a link for how to make kolaches (this site does not include the recipe for pineapple):
http://www.praguekolachefestival.com/recipes.htm

Here's another site with recipes, including pineapple and cream cheese:
http://7thspace.com/ethnic_recipes/27427/kolaches_with_filling_choices.html

Fun in the Water

Allie LOVES water! She even gets excited when she sees it. However, she is afraid of the shower. So when our friends invited Allie over to play in the sprinkler with Lily, we weren't sure how she would do. But, she loved it, too. (She still does not like the shower; perhaps it is because of the noise.)

In this next video, you can see that she was shaking from being so cold. But she did not want to stop playing in the water.

The girls decided to get the patio wet. So in the next video you see Allie shivering as she transports water from the pot to the patio.

And here are some fun pictures from their fun in the water.

 After playing in the water, we came inside to warm up and relax a little.

Allie and Lily chillin' on the couch

Allie sporting some cute sunglasses

The OSU UAV Air Show

On the first Saturday in May, we decided to let Daddy take a break from studying for finals and headed for the OSU UAV Air Show. "What's that?" you ask. Well, Oklahoma State University hosted an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Air Show. Or in other words, it was an air show with remote control planes. OSU has their own little airport for the UAVs about 15 miles out of town, which is where it was hosted.

It was actually called a "Speed Fest," so we saw lots of planes flying super fast. It ran all day, but we were only there about 2 hours. During that time, we saw a couple of planes reach just under 180 mph. We also saw a jet with twin engines, which was pretty cool. You could see its afterburners lit up as a bright orange as it took off and ascended. Our favorite to watch, though, was probably a trick plane. There were times when it seemed that the pilot was having a hard time flying it, but he really had amazing control over the plane. It was the easiest to watch, too, because it wasn't just zipping past. We got a few pictures from the day.

Allie admiring one of the UAVs

Happy to see so many airplanes. (Too bad Mommy cut off half her head. Oh well.)

 

Daddy and Allie watching the trick plane

Trick plane in the sky

Trick plane. A little hard to see (in front of tree).

Happy Easter!

We went to our friends' house for an Easter Egg hunt on the Saturday before Easter. We had a lot of fun, and Allie was excited about another egg hunt; she remembered that there are goodies inside of the eggs. Her friend Lily was much quicker to pick up eggs because she did not know that candy was inside. Allie, on the other hand, wanted to find an egg, open it, eat the candy or marshmallow, and then get another one. We had to really encourage her to just keep finding eggs. Here are some pictures from that egg hunt.

Eating a Marshmallow between finding eggs

Lily and Allie

Allie and Lily

 We decided that, since we haven't had a family picture taken in a LONG time, we would ask our friends to take a quick photo of us. Here we are.

Just a fun one. Photos are fun with toddlers.

After the egg hunt outside, we went inside to enjoy candy and each other's company. The girls had fun playing together, as always.

Easter Sunday was a pretty relaxed day for us. The Easter Bunny didn't come until after church, so we enjoyed a calm morning with a pancake breakfast. Church was wonderful, and then we enjoyed a Sunday afternoon nap. It was after the nap and dinner that Allie enjoyed seeing and tasting what the Easter Bunny had left for her. Here are some pictures and videos.

Allie holding her new soft bunny as she pulls out other goodies from the Easter Bunny

 

Allie with Jelly Beans

Here's a video of Allie's first experience eating a Peep.

Allie eating Trix

Allie's two new bunnies.

 Here's a video of Allie with her two bunnies.

Almost to the bottom of her basket

Some stretches at the end - phew, that was work.