Weekend Picknick

Variatio delectat! - therefore we took our bikes this weekend to the Glienicker Park instead of the well-known and frequently visited Babelsberg Park. The Glienicker Park is situated just north of the Babelsberg Park, but remarkably fewer people enjoy its beautiful landscape and forest. Nonetheless we spend some nice time there, appreciating the quiescence (apart from our kids...), the sounds of birds (if heard through the kids' squeaking) and the green nature (if not distracted due to minor and major catastrophes induced by a two-and-half year old and her little brother).

Various Pics from May

Nothing special happened - we had some calm weeks enjoying our daily routine! I really appreciate this because daily routine never is boring having two small kids at home...
So I'm just posting some pictures here taken these last weeks.
I start with this blurry one - to capture this funny situation I had no time to adjust my camera to the appropriate sensitivity:
Florian is already very interested in food - poor boy, his mother will let him wait for four more weeks before entering the longed for mash-stage....
Kamil and his kids:
Reading books is a highly valued activity for Anna as for Florian (though he rather likes to chew on the books...)
Having fun standing and jumping on daddy's knees:

Easter Report

Anna's new best friend is Mr Easter Rabbit! Not only did he hide some chocolate, Easter eggs and a trainer bike for Anna in our living room...
...he also hid lots of chocolate eggs in the Park. Anna and her friends Arne and Darius were thrilled to search for these treasures - and to eat them all at once!!!
The rest of us meanwhile was relaxing on picnic blankets in the middle of the green nature - a truly successful Easter Sunday afternoon!
(Next time in the Park, Anna disappointingly asked: "No chocolate eggs?"... Nope - not until next year, my dear!)

Soap Bubbles in the Park

At the risk of repeating myself - I LOVE the Babelsberg Park! Every time we walk through the park I find it amazing how the seasons change plants, trees and light in the park. Even after more than two years and countless excursions to the park, it never bores me!
Here, I post some pictures of one of these countless walks in the park, when we took some bubble soap with us and enjoyed watching them fly and Anna try to grasp these shiny voids.
Tree stump climbers:
And yes, Florian was with us all the time slumbering all the fun around him...

A Visit in Austria

And some more picture collages from our visit in Austria:

The Ustaszewski family with Ciocia Jola from Toronto

In Lustenau with aunt Ruth and cousins Judith and Martha (...and a most delicious chocolate cake!!!)

Opa and Oma with Florian

Our traditional hike to the Rauschbrunnen

Christening of Florian

In April, we travelled to Innsbruck, to enjoy our old hometown and our families and to celebrate the Christening of Florian in our "old" parish of Allerheiligen. This parish is blessed to have a charismatic and great priest - Franz Troyer. He admitted Florian to the community of Christians and held a joyful, interactive and wonderful ceremony.
From now on, aunt Ruth and uncle Thomas will accompany Florian through his life as his godmother and godfather.
The Christening was a wonderful opportunity for a big family reunion! We are really thankful that members of our families came from as far as Switzerland, Germany and even Canada!
At the end, when we celebrated this event in a more profane way, uncle Christoph thought to give Florian a second baptism - one of the more profane kind...

Marble Track

We now have our first marble track! Though it was a gift for Florian, Anna, Kamil and me are the ones who are playing and enjoying this wonderful toy at the moment. But I am sure that Florian will happily play with it soon enough! It consists of wooden cubes and blocks with channels, which offer thousands of possibilities to build exciting marble tracks. Usually, I would not advertise for certain products, but in this case, I really want to mention the company producing such a fine, intelligent, sturdy and well-manufactured toy: Cuboro! Yes, it is really, really expensive (what else do you expect from a Swiss company ;-) ) but worth every cent! I am totally convinced, that you will find us playing with this marble track for many, many years! We now have the child-version "Cugolino" but we are waiting impatiently for an occasion or rather an excuse to buy the adult version... When is Father's Day again?