First Hair Cut!

Ever since Sophia cut her own hair (last Mother’s day) she has been trying to grow her bangs back out, and this latest hair cut was the first time that they have actually started blending back into the rest of her hair… They are starting to frame her face quite well.

Alexandra’s hair was beginning to look a bit fly a way, and we thought it would be nice to get it cleaned up a little bit.  Never did I imagine her response to the cutting – BIG TEARS – but the stylist did a great job, even with all of her moving around, and she looks so sweet! besides, ice cream always things better… just in case you’ve forgotten already, this is what it looked like before I can’t believe how much she now looks like a little girl!  No longer a baby…

Seattle Sunshine

What an amazing trip we had, I’ll just go on record as saying that we have never had a more beautiful February in Seattle.

Lunch at Rays on our first day – NO SNOW SUITS!!!

The first week was filled with Doctors Appts, but these were the views from the windows.  Not a bad way to spend a few hours… Then there was lots of park time with friends. and of course the joy of swings, and then jet lag would take us all down,

A fasching birthday party

Sophia was lucky enough to celebrate her birthday early this year because of our travel schedule and the school ski break.  It also happened to fall on the friday that the kids were asked to dress up for the fasching celebration, which meant that most of the kids were in fun costumes and it looked to be a real party…

I turned into Martha Stewart and made cupcakes (with the best chocolate cake mix the US has to offer) and cake to share, Sophia did the sprinkles decorations and put crossed hearts on for a bit of Valentines as well.

and yes, I bought a frosting tip to make the roses…

and silliness was all around!

Ballet Show

Sophia has been taking ballet after school on Fridays, and following her birthday celebration she had a small performance with her class to see what they’ve done this year.

They just had minimal lighting on the stage, so these were the best I could do without using a flash, but the actual dancing photos are pretty blurry…

Fasching 2010

It’s the annual Fasching celebration in Munich right now, as the city warms up with Carnival – Munich’s own series of parties and balls around the city leading up to Fat Tuesday.  You may not think of Munich as a hot spot for Carnival, but the city really adopts any reason to party, even sending most workers home at noon on Fat Tuesday. But they have to be at work on time Wednesday morning.  As it kicks off with a parade that goes by our corner, we decided to invite a few friends over to help us bring in the Fasching season.  The girls loved getting dressed up, and loved even more having so many friends to watch the parade with.

Alexandra discovering her wings – actually Sophia’s wings as they are being passed down, the scourge of being the second child. Alexandra kept running around the house saying, “I’m flying…I’m flying” with her new wings.  Then she showed off her posed smile.

Sophia with an elegant look over her new wings.  She started off with a costume as a cat, but then decided that she was partial to a flying cat.

Sophia with her Hello Kitty costume on.  Like there was any other kitty that she would dress up as.

Sophia and her friends awaiting the beginning of the parade.  All you could hear is, “Sweeties, Sweeties, Sweeties.”  All the floats throw candy (sometimes aiming them directly at the kids heads – seriously do you know how much suckers hurt as they are being hurled at you!), and the kids had their bags ready to pick up as much as they could fit.

Alexandra loved her skirt so much that she wanted it over her ski suit. Sophia standing back and watching the group of witches go by.  She decided to keep her distance from this group.

Sophia, Aidan and Sarah looking for candy as it’s thrown from the floats.  We constantly had to keep moving the kids back away from the floats (driven by farm tractors with 8’ wheels), but there was little hope of keeping them away from the candy. 

The picture of the crew of kids and the spoils from the parade – all with their own bags filled with candy.  One child even used one of the parents hats to gather all the loot.

Aidan, Maddie and Sophie – partners in crime when it comes to gathering candy at the parade or playing at school.

Alexandra – growing before our eyes

All of a sudden I looked at Alexandra tonight & realized that she isn’t a baby anymore.  She doesn’t even really look like a toddler – all I see is, sigh, little girl.

She has a great “cheese” face and then there is the joy of playing with bubbles (in the living room – Troy’s doing) Sophia saw the camera & came running… I love the joy they have for each other.  Alexandra is so proud because she can pronounce Sophia’s name perfectly.  Sometimes it comes out in a whisper, but when we leave the school, and Alexandra feels Sophia is too far ahead, everyone in the parking lot can hear her.  SOPHIA!

And they all smile…

A Day in the Munich Snow

With nearly 3 weeks of straight snowfall, and sub-freezing temperatures; the sun finally came out and we decided to explore the snow-covered city. The girls loved their new white city, where every open field became a new playground. Moya & Sophia made joint snow angels, while Alexandra was more interested in eating the snow. Most of the photos are taken in the Konigsplatz area.

Special Visitors…

We were lucky enough to have Brehan & Caro visit for a few days last week.  The girls adore them, and dinner is always quite an adventure…

It is hard to eat when you are laughing all the time!

Skating on the canal

We were in the midst of a deep freeze last week, with a couple inches of snow every night.  Mind you, Munich is flat, with snowplows for both the streets & sidewalks, so we weren’t really affected by the snow at all.

[Except it takes sooooo long to get the girls dressed for school, clean the car off, warm everyone up.   I have never been much of a morning person, but I am really beginning to hate the 7-9am hours.  Just too much stress for that early in the morning…]

However, we were able to take advantage of the low temps (a high of –5 on Thursday) to have some fun on the canal in front of Nymphenburg Palace. Alexandra managed to talk us into letting her out of her stroller & being able to run on the ice. Sophia just had a great time skating around in circles, and pulling our friend Dominic who was visiting from Italy. She & Alexandra are so funny together Alexandra is just doing everything she can to keep up with Sophia.  This does not bode well for us in the future… And yes, all Alexandra wanted to do was eat the ice shavings. So we left for lunch, and passed by all of the Germans playing a game on the ice, a mixture of shuffleboard & curling.  I don’t understand it, but with all of the ice cleared it looked like there was quite the serious tournament going on.