Yesterday we walked all over Sliema (pronounced slee-ma) – not really intentionally.  We were looking for a playground we saw by car and we found it, eventually.  Did I mention we left the map at home? But our adventure helped us figure out the lay of the land.  We later pored over the map to get a sense of where we were.  A few highlights:

There is a beautiful promenade all along the waterfront in Sliema.  Most of our walk was along the water.

That’s Sliema to the side and front of us.

Valletta, the capital, as seen from the promenade in Sliema, across the Marsamxett Harbour.

Sliema is very touristy with many, many hotels, restaurants and high-rise apartments.  Quite the contrast with Valletta across the bay!

Finally – the park!

Without a yard, parks are going to be a daily staple.

Staying warm – when the sun goes behind the clouds and the wind picks up, it can get a little chilly (by Malta standards!).

More views of Sliema in the background.

Finally – familiar territory!

A view across St. Julian’s Bay to St. Julian’s.  This part of the promenade is about 10 minutes from our flat. 

We arrived in Sliema, Malta on Sunday afternoon.  We’ve been here almost 2 full days now and we are having so much fun exploring our new city!  Here are some highlights from our travels:

The Mall of America! We had a lot of fun the night before we left going on the rides at the Mall.

Our favorite ride was the Paul Bunyon Log Chute. Here are 2 very happy and wet girls!

This one is for you, Mikaela!

We just checked our huge luggage – a total of 199 pounds!

Strolling through the airport. Our connection in Philly was tight – we were the last people on the plane! And then we sat and waited for nearly an hour while they fixed an indicator light!

The girls did great on the 3 flights. They listened to music and stories, colored, read, ate, slept (a bit) and watched out the window.

Our lovely landlady, Maria, took us out to lunch our first day in Sliema. We sat right by the ocean!

The joy of unpacking and settling into a place! We feel almost all moved in and are making our flat a great place to be.

We spent a few lovely days in New Hampton with Jon’s family after Christmas.  The girls love spending time with their cousins, aunts and uncles – we hardly see the girls except at meals and bedtime!  We enjoyed another Christmas celebration with a wonderful meal, gift giving and strawberries and ice cream for dessert.

Santa comes again and fills up their Iowa stocking!

Playmobil! The girls received a farm and store set and loved it.  Alex helped them put it together.

We spent a lot of time outside – skiing, skating and one warm afternoon, building tunnels in a huge snow pile.  The cousins had a raucous snowball game!

There was no snow in Lincoln, so we really had fun in the snow here!

The girls are just learning to skate so we don’t participate in the annual ice hockey game.  But it sure is fun to watch!

Lily helping her sister stay upright.  🙂

We just returned from 8 lovely Christmasy days with family in Nebraska and Iowa.  We love spending time with our family – cooking, eating, laughing, playing games, watching Sound of Music, catching up on life, giving gifts and getting some great ones, too!

Sylvia gave Great-Grandma the teddy bear for Christmas. GG named it Nutmeg.

Christmas Eve

Grandma made Sylvia, Lily and me matching aprons!

Super fun Headbandz game.

We went for a walk on the prairie on Christmas Day.

Sylvia and Grandpa in their Hawkeye colors. 🙂

Making a gingerbread house with Laura.

We love our sweatshirts!

We have all our decorations out, our tree is up and full of ornaments and there are chocolate peanut butter balls just waiting to be eaten (they won’t have to wait long!).  We have been singing Christmas songs, reading Christmas books and getting presents ready.  We love this time of year!  Here are a few pictures of recent events.

Guess what we made?

We love the new chair and read books in it all the time. Of course we have to keep it covered to deter kitty claws.

We love getting out all the decorations – it’s like unwrapping Christmas presents!

We picked out our tree on the coldest day so far – it was only 2 degrees! We chose our tree rather quickly, needless to say, but we love it – it’s perfect!

Back to Thanksgiving…I forgot to post these photos of some crafts we made with friends before Thanksgiving!

Lily set up this craft. She created the turkey and organized all the supplies. When our friends came, she taught them step by step.

They turned out pretty cute!

I love November – the end of fall, beginning of winter and the holidays right around the corner.  There are still nice days to play outside but also maybe a snow or two.  And now that December next week (!) I thought I better share a few of our fun activities.

The girls made a weaving with the dead flowers that I was cutting off.

It kept them really busy while I worked all afternoon cutting back plants and mulching like crazy!

The final product!

What else do you do to have fun in November? Burn burdock!

Guess who likes fire?

Taking a break from school work with Oscar.

The girls played for hours one morning back behind the barn. This is their house – they were pretending to be Inuit people.

They had to go out to hunt for caribou and seals for their stew (which also had polar bear meat in it).

And here they are making boots out of caribou hide and seal skin.

One more trip over the fence to take care of a sick lady at her house. They took her the stew. 🙂

We woke up to a few flakes of snow yesterday which turned into quite a beautiful snow shower after breakfast.  We were all so excited!  The girls were very motivated to get dressed and go out to play.  They built a cozy little shelter for animals complete with a soft floor, food and space for a Christmas tree.  🙂  They also laid on the porch and ate snow.  We only got about an inch or two, but it was so pretty and fun!

Walking down the driveway.

All bundled up and staying warm!

Before the snow came, we cleaned up the garden. Lily sold baby gourds in the bean tipi while we composted broccoli plants!

In case you missed the FB posts, we saw Jan Brett on Sunday and had pictures with both her and Hedgie! The girls loved Hedgie!

We had lots of fun celebrating Halloween this year.  We attended a party in the morning for homeschool kids, went trick-or-treating in town with lots of friends, and went to a party on Saturday afternoon.  The girls got to dress up 3 times!  And they got lots of treats.  🙂

We carved pumpkins a few days before Halloween.

The girls drew a picture on paper first and then on the pumpkin for me to cut.

Super cute singing pumpkins!

We had supper before trick-or-treating and the girls made this vegetable tray to take along.

On our way to trick-or-treating!

Next event -Pleasant Valley Halloween Party on Saturday.

Last year for the tiger outfit!

Mary Ingalls, sister to Laura Ingalls Wilder (standing in front of a blue Prius!).

Not sure about this crazy witch.

The donut game is a highlight of the party. Jon (the woodsman) is making it hard for Sylvia.

Last weekend, the weather turned and brought cold, November-like temperatures, gray skies and lots of wind.  We knew this was coming, so we got out in the garden for some final harvesting.  Now, the clean up begins.

Lily turned 7 today!!  She had a great day – both at home and in town.  And she topped off the day with a birthday supper she chose: hotdogs, sweet potatoes, peas and crispy kale.  We finished with chocolate cake for dessert.

Last week was her birthday party with 7 of her friends.  Lily and Sylvia planned the whole party and did most of the work.  Here are a few highlights.

Petting chickens and a tour of our place.

A cake with a maze in the frosting. There were 7 candles for each of the 7 dead ends.

Pin the ribbon on the horse.

A temporary tattoo station.

Goody bags assembled by Lily and Sylvia.

We made necklaces for everyone to put in their bags. They turned out pretty cute.