The rest of 2010!

Well this time it is a really really really long time since I posted. It's already a new year! Happy New Year everyone. I'll just tell you a little about the year that was...

JULY

Was summer holidays! Yay! Zio and Becky came and Zio taught Zahra how to headbutt. As all good uncles should.


Dada went to Belarus to check out communisty things.

While us girls went to Italy to hang out at the beach with some good friends.

We chilled out and learned to appreciate the Italian way of living, including the evening aperitivo, named "chippy time" by Zahra.

After we met up with Dada in Venice, and Zahra learned a new word: "gondola"




AUGUST

In August I did a week-long theater course which I LOVED and then I went back to school to start in the 2nd class.


We went back to Bonn to visit our friends Carolyn and Bengt and even went back to my old playground to show Zahra and have a little play.




SEPTEMBER

In September Nonno and Marilyn came for a few days

and then later Noni came to go on an adventure with us to Marrakech


OCTOBER

Noni stayed on through October in her own little flat in our building and we went to the Herbstmesse together.

Zahra and I dressed up as pretty scary witches for Halloween.


NOVEMBER

Must have been boring because we don't have any photos for it.

AND DECEMBER

Was Zahra's birthday! And boy did she celebrate. She still hasn't stopped talking about her cake and candles and smarties and she still thinks every present is for her because it is her birthday.



We made Christmas biscuits to give to our teachers and friends


I was a snowflake in my school Christmas concert

And we had a very quiet but special Christmas just the 4 of us.

Now it is 2011 and a time for new beginnings so we thought it might be time for a new blog. Stayed tuned for the new address of the new Bagora Family Blog...coming soon!

Lots of love and health and happiness to everyone in 2011. xxxx

About time I blogged!

Well I'm not putting so much on the blog these days, I'm sorry, but I guess it is because I am too busy doing things to blog about them! Let me tell you about May and June.

In May we had a trip to Munich. Zahra and Mama went first and I stayed in Basel with Dada for a couple of days. Then we took the train to meet them. As soon as Zahra arrived in Munich someone on the street gave her this traditional gingerbread heart as a welcome. It took her no time at all to bite through the plastic and into the yummy stuff.

When I got there we went to the museum. They had a Kid's Kingdom which was awesome, with a giant guitar you could go inside and big Legos to build with and other cool stuff. Here we are in the main bit though, both pretty interested!

We liked the atmosphere in Munich, it was kind of like Melbourne with interesting little areas with yummy food and different kinds of shops. There was a big food market like the Victoria Markets that we liked too. We loved the beer gardens but unfortunately it was cold and rainy so we couldn't hang out in them so much. So much for Spring in Munich!

After our trip we had a visitor in Basel, Aunty Barbie, yay! She had just come from a cooking course in Italy so she brought us all sorts of yummy stuff she had made. And these amazing aprons with our names on them. Aren't they just the cutest?!?

June is so much fun. Summer comes (eventually), and so does my birthday, and so does Art Basel. I went again this year with Mama and Zahra. I loved getting dressed up and seeing all the other people dressed up and all the crazy art.

I also loved the special kids' bit they have with fun stuff to do and make.

I made this T-shirt there. A man attached the t-shirt to a board, and then put the board in a bucket that was attached to a bike. He started riding the bike and the board with my t-shirt on it went spinning round and I squeezed paint in. Pretty cool hey?

My birthday wish was to go to Okidoki, a kids' indoor play centre, with my best friend Zoe. I also wanted the pinata cake from the Women's Weekly cookbook, where a chocolate shell is over a chocolate cake and you smash it and find treasure inside. Well, I got most of my wishes, but Mama tried and tried but she couldn't make the chocolate shell. So my cake just looked like after it had been smashed. Anyway, it still had lots of treasure and it tasted pretty good. You can see Zahra didn't have a problem with it!

Zoe and I had so much fun, climbing this huge volcano and sliding down.

And Zahra had lots of fun too.

On my birthday my choir had a performance at Zoe's school, which was celebrating its 100th birthday. There was lots going on on my birthday weekend, choir and my ABC gymnastics show and my school summer party and even more. Now it is holidays and I am happy to have a good rest!

A trip to Australia

In the middle of March we went to Perth. We got there the day before the big storm with flooding rains and hail as big as golf balls. It was very exciting, especially because our newest baby cousin Elizabeth decided it was finally time to come out of her mama's tummy and say hello to us all, at almost exactly the same time as the storm.

Here is Elizabeth with her big brother Alexander. Welcome to the world Elizabeth, we're very happy to have you in our family!

In Perth we had the BEST time hanging out with our cousins. Here are the 3 redheads all together in the back of the car.

It was Thomas's birthday while we were there, and we went to his party down at Trigg beach playground. He had his party at the same place I had my very first birthday party! Thomas loves the Wiggles so there was Wiggles everything. He also loved the cupcakes!

Hanging out at Noni's house I found a collection of old teddy bears. I made a display of them and put a sign up saying that it was a toy museum.

We flew to Geraldton for a couple of days so that Zahra could meet Granddad and Granny Bob for the first time. We went to a really cool playground at the beach and Mama had her first swim in the sea for nearly 2 years. Zahra didn't like the sand so much at first.

After Gero we went to stay at Alexander's for a couple of nights. He and I got up to lots of mischief in our matching pyjamas, as you can see.

