26 October 2011

Schönbrunn Palace

Before school started we took a little excursion with some colleagues and our 6 kids!

You can't start your day right without a trip to Starbucks first!

 On our way to check out the gardens at Schönbrunn Palace.
 Walking over the U-bahn tracks.  The u-bahn is Vienna's metro system.
Walking up to Schönbrunn Palace.  Isn't it beautiful?!  And this is the back!
 The gardens!  There are mazes, water features, flowers...lots of beauty!
 Relaxing while the kiddos run around!





Family photo op!

 Look at that view!

 The front of Schönbrunn.  Gorgeous!



 Look at all those cuties!
 Me & my buddy!
 U-bahn map of downtown.

It wasn't near enough time to enjoy the sites, but we'll take what we can get!

23 October 2011

A Bit of India in Vienna

Brennan and Reegan have a classmate that is from India.  We were invited to her birthday celebration a few weeks ago.  Yes, a few weeks ago.  Don't remind me how far behind I am in the blogging department!  Ha!
Entertainment!  An Austrian duo.
 They gave the kids spinning plates.
 The birthday girl and family!
 The food!  Oh, the food!  Yum!
 With the birthday girl!
Even face painting! We had a fun time!

09 October 2011

All Before 2

We get up.
Eat breakfast.
Watch some tv.
The kids decide they don't want to watch tv, so I turn it to a channel of MY choice.  How often does that happen?!
I turn it to Extreme Makeover Home Edition.
Sob my eyes out as they make a new home for a Marine who fought in Iraq (who lost a limb) and his 4 kids.
Do mandatory reading with Karis.
Read "Marley & Me" to her and Reegan and decide we need to watch the movie.
I forget how emotional this movie is at the end, thinking I can handle it, and end up sobbing my eyes out even harder than Extreme Makeover Home Edition!!! 
Over a dog!! 
Gotta love a blubbering cry in front of the kids!  Ha!
Try to do some cleaning up of the coffee table where school papers have taken over! 
Lucky I did it today and found the medical forms for 3 kids that are due at school tomorrow!!
I start lunch.
Karis tells me the form has to be turned in to her teacher. 
I tell her the form says to turn it into the front desk. 
She argues with me. 
I pull the form out of the envelope and have here read it with me that it needs to be turned in to the front desk. 
She then proceeds to lose it and tell me that her teacher will be mad at her if she doesn't turn the form in to her. 
I assure her that she will not and to come talk to me if she does.  That I have to follow the directions on the form.
She is still not happy, sobs herself and I get frustrated because she doesn't believe me.  Her teacher's word is GOLD!  That's great and I'm SO glad she wants to please her teacher, but I'm her mom!  Trust me, girl!
She then comes into the kitchen as I finish up lunch, gets water, still a bit pouty where I explain to her that it is upsetting to me that she doesn't trust me.
She walks away and I get angry that she walks away while I'm talking.
She proceeds to spill water on herself sending her into another sobbing mess!
I tell her to chill (well, I didn't say that exactly, but something to that effect).
She says something mean to brother and sister and goes to her bed.
I tell her to stay in her bed until she can change her attitude.
She tells me her sister is always mean to her.
I remind her that she is sometimes mean to her sister.
We go over "...do to others what you would have them do to you..." Matthew 7:12 that she has been learning.
Hope she calms down before I come to get her.
I get Brennan & Reegan started on lunch and go get Karis.
She is found messing with the light fixture because she wants her pillow to glow (Sounds a bit crazy, huh?  Nana made Halloween pillow cases and used glow in the dark thread to spell their names on the pillow).
I tell her that she is sitting in a different spot at the table because Brennan is watching a show (Yes another one.  Don't judge! ;))
She's not happy about it and pouts a bit more telling me she always sits in that spot.
I tell her she won't be sitting in that spot again for awhile (we have a system at our house based on a "first day" rotation).
Make a mental note of rotating this spot (that is not the first day spot.  Confused??)!
She finally calms down and eats.
The funk is fading!!
Mama is drained from all the tv sobbing and challenging morning!
Kids are now all happily playing together.
All before 2 pm!
How many days until daddy returns!!

