Happy Weekend

Tulips in the main square yesterday

It's the perfect day for a nice picnic lunch.  I think we shall do that.  The lilac smells so good out there. 

Easter Here & There

Our Easter was pretty uneventful...just nice and relaxing...and COLD. It snowed Easter morning! 

After Mass, we went and had lunch (where we had some fine window flowers) and then took a long stroll through town and the park.

My family back home in Texas had a bigger, sunnier celebration:

The Easter egg in his crate: Evan...cutie

Sam's egg huntin' and growing so fast I can hardly take it.  That's a bit of a sad hiding spot for the egg.

 Chris, Lindsay and pretty-in-pink Quinn

 My mama and my sisters

Coco's comin', girls!

Easter Beauties: Lindsay, Erin, Ceci and Ana

(and baby girl in Erin's tummy)

 the jungle "Jim" uncle we love

There was more than just Easter to celebrate yesterday.  It was my parents 40th anniversary.  40 years these little luvas have been trotting around together.  They are role models to all of us. 

 They even renewed their vows.  I wish we could have been there.

The gang.

 Pretty anniversary flowers.  These are actually from the kiddos.  Mama loves 'em.

It was also my brother's 25th birthday...he was born on their 15th anniversary.  Happy Birthday, Andy.  Oh, and Happy Birthday, Aunt Melissa!  April 8th is out of control in this fam.

Thanks for letting me share my fam and celebrations with you...hope your Easter was wondey, too!

Spring

 I love my forsythia right outside our window.  I post a picture of it every year, I'm pretty sure.

It's all over town...

The forsythia and my ultimate fave, the pink magnolia saucer trees, are the first things to bloom in spring here:

 (last year's pic)

The nicer weather means a lot more walks (which are needed since I've abandoned the gym lately).  We like to go by this chicken coop and see our friends.

And the flower shops got some goodies goin' on:

I'm not neglecting my belly: 

(scotch is Art's.)

And yesterday this photo of my niece, Ana and newest nephew (and soon-to-be my baby's bud) Evan made me smile.  Can you believe I haven't squeezed those legs in person yet?  So terri!

And I've started to feel my little man in my tum.  I love it.  It's sorta subtle and I want him to punch me up harder, but I'm sure that's to come soon.  When I feel him, I want to take him out and love him up...but, I can't!  5 more months!  (dang, that's long)
 

Keeping House

I didn't know that there are fields of flowers outside of Graz where you can go pick your own and drop some change in a coinbox!  Check out this Gladiola field some girlfriends and I hit last week on the way home from some Trachten browsing:

 

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday and they add a nice perk to the room. 

Do you find it appalling that the dog sits on our couch?

Well, going to make the bed this morning (I find that making the bed in the morning is one of those things that starts the day off right...with a feeling of productivity and order)...and honey badger (if you haven't seen this video (beware of the language), you won't get that) makes herself quite cozy in there.  She would never do this if I weren't in there making the bed.  She has to be in the way.

 (those eyes are the cause of our demise)

Have you ever seen cuteoverload.com?
 

I've heard guys in America complain about girls and their ever-growing sense of entitlement these days.  I believe my dog has a sense of entitlement.  A damn big one. (and none of it's our fault.)

 

Just ended up making the bed around her.  I mean...some people use stuffed animals thrown in...I just leave honey badger in there.  Problem is, when I leave...she most definitely will leave too and my whole 'order and productivity' for the day will have been trampled upon.  

I think it's time to sprinkle in some discipline to the morning routine as well.

Everything's Coming Up Roses

I hope all you Amerikanerins had a great Memorial Day weekend.

Life over here is just rosy.  :)  We've been enjoying them for the past couple of weeks and they might almost be on their way out.  Don't leave us, Rosies!  Poor Art has been sneezing, wheezing and puffy eyeballing for a good month now, so he might be ready for all flowers to fire their arses outta here.

Our front garden:

And around the neighborhood:

Art's mom comes on Thursday and we're looking forward to that!

A Good Easter

We had a very nice Easter this year at our friends' house a little bit outside of Graz.  Too bad we didn't get a pic of mom and dad, but their three daughters, Hannah, Stella and Eva are always down for some shots.

They requested that we bring Elsie and do a way better job of wearing her out than we ever do.

{Their family alone keeps the Graz Crocs store running.}

They filled us up with food, drinks and sweets.  The typical Austrian Easter cuisine is ham, sausages, spreads, kren (freshly grated horseradish), cheeses and other cold cuts similar to what you find at a Buschenschank.

And the flowers are coming out in staggered times, so we have a new one to enjoy every week or so. Right now, the lilac is busting out everywhere, and its smell and beauty is quite wondey when walking around.

These are some of my favey trees (Japanese Saucer Magnolia).  The petals fall all over the sidewalk and they are slippery...like pink banana peels, k.

 

And, that's all.  I hope you had a Frohe Ostern too.

Spring!

 

The forsythia tree outside of our window literally busted out overnight.

I promise I did not saturate this pic.

What a nice way to liven up the inside too.

We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday and I like people to think my house always has fresh flowers sprinkled throughout.  ha.

We headed out on Sunday to our new favorite neighborhood with a great view:

see the Schlossberg and clocktower straight in view

happy spring peeps

there's also a great area for the pups to roam

and then just rub her just-yesterday-bathed-self in some manure plumps.  awesome.

Cute restaurant/gasthaus complete with loud chickens, goats, cows and sheep in the area.

more manure rolling.

Everyone's happy it's spring.