Then we went to Rottnest, which was just the best. Zia rented us a really big house so that everyone could come and visit and we just hung out, eating lots of yummy food, sitting on the verandah watching the water and everyone go by, playing at the playground or swimming at The Basin. We had an Easter Egg hunt and Zahra tasted chocolate for the first time. "Mmmmm, mummy" she said, which translates as "Mmmmm, yummy".

Nonno and Marilyn helped us build an awesome sandcastle, and then let us knock it down again. Zahra got used to the sand and even quite liked it by the end.

Of course Thomas had to have some matching pyjamas too. You can see here how we are the same: not just our clothes, or our hair, but the way we concentrate when we're watching TV!!!

On the way home from Australia we stopped in Singapore for a few days. It was really fun there, we went for lots of swims and ate lots of delicious food and Mama and I loved Singapore airport - there are so many cool things to do there! I did some shopping in Chinatown and Little India too. We thought the signs they had everywhere were very funny, like "No durians" (a stinky fruit) on the trains and this one, "Beware of falling coconuts"! It was a bit hot for Dada and Zahra there, but I think they liked it anyway.

It was very hard to come home after saying goodbye to everyone we love but luckily our best friends Noemi and Zoe and Lyn were here waiting for us and even surprised us at our door when we got home.

The days are getting warmer and we are enjoying the sun on our balcony, as you can see! Yay for Spring!

February fun

Well February is a great month to live in Switzerland because we get the Ski/Fasnacht holidays. We spent last week in the snow and this week we are partying in town for the annual carnival. But first about the snow. We stayed in an apartment in a small village called Churwalden near Lenzerheide in Switzerland. There was plenty of snow around so of course we had to make a snowman. At first I tried just covering Dada, but that didn't seem to work so well.

Zahra helped me put the finishing touches to this guy, who we were rather proud of.

I spent the week skiing and even went in a timed race with gates to go through and everything. I had a really cool teacher and had so much fun and have no problem beating Mama down the slopes now. (Some might say that is not too hard...)

Meanwhile Zahra learned to say "snow" and "ski" and "sled" and was very keen on getting pulled around in her sled at every opportunity. In fact the first day she was crying so hard and we had no idea why until we put her on Dada's snowboard and she was instantly happy. It seems she saw everyone else doing fun stuff in the snow and she wanted to do it too. We are thinking about whether she can start on skis next year or not. We saw lots of very small kids and very small skis this year, so who knows, maybe she'll get lucky!

This year Zahra and I are clowns for Fasnacht. Today was the first day and Mama and I got up at 3am to go to the very early morning start. We slept a bit when we got home then got dressed up and took Zahra out in the afternoon to see how she would like the parades. They are pretty noisy with loud drums and lots of scary-looking masks but she just watched it all fascinated. I had an excellent time and can't wait for tomorrow which is Kinderfasnacht. I am having a little party at home with my friends and then we will all get dressed together and paint our faces and go into town to celebrate. Pretty good holidays for sure.

3 Kings' Day and snow

On Wednesday it was 3 Kings' Day. That meant two exciting things happened. The first was that La Befana came. She is a witch who comes down the chimney and brings lollies and little presents to Italian kids. Since I go to Italian school now, she came to me too! She brought me a book and some jewellery making stuff. The other exciting thing was that we got to eat 3 Kings' cake. This is a special cake you eat on the 6th that has a little king hidden in it somewhere. Whoever gets the king gets to be the king for the day, and everyone else has to do what they say. Guess who got it at our house? Zahra!!!

Now luckily we had two cakes at our house. That was because Mama wanted a French one too, because she thought it would taste better. (For those who are interested, she was right!!!) Anyway, guess who got the king in that one? Me!!! Yay!!!

Meanwhile we have been having a lot of snow. There was so much on our balcony today that we could have a good play in it out there. Here is Zahra sitting in it.

And me next to a mountain Dada and I made together. If you look very closely you can see something else too, I have lost one of my top front teeth! I love it because it makes me look even witchier than ever.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! We thought we better tell you what we got up to at the end of last year. Zahra took her first walk outside with real big girl shoes on. She couldn't really walk, but since then she has been practising a little bit inside. Mostly just standing up on her own for ages and then taking a couple of wobbly steps before she falls down again. It is very cute.


Dada's cousin Holly came to visit. She had been living in England, working at a boys' boarding school, so she popped over to say hello. I made friends with her straight away and liked having her around for the weekend.

My school did a Christmas concert. I was a gnome. If you really want to, you can play "Where's Wally?" and try to find me in this picture!!! I had to say one line in Italian. I loved singing all the songs.

It snowed! Enough to take Zahra for her first sled ride. Dada took me on the sled to school too, which was very cool.

For Christmas we went to Colmar in France, and went to the Christmas markets there. It was lovely and cold and nice to have a warm hot chocolate while we walked around. Mama had a warm orange juice with spices in it and I liked that a lot too.

I wanted me and Zahra to have a photo with Santa Claus.

Zahra also went on her first carousel in Colmar. It was a beautiful old one and she liked it a lot. So did I. This plane went up and down when I pressed a button.

We went for Christmas dinner in the restaurant at our hotel. Zahra wore this pretty skirt that Mama's friend's Mama made especially for her. So sweet.

It has been raining a lot the last couple of days and we have been enjoying hanging out at home and doing all the things we don't normally get time to do. Mama has been reading me lots from the Roald Dahl books I got for Christmas (I think his books are SO funny). And Zahra and I have been doing some yoga together! Here she is doing cobra pose.

And this photo is from today, when Dada gave me a little guitar lesson. I learned my first chord.

2009 was fun and we are looking forward to 2010. We hope it is a good one for everyone!