Australia Day at the Litster's

We all went to Jim and Annette Litster’s house this afternoon to celebrate Australia Day with them. They are neighbors, Lynne works with Jim and are from down under and passionately celebrate the day with a party each year (I believe its tomorrow this year).

No Australia Day would be complete without a game of cricket. January in Indiana is not ideally suited but its always fun!

Isabel's Challah

Yesterday Lynne baked a loaf of bread with Isabel, it was her treat so she carefully selected her  choice from our bread book, a Challah, which she was very proud of. It was all very exciting, she got lots of praise until I grabbed the camera. At that point the other two kids wanted in on the photograph action when. As you can see from the sequence of photos, it went downhill pretty quickly!!

On a side note, Anja surprised me when she declared, “I’m going to photobomb Isabel’s photo”….growing up way too quickly!

Weeklong Trip to Germany

I have being in Germany all week for work. Specifically staying in Mainz but visiting Ingelheim each day. Tonight was our last night with work colleagues after a long week, picture below of last meal in Mainz for a few months. 

Cool Brisk Walk on Kampen

It’s strange how we react to relative temperatures. This morning we have a clear blue sky and what feels like tropical weather at 38F relative to our recent frigid temps. We all went for a great walk through one of Purdue’s golf courses, Kampen, which is just around the corner. After three miles we had tired legs, grumpy attitudes and a dirty dog but all felt great after soaking up same rays. It really was a beautiful morning! (I was impressed how these photos taken on iPhone turned out).

Sledding and Sledging......

The highlight of the day was sledding (or sledging depending on your sensibilities). The kids got to try out their cool new sleds that Santa brought. I think they were a hit!! Everybody had fun, we played with Steef, Ginette, Marissa and Aneka who also came back for hot chocolate and ultimately stayed for dinner. Ahhhhh winter fun!!

Cold but a beautiful morning

The kids did finally go back to school on Friday but it’s still pretty cold here. That said, it didn’t stop everybody getting out this morning in the crisp air to burn off a little energy. It was a beautiful morning with a clear blue sky. The first photo below captured the sky as the sun was setting a few evenings ago, this weather really does give off great colors.

Pretty Chilly Here

It's pretty chilly here in West Lafayette. Right now it's -19C with -29C with the wind chill. Kids are off school again tomorrow, third day in a row. 

First Snow of 2015

We had our first real snow of 2015 here in West Lafayette last night, about seven inches. It’s not that cold so I’ve already heard the girls talking about playing in the snow and hot chocolate all day. I had two new helpers with me this morning as I shoveled our drive. Neither was actually much help but they both had a lot of fun. Molly, being a puppy with lots of energy, went absolutely crazy in this totally new environment.

Back to Work and School

That’s it folks. We’re all back to work and school tomorrow. It has been a very relaxing holiday. Hectic prior to Christmas, but the last two weeks have been amazingly restful.

On days that we weren’t visiting friends, we had a fire going. As you can see from the pictures below, this really attracted our readers. We had our first snowfall this afternoon, just hoping it’s not too bad this week as I start the commute for another year.