Kinderfasching

Just because the adults party on Fat Tuesday doesn't mean the kiddies can't milk the Fashing season for all it's worth too! Starting a month before, restaurants host Kinderfasching parties with magicians, clowns, etc. For some good time Bavarian fun. We were lucky enough to attend three Kinderfasching fun times.

Our first party was at our neighborhood's Hofbraukellar. We expected a simple gathering of kids in costume and parents drinking beer. What we got was a banquet room filled with the smell of sugar and beer filled with hundreds of over-excited children, a crazy loud DJ and lots of contests and dances. Not exactly the right atmosphere for our table of toddlers, but Will took it all in stride while the other ones got overwhelmed and went home earlier than anticipated. Oh well, at least there's next weekend!

The following weekend my friend Christine reserved a table for our gymboree play group at Piu, one our favorite kinder-friendly cafes in Haidhausen. It was a perfectly small environment with a kookly German magician and plenty of sugar and fun to go around. Above is a picture of our fun crew.

Dad joined us after skiing for the day just in time to enjoy a pizza with his tired little monkey.

BMW World hosted a Carnival Celebration with the earlier part of the day devoted to children. It was filled with live bands, dancers, plays, and plenty of fun for kids. William and his buddy Anna had a great time dancing and playing.

As you can see below, perhaps it was really a Carnival celebration for DADS and kids. ;)

What a fun season with great parties!

A glimpse into the winter life of a toddler

As I was talking on the phone with my dear friend Chrissie the other day, we were sharing the challenges of being parents to active little ones during a stay-indoors season. But the biggest challenge we face? What the HECK do we blog about???? Um, here's another day indoors? Here's another blurry and dark photo of William who's always moving despite there being no sun? Okay, okay, without further ado, I unleash the latest and greatest from my iPhone camera.

William never passes up an opportunity for a good time. He and I accompanied Adam and Tia for lunch at the Hofbrauhaus during their visit. As usual, William was the life of the party. I wonder what William's preschool teachers will think next year when I explain why he always likes to "Prost" the other kids at lunchtime . . . .

Jeff: "So what do you two do all day?"Sarah: (Showing him my iPhone photo) "Well, this was 8:20-8:25 A.M."

Our Monday afternoon playdates are a definite highlight of our week. Plunk them in a Munich winter and, let me tell you, they are the sunshine in my week! Chatting with my mommy friends, snacking on fun delicacies, watching all the kids play together . . . well, apparently, I love the social interaction a more a bit more than William.

The zoo is fun in any season!Here are Tim and William monkeying around.

Just another post-nap, Zabel head of hair.

Toys'R'Us opened an emarrassingly American ginormous monstrosity of a toy store in Munich last month. What do winter doldrummed Munich hausfraus do? Meet for coffee and turn their kiddos loose in it!

William went straight to this section. What can I say, they kid's got taste.

And from the looks of his behind-the-wheel attitude, he's been riding with his dad on the autobahn a bit too long.

At the WinterSpielPlatz

He just loves this huge, wooden cars and wheels in motion toy!

Storytime with Tim!

I'm not gonna lie to you. This video is really only just our son walking around with a balloon. But it's just so gosh darn cute!

An afternoon park playdate with Mama.

It's so nice have two parks within a 5 minute walking distance of our apartment.

What to do during the last 30 minutes of sunlight? PPPAARRKKK!!!!

My little baby is growing up!He just loves his new Ikea table and chairs. It's super fun to color with him in the afternoon. I was so proud of his first picture, I hung it on the wall above his table. William still doesn't understand why I won't let him take it down so he can color on it some more.

Relaxing in Laax

Our winter months have had weekends reserved for any opportunity to enjoy the beautiful snowy weather and fabulous skiing Europe has to offer. Wouldn't you know, it snowed a little after we returned from the states, but have yet to see it really stay on the ground since then.

Last weekend we decided that if Germany didn't have snow, then Switzerland MUST have snow! Well, it didn't either. Nonetheless, it was a fabulous weekend in Laax, Switzerland with our dear friends the Colemans.

