Pool is open!

We have a great big pool in the courtyard of our building and last weekend they opened it up for the season. Unfortunately it was too cold the first few days, but this week has been heating up and the last few days we have spent our afternoons at the pool.

The kids wear their floaties ("Schwimmflügel") and love to be in the weather.
There are many kids in our building and we have made some friends by now.
And of course, snack time is always important too.

As we will be here for another 2 months until everything is settled with our house, I think we will spend a lot of time at the pool!

Finn's last Sports class

This week was Finn's last sports class. They did T-Ball again and Finn really enjoyed it. I am glad we took this class and not the soccer only class - he got to try all kinds of different sports and was entertained every week. He got to run around with other kids and had the best coaches every!

At the end, they all got a certificate for completing the class. And the coaches, Coach Mitch and Coach Matt from England, even made one for Lilly because she was there all the time as well. So sweet!

We will do another class at the end of August when we come back from Austria and hopefully will have Coach Mitch and Coach Matt again!

View of the gam from Lilly's perspective (that's my shoe)

Lilly and Finn with the coaches after class

Proudly presenting their certificates

Another bath time

As our kids have a bath every night and believe me, they need it. We do live in the city now and they just get dirty: they play hard on the playground, run around, touch everything, eat still mostly with their fingers, etc.
To keep it entertaining we do something fun once in a while. The other day they got glow sticks from Ben and took them in the bath with them. We had the lights on at the beginning to wash them, but turned the lights off afterwards and they had a "disco bath".

Light still on...

Disco bath time!

Summer Haircuts

We were lucky in Austria, my mom's friend Marietta used to come to our house every few months to cut our hair. Since we have been here several months now, it was time for a hair cut for the kids.

So on Tuesday morning I took them to Supercuts. The line was short - 2 people in front of us and we had a little snack while we waited.
First up was Finn. I just had her cut his hair short all around, but with scissors and not the machine.
Then came Lilly and we decided to just cut her bangs.

I think they look great and ready for summer, but when I took the picture they did not seem to be too happy :-)

Finn Sports Week #6 - Soccer again

Last week it was soccer again at Finn's sports class and Finn really liked it. I think in the fall we will sign up for soccer!

But right in the beginning he had a little accident (did not make it to pee in time) and I had an extra pair of underwear, but not pants. As Lilly was wearing a dress and leggings, we took her leggings off and gave them to Finn for the class - pink capri pants with little bows in the back.

He did not mind and still had a great class. Oh Finn.....

Yes, the kid standing up with the pink pants is Finn :-)

Working that ball across the field

Beach time again

Spring has been pretty cool here, so whenever the weather is nice and the temperatures are up, we take advantage of it.
Last week we had a few beautiful days and on Tuesday we decided to go to the beach again. It was still preseason and free (Yes!).

We went in the afternoon after Lilly's nap and spent a few nice hours there - until it was time to go home for dinner.

The kids played in the sand and waves - Finn preferred the sand and Lilly the water.
We found some nice beach glass and saw big horseshoe crabs.
The kids made friends on the beach and had a great time.

Lilly was watering my feet

Talking to their new friends

Rainy day - Mall visit

The other day we wanted to go for a walk, but by the time we made it downstairs to the front door it had started to rain again. As we were dressed and ready to go out, we decided to visit the fancy mall (The Westchester Mall) and wonder around in there to get a change of scenery.

We ran up and down the aisles, rode escalators up and down, shared an ice cream from Ben&Jerry's and tested the xBox in front of the Mircosoft store.

Mothers Day

Mothers Day turned out to be a pretty nice day here in Westchester. Not too warm but sunny and great for some outside time.
After a yummy breakfast we decided to take the kids up to Stone Barns again (we were there on Easter Sunday). They had some fun Mothers Day activities going on.

First the kids were able to do a mothers day card at the arts & crafts table.

We also got our family picture taken there.

After a short visit to the weekly farmers market there we went to explore the farm again. By now most of the animals were out on the fields and we went to see the sheep and their lambs, the geese, the pigs and their piglets and the baby chickens in their barn.

It was a perfect day for strolling outside and seeing all the farm.
Before heading home we had a little picknick on the field.

And if you have not seen it yet, we also made it into the local news :-)
Here is the link:
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013305120045&nclick_check=1

She climbs on everything!

Farmers Market in White Plains

Living in White Plains right now is not that bad. We live in the middle of everything and a lot of times we can walk to things like the library, the mall, the grocery store, the big playground and now also the the Farmers Market.

Every Wednesday morning is the Farmers Market in downtown White Plains. Farmers and Vendors from the area sell their yummy goods. Finn, Lilly and I went last week and we bought some delicious fresh bread, some apples (which they ate right away), some local honey for Ben to work against allergies and some crunchy radishes for $1.

A lot of the stalls had samples and the kids tried just about everything there was!

We loved looking at the flowers

The apples tasted yummy and the lavender smelled great

Finn Sports Week #5

And this week it was lacrosse. This sport does not really exist in Austria, so I have not idea on how it actually works. But it looked fun and Finn was running around with his "device" the whole time.

Free ice cream

May 14th was free cone day at Häagen-Dazs. And of course we went! We walked the 5 blocks from our apartment to the ice cream store, enjoyed a free cone each and walked back again. Thanks!

Painted toe nails

I know I might be late with this, but Lilly got her first painted toe nails. And she loves them!
This past weekend I got a pedicure with my sister in law for her birthday (and drinks and dinner afterwards), and when Lilly saw that, she wanted her toe nails painted as well.

