October

OK, October finished a long time ago but I haven't told you what happened then so I thought I'd tell you now. Mostly I have just been busy with Kinderhouse and Judo and Acroballet and seeing my friends, but one fun thing I started doing was having sleepovers with my friend Emilie. Every two weeks we swap and go to the other person's house for the night. At first I wasn't too sure about staying over without my Mama or Dada but now I love it. Last week Emilie even stayed 2 nights at my house, we had so much fun!

Emilie and I like doing lots of the same things, especially drawing and making things.

And of course watching TV.

Also, remember in Australia I loved going to the indoor playground, what I called "balls"? Well, Emilie is half French and she knows about a place in France that also has lots of balls, which I call, of course, "French balls". We had so much fun there one morning, because we had the whole place to ourselves!

And plenty of sweet things to eat.

At the end of October I celebrated Halloween. We went to a party with lots of American kids, who seem to know a lot more about how to do Halloween than we Australians do. But I like any excuse for a party, so I was happy to join in.

We had a costume parade and yummy scary-looking food to eat and games to play and afterwards we did a little bit of trick-or-treating. I still don't get that - we ask strangers for lollies?!? And do we really do something mean to them if they don't give us anything?!?

Emilie and I loved it all anyway.

Ariane and Zoe came to visit

Last weekend I did lots and lots of playing because my friend Ariane came to visit from Frankfurt with her little sister, Zoe. We were so excited to see each other and we got straight down to business: getting out all my toys and spreading them all over the house! So much fun.

Zoe is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute. I liked playing with her and practising being a big sister. Here I am giving her a little push on the swing. I think she liked it.

Carolyn and Bengt came from Bonn

Well I had a big smile on my face this weekend because my friend Carolyn from Bonn came to visit and she brought her little baby brother Bengt. We had so much fun playing together, it was just like old times.
We made gummy bears using a kit I got for my birthday. It turns out they are more fun to make than to eat!


And we had a quick trip to the Puppenhaus museum to see all the dolls and teddies.

On the way home we had some fun in the park.


Then at night we got cosy on the couch and watched a movie. (Actually there is photo that looks a lot like this one called "Cuddled up" on my blog for November 1, 2006!)

A weekend in Strasbourg and Truchtersheim

This weekend my Dada went to his annual metal festival in Wacken in the north of Germany. Mama and I were just going to stay home, because Mama can't travel so far, but some friends invited us to stay with them just over the border in France, so we went off on a little adventure. First we took the train to Strasbourg, which, as you can see, is very pretty. Mama and I stayed in a hotel together and went out exploring in the evening.

I made a tour of the carousels.

This one was fun because I could whizz around really fast.

The next day our friends picked us up and took us out to the village of Truchtersheim. My friend Emilie's dad comes from there, and her grandparents still live there in the farmhouse he grew up in. It is really, really beautiful there, and lots of fun for a kid like me. I loved running around and seeing the animals and eating all the delicious food Emilie's grandmother cooked for us! You can see me here with Emilie, just before we went to church with her grandparents. I even sat in the choir with them! Pretty funny.

A quick goodbye visit from Zio

Last week my Zio came for a last quick visit to Switzerland before he moves from England back to Australia. He is going back there to work and his girlfriend Becky is moving with him too. He could only come to Basel for a little while but I loved it so much - we went swimming and to a restaurant on a farm with a park and to a cafe for "kinder cappucino". I was very sad when he left and kept crying about it for a day or so but I know I can still Skype him lots. And now when I visit Australia, he and Becky will be there too! Yay!

Carla and Marcel

I made some new friends this weekend! Actually, they are old friends of Mama's, because Mama met Carla in a youth hostel in Melbourne 12 years ago! They are Dutch, they live in Amsterdam and they came to visit us for one night. At first I was a bit shy but by the end we were very good friends, and I had lots of fun playing with them and showing them all my stuff. They are getting married soon and we wish them lots of fun at their wedding party and in their years of marriage afterwards!

Summer holidays in Sylt

Well, I had a pretty exciting summer holiday this year. My friend Nepheli invited me and Mama and Dada to stay with her and her family in their house on Sylt, an island in the north of Germany. I love flying on planes with my friends!

Travelling together is lots of fun.

Their house was right next to a beautiful beach. Look at the cute baskets they have on the beach for people to sit in!

At first it was a bit cold and rainy, but we still had fun exploring.

And flying a kite.

After the weather warmed up and we actually went swimming in the North Sea. It was pretty cold, I said it was like ice blocks and I felt like an ice block when I got out.

We had fun hanging out on the beach in my tent.

And we even went to a circus together. It was the best holiday.

