Food, Glorious Food!

Nils gives the food here two thumbs up!


































Jay eating with the kids from the Kinderbetreuung (Kiddie Care). He doesn't want to have anything to do with us anymore!

As practically everyone knows, Jay and Nils are not interested in food. For Jay, even sweets and dessert are not too interesting. Except ice cream, of course. Every night there is ice cream for dessert here. Naturally, the kids will eat so they can have ice cream. But it doesn't stop there- they really eat quite well here!

Austria at Night

Here are some photos of us at night. The hotel had a nighttime stroll with torch-candles. We also went to the local Weihnachtsmarkt. The temperature was -16 or so and very, very cold, so a Gluehwein was very welcome.

Austria Holiday

We were in Austria for two weeks to ski and relax. M was overdue for a long vacation and the boys and I really should learn to ski. We chose an amazing hotel; we can't believe how lucky we were. We searched and searched for weeks on the internet, not knowing if we wanted a hotel or a house, not knowing which part of Austria we wanted to be in, nothing. We were happy with our choice before we arrived, but once we got there- WOW. We fell into holiday mode right away, normally it takes a couple of days to finally relax (and the fourteen hour drive, full or traffic, did not help either!).

I'm just adding a few photos at a time. Here are some from our first day, when we decided to go outside sledding. We met the cat (Amadeus) and the kids had a lot of fun playing with him.

Football Ole!

We took the kids to their first professional soccer game. They've been to hockey games, but never soccer (in Germany, go figure). Our local team worked its way from the third league to the second league last season. So we went to go see them on a Sunday afternoon with some friends. At the end of the game (we won), our team was in the top two of the table. At the end of each season, the top two teams from each league move into the league above and the bottom two fall to the league below. Needless to say, the crowd was pretty excited.

ps- it was COLD too. Note Nils in his hooligan gear. If an adult came dressed like that, the stadium staff would probably not let him in!

Zoo 2

I think I've probably blogged about the zoo a dozen times, not just once. We had a beautiful fall day and took the kids to the zoo. In the fall, you never know when the good weather will end and the endless rain will begin here, so any nice weather needs to be taken advantage of!

This zoo has a delphinarium, with show, so we got the extra tickets to the show. We got a little wet (exciting for Nils, tragic for Jay), but it was a great performance by the dolphins.

Last of all we have two photos of Nils: one as a clone trooper (in his own self-made costume, note the "armor" on his arms and head) and in his birthday crown on the 2nd.

Portfolio Day, Chez S, Vivaldi

Jay's school had Portfolio Day for the parents. Basically, the parents are invited into the classroom for about half an hour and the children take them on a tour of their work. You can see Caleb, Jay's friend, in the background here. He is half Asian and has the same haircut as Jay. He also is an Adidas freak, so I wonder if people mix the two of them up.

Here we have Nils eating his lunch in his "restaurant-" he doesn't want to eat with me at the table anymore! At least he's eating....

We took the boys to see a Kinderkonzert of Vivaldi at the symphony hall. It was done really well. Each season was a prince, trying to woo a princess with his music. Afterward, we went to a restaurant and enjoyed a coffee while the kids played.

Sleepover

The kids slept over at a friend's house on Monday night (see Green Day concert, below). Everything went well, the boys know the house and family really well since we have been getting together about once a week for three or four years. Jay and Nils slept together in one bed. when my friend, Susanne, went in to say goodnight one last time, she told Jacob that if he needed anything or was scared, he could call her. And then Jacob responded "why would I need to do that? I have Nils here with me." Awwww ....

(OK, I paraphrased that since I wasn't actually there to hear it. But it was something like that and very sweet.)

We get Susanne''s kids next weekend and Jay and Nils are already deciding on what games they'll play. I think a sleepover in the playroom with a fort may be part of it. Time to start planning!

Do You Have the Time...

to read about the Green Day concert? We went to see them and they were fantastic!

Of course, it was more a Billie Joe Armstrong show. He briefly introduced the drummer (Tre Cool) and didn't even mention bassist Mike Dirnt. The show was great, but we got there later than we would have liked. We thought that 8:00 meant GD wouldn't come on until 9:00 or even 9:30, but when we got there at 8:35 (the tickets gave the start time as 8:00), we had already missed the first two or so songs. Not too bad, but the opening song is always awesome. They played for over 2.5 hours, so we definitely got our money's worth!

I have a couple video. I was hoping to attach a song from Dookie called "she." It is Jay's favorite Green Day song because the drums are so great in it. I was really happy that they played it so I could show him it. But the video is too long since we recorded the entire song for Jay. Sorry, hope this other one will do!