Nachspeise

Nachspeise means Afterfood in German, AKA dessert. 

Today brings us Baking With Amanda day. Except Amanda is in Germany. And I am in Austria. 

So Skype Cookies.

We made a date yesterday, for after kindergarten so the kids could help. I gave her the shopping list.

Butter.

Sugar.

Flour.

Jam.

Quark.

WHAT?? WHAT IS QUARK?? Umm, well, here in Austria it's called Topfen, but there it's called quark. And in the US it's called..... Umm, it doesn't exist. It's kind of like ricotta. Apparently it was good she had a google translator app with her, or she might have bought Chive-flavored Quark, which would have probably ruined the cookies.

First we made the dough. Amanda lost the jam she bought yesterday, so we took a grocery run break. Then the fun started.

First roll it.

Then pat it.

Then say HELLO really loud to Amanda.

Which we tried to document with a screen capture:

ja!

Henry and Theodore got to put jam on it.

We formed some pinwheels.

Put them in my Austrian Oven and waited. 

Amanda set the timer, or I might have forgotten to take them out.

There she is putting them into her German Oven.

Lemon juice + powdered sugar = yum deliciousness.

German oven took longer. 

Felix looks dubious.

Irma's more trusting.

Amanda's downright overjoyed.

And Centa needs afternoon caffeine.

Not enough pinwheels for you? Check out Amanda's blog about the same story, and see how awesome she is at telling stories and learning German: 

Clicky Here! :)

Birthday Part-ay!

 Somebody had a birthday. Ingrid invited us over to a delicious feast of Frittatensuppe and veggie lasagna that ended with a fantastic dessert. Raspberries from her garden in a yummy cake.
She printed me a comic that says:
"Sorry, You're going to have to be strong, you have a birthday."
"Oh no, is that worse than Christmas?"

The cake was too pretty and (almost) too soft and fluffy to cut. But I managed. :)

Poor Theodore has an ear infection and no appetite.

But Henry wanted to try to do a hand stand. I took pictures. Then someone told me I should try. So I did.... And Henry took pictures. Thanks. 

Felix is holding the ubiquitous European slippers that every household keeps for guests. I had to take them off to try my handstand. That's about how far I got. ;)

Then we made confetti. By coloring in the little circles. Centa cut them out, and then I threw them in the air to great success. Even though all the pictures look like this

trust us, it was awesome.

Then lots of games, and popcorn, and then I went to Centa's improv group and even got to the 24 hour post office pickup to get surge protectors to protect our washing machine from further mishap. more on that later! :)  

As Felix says: Happy bosbos Happy!

Still alive!

Well, barely.

WE

HAVE

BEEN

SO

SICK....

I think we have hosted every available germ.

According to the internet (we needed technology to tell us this Earth-shattering information): Starting kindergarten can bring home diseases. Also, moving to another country, especially another continent can expose you to new diseases. Also even minor changes in diet can bring on new diseases. Using public transit can make you sick too. As can biking in the rain. We can't win. At least one of us have been sick every day since mid September. But I'll put up some blog posts to show that things haven't been all bad. :) Even sickness comes with cuteness.

Papa and the boys, sleeping all day.

Like, all day. Here, with his friend Natt-Natt (that's the sound ducks make, of course!)

A little happier in the mornings.

About all the energy he can muster today (ear infection, poor dear).

FOOD!

I know everybody is curious about food, because... well, food is food.

there are certain things that make food better here.

like this farmer's market at the end of our street. from 6-12 every single morning, except Sundays.

row upon row of just farmers and their families selling ... actual fresh food. That's Felix and Theodore and Brian. Henry didn't make it into the panorama because he was moving around so much, as usual :)

 We can walk there with tante C.

Even in the rain. I had to wait a while to get a moment when this wasn't packed with people.

We can also forage food. Right now on the Schlossberg we can find figs and pomegranates and chestnuts. Although pictured here are horse-chestnuts which we picked up by accident.

