Yesterday Mom, Dad and I were laughing about Bailey's ability to find joy in the simple things.  Like throwing a coin in a fountain and wishing "to throw a  coin in the fountain"  (Instant wish fulfillment!) Yesterday, Bailey asked for an empty gift bag for Christmas...and today, when asked what her favorite animal is, she replied: "A good guy animal."  Doesn't matter what as long as it isn't evil, apparently.

Mmmm...Chocolate coconut pecan pie and tea in my Christmas Market mug for second breakfast!  Today is pie day again since our big feast is tomorrow.  Basically, I'm in heaven. 

I am DYING from the cuteness.  A and B are feeding each other pumpkin pie and discussing their mutual love of crust.  Audrey told me: "I like sharing pie with my sister; that's my favorite thing in the whole wide world!"

These two are being incredibly sweet this morning; B offering to take Audrey's plate for her, giving each other hugs and kisses and stroking each other's hair.  They are best buds. 

If we don't have snow, at least we've got hay!

So, the gas is out in our entire building for at least a week.  This is kind of a big deal since our heating runs on gas...but at least everything else (except the range) is electric.  Anyway, we bought these slippers today so the girls can survive a colder apartment in style...although B kind of looks like a hobo in that shirt and hair combo.  She's just modeling plan B, which is, of course: Become Hobo's. 

Real life Mr. Mom story happening over here...but from the end of the movie where Michael Keaton is actually good at stuff.  While I lounge around recovering from a migraine, John is feeding the firls, doing the laundry, dishes, and vacuuming. He even cleaned the toilet with his beloved pumice stone...and turned on Christmas music for me when I hadn't even asked.  This dude is a keeper. 

I love when the girls sit like this to eat snacks...or make tiger faces.

Audrey made me take a picture on the way out...there's a super awesome kid's indoor pool through those doors and AUDREY FLOATED ON HER BACK ALL BY HERSELF TODAY! Big deal! --at Dianabad

The girls and I were out of the house for seven hours today...all of those were spent swimming or playing outside with friends...I think we earned a stay-in-our-jammies-until-noon day tomorrow.

Let the Thanksgiving prep begin!  I'm mashing and freezing potatoes today!

Sisters hitting up Europe's most popular Christmas Market for some hot chocolate and Austrian "corndogs:!--at the Wiener Christkindlmarkt

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: Eiergrog!  The closest possible thing resembling eggnog in Vienna.  It was tasty! 

Pilgrim Bailey says: "Where's Squanto?!....Up there!!!"

Hipster Bailey has been celebrating Thanksgiving since before it went mainstream.

We're going a little nuts today getting ready/decorating for Thanksgivemas...I blame the Austrians, as in all things

We hit up our first Christmas market today! I got to be the very first customer of the year for a booth selling hot chocolate...fair trade hot chocolate in a biodegradable cup.  I subsequently think I've met the nicest hippy in Austria.--am Spittelberg

So proud of my Audrey girl today! We wrote a story about a sock--she breezed right through it with loads of enthusiasm.  

Now we're competing to see who can build the highest tower.  B is surprisingly good at this--I'm guessing so she can make the loudest crashing noise too.

We're getting some creative energy out before bed tonight.  

A little post-Naschmarkt break at the playground!

I've been informed that this area is roped off for kids only.  Judging by the amount of fake puking and sneezing coming from it, I'm kind of thankful to be the odd man out.  

As usual, B wasn't quite ready to wake up this morning, so Audrey tucked her up with five blankets and then laid down on her octopus next to her.  These kids are killing me with how much they love each other.  

By special request of the Audrey: hot chocolate and cookies!

Bailey is in her fortress of solitude...this came after a good half-hour of nothing but screaming.  And the peasants rejoiced!

Epic day out today!  We spotted holly, ivy and mistletoe...an actual wild fox taking a walk through the park...and the notorious "sisters" statue. --at Scholss Schoenbrunn

Classic Gamelin Girl fail: Making pizza dough and can't. stop. eating it. Pretty sure the youngest generation is similarly afflicted.  We're all doomed.  

We ate our pizza too quickly to take a picture of the finished product, but here's Bailey helping me "paint" the sauce on.  We had ice cream for dessert in honor of Grandpa G's birthday!

The girls and their friends...sitting on top of the world!--at Haus des Meeres

Here we see a Sweet-o in her native environment with a trio of tiny cakes! --at Cafe Central

Even my cream horn came with it's own creme puff hat!

 Here she is kissing the last victim goodbye

Things got a little crazy after all the schnitzel and cake

This is what happens when you aren't a morning person, but you are a people person.  Slumbering on the floor of the kitchen while Mama makes breakfast.  

The countdown is on!  Audrey would not give up until I told her EXACTLY (and counted on my fingers) how many days until Christmas.  I think this means I'm allowed to listen to Christmas music now.  

