D-Day...New Orleans Style

Pop quiz! How many of you out there knew that the National World War II Museaum was located right here in New Orleans (besides my parents, who were just there a few weeks ago!)? Yeah, I didn't know that either, until we moved here. It was originally just the National D-Day Museaum, but has since picked up the rest of the war, so to speak. So what better way to spend D-Day then to storm the beaches of New Orleans dressed as a bunch of Germans? I can't think of a better way!


The night before the event we decided to put together something for the kids to wear to look "period." We headed over to the local thrift store to see what we could put together. The outfits are really not half bad! William's shorts were a bit on the short side, but that would have been standard in the 1940's, right? (He normally wears a size 7 for the length, but he squeezed into a 4T for the event!) Natalie even found a "German Dress," though I'm not sure it's really authentic either...

William was the star of the show! Across the street from the museaum all the reenactors set up a living history display. This meant that Tom had a chance to show off a bunch of his collection. One of the most popular things there was his motorcylce, which William is proudly modeling here in this picture. All sorts of people asked William to be in their pictures, and he was also interviewed by both a film and newpaper crew. He is such a star!

William can't wait until the day he can really drive Natalie around on the motorcycle.

But until then, he is happy to catch a ride with his dad. Tom also takes William's neighborhood friends out for rides sometimes. Once we even picked William up from school in the motorcycle. William thought that was awesome! By the way, Binky does a fantastic job of using the machine gun while in the sidecar. (FYI, we don't drive around the neighborhood with the machine gun attached!)

This is a picture of das kinder in front of a tank...perhaps a Sherman Tank? I really don't know, but the person who would has already gone to bed! It was fun to watch them unload a tank from a flatbed truck!

It looks like Natalie is trying to warn the Germans of the incoming invasion, but I know what she is really doing...singing Hannah Montana songs!!

Nothing is more father and son-like then to wear really short shorts while standing in front of some anti-aircraft artillery! Tom was going to wear his full wool uniform, but I reminded him that we lived in southern Louisiana, so go with the summer attire. So, Tom is rockin the short shorts with William.

Just hanging out on the motorcycle.

We picked up a fake wooden gun for William to play dress-up with. He already has a real gun, perhaps a K-98 (again, the person who would know is already asleep!) but it is locked up in a gun safe and he can only look at it with his dad. This is something he can use everyday!

Being a German is hard work! Well done, William, well done.