Will and Remi must have been exchanging crib emails in order to color coordinate their PJs for story time. Well done, boys!

Saturday the hubbies skied on what remained of the snow while we mommies walked around the glacier a bit.

William and Remi

Pooped after a long day of being carried in hiking backpacks and napping.

Sunday found us enjoying the neighborhood indoor pool and reveling in our boys' playtime together. It's so fun to see William get to the age of starting to really interact with other kids. Even though Remi is 9 months older, William had fun keeping up with his big buddy all weekend. Our trip culminated with Toddler Wrestlemania 2011. Leave it to my young man to weigh-in equal to his 9-month-older counterpart. He's a young brute!

Colemans, we love our weekends with you. (And not just because of the fabulous fondue and Swiss chocolate!) Can't wait to see you again soon!

A sweet little birthday celebration

Little Miss Edie celebrated her first birthday in January, so William, Stephanie, little Anna, and I arrived one afternoon for a little impromptu 0-1 celebration.

Edie (wearing her fashionable red Ikea bib) fascinated all of us present by rejecting both types of her mother's home-baked cupcakes. It was my lucky day!

Note to self: Sit by Edie at all subsequent birthday celebrations.

Stephanie and Anna

Will waiting patiently for the yummy goodness to be unwrapped.

It's feels even more significant celebrating such milestones with friends out here. With our many "transplanted" friends, it's fun to realize we knew each other even before our kiddos were born!

Thank goodness for the Vannis!

Home from the states. Back in the European city we love. Trying to beat homesickness. Trying to beat jet lag. Trying to beat winter blues. If only we could find something or someone to cheer us up.

THANK GOODNESS FOR THE VANNIS!!!!

Jeff's good friend from high school Adam and his effervescent wife Tia brought sunshine into our lives just when we needed it most!

Adam and Tia were ironically less jet lagged than us for they had already spent a week in Madrid. Nonetheless, we had a fabulous time partying it up Munich style. They were the first to use our iPhones for a walking tour of Munich, they hit Neushwanstein Castle, they hit the Hofbrauhaus (twice!), they shopped till they dropped, oh yeah, and they doted on William like none other. Duh! In fact, to give credit where credit is due, William's new walking talent was kickstarted by the Adam Vanni waking boot camp. Great interventions, great results. I highly recommend him.

On Saturday we drove out to Starnberg to got to Andechs. We enjoyed a monk-brewed beer and William enjoyed riding a horsey.

Great friends and great countryside

As you can see, Tia and I have no fun together.

With fabulous friends in town we seized the opportunity and went out on the town TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW! This hausfrau was beside herself with excitement!!!

Here are Tia and Adam drinking our favorite European cocktail: Aperol spritz.

Aperol is a bitter liquor. Add some Prosecco and a splash of seltzer water, and you've got yourself a little something refreshing!

Thanks Adam and Tia for being the highlight of our January in Munich!

CCAANNCCUUNNN!!!!

How do Californians survive the bleak winter in Munich? Our answer: Mexico!
After two weeks in Boulder, we headed south for our last week of vacation with the Zabels and our extended family, the Zecksers. The 16 of us occupied three ground floor units with pool side patios and quick access to the beach. Did I marry into the right family or what? These people know how to vacation!


Hola senoritas!
Emily (Pete's girlfriend and William's BFF), Mary, and me at the welcome party.

Stroll by our patio at 7:00 a.m. and this is what you'd see. Two handsome Zabel boys making big plans for the day.
Crazy Uncle Pete: "So Will, what's it gonna be today? Building sand castles? Splashing in the baby pool? Playing soccer on the lawn?"
William: "Da" (Loosely translated: Whatever YOU are doing Uncle Pete! I want to be with you! I'll go wherever you go. I'll laugh at everything you do. You are the coolest!)

William and I enjoying some quality time at the beach. William is pointing at Uncle Pete reminding me that I have been usurped as his favorite person on the planet.

Like father, like son.
For luau night we decided to give Will and hairstyle to match his pimpin' Hawaiian shirt. Surprisingly William's attitude shifted to live up to his mohawked, toddler look. WOW. Don't be surprised if you see him with a buzz cut in future blog postings and the rest of his life!

