Day 2007. For the second night in a row Tammy didn't come to our bed. Emmy came some time in the early morning hours. Sammy was up first, as usual, and eventually Randy got up to make breakfast. I got up, when my alarm went off at 9:30 am. I got myself and the kids ready, and just before 10 am Tammy, Emmy and I left the house together.
We took the subway downtown, then walked to the music school. We got there a little early, but the kids like building with the big foam cubes in the hallway. At 10:30 their class started. There was a new student joining us today, and he was clearly older than the four already in the class.
The school founder and director started with the greeting song, then she asked what every kid had had for breakfast and made it a guessing game. It took a little too much time, in my opinion. Then she worked on their posture, having them play a simple finger warm up song. She then changed it up by playing different tempos that they had to follow.
Then she had them go to the board, where she reviewed the names of the different lengths of notes. They then had to return to their seats and do a little exercise in their books, where they had to write down the lenghts of notes.
Then it was time for a new song. However, first they learned to sing it, then they had to sing the notes, then they had to "play" it with the right fingers, just putting the fingers down on the paper.
Then they went to the front to sing the song they learned last week, including the actions. They did a great job. Then the class was over. They took their assignment books and sticker books to the front, got a sticker for today, and stamps for the homework done this past week. She praised them for having practiced on five days this past week.
The class was over, and we put our shoes and coats on and left. We rode our scooters to the subway and were back home before it was noon. We didn't have much time, so I went straight into the kitchen to make a quick meal. A few minutes later we sat down to eat. After we were done eating, it was time for the kids to put their costumes on. It was finally time for their first carnival party of the semester.
Emmy wanted to dress up as a soccer player, so we didn't have to buy any costume. Tammy wanted to be a ballerina, and ended up choosing a unicorn ballerina costume. Sammy wanted to be Mickey Mouse again, just like last year. However, we simply could not find the Mickey costume and time was short. And so we put Emmy's Ryder costume on him. Sammy was so upset about the situation that he started crying hard, and he was crying for a very long time. He wanted to be Mickey, not Ryder. I felt so bad for him, but there was nothing we could do. I ordered him a new costume later in the day.
I got Tammy and Emmy ready. Even though time was short, I painted the Austrian flag on Emmy's cheeks. I also tried to give Tammy a typical ballerina hairdue; her hair was just a little too short, but it still looked good. Then I added some glitter to her hair and her cheeks.
We left the house together at about 1:10 pm and walked quickly to the train station to make the 1:20 pm train. Two of the parties we had gone to last year were already sold out, when I looked, but I had found the party we were heading to today that was still available. It was in a little castle in the heart of Vienna, the 11th district, and I had never even heard of it or known that there was a big castle like that there. I was wondering about it and shocked at the same time and will have to google the place.
We took the train, then a bus, then we could already see the big castle. We started walking in its direction and following the other people there, walking up a hill and to the entrance. It was quite a long walk. We got there a few minutes before the party was to start, but it was perfect timing. It was already a busy place. We handed in our coats, received coupons or donuts for the kids, and walked into one of the two big halls, where the program was taking place. Randy sat down on a chair, while I joined the fun with the kids. They had a lady with a microphone who was leading through the program. She did several kids' songs, and we did a "Polonaise", where we walk behind each other, holding on to the shoulders of the person in front of us. I was pushing Sammy, and I was dancing with Sammy, when it was time to dance.
The big shopping center in the area had sent their mascot there. He was walking around greeting kids and a lady next to him was handing out gummibears. Sammy was a little scared, but still went to to him to get some gummibears, as did his siblings.
People started throwing around confetti, which got Tammy and Emmy all excited. They started picking it up off the floor, especially Tammy, and came to us to throw it on us, especially Emmy. Emmy then found some shiny metal looking long strings he was all excited about.
After the cheerleaders had done their show, it was time to go to the other hall and cash in our coupons for free donuts. When we walked in, we saw a photo station with a photographer, then we saw the face-painting. Of course the kids wanted to go there right away. While we were waiting for our turn, Randy went to the buffet to pick up the three donuts for the kids, and they started eating them.
Tammy was first to get her face painted, then Sammy. He wanted to be Mickey. Emmy wanted a soccer ball on his forehead, and the lady did a great job. We then walked on and found a drawing station, where Emmy and Tammy did some drawing. At the next table, they were doing personalized buttons to put on your shirt. Tammy colored a paper and was the first one to do hers, pushing down the lever together with the lady. Emmy did his next, and for Sammy, I wrote on his, "I'm Sammy, and you?" Daddy sat down with him to help him push the lever.
After they had put their buttons on, Tammy wanted something drawn on her hand, so she got a heart stamp, while Emmy got a star stamp. Then we left the room to go back to the event hall.
Unfortunately we had missed the Rock'n'Roll acrobatics performance. When we got there, they were doing a dance, and we joined right in, i.e. I and the kids. Tammy then left and sat down with Daddy, and I continued dancing with the boys. When they stopped for the drawing at 4:30 pm, we decided it was time to go as we didn't have any tickets to win anything. We made our way to the exit, picked up our coats and left.
We walked to the bus stop, a different one than before, and waited for the bus. Tammy was whining that she was cold and hungry. We then decided to go to Burger King to eat. We rode the bus to the end, then rode the tram for two stops and got off, where we used to go to McDonald's regularly. There was a Burger King right there as well, and that's where we went.
We ordered our food and sat down to eat. They had a drinks machine there that was just like the one in the USA, where there are hundreds of possibilites for choosing a drink. The kids tried out different ones. And they really liked their toys. We all had a good time eating and having fun. Then we took the tram back to the train station and took the 6:18 pm train home. Just after 6:30 pm we were back home.
Tammy always starts crying because of little things, when she is really tired, and that's what happened on the way home. Back home, they went into the bathtub right away, then we got them ready for bed. I put Sammy to bed with a prayer, then read a story to the other two, prayed for the, and put them to bed. I was so exhausted myself that I stayed in bed for a while - until I had no choice but to get up as Emmy had gone to the bathroom and needed help. The other two were already asleep by that time. After Emmy was back in bed, I turned my computer on, downloaded today's pictures and started working on them. Now it's 2 am and time to go to bed.