Did I mention daddy is on a long trip??

05 October 2011

Around Vienna and Slovakia?

My new friend and colleague, Christina, took my around town one day.  I should have taken a ton more pictures as she showed me some pretty cool things, but I get wrapped up in my surroundings and conversation that the pictures are forgotten.
Here we are being silly on the u-bahn (Vienna's metro)
 Showing off her coffee at a great place downown!
 A cute little Spanish restaurant that she pointed out to me!
We stopped at a downtown grocery store, a chain we know well, not realizing that this particular store took things to a whole new level!  Christina went in to get a banana and we were drawn in by the hot food and salad bars.  So, we decided to eat an early lunch!
Look at that chandelier in a grocery store!!!
She had some kind of yummy looking vegetable salad and I had a Thai Shrimp with rice.  It was SO good for eating in a grocery store!
The next day Christina, Julie and I hopped in a car and headed to Bratislava, Slovakia.  Sounds like we took quite a trip, huh?!  No, only an hour drive!  We hit a couple of our favorite stores that we (me & Julie) knew from living in Prague (Marks & Spencer and Tesco) and HAD to eat at Pizza Hut!!
We had a fun time shopping and being silly girls.....shopping!!!
This Bratislava trip might have to become a monthly or bimonthly thing!!

02 October 2011

Our Vienna Home part 2

I realized I didn't include a picture of the cellar/dungeon that we discovered last week.  The entrance to it anyway.

The garden shed where the entrance is located.
 
So, I finally took some pictures of the inside of our little place.  Come on in and take a look!
The entryway.  This is a view from the kitchen.  The front door is to the right in this picture.
It's a small space, so I tried to utilize the space as best as we could.  The door just peaking to the left is of the toilet room.  Older homes separated the toilet and bath.  The bathroom is right next to the toilet room.
The toilet room with a beachy theme with things that remind us of our trips to the Spanish coast!
The bathroom.  I haven't done any decorating in here and no shower curtain at the time, although the kids don't really need it right now.  We'll need to do something for guests eventually.

This is coming out of the entry/bath area and into the kitchen.  An extra coat rail for company.  And a place to hang decor!
And stepping into the kitchen...
The downside is my washer and dryer have to be in the kitchen.  One of the draw backs, but I'm learning to live with it.
It's so nice to have a kitchen with a view!!
 I love the lighting under the cabinets!
These corner cabinets are nice.
From the kitchen we step into the living/dining area.
This is a dresser turned into our phone/internet box table with added storage!
 The dining area.
An idea from pinterest.
(if you don't know what pinterest is, just think of it as a virtual pin board to store ideas and see knew ones)
Decorate your wall thermostat with a frame!

 The living area.  Complete with a 1st grader doing her homework.
 The opening in the back of the picture is a second outside door and the stairs to our loft bedroom.  You can just see the frame of a door on the right.  That takes you to the kid's bedrooms.
This view is standing in the doorway of Brennan's room.
 This is standing in the doorway to outside and to the stairs.
 From the door to the kitchen.
We're still working on the space.  We need to buy additional bookshelves to add to the entertainment center and pictures need to be hung.
Here is the view to our yard from the living room.
A view of the hobby room (more on that in another post) and picnic table from the living room windows.

Here are some other random pictures I took around the outside of the house.
This is the patio area.  The door you see is the one I mentioned where the stairs are located.
The small circled greenery is a rose bush and mint!
This is the front part of our yard with the garden shed in view.  The windows you see are the toilet room and entryway.

The view of the house coming in from the front gate.
I think it looks like a quaint little cottage!
The apartment building across the street from our front yard.  The whole front yard is walled in.
Our street from the outside.  This is the outer side of our wall.
Our front gate at the street.

I'll share the bedrooms when we get them a little more organized and cleaned up!

Deeper

  Deeper - adj. 1. extending or situated relatively far down from a surface: a deep pool. It's been a long time since I've ...