November has come and gone.

Now that November and chilly weather has come...

We're thankful Nathanael's football training is indoors!

Nathanael had a friend sleep over!  Actually, his dad was in the hospital for a few days, so we were simply helping out a bit.

Our dear, dear friend Krishana visited!

Eva had her Lantern Festival for St. Martin's Day (and sang as loudly as she could)!

We made a 24 hour trip to Budapest to visit dear friends adopting their son from Hungary (and forgot to take a single picture with them....grrrr)!

Eva asks daily to play the piano and guitar.

November means school photos in Vienna.  Here's a side-by-side of Nathanael's school photos from the last three years.  He's growing up so quickly!

And lastly, we can't forget the turkey!  We hosted Thanksgiving this year for a few American families, and it was really special to celebrate together.

Fall Fun

We love Autumn in Vienna.  We often try to spend our Saturday mornings at some of our favorite parks, taking advantage of the last few weekends of comfortable outdoor play.

Our favorite place is Kurpark Oberlaa, also known as WIG.

This giant swing is one of our favorites!

Next on our list is the Wienerberg, which is a tad bit closer for us.

I promise I told them to say cheese, not show me their food. *sigh*

As for indoor, rainy day fun, we pull out all the stops.

Beans!

And "construction" play with the circus tent!

This kid totally killed me his first time to play the full-blown version of Battleship!

A Visit from the Bryans

Andrew and Angie and cousin Desmond came to visit us the weekend before school started (Aug/Sep).  It was wonderful to have them here.  We basically took them on a pub crawl, um, I mean a park crawl!  Three young kids on warm days in a small apartment = get them outside and running around!

We also fit in a train ride and bumper cars at Prater, of course!

I think we were having so much fun that we simply forgot to take pictures!

Re-settling and enjoying life

I thought I'd share a few happenings from the kids' lives.

Pile on Daddy

On Wednesday afternoons, Nathanael has soccer training following by religion class.  That means, I pick him up at noon, bring him home for lunch and homework, and then we return by 13:40 for his afternoon classes.  To his sheer delight, we also bring one of his friends with us since he lives quite a bit further away.  It is so much fun to have a friend with you to share a meal and do homework and then learn how to play soccer!

We caught the scooters on clearance on Monday and bought one for Nathanael!  We're excited about family walks with Nathanael on his scooter (he was too fast on his bike) and Eva on her balance bike.

Two weeks ago on Saturday morning, Eva informed me that she was finished wearing diapers and would be wearing her pretty underwear.  I was a bit shocked and taken aback but gladly went with it.  She has been amazing.  I'll spare you the gross details and simply say that we've had a few struggles here and there, but now that we're approaching the two week mark, I think I can safely say that she is toilet-trained.  She will go with people other than me now (a huge relief!), and she's doing great with it.  I am celebrating this huge milestone, enjoying NOT buying and carrying home diapers, and trying to keep up with the increased demand for toilet paper in our home.

(I figured out a decent replacement for Ramen Noodle Soup!)

Rainy day fun with umbrellas

Picking up Nathanael at school after soccer and religion

Our church held an awesome neighborhood outreach for kids:  Lego City!  It was a Friday evening / all day Saturday project for elementary-aged kids, and it concluded with a special Sunday morning service and the Lego City on display.  Nathanael was sad that he was too young to attend (by one year!), but it was awesome to see what the kids had built.

Our first grader

We are so proud of Nathanael and this big step he has taken into first grade.

He has done it well.  He already has a couple friends (and he even learned their names yesterday).  He has learned how to complain about homework without me having to teach him. :(  He has already shown himself to be a leader in the way he looks out for other kids in his class.  We are so proud of him.

Deutche Welle has an awesome article about the traditions associated with starting first grade in Germanic cultures.  It really is a big deal here.

Nathanael is attending a public, bilingual school in our district.  It's about a 15 minute walk from our home, which is awesome (except when it's pouring rain on the second day and I may have forgotten to bring our umbrellas).  He attends from 7:45 until 11:55 most days, with a couple random afternoon lessons or activities in the week.  The afternoons are mostly ours, after he completes his homework, of course.

The school building in the heart of our district in Vienna

He has a native German-speaking home teacher, Isa, and a native English-speaking teacher that rotates in and out of first and second grade.  Six or seven hours in the week he has teaching only in English, a few hours each week the two teachers team-teach in both language, and the remaining hours are mostly in German with English interspersed here and there.  This is just like Nathanael's life, and he loves it.

The weekly lesson plan for his class of 23 students

Here's the English version of the school supplies to collect.  This process was much more complicated than I imagined!  What a cultural learning experience!  I found the German version much easier to decipher.  It was much more specific (typical of the German language).

Evangeline on the other hand begs us every day to let her go to school with Nathanael.  Our little three-year-old would give anything to be six right now.  It's hard to not have big brother at pre-school/Kindergarten with her anymore.  Let's be real; it's simply hard to be three.  (We have to keep telling ourselves that we will survive this three-year-old daughter stage!)

A donut date with Dad and Mom while Nathanael attended a birthday party

A Get-away to Grand Lake

For our last weekend in the States, we headed south to Grand Lake in Oklahama.  My Uncle and Aunt have a lake house there, and I've been wanting to visit them at the lake for over a decade!  We finally did it!  What special memories we made together.  We sure missed our other family members though (Carrie, Deena, and Darcy)!  It was surreal to see our old spots along the lake and introduce our kids to the fun to be had there.  The sweetest moments for me were simply the time spent with family.  I am blessed.