The fruit hat is big these days.  There's really nothing it doesn't go with.

I physically could not resist purchasing this sweet tin full of shortbread today.  Turkey, consider yourself disrespected! p.s. They actually had fresh whole turkeys at eh market today with "Happy Thanksgiving" stickers on them...they expired on the 11th.  You win, Austria.  You. Win.

One more random update: Bailey's most recent Christmas wishes include "new hair" (she's big into wigs at the moment) and a trumpet so she can "play the music".  Something tells me this holiday is going to be hilarious.  

So, this is why there's been a suspicious lack of bison in Austria...--at Naturhistorisches Museum

We found a pika!

possibly the best sighting on our outing were the wild hamsters.

Girls day out! --at The Demel

Ending the day with raspberry sodas and schnitzel (the grown-ups ate real food)--at Wiener Wirtschaft

Our Epic Halloween

Halloween this year was perhaps the most special one we've had as a family so far.  I'm realizing, particularly as we're traversing our homeschooling journey, that there are some things the girls will always show excitement for on their own (big cats, Christmas, and cake to name a few) But there are other things that they take a lead from their parents on--when I get excited, they get excited.  And that's how we approached Halloween for the first time ever this year.

We spent the week leading up to Halloween making decorations and integrating spooky themes into our school time.  Audrey started lumping Halloween in with Christmas as far as comparisons to her level of excitement went.  The evening before the big day, Audrey took pains to make sure her cowgirl outfit was laid out and ready to don as soon as she woke in the morning.  John even ironed her button-up shirt for her.  It was a big deal.

Turns out, the girls were in some form of costume from the moment they woke up, but the very first thing we did was go out trick-or-treating.

Every day, we pop into a shop just around the corner from us.  It's an ethnic clothing store that touts gorgeous scarves, sari's, incense and every accessory known to man.  It's owned by a man whose name we don't even know, but we call him Mr. Happy-Happy, because it's what he asks us every day:  "Are you happy happy!?"  He adores the girls and lets them grab candy from a bowl in the back of the shop every single day.  I talked to him the day before Halloween about how American kids trick-or-treat.  (He had heard of it, but didn't know what it was called.) After listening to my explanation, he started laughing and saying: "Every day here is Halloween!".  Which is completely true.  So, donned (warmly) as cowgirls, Audrey and Bailey came to Mr. Happy-Happy's store on Halloween morning to give him his first official trick-or-treaters.  We even brought our candy buckets.  He let the girls grab their candy and gave them each full-sized Manner bars.  You can't beat that.  As we left, he hollered at us not to go trick-or-treating at the bank because they wouldn't give anyone anything.  But, still, we ticked off our list: Go trick-or-treating.  Which, in Austria, is no small feat.

That afternoon, our house was invaded by all the girls' best friends.  Most of my Mama-friends aren't really the pinterest-happy kind, but I was seriously impressed by the grub we wrestled up.  There were mummy (hot)dogs, "pumpkin" clementines, mummy juice boxes and wormy ice cubes.  We had planned stuff like a Halloween-themed dance party and making gummies, but in the end it was mostly a completely mad playdate. The kids all adore each other and were having the time of their lives.

After a few hours of ad-hoc nasching and playing, I suggested we attempt to gather the kids to make some slime.  In hindsight, I don't know why I thought this would be on-par with baking as far as the mess factor went, but there was cornstarch, shampoo and food coloring everywhere.  Our slime ranged in consistency from nearly rock-hard to liquid goo.  At one point one of the kids (in his defense, he's only 15 months old, so he has an adequate excuse for behaving like a frat boy) was sitting in the middle of the table, flinging slime around by the measuring-cup-full.  Mostly, we moms were just too busy laughing hysterically to care about the mayhem.  In the end, no one was really even wearing a costume, most kids had to be generously scrubbed down, and the aforementioned 15 month old elected to play in nothing but his diaper for the remainder of the party.  It was pretty epic.

Not to mention that as our party was winding down, the girls and I were also getting ready to go to a party at the UN complex. We showed up, fashionably late, to John's work party and made the rounds. This party was certainly more adult-oriented, but the girls still raked in a fantastic haul of candy and just as many compliments about their pink cowgirl boots. It was the first time I had seen a lot of John's work friends since before we took home leave, so it was worth the feeling of exhaustion that was rapidly setting in to get to catch up with some good people.  

We beat feet home fairly quickly after making an appearance at the VIC, stopping at a lowly street food stand for some sketchy pizza so the girls wouldn't starve to death (snickers don't count as dinner, turns out) and returned to our epically trashed house.  It felt good, though--the residue of that much fun.  We celebrated the snot out of our Halloween and had the incredible mess to prove it.