No rest for the wicked!

  I survived the Mother's Day rush at my flower job.

An extremely close representation of what I did for 2 of 10 days!

  They called me again early Monday morning (just as I was settling in to watch the Giro!) and need me for the next several weeks. Luckily, it's Mondays and Tuesdays only. I could use the extra cash, so, sure! 

  And now, it's almost Syttende Mai weekend. Never heard of it? Well, neither had we until we moved to Stoughton. We actually moved in during Syttende Mai weekend 1996. Wow! That's a long time ago! We have come to love the festival (OK, really just me), and enjoy the annual festivities. Three years ago, we even had a princess in our midst.

The only time Karl has ever been in a parade, only because he got to drive the convertible.

So, I will once again don my bunad,

Sexy, isn't it?

 make krumkake, 

Wait until you see the flavors we're cooking up for this year!

and wear out my lip in what Karl calls "The longest parade in existence."

I am a true band geek!

I will not, to the best of my ability, eat fried cheese curds (they always give me gut rot!),  a cream puff (too much whipped cream!), or lutefisk (eeuw!).  I will eat something wrapped in lefse, some corn on the cob, and lots of broken krumkake.

So what are you doing this weekend?

Everyone's Norwegian!

This morning, I realized that it's almost May 17th. If you're Norwegian, or if you live here in Stoughton, you know that means Syttende Mai. And as the saying goes: Everyone's Norwegian at Syttende Mai! Syttende Mai is the celebration of Norway's independence from Denmark, and here in Stoughton we have a HUGE festival. Parades, races, lots of food (yes, even lutefisk bratwurst), and royalty.

Two years ago, our household hosted some royalty - Katrina was selected to be the 2009 Princess. We had no idea what it entailed, and when I look back on it, I wish we could have taken even more photos.

Here she is at the State Capitol, along with the Prince, the King and Queen, and our State representative. We attended a session of the House, where the official proclamation was read, and the royalty was introduced.

We also attended the official banquet, where they serve a cake with the Prince & Princess's picture on it! The downtown bakery also sells cookies all weekend with the same photo. I think my mom still has one in her freezer! She got a custom plaque, hand painted by a "famous" rosemaling artist (as famous as you can be in that style, I guess).

Of course, the mother of a Princess has to look the part!

But the best part was the parade. There are 2 parades, one on Saturday (the smaller of the 2), and the "big" parade. Karl hates parades, he almost never watches them, especially the Syttende Mai parade (since it usually lasts more than 3 hours!). I was thrilled to find out that he'd be the one driving the Prince & Princess's car in the big parade! So, in 2009, the entire Baumeister family was in the parade, along with Grandma!

Since then, Syttende Mai weekend has been a little of a letdown.