On the way home Mama and Dada and I stopped in Hamburg to have a look around. It was very pretty.

And they had good ice cream!

Can you believe I'm 5?

Well, it's true! And here are some photos to prove it. I had a very busy day on Thursday.

First I celebrated with my friends at the Kinderhouse.

I asked Mama to make chocolate cupcakes, some with pink icing and some with yellow, and she did! I shared them with everybody.

We liked them a lot.

Next I had my normal Acroballet class. I had to go because we were practising for the concert we had on Sunday. Here is a photo from the concert.

After Acroballet I had a BIG party with my friends. We had it at the sports club that they have for Dada's work, because I wanted to invite so many kids. That was great, because we played lots of games on the lawn, and had face painting and a pinata and everything. There was lots of yummy food there too.

Afterwards we had an icecream cake, with smashed up Crunchie bars inside and lots of Smarties on top!

I was the luckiest girl ever and got SO many presents. It was the best day!

I'm going to be a big sister!

Yes, it's true. I've waited and waited and now it has finally happened. There is really a baby in my Mama's tummy and I am going to be a big sister! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited. I went with Mama to the doctor to see what the baby looked like. It did lots of jumps and the doctor said it was doing gymnastics! I thought that was pretty funny. Mama and Dada say the baby's nose looks just like mine did when I was in Mama's tummy.
It is very good news but the problem is Mama has been very, very sick. She just lies in bed all day and pukes. Not much fun for her and not much fun for me! She got so bad that Noni came over to look after her and me and Dada. And then I had much more fun. I have lots to tell you about everything I have been doing with Noni but Mama has been too sick to put it on the blog. She is maybe getting a bit better now though so I will try to put some photos soon.

Welcome to the world baby Thomas!

Hello everyone, I am in Australia having lots of fun which I will tell you about later because today I have to give you the most exciting news: my new baby cousin Thomas has arrived! He is the cutest bubba ever and has red hair just like me. My Zia Kate had him at 16:28 yesterday. He weighed 3580g (30g more than I did when I was born!) and measured 51cm long (half a cm more than me). I love going to visit him in the hospital and have been making him lots of cards and presents. I will tell you more later but I just wanted to share the good news.

I can ski!

Last week we went to Cervinia in Italy and I LEARNED TO SKI! Here I am having my very first lesson. Mama and I organised it while Dada was snowboarding and boy did he get a surprise when he came to the bottom of the run and found me skiing there as if I'd been doing it all my life!

Here I am on the magic carpet getting ready to ski down the little slope again.


I liked it so much that I had lessons every day. Here you can see me on my second day with my teacher Jennifer.

Before long I was doing real runs and going on the chairlift with the grown ups! Here I am with Dada and Uncle Hammer (who flew all the way from San Francisco to snowboard with us!)

Of course it wasn't all hard work. I found some time to lounge in the sun and soak up the atmosphere.

And do a bit of ice skating.

And go out at night for a little apres ski.

Peter and Becky came too and while I learned to ski, Becky learned to snowboard! Pretty cool hey?

That's all I can tell you for now because I have to go to bed because tomorrow...I am flying to Australia! I'm sure I will have lots more to tell you about my adventures there soon.

A weekend in Germany

Last Friday was my mama's birthday and since it was the holidays we decided to take a trip to visit friends in Germany. We started at Ariane's house in Frankfurt, where Ariane's mummy Amaya spoiled Mama with a special lunch and lots of cakes. Here we are waiting for Mama to blow out the animal candles. Dada drove up to Frankfurt after work (and got stuck in a 2 hour traffic jam!) and then we all stayed with our friends for the night.

In the morning we drove to Bonn. But first we stopped in Koblenz to visit my friend Emilia. You can see her here smiling a lot because guess who is sitting next to her - me! With a funny wig on! We had some yummy spaghetti lunch and played like old friends do.

We arrived in Bonn in the afternoon and met someone very, very special - baby Bengt! He is my friend Carolyn's little brother and he is so cute and smiley. OK, he's not smiling here because I don't think he is so comfortable on my lap, but he smiled a lot while we were there. And slept a lot. In the meantime, Carolyn and I played a lot. And the mamas and dadas talked a lot. We all like getting together.

At night we went back to our favourite pub from where we used to live in the Altsadt in Bonn. Of course we had schnitzel again.

The next morning we visited some other friends, Milan and Emma, at their house. They have a beautiful garden and we kids had fun in the sunshine.

Then it was back to Carolyn's for some lunch, a nice afternoon in the playground and a last play together. I took the chance to "read" her some Pippi Longstocking stories. It was so nice to see all of our friends again and now we are hoping they will come to visit us soon!