But lets pretend we're still hungry..... Why.... Look here, on our street is the Sammelbox - translation a collection box, aka FREEGAN FOOD. it's kind of a swap box for old expired or extra things. We get pretty much all our bread here, since it's free ... and there's so much of it that we can even be picky. We are officially Elite Freegan Snobs.

Still need food? That's ok. In the middle of the night you can go to the grocery store. Umm. not really Everything is closed by 9 no matter what. And nothing at all is open on Sunday, except at the main Train Station. But behind the grocery store nearest us, a stone's throw away, there are beehives. Yes. Your gigantic chain grocery store has beehives.

If you are still peckish, don't worry, there are still jars of marmalade my dear grandmother made in 2002. See here.

And finally a gratuitous picture of us on the Schlossberg, the number one tourist attraction in the city, in front of the Uhrturm only a few minutes walk from the kindergarten door. Behind us in front of the clockface, that green tree is the one laden with figs. 

first day of school

first day of school was Monday.

It's really Kindergarten, and Theo and Henry are in the same class. Felix didn't want to leave, but he said his goodbyes and gave his brothers hugs and kisses. These past few days it's been really fun for both parents to get some one-on-one time with the littlest one.

The kids got served chicken the very first day (we are vegetarian - they have never eaten meat before!) so we decided to take them out of the food portion of school, and now they get to school at 7am and leave at 1pm and we go have dinner at home as a family. It's nice that we can have our dinner together.

In Austria, dinner is the main meal of the day, where you eat a soup, a salad, and typically meat and potatos. The evening meal is usually a slice of bread with butter, or something along those lines.

We are still learning to adjust our sleep schedule so the kids can get up at the right time. Benjamin Franklin would be proud.

A Perfect Rainy Saturday

A Perfect Rainy Saturday
without pictures.

:)

We slept a little later than usual, since the outside was dark and then started our day like every other - with oatmeal and fruit and coffee for those who choose.

Brian chose to go for a long run. A very long run. About 20km.

The kids did their "school work" which is really just Mommy and one of them at a time copying a sentence or two from a favorite book. And then they practiced - oh my heart. Duets with my children. <3 p="">
We have been living with no doorbell since we arrived here in July, so we finally installed one. The kids came out and held an umbrella "over me" while i drilled pilot holes and installed the button.

We painted train cars. Henry received some natural unpainted ones for his birthday (umm... months ago!) and we finally found the right kind of paint to use on them. Theodore has a normal train set already painted etc, but decided to improve some of the train cars with new headlights and windshields.

Lunch was fresh butternut squash soup that Auntie Centa made. With fresh chives from the market. We waited to eat until Brian got back, and when he did, he rang the NEW doorbell! It works!

Then we looked up the main event for the day. The main square in our town had a YOGA PICNIC (isn't that an amazing idea?) planned, and it was definitely rained out. Luckily they had a contingency plan - in a big sports stadium near a palace (Schloss Eggenberg - look it up!) And there, the kids got out some energy running around the gym and Mama and Papa tried to get in some relaxation.

The yoga instructor was the happiest lady I have ever met - and I always am attracted to the happy ones, so I have met a lot of happy people. She was in love with life, and it was infectious. She did not show what to do. She just narrated what really ended up being our thoughts, since we were focused on only two things her voice and our own bodies. {Well. And 3 other bodies, running around and yelling and laughing.}

Ooooooooooone and a haaaaalf hours of stretching and meditation later...... A picnic - in true yoga style all fresh fruits and salads and tea and kombucha, all of which was served out of baskets. Aaaaaaah. I want to do this every day. It was an awesome picnic even in a fluorescent-lit gym.

We separated on our way home. The older boys to buy milk (So important, since there is nothing open on Sunday) and Irma and Felix to get home before Felix tried to fall asleep. He had skipped his nap, so I was trying to get him through to bed time.  Kids into pajamas and bedtime with Brian.
Irma into fancy concert clothes to go BACK to Schloss Eggenberg for an astounding concert that left Irma on the edge of her seat. They played a Ravel Sonata that literally inspired poetry. ;) And the Franck piano quintet that raised and lowered my pulse.