Fun at the beach with Nana Bubbles and Grandpa!

William loved playing with trucks in the sand and "helping" to build sand castles.

Well, if Uncle Pete's doing it, I'll do it!

We're a little behind in brainwashing William to be a beach bum, but it looks like we're catching up!

Aside from the beach, William rocked the baby pool. Every afternoon he and his entourage arrived to do laps. At 2', the water level was the perfect height for William to walk by himself and gain confidence in any future attempts at finding his land legs. By the end of the week, he wasn't even using floaties. We'd just stand him in the pool and off he'd go!

He was so proud of himself, Mr. SuperWalker. Once he turned blue with uncontrollable shivers, we'd intervene and pull him out to much protest. He loves the water!

Thanks to some super loving babysitters, we even got a kid-free night out.

Here's Emily totally digging Pete's latest addition. While the girls went to a spa afternoon, the boys got tattoos. Well, I'm sure you have surmised . . . temporary tattoos. So funny!

Family pic

The Zabel Family

The Cancun Crew
Zabel and Zeckser Clans
(We missed you, Tim!)

Going into the vacation we had so much fun dreaming of the memories we'd make watching the kids play together on the beach and in the pool. However, with 4 kiddos on 4 different nap schedules, not forgetting feeding times, we were lucky if our kids overlapped playtime at all during the day! What time we did get to spend together, we loved!

Flatiirons photo shoot

With both sets of grandparents present, a picturesque Boulder setting, and ALL of Jeff's new camera equipment for Christmas, how could we not make an attempt at our own photo shoot? Our shots didn't turn out too bad . . . this new mommy just wishes she would have fed William a smidge earlier than push him to a later lunch. Please ignore the snack and/or toy in his hand. I'm still learning!


William with his Nana Bubbles and Grandpa Zabel

William with Grandma and Papa Milam

The Zabel 3

Flying high

Thank goodness for the doggies walking on the path next to us. They distracted William and kept him in his happy a little longer.

A full-tummy William loving the shoulder ride from Grandpa.
Where was this smile 10 minutes ago????

Colorado Christmas

Our 2010 Christmas found us traveling to Boulder, Colorado for two weeks of much-anticipated and much-overdo family time. Despite suffering through the trials of jet lag (Really, not that bad in hindsight), a bronchitis-ridden Mommy (Thanks, Will!), and an ear-infection-blessed William (Our first visit visit an American pediatrician was remarkably delightful!) we managed to have ourselves the hap-happiest of holidays since Bing Crosby danced with Danny Kaye.


Germans do not thrive on the adorableness that is a child's haircut, nor does Munich boast hair stylists who willingly snip a moving target's wistful hair, thus explaining the existence of NO children's haircutting salons in Munich. Thankfully, Mary's hairdresser knows her way around a toddler's head, so Will got his first official haircut while we were in Boulder. He looked so dapper!

Nana Bubbles and Grandpa pulled out all the stops for William's first visit to their house. He had his very own crib, changing table, toys, well, you name it, Will had it! Here he is eating Grandpa's special Mickey Mouse pancakes in his father's old high chair. Boulder sure felt like a wonderful home away from home.

Bathtime was just ducky in this awesome bathtub. Thank you Nana Bubbles!

Despite suffering colds themselves, Mary and Jeff kept bright and cheery Christmas attitudes while Pete and Charley popped tons of vitamins! Here are my healing boys opening stockings on Christmas morning.

Enjoying a new book from Nana Bubbles and Grandpa made especially for William


Aside from his ride-along Mickey Mouse airplane from Santa, the rocking horse above was a huge hit with William. Charley made this rocking horse for Jeff for his 2nd Christmas, and it was fun to see it loved by a second generation.

The weather was crisp and our take-it easy days were always filled with at least one park outing.

Smiles for Nana Bubbles!

William was lucky enough to be surrounded by both sets of grandparents for a few days in Colorado. He so enjoyed having my parents visit after Christmas!