Coming home

If I've programmed this correctly, this should be posting as I'm flying home to California.

I can't wait to see these people:

And these cats:

London - Coffee

London

I just spent five amazing days in London with Rachel.

I'll try and post some of our pictures as the beginning of summer progresses.

Serious Reader

My Kidu brought a newspaper to school one day.

He was very serious about perusing the advertisements.

I couldn't resist including this funny face:

Naschmarkt Sights

Vienna's Naschmarkt is a beautiful outdoor produce market that on the weekends also includes a flea market.

The buildings surrounding the area:

The spices you can find:

The cafes along one side:

The colors you can see:

The people you can go with:

Kidd's Ring

Last Saturday I had the privilege of attending Leslie & Felix's wedding. It was beautiful.

Congratulations Leslie!

B's Agenda

I make an Agenda every morning to let my kids know what we're doing that day. One day my brightest little boy made one for me. He even put a resting time for me after the kids go home.

Adventure to Tulln

Whitney and I decided we'd take a day and get out of the city. The destination: Klosterneuburg, a town right outside the city that would be fun to walk around for a day. We rushed out of the house to catch 2 u-bahns only to misread which regional train to take and then wait another 20 minutes.

Once we got on the "right" train, we settled in for a short ride. But by the time the ticket checker came by we'd already passed our stop. We'd unintentionally gotten on a train that was going directly to Tulln. The checker guy just chuckled and told us to get tickets in Tulln to return. Oops. Since we'd landed in Tulln we decided to spend the day there instead.

We walked around the small town.

Stopped for lunch at an outdoor cafe.

Sat a while by the Donau.

Had some great gelato and headed back home.

Not bad for a cloudy day outside of Vienna.

Journal Entry

I asked my kids to writing about the Spring Concert a couple of weeks ago. I loved Toni's music notes.

Bits and Pieces of the City

Check out this face

I took the pictures because of the cute shirt, but the face on this kid is almost better.

It says: No kissing! I am not a prince.

Zoo Trip

Vienna has an amazing zoo and under the leadership of Miss Brunker we headed there on Friday.

First, a long U-bahn ride.

Then a detour through the Palace grounds.

Waiting for our tickets.

Finally, inside the park. First things first: Lunch.

Then onto the animals.

An exhausting, but fun trip.

Music Recital

Last Wednesday was our school wide music recital. We had a bunch of pianists, violinists, guitarists and one sax. Here are my two girls performing.

And then, possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. A little first grader playing the cello. She had the continuing part in Pachelbel's Canon...so cute!

Finally!!

Almost from home

I saw these in a friend's cupboard a while back:

Nothing too exciting you think...yes they're from California, but really? Look closer at the label...

They were packed a mere 15 minutes from where my mom grew up. I've been to that town! I've eaten there! Just thought it was fun to see that thousands of miles away.

Coloring our own flags

A couple of weeks ago we spent some time coloring flags from our own countries. I had to print six different flags for my 11 kids. We went to our school's Hall of Flags to make sure we got the right colors.

Ingenuity

Sometimes you just need to make yourself a little place to sit.