Visit from Switzerland

At the beginning of the year, Tammy came to visit us. Tammy and I used to work for Cultural Care Au Pair/ EF in Boston together many years ago and she currently works for EF in Lucerne, Switzerland.

On Friday evening she took the train to Bregenz and she spent a few days with us. The first night we went out for dinner and caught up.

Saturday morning we spent outside with the kids sledding and building a snow man - Finn and Lilly loved that.

For lunch we went to the restaurant on top of the cable car where my dad works - Panorama Restaurant  at Karren- and we had a typical Austrian meal.

That afternoon we spent discobowling with all my nephews and nieces and Finn.

On Sunday morning we had nice breakfast together and the kids and I brought Tammy back to the train.

Tammy, thanks for your visit and the kids still talk about you!

They loved their snowman

Ready, set , go....

Austrian lunch at Panorama Restaurant

Bringing Tammy back to the train station

Kinderfaschingsball in Bregenz

Last Sunday afternoon I took the kids to the Kinderfaschingsball in Bregenz. In Austria Fasching (= Carnival = Mardi Grass) is really big and people love to celebrate it. Young and old ones dress up and attend different events: parties, balls, parades, etc.

In Bregenz each year they organize a big ball for kids on a Sunday afternoon. This year about 700-800 kids attended and it was really fun.
For 6 Euro entrance the kids all got a drink, a Faschingskrapfen and a hot dog to eat. There was dancing, different show events and even Kasperl (puppetshow) came to visit. And at the end all the kids got a balloon and a goody bag.

Philipp and Alissia came with us and the kids really had a fun time.

Finn dressed up as spiderman

Lilly eating her Faschingskrapfen

Lilly, Alissia, Finn & Philipp

The lady introducing Kasperl

A video of Finn and Lilly dancing

And this one is from the professional photographer :-)

Can you find them waiting for Kasperl to come?

Lilly loves to paint...

.... especially herself!

Disco Bowling

The other week we took my older nephews and niece to disco bowling at the nearby bowling alley.
It was Saturday afternoon: they had the music playing loud, the kids could ask for their favorite songs, the disco balls were going and the kids got to win extra prizes if they hit the red pin.

We had fun and Finn enjoyed his first game, but then he was done :-)

Finn had his own style bowling

Raphael was pretty good

Philipp - too cool with his corona glasses that he won there

Finn had his own bowling shoes

Powder Day in Mellau

Last Friday we had a beautiful skiing day in Mellau. Finn went to Spielgruppe and Lilly was able to go to the drop in day care at the ski resort and Ben and I got to ski for 2 hours. Perfect!

At Mellau they have a FREE drop in day care on top of the mountain and we dropped off Lilly there. She even got to ride the gondola up and down which she really loved.

And Ben and I had some great conditions and nobody on the slopes.

Finn our food artist

I had once posted some of Finn's pictures he took with our camera. He loves to do that. Whenever he gets a chance, he picks up the camera and runs around with it.

He is not big into drawing and coloring (that's more Lilly's style), but the other day he made this picture with his food and told me it was a monkey. Pretty cool I thought!

Morning love for Ben

Our kids are really sweet in the mornings. And they are always full of love for everybody. 

Ski-Jump Event in Innsbruck

Wintersport is big in Austria, not only downhill skiing, but also cross country skiing, sledging and ski jump. This is a rather fascinating sport and it is pretty popular in Austria.

One of the biggest tournaments each year is the "Vierschanzentournee". Around Christmas and New Years they compete at 4 different locations and an overall winner is determined.

We got VIP tickets to the event in Innsbruck and had an amazing time - despite the constant rain.

We got to take the train up with the jumpers and got to see where everything happens: the press area, the jump up close, the section where they start from, etc.

It also helped that we were with 2 ex-ski jumpers who knew everybody and explained all the rules to us :-)

And the best at the end was that an Austrian ski jumper won!

Waiting for the lift up

Starting point

Jump up close

Having a Glühwein to warm up

Our ski jump experts

The crowd is going wild after the Austrian won

Puppet Show in Hard

A week ago we took Finn to a puppet show at a little theatre near by. In the add it said "for people starting 3 years old" and so we decided to leave Lilly at home with Oma.

We got there early to have a drink and then picked great seats - empty beer cases with a pillow on top.
Finn first wanted to sit in front but then decided to sit with us.

The show was about a prince who was supposed to get married. It was really cute and most of it was in dialect, which was really fun.
They also did some cool effects with their lights and a fun lady was playing the accordeon and being the narrator.

After the show we got to touch the puppets and say hello. Finn liked that!

Finn skiing

Winter and Austria and what do you do? You go skiing. Finn is 3 now and we decided to try it with him. We have only been a couple of hours so far, but he seems to enjoy it and we will enroll him in ski school during winter break.

Of course Lilly wanted to come too - she got to ride on my brother's shoulder.
And Hannah our 2.5 year old cousin is already skiing by herself. Go girl!

After skiing we went in our "bobs" down the slope. Fun afternoon!

2013

We started 2013 in a unique way: we spent New Years on a plane flying back from the US to Austria. Some people felt bad for us, but it also had some advantages:
- champagne was free on the plane
- I did not have to think what I should wear (jeans and T-shirt were just fine)
- and I did not need to find a babysitter, although that would have been nice.

Now we are back home in Alberschwende and the new year has started. 2012 was a big adventure with moving to Austria and we have built some great memories. We look forward to 2013 and what this year is going to bring. I do not do new years resolutions, but here are some "wishes" I have for the coming year:

- For Lilly to become potty trained and sleep all night long in her own bed (dream big!)
- For Finn to learn to ski and to use his fork more often
- For Ben to learn more German - or better yet, to learn more dialect
- For me to maybe run a full marathon (I would need lots of time to train for that)

To an exciting and fun 2013!

Looking back at 2012

The older you get, the faster time goes - well, some people say it flies. And I think that is true. I never understood that saying as a kid when an afternoon waiting for my favorite show to start on TV lasted forever.
But definitely since I have kids now the time goes by faster and faster every day and I have to remind myself sometimes, to stop, breath and take in all the good things that I have around me. And cherish the moment. Here are some of our most fun, most exciting, most memorable moments of 2012!

January
We decided to move to Austria. We packed up our house in Nashville and said good bye to many good friends.

February
Lilly turned 1 and we celebrated very low key in our already empty house in Nashville. We celebrated Valentines on our last day in Nashville and spent a few days in Wilbraham before flying to Austria. And we spent our first day in Alberschwende on "Funkasunntag".

March
Finn started his new "school" called Spielgruppe and we went to Marc's and Rachel's wedding in Schröcken. First haircuts for both kids.

April
We celebrated Easter in a snow storm and found a wonderful inhouse daycare spot for Lilly.

May
The kids are going to swim class, which they love. And on the weekends we are exploring Vorarlberg.

June
Ben and I went to Dublin for his birthday.

July
Summer in Austria! We got to spend lots of great times with my extended family. And Ben and I went to the Opera on the lake (in the rain).

August
We went to the US to visit Ben's family and we got to spend a wonderful week on Cape Cod.
And I started working for Institut für Marketing again = happy mama!

September
We went to a little island in Italy on vacation - just the 4 of us!

October
We took Finn on the nighttrain to Vienna and had a great time visiting the "dinosaur museum". We also celebrated Finn's birthday with lots of family and friends. And hosted Halloween im Näpfle!

November
Ben and I went to Porto for my birthday. And we had our first snow of the season.

December
Barbara came to visit Austria and we had a fun Nikolausweek with her. We also got to see the rest of the family in the US.