Kindergarten (preschool) girl!

After a nice and busy summer, things started to settle down in September. I spent my last few weeks before Kindergarten started with my friends, my brother and my mama and papa. We took a nice trip to the zoo in Herberstein with my best friend, Pascal. We had a great time!!! I think dad might be a little worried about our smooching though.

I have also developed a few new favorite things: Nutella (but my mom only buys it once in a while...she says its not healthy!), Dora the Explorer (I have dora underwear, dora t shirt, dora swimming suit, dora books, dora sticker book, dora DVDs, and my mom bought me a really cool dora balloon).

As always my absolute favorite thing is my brother. He is always running after me and tries to do everthing I do. He even likes to put on my clothes, hair barrettes, bike helmet and so on. He is really funny and keeps us all laughing everyday!

The most exciting thing that has happened, though, was the first day of Kindergarten. I am now a big kindergarten kid and that makes me feel pretty special. Don't you dare say I go to kinderkrippe becuase I DONT! I had a great start to kindergarten with lots of new things like gym clothes in a gym bag, new house shoes, new tennis shoes, and lots of new friends. I am still trying to get used to the difference and all the big kids, but each day is a bit easier!

And finally I will just ask this question:
Isn't my brother cute?!?!? Just like me!

BYE BYE!

BIKES!

Hi Everyone!
It has been a really really really long time since my mom decided to post on this blog. So much has gone on in the last few months, that I don't even know where to start!

I guess I'll start with my very first trip in a "lastwagen" oder semi truck. Although my Opa owns a trucking company, I never had the chance to ride in one of the really big trucks. I told Opa my one really special wish for Easter was to take a ride with Opa. He agreed! It was so cool.


As the weather started to get nicer this spring we did some hiking around Graz. It was fun. Nils rode in the backpack, but at the end Mom let me take a ride in the backpack. It was fun to pretend to be a little baby! I had so much fun picking flowers.




In June my Aunt Betsy just showed up! It was so cool. We had so much fun jogging and biking and playing. My mom celebrated her 30th birthday and we had a big party. That was also so much fun. We did a few REALLY fun things with Aunt Betsy when she was here including going to a chocolate factory and taking family pictures!

In July we went to Grado for about 1 week. It was so much fun to lay around in the sun, play in the sand and swim in the ocean. I dont even need a swim noodle anymore. Just my water wings!

At then end of July my Grandma and Grandpa came and stayed for 2 weeks! It was so much fun. We spent some time in Graz, but also took a trip to Bratislava. I loved it there! We took a boat from Bratislava to Vienna . That was really fun. We all enjoyed that.

Now, the best for last:
I CAN RIDE A BIG GIRL BIKE!!!! I learned in April or so to ride a bike. I never had training wheels. Not even for one second. I had a really little bike to begin with, but have moved up to a bigger one so that I can ride a bit faster. My new bike even has a basket on the front! I ride my bike to nursery school and home again nearly everyday. I LOVE to ride my bike.

In 2 weeks I start at the "kindergarten", moving up from the "kinderkrippe". Thats like going from nursery school to preschool. My mom says it makes her a little sad, but mostly really proud. I am so excited about kindergarten and cannot wait to write more about it in a couple of weeks.

Love,
Zoe

Happy Birthday to me!

Hi Everyone!
I know that is has been a while since I have written, but I just haven't had time.
About 3 weeks ago I celebrated my 3rd Birthday with a series of Birthday parties.
First, on Saturday I celebrated with my friends. It was so fun and I got a lot of cool presents!

The celebrating continued the following day. Some of my Austrian family came to Graz to have lunch and eat cake with me. Oma and Opa, Kassl Oma, Tante Katharina and Tante Julia and also dad's cousin Raphael and his girlfriend, Gudrun. Again...lots of cool presents! We went to my favorite Restaurant, a mongolian Grill called Cooking Wu. It was yummy!! Then we went back to my house and ate some more of the yummy chocolate cake my mom made for me.

The next day was my actual Birthday. I was then officially 3!!!! I had a little party at preschool and also celebrated with my mom, dad and Nils. I got even more presents and was so happy with all the things I got from my American family. I got a coffee machine from Aunt Betsy and make lots of"coffee" for everyone now. I also got pizza from Eric and Jess...anyone want a slice. Mom prefers it with mushrooms, but dad is all about the pepperoni. ;) You would think that was enough celebrating, but nope! I had one more party last weekend in Eberstein with a few people whol couldn't come to Graz. It was very fun!

Nils is now almost 9 months old! Can you believe it??? I can't! He is growing and can move all over the place. He doesn't really crawl, but scoots...and does something I call the frog. He gets into everything and sometimes I get a little frusterated when he plays with my stuff or puts it in his mouth.

We also celebrated Faschings (Carnival) the day after my Birthday. We are now well into Lent and looking forward to Easter. We are going to England in 2 weeks. Mom, Nils and I are just tagging along while Daddy has a conference to attend. We are very excited!
Hope this finds everyone well!
Love,
Zoe

This and that

I meant to put this one in the last post. It is from my trip to America. My Grandpa Tom took us all to see some birds. It was really cool. There were owls, falcons and most impressivly 2 bald eagles. I got to stand really close and have my picture taken with this guy. Pretty cool.

We have been swimming a couple times lately. A little over a week ago we went to the Villacher Warmbad with Oma and Kathi and Julia. It was fun and, as you can see, I got to eat an ice cream. MMMMMMMMMMM YUMMY!

This past weekend we were at another Therme in Burgenland (about 2 hours from Graz). We went with my friend Finn and his mom and dad. It was so fun. We spent so much time swimming. Nils and I both love to be in the water and we had a great time. They all sorts of slides too (for little kids, big kids and even some for mamas and papas).

Christmas in America

Hi Everyone! As you can see I had a great Christmas in America. I recieved SO many wonderful gifts. It was great. I got to help decorate the tree with my Grandma, Grandpa, mom and dad. It was really fun. I also helped build a gingerbread house and bake Christmas cookies. It was really really great and everyone told me what a great help I was!

Nils had a great first Christmas as well. He even liked the rocking horse that my Grandpa Tom gave me. It even makes noises. I named him Brownie Brown. I can't wait to get back to the US so that I can ride him again.

I got a Cabbage Patch kid for Christmas too. My mom got one 25 years ago for Christmas. Can you believe that??? Well, anyway, I love my Billie Maybell. She even had a pacifier, which I like to put in, take out, put in, take out....... I got some of the old cabbage patch kid clothes from my mom too. It is pretty fun for me to watch my mom dress and undress my doll. :)

I also got some really cool baking things and an ice cream set. I love to make ice cream cones for anyone who wants one. Maybe I will even work for Colby Ridge one day, just like mom and Aunt Betsy did!

In addition to Christmas we celebrated Nils' baptism. My Oma and Opa came and so did Tante Kathi and Tante Julia. It was great to have ALL my family together. My great Uncle Dwight and his family came and also Karen and Jim (are we related???) ;) It was really nice. Aunt Betsy sang and Nils didn't even cry when Grandpa put the water on his head.

Have a wonderful day!
Love,
Zoe