Big Day Tomorrow!

I sure hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Ours is wrapping up as it is 10:25pm on Sunday night. The house is quiet and we are all ready for the movers to show up in the morning with our sea shipment. I cannot even remember what is coming and what was left at this point it seems like a blur. I do know we are excited to receive our beds, more clothes/shoes and more kitchen stuff. Oh, and the couches :)!! The kids are excited about their scooters and bikes. It will be like Christmas... and then the unpacking for days begins. I think our organizational skills will have to come out as we have very little space here and NO closets.

We had a nice last 1/2 of the week (since we posted last)... the weather in Vienna was spectacular. Friday night we went out to dinner with a family that has been here a few years. Eric has been playing tennis with Scott (he is also working at the IAEA) and Joseph is in Evan's class and one of his favorite friends right now. They also have a 7th grade daughter and Mom Mary Kay is great. They are wrapping up their time here and will be leaving this summer. One interesting thing about living here -- there are a lot of people moving in and out... posts like we have and a ton of embassy/state department people. It is definitely odd in some ways. Anyway, we went to a KILLER Italian restaurant ... the food was OUTSTANDING and the building itself was amazing. We will go back there often and know that if you come visit, you will go there too!

Saturday brought on a haircut for Evan. He was just going to get a trim, but the lady did NOT listen to our requests and cut quite a bit off. (yes, she understood English just fine!) It is a nice cut, but NOT what he wanted. I felt bad for him as I would consider him and I a bit "fragile" right now :). But he handled it like a champ and life went on.

He had to miss his violin lesson on TH so the teacher invited us to her house on Saturday to have the lesson in her studio there. It was fun to see a new part of town and great to see his lesson. Eric was able to 'accompany' him on the piano playing 2 songs. Mrs. Murray has been so excited for that to happen and even had them sort of act like it was a show in preparation for the recital in Dec/Jan. SOOO cute! I posted video on FB if you are a Facebooker it is worth the watch. She is a very accomplished violinist and an extremely talented teacher. She is so passionate, caring and talented, we are sooo thrilled we were able to get into her classes. Evan is enjoying it a lot.

I may have told you this before, but Julia will start in 2nd grade. All the kids at AIS learn 4 string instruments in 2nd grade... and then can pick one to continue with if they would like. That is something fun to look forward to!

In the afternoon we split up and Julia and I did a little girl time and shopping. She had a few stores she wanted to check out and we also got a nice big glass of heisse schokolade milch (hot chocolate) :) The boys went to the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology. It was a good one and we will go back again so Jules and I can see it.

Today was windy and rainy! It was the kind of weather that you just want to stay in bed under the covers! We did our Saturday chores on Sunday and then went downtown to the Hofburg and went into the Sisi Museum. This is where the Emperess Elisabeth and Emperer Franz Joseph Hofburg lived. They call it the Sisi (Elisabeth) Apartments. They have a ton of the china, stemware, etc... on display and then you walk through the 20 or so rooms of the "apartments" in the castle. It was very cool!

Next Saturday they do a "Night at the Museum" thing here where all the museums are free and open until like 2am. I hear it is a good night to pick 5 or 6 and just go in them and do a quick look to decide which ones you want to go back to (and pay to get into) someday. We will have to get a game plan for this night as the kids don't really LOVE most museums :)!

Tonight the kids watched Home Alone and I went to work out. (These pastries and breads are killing me!)

Eric is taking the day off tomorrow to help with the movers. Yeah!

Hope you all have a great week!