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Final month of maternity leave - bucket list trip!

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We are back (well, have been for a week or so but been enjoying my last week off!) and had a fabulous time on our 2.5 week bucket list trip / maternity-paternity leave handover trip. It was about 6 months ago that The Husband and I started to talk about what to do for our parental leave overlap month. Australia and New Zealand were on the top of our list - but the flight time with two kids was too much for us. Canada was then next on our list and we contacted some travel agents who were going to help us book everything - but it was going to cost a small fortune that we were not comfortable to pay. This led us to another country, Portugal - Porto and the Douro valley! We ended up choosing this destination for a few reasons: First time that The Husband has been to Portugal; direct flights from Vienna; cheap; and it has been on our bucket list since he read The Cork Boat as a recommendation from the Cs. Here is a short breakdown of our trip (note: there was a lot more that we cou

A luxury weekend getaway... or not?

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My apologies for the silence on here (yep, I did get the feedback dear MW!)... but I'm back and thanks to the Husband my website has been renewed for a year so time to get a bit more serious again. Here we go - I've created a bit of a spoiler on my Facebook page already and here is my honest review from our weekend away (just FYI - we paid for this weekend ourselves in case it is an issue). Date : 15-17 March 2019 Location : Bad Tatzmannsdorf, Reiters Reserve Family Finest Who : Two adults plus a 3 year old and a 10 month old Cost : 1080 EUR for two nights all-inclusive (Alcove Room south) and ca 100EUR for the rental car We packed our big suitcase full of clothes and plenty of spares for the kids (tip: pack one more set of clothes just in case! #toilettrainingisnofun) and got our rental car to have a luxury and relaxing family to celebrate my birthday and that of Little K. It had taken me some time to decide to book this holiday as it is a ridiculous amount of money t

Audrey and Rachael discover Vienna - one coffee at a time / 1080 Wien

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After a great trip to the 2nd district, we spontaneously decided to visit the 8th district this week. A plan on where to go was made during one of the early morning feeds (I think it was at 2am that the idea came to my mind?!) Our plan for the 8th This week Baby A and Baby M were joined by Audrey's friend (Gabrielle) who is visiting from Canada - and she definitely helped to up our caffeine game, was such an amazing help in just taking the babies when we dumped them on her and she did great in dealing with the "mummy talk" and quickly got on board (quote to prove this: R "But where would we put the Wobble board?" Gabrielle "In the giant tent in your living room!"). She also gets bonus points for laughing at my joke about Baby A getting louder which the musician didn't get / listen to properly. Thank you for joining us!! 1080 Wien - start: 09:30 at  Villa Klein shopping break: 11:20 at Spielwaren Heinz coffee break: 11:45 at  Kaffeem

Baby Cinema / Babykino

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Since I went to my first baby cinema with Little K, these are the questions I've often been asked: "Cinema with a baby? How does it work? Do you watch baby movies?" As we have our next Babykino day coming up on Wednesday, I thought it was about time to let you all know how it works and why it is such a great thing that all you baby mamas and papas can even drag your friend / partner / husband or mum to! As most of my posts, this is referring to the opportunities in Vienna and I truly hope that a lot of other cities offer something similar. If they don't and you are part of a bigger baby group / network, check with your local cinema if you can "rent" out the room during the morning. This was one tactic that we tried at the Haydn Kino as they didn't offer it as an organised event, I was surprised at how reasonable the cost was to rent out a cinema. How does it work? Movies are generally shown earlier on in the day and the cinema isn't fully dark

Audrey and Rachael discover Vienna - one coffee at a time / 1020 Wien

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Audrey and I met in our first baby group where Baby C and Baby K enjoyed Monday morning playdates and Tuesday morning music class together, while the mummies also got to know each other. Two kids on, we rediscovered our friendship and love for good coffee (Thanks to stalking our comments on the Facebook page Women of Vienna ). One sunny morning after kindergarten drop off, we met at a coffee place that A recommended and after having a few more coffees in the area, I came up with the great idea that we should do this across all districts and share our story. Today was our first meeting and it starts in the 2nd district! So, here we go - please join us as we take Baby A and Baby M through Vienna and discover some new places! 1020 Wien - start: 11:30 at cafe Zweisam   coffee break: 13:45 at Balthasar Kaffee Bar shoe pick up: 14:30 at Figar Bao.bun end: 15:00 Wien Mitte (technically in the 3rd but we had a nice walk there from the 2nd) Topics of conversation: VFN

Summer holidays - part 2 (to the mountains - how to survive a trip with friends)

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Before I get started - a quick shout out to Michael W who isn't "part of my target group" but still reads my blog :)  For some time there was a general mention with two friends of ours to organise a trip together over the summer holiday. After we booked our UK trip, the Husband and I decided that we would need one more relaxing trip to the mountains here. He agreed that I could check if our friends were still interested to join us. We had found a lovely looking chalet resort by Kreischber g and there was still lots of flexibility to find a place that could house either the four of us or the ten of us! After some discussions with their husbands - it was all booked and we were ready to spend a week together at the end of August. We booked a lovely five bedroom chalet with a big window front and spent some time the days before on whatsapp figuring out the shopping and activities for the kids (dolls house) and adults (rummikub) we wanted to bring. The main benefit of us a