Life Around the Kartause

It's hard to believe this semester's students left two weeks ago!  The students are definitely missed!  Here's the wonderful end-of-the-semester video several of the students made:

It's always a huge transition as we go from the Kartause filled with about 180-200 students and then they're gone!  Some of the TOR Sisters and Friars were able to stay a little longer, which is a huge blessing!  Over the last couple of weeks we've had a lot of fun gathering as a community and hanging out in Gaming!

Community Lord's Day on the Eve of Pentecost - outside in our backyards

Ellie's Kindergarten Visited the Kartause - Francis joined in and continues to tell everyone about his 'first' day of Kindergarten (which will actually be next September!)

OneStep Retreat - the second annual retreat organized by Brian - geared toward teens whose parents are stationed at US Military bases across Europe.  Our friend, who is one of the CMC (Cyril & Methodius Center) Missionaries, wrote a great post reflecting on the retreat!

First Pool Day of the Season! - we walked from our house to the local pool in the center of Gaming! (I only got pictures in the baby pool, because all hands were needed once we hit the big pool and slide...needless to say, the kids had a great time and I'm sure many pool days are to follow!)

Happy Feast of Corpus Christi here in Austria (we had a beautiful Eucharistic Procession around the Kartause courtyard) and Feast of the Visitation in the USA!!  And happiest birthday to my Mom! :)

Isaac is One!

Our little Austrian-born, red head Isaac is 1 today!

It's crazy how fast time has seemed to fly by since his birth! We’re definitely in the season where ‘the days are long, but the years are short’!

He hasn't said much, but I think he had a pretty great year.  He got to visit the USA, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Germany, and Portugal.  He was blessed by the Pope.  He loves his big sister and brother.  Mom and Dad too.  He can say "mom"/"mama" and does so more frequently than he says "dada" - which is a first for my kids!  He has 8 teeth.  He can stand on his own but can't walk yet.  We just started dressing him in clothes other than pajamas and he seems to like that.  He says "ahhhhhhhhh" a lot.  He can shake his head back and forth like he's saying "no" and makes everyone laugh doing so.  He loves to dance and will start bouncing up and down and moving his head anytime he hears a song.  He hasn't started slap-dancing yet.

We started his birthday celebration early this morning and by 9am we were done with cake and ice cream, and he was down for his morning nap!

We tried to get some early Mother's Day pictures with me and the 3 kids... well that proved nearly impossible!  But I sure am grateful for these 3 sweet blessings!!! and the guy stuck taking all the photos :)

We went to noon Mass, where Isaac screamed out his intention during the "moment of silence" for our own private intentions!  Then Isaac took his afternoon nap.  After that we took him out to his favorite pizza place, Chez Pierre, for drinks, dinner, and dessert =)

Happy Birthday, Isaac!!  We all love you so much!!!

Gaming Life: Slap Dancers & Beer Well

It was a pretty amazing week in Gaming!

The highlight being the Kartause's 'Austrian Ball' with performances by the professional slap dancers...this year unexpectedly joined by Francis!

The kids were happy to wear their trachten multiple times this week... on May 1st for Austria's Labor Day / St. Joseph Day!

And then for the Austrian Ball... Isaac tried to wear the lederhosen over his p.j.s :)

Brian and I also had a great date night this week and biked to the local "beer well" while some of the students watched our kids at home!

The directions once you reach the well are pretty straightforward... 

1) Open lid

2) Bring the basket up with crank

3) Take out the drinks & pay

4) Lower the basket

5) Close the lid

6) Enjoy drinks and put empty bottles away!

All transactions are handled by the Honor System!

They recently added this cut-out display for pictures...takes away a little from the natural beauty, but the cows across the road don't seem to mind!

Auf Wiedersehen von Gaming!