wow, it's been a long time...

My summer was very busy - there was a vacation, my son started first grade and I went back to university. Right now, I have some time between lectures and it feels like I can come up to breathe again. I'm very sorry for not being here - but if you want to get a hold of me, my facebook page is always open :-)

We had a great time at the Hobbit Fest - a friend organizes these ridiculously detailed and amazing parties just for her family, our family and a couple of friends. We dressed up as hobbits, too - I actually made the dress I'm wearing !

Empress Sisi on my Blog? I'm honored, your Majesty!

This beautiful little princess is going to australia - i took part in a dolly swap :-)

I will upload two new dolls today - a very cool and sporty boy and a sweet little berry of a girl :-D
Also - something new is coming in a few days - be sure to come back here or to check my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/VeelanasDesign

Hugs,
Vee

Wonderful weekend

We made s'mores :-)

Steam engine museum - we had a great time!

We did this quite a while ago and the kids had so much fun! We got to stand on a working steam engine, play with model trains - and the severe lack of visitors was a big bonus - no lines anywhere :-)

Day nine - all our bags are packed, we're ready to go...

We enjoyed ur last day at the farm, said our goodbeyes,  packed up all of our things and left the farm around noon. We added a visit to the MostBirnHaus to see the awesome playground tjaz friends had told us about. It ended up being a lot of fun and we spent a very hot afternoon sitting in the shade, watching the kids get muddy in the sand pit...

Day eight - pony express

One of the highlights of this vacation for me is interacting (and see the kids) interact with animals. I think i mentioned that i'm super allergic to everything that is even remotely hairy, so none of us have a lot of contact with animals at home, but since i'm taking high doses of antihistamines, i might qs well reap the benefits...
Katinka the horse is awesome - she's super patient :-)

Day seven - a day at the farm

Since this was a pretty typical day at the farm up until the point when we got a visitor, i thought I'd tell you how our days went by.
The kids wake up around seven and get dressed for breakfast while my husband and i still sleep...no wait, that was a commercial... so, the kids wake up around seven and then shout at us until we get up, need help finding their socks etc.
We have breakfast with veggies from the greenhouse,  cheese and homemade jam and feed the leftover cucumber to Maxi the goat afterwards.  We get some food for the animals (dandilion leaves, mostly) and feed the bunnies, guinea pigs, ponies and goats. We usually take some animals outside, a couple of baby bunnies and the goats, perhaps.
The kids play at the playgroung while my husband and i laze around for a bit, maybe on one of the swings. At some point, one of us will go and get our guitars down so we can practise, Mr. Noodles will ride around on a bike for a while and both kids will help the farmer get the food for the cows.
We spent most of the day like this - helping a little, playing more. I highly recommend it :-)
A friend drove down from vienna today to play Dominion with us - we had a great time.

Day six - awwwww, cute!

A very cold and rainy day led to us spending most of the day inside playing chess and boardgames,  but we went to a different farm in the evening to see where the milk comes from - the kids were very excited, especially since they got to feed a tiny calf - it was less than 24 hours old :-)  the kids got to hold the bottle...

Day five - learning to play chess - check :-)

Sunday as very, very hot. We spent the morning hanging around at the playground and rying out the pool  - but the water was still super cold, so nobody spent a lot of time in the water.
We headed to a public pool around noon and i swam over 1km at the pond.
We had a bbq back at the farm in the evening and finished up just before it started raining - and inside Mr. Noodles asked me to teach him how to play chess. He picked up all the rules right away and we ended up playing for quite a while ...

Day four - Strawberry fields forever

The morning was very, very wet, but the rain didn't keep us away from the animals. We fed the cows and the chicken, played with Maxi the goat and discovered that some of the chilli plants in the greenhouse have small chillis on them already.

We wanted to look at some street parties by local volunteer fire departments, but they were not what we expected.
We know them as teeny tiny parties that go on all day, have some stuff for kids to do, let you look inside a fire truck or handle the big hose... this wasn't anything like it - they only started in the evening with booze and music...

So we went to a huge bakery instead where they let you bake your own roll, let you look into the factory and give you some free samples. The kids whre at the kids bakery and got to bake some stuff, too. After the tour was finished, i went to the nearby strawberry field to pick our own strawberries. I picked almost 3kg - thats six pounds!

We had dinner at 'altes presshaus' where we where a bit surprised by the food - we expected rustic and got fine dining - but it was really, really good.
See ya
Vee