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!

Zahra is 1!

Can you believe that Zahra is now 1 year old? We can't either! Although she does look very grown up in this photo.

She had her birthday on Saturday. It started with our family tradition of presents in bed.

Later we had a party with her friend Lyn. Of course we had chocolate crackles and fairy bread and a cake shaped like a 1.

Zahra has got very cakey hands here after trying some of her carrot birthday cake.


She is very lucky because the day after her birthday, St Nicholas comes! I showed her where to find the presents in her boots outside the door.

Nana and Opa Ross came to stay

Goodness me, I can't believe it has been so long since I wrote something. I am such a busy schoolkid now that there just isn't time! But we have had some more visitors and another holiday so I better tell you all about it.

Nana and Opa Ross came to visit! Yay! It was very exciting for us all. Zahra got to meet them for the first time and she liked them a lot. They arrived right at the beginning of the school holidays and we all went on a trip together. You can see Zahra with Nana and Opa Ross here on the train.

Our first stop was a little village called Gandria, on Lake Lugano. We had lovely rooms with balconies right on the water, it was so beautiful.

It was Nana's 60th birthday while she was visiting us, so our trip was a little celebration with her.

Next we had a long day of travelling on Italian trains to get to the town of Bolzano, in the South Tyrol. It is gorgeous there and we had lots of fun looking around the town, playing in the park and taking a gondola up the mountain nearby. Zahra had fun in the swing, as you can see.

The weekend we were in Bolzano Mama read that there was a bread and strudel festival in the next town, so of course we had to go. We tasted lots of yummy breads and sweets and I baked bread in a little bakery for kids they had there. I made a plait cat.

After Bolzano we went to a Kinderhotel in the mountains. That was the best fun ever. I made friends with other kids and did all sorts of cool things with them like hiking at the top of a mountain and feeding farm animals and putting on a theatre show for the parents and dressing up as Indians and having sausages over a fire. Zahra liked playing in the kids' playroom.

And being pulled around in the wagon!

After the Kinderhotel it was time to come home and go back to school. But before Nana and Opa Ross left we had to show them one more thing - snow! They had never seen it before so Dada and I took them to the mountains here in Switzerland and I taught Nana how to throw snowballs. I was very sad when they had to leave so now I am counting down until we go to visit them in Australia next year.

Teeth!

Well as if going to school wasn't enough to prove I am a big girl now, today I lost my first tooth! It was verrrrrry wobbly and then I brushed it and brushed it and all of a sudden it wasn't there anymore. We had to look on the floor to find it!

Meanwhile Zahra is busy getting her teeth and wants to chomp on everything. Yesterday Mama couldn't even get her in the front door without her munching on the tasty door handle.

My first day of school

Guess what? Today was my very first day of school. Here I am with my Schultüte, a special present that German kids get when they start school for the first time. It is filled with cool stuff for school and a few lollies and chocolates too.

Here I am ready to go, outside the house.

Swiss kids are supposed to walk to school on their own, but my school is a bit too far away so Mama and Dada are really behind me. See the cool backpack I chose, with a dragon on it?

I was pretty excited to be a schoolkid. The school I go to is bilingual German and Italian. That's pretty tricky for me, since I don't speak any Italian yet, but I am going to learn I guess!!! It was pretty scary at the start, but once I got in the classroom I was happy.

I am sitting next to a girl who is called Janette, like Mama! Funny hey? I made 3 friends today and had a yummy lunch of squiggly pasta with pesto. At the end of the day I wasn't so sure I wanted to come back again, but tomorrow is another day.

Meanwhile, here is a photo of Zahra looking very cute. Mama and I love it when she is all wrapped up in a towel after her bath.