Hers are pink and she shows them to everybody. We went to the library today and she took off her shoes and socks to show them to the librarian!

Becky and me after our pedicure

Barbara or "Amy" painting Lilly's toe nails

Beach in Rye

A few weeks ago we had a beautiful and warm day and I decided to take the kids to the beach. I love that we are living this close to the ocean. One thing I did not like about Nashville: we were neither close to the Ocean (like in Boston) or the mountains (like in Austria).

White Plains (our current location) is not directly by the ocean, but within 10 minutes we were in Rye at the beach. It is still off season and free to go (during the summer it will be a little pricey to go there).

The kids just love the sand and the water. I did not think that they would actually go swimming as the water is still pretty cold. But that did not bother them. Finn and Lilly just played in the waves the whole 2 hours we were there. We met some nice moms with their kids and had a great time.

As they were fixing the beach close to the parking lot (still from Hurricane Sandy), we had to walk to the other end of the beach and therefore back to the car again. Finn and Lilly were not very motivated to walk back and I bribed them with an ice cream. They loved that and we had some Spongebob ice cream for lunch that day - because the immediately fell asleep in the car on the way home :-)

Snack time is always important

Making new friends on the beach

Enjoying the low tide

Househunting with the kids - not easy

I do not enjoy house hunting!
It should be fun and exciting and a great experience, but the last 2 months have been horrible.
I felt like everything went wrong that could go wrong and there were many times where I just felt sad and lonely and frustrated. I think I have not cried this much in many years and I hope that it is finally over.

And it did not help that I had Finn and Lilly with me most of the times I was looking at houses, because they usually did not last more than 2 or 3 houses and Finn had to either pee or poop at every house :-) They also wanted to play with all the toys at every house and needed to have snacks constantly to keep going. Pretty exhausting...

Finn and Lilly having snack time at one of the houses we considered buying.

House #4 finally seemed to have worked. We have signed contracts and are working on the rest now. Hopefully we will be moving into our new home by the end of July! I am still a little hesitant to get excited, but I will keep you posted.

Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk

A few weeks ago we visited the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT. I am still getting used to everything being so close here: NJ, NY, CT,.... But I really love it, because there are so many cool things nearby that I think we will never be bored!

We visited the Aquarium during the first weekend of the month and got free entrance due to the Bank of America Museum Program. 
We were there a little early (it did not open until 10am), so we checked out the waterfront and watched the motor boats go by. That alone was already a lot of fun for the kids.

We then were the first ones to enter the Aquarium and enjoyed most of our visit without any major crowds. The kids loved seeing the seals, touching the sting rays and talking to the volunteers about the different crabs on display. They also have some great areas to play - inside and outside- and a visit at the souvenir store concluded the our successful visit.

It is only 35 minutes from White Plains and I think we will be back there soon.

Checking out the waterfront

Pretty spring day

Hello seal!

I just love these things - I make them take pictures every time!

At the sting ray pool

Our family at the aquarium (and yes, I made somebody else take our pictures and forced even Ben in there to take the picture).

Evening Family Story Time

By now you probably know how much I like free things :-) And one of the best free things in the Westchester Area are the programs they offer at all the local libraries. I have to say that Nashville still has the best story time I have ever experienced at the downtown library, but story time at the White Plains downtown library is not bad either.

We went to the family evening story time for the first time last week. It is every Wednesday evening at 7pm. And as we do not live too far from the library (we walk the 4 blocks to there), we checked it out. Every week they have a different theme and last week was "Let's dance". They read books about dancing, sang songs and danced, had a craft at the end where they got to color a dancer. And to top it off everybody got some juice and a snack before they left.

The kids loved it and participated in everything. We will be back for sure!

Finn and Lilly working on their crafts

Participating during story time

I think they did "Head, Shoulders,.."

Mother's Day - local news

Mother's Day was a pretty day here in Westchester, NY and we went to visit the farm nearby, Stone Barns Farm.

Several reporters were there and we made it onto the local newspage. Check it out:

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013305120045&nclick_check=1

There is a write up about us and in the picture gallery we are as well.

A longer post to come later!

Bubble bath time

We are used to having a bath every night, but since we live in the "city" now, we really need a bath every night. We love to play outside on the playgrounds and street. We go for walks, visit the beach, visit the libraries, etc.
We just get pretty dirty by the end of the day and a bath is necessary. The kids still enjoy this routine and we will keep it going for as long as they like it!

Blowing bubbles on the playground

We spend a lot of time on the playground by our building. We are actually out there every day, sometimes for hours. Depending on the weather and our schedules.

And a lot of times we bring out bubble stuff with us and blow bubbles. They make these great kid friendly bubble containers that do not spill (thanks Barbara "Amy" for showing them to us at Easter) and the kids are really great at blowing bubbles by now.

Sitting on the stone wall blowing bubbles down the lawn

Blowing bubbles of the play set

Lilly does a great job blowing bubbles

Blowing bubbles together

Finn Sports Class week #4

This time it was hockey time. It worked out great that it was raining that day and they had to hold the class "indoors" on the covered hockey field.

Finn listened well and participated, but he liked to carry the ball in his hands rather than using his hockey stick.

Playground in West Harrison

I have made it my goal, to visit as many playgrounds in Westchester as possible :-) No, seriously, whenever we see a playground driving around we stop and check it out.

This one is by the lake in West Harrison and really fun. They have dinosaurs to climb on and a big playing area. We also saw geese on the lake and watched the "big boys" play basketball.