Back home by 10:30 - a little bit of walking in the rain. Switched out of the fancy shoes to my 5 year old unclaimed crocks with my pants stuffed into my socks and no umbrella or jacket in true Irma preparedness style. Crashed into bed and phew.

A perfect rainy Saturday. 

Some hiking stories

We've been hiking a lot recently. There are some great and wonderful hikes about a 10 minute bus ride from a bus stop that's about a 1 minute walk from our door. Like little mountains! Not the Alps, but not bad for living in the city. The end of the line is called Gösting, and the stop even has a playground, and an apple tree and a cafe so you can start your hike of choice in style.

After a few hikes, we bought lederhosen for Henry, because the other two boys had them. The German word for hiking is "wandern" (think "wandering") and the German word for pants is "hosen" (thus the lederhosen) and Felix calls his hiking pants, "van van hos hos" so now that's our new word for them.

Felix's belonged to my brother when he was a baby, a gift from an Austrian relative, and they were worn for some pictures. Now they are getting some serious use! Theo's belonged to my dear friend Amy, when she was a girl and hiked several huge mountains in the Whites as a little girl. Henry's have the boring story - we bought them at a flea market (more on that another day).

Here are some pictures from the various hikes we've done... non chronological, completely unedited, and unresized because..... I just haven't had any computer time of any kind lately.

Felix hardly hiking :)

strange flowers

more strange flowers.

anyone know what they are??

The awesome hiking map at the bus stop.

strange berries. I did not try them.

Theo's picture of us at the ruins.

The three kids at the Ruins. 

The mountain in the background is the Plabutsch, which we climbed another weekend.

We collected apples. When the bus stopped short there were apples.. all over 2 lengths of bus. Brian heroically rescued them all..... so that they could be .......

chopped up for apple sauce.

Without blackberries, we may never have made it to the top. Look Felix - 10 more steps and then there are more blackberries.

Theodore is quite an independent hiker.

At the top - a terrific view and a terrific playground and amazing coffee. In ceramic espresso cups served on a stainless steel platter with water and a cookie. They know how to do coffee!

Felix showing off that he can stand on one foot. 

The view from the tower near Seckau. An hour car ride away.

Henry on the tower guarding our lunch. The structure has over 200 stairs.

Us at the top of the Tremmelberg.

Hail storm

I wasn't making it up! This was our second hail storm in as many days. The first one I tried to film too, but it was the middle of the night, and super dark, so the video was black. It was very camaraderie-esque, since people across the street in the apartment building also ran out into the rain storm in the middle of the night, and started taking video of the hail storm.

We made it here!

The flight was fine and boring, but then came a GIANT PINK WELCOME SIGN we could see from the airplane - Ingrid and Cecilia waiting with waves and smiles and hugs. We tried coffee but Irma succumbed to 4 days of massive jet lag. The worst I've ever experienced personally, since it was tacked on to the end of about 10 days of terrible sleep deprivation.

We are now members of the Austrian bureaucracy. But in a good way! - Days of paperwork, and Irma finally has a passport and a social security number and all the rest of that. We are still working on other things in that department, but we finally have a good order of operations.

We have survived a terrific heat wave (nights cooling off to the high 80s), and 2 hail storms. (Unusual for here!)

We had a magnificent day of fail, where we woke up to sick children and the electricity went out for several hours, but Cecilia magically fixed it by waving her lightning rod (cell phone) around.

We are learning the real way to do things, Austrian style. Farmers market (very nearly) every day so far.

And here are some pictures to show that we're not making this stuff up!

bleary eyed but checking out the attic right away.

little man in a new shirt.

for a walk along the river, right by our house.

showing off Montana Moose pride.

reading a new book.

beating the heat, Austrian bathtub style.

Excited to see their new (to them) bicycles, formerly belonging to Ingrid's nephews.

Theo has yellow.

Henry has purple.

Felix just has a basket at the back of Mama's bike - Austrian style.

Playing at Ingrid's house with barn and animals.

Henry recovering.

I call this one... Boy with Pillows.

and this one... Boys with Oatmeal.

Then Mama hung a swing from the apple tree..... Theo tried it first...

then Henry....

Then Mama.