Cooking with little Èstelle

Todays plan was actually to visit a very nice castle. But somehow we didn’t felt like to do so, I guess we were still exhausted from last days traveling.

So we decided to stay at home and bake some cookies for friends, it its very easy recipe, our little Èstelle did the most of it, so if you like some easy peasy hand made cookie.

Here the recipe.

• 300gr flour
• 250gr butter
• 3 pieces cheese ( triangle happy cow )

….make a dough from this all 3 ingredients.

Create desired shape of your cookies. We made a flat bowls with a hole to fill the cookies with quark. And last but not least to make it sweeter … strew on the top little bit of crumble mixture ( sugar and butter and flour ).

Yours two and half women.

 

 

Our short summer trip to Germany.

We are since couple of weeks in Europe, we could not miss to visit our other part of the family.

I am always happy to come back to my beloved Germany, we lived here for some time in Königstein am Taunus, near by Frankfurt am Main. I have fantastic memories from there.

Now is the most important reason why we flying to Düsseldorf to visit our german part of family. We haven’t seen Marcus mother and sister since last summer.

We had a great time, weather was not much on our side, it rained most of the time, but what to expect in Nordrhein-Westfalen, there is always raining. But we made the most out of it. See our video.

The countryside is beautiful. I am every time impressed about the lifestyle of the Nordrhein-Westfalen people living here. It is unbelievable clean, the houses are very well maintained with love and passion for the detail. It is inspiring to see how people putting such effort in garden and home decoration. I simply love it here.

Yours two and half women.

 

Castle Hněvín and Jezeří, Czech Republic

Today is Saturday, weather is not very pleasant, we swinging in thoughts of what to do today, despite the weather we decided to visit some historical place near by, to show something different to our little Estelle. And you would not believe it, but we managed two castles in one day!  Here they are! We very very much surprised what we found. Here some food for your thoughts ….

Castle Hněvín in Most, Czech Republic 

Hněvín Castle was named after the hill it was built upon. Archaeological investigations have uncovered the remains of a castle that was there in the 9th century, but a stone castle was probably built by the Hrabišics, the owners of Most, while Václav I granted Most royal city status in the 12th century, with the castle becoming the seat of the district administrator. The castle Hněvín went through many difficult days being occupied, destroyed and sold, but the most interesting and surprising for us was the information that the Germans presented in Most a scaled copy of the Eiffel Tower, the famous symbol of the Paris World Exhibition held in the same year. The city decided to purchase a wooden, twenty-five-foot-high tower and use it for panoramic view from the Castle Hill. The new Hněvín dominance was handed over to the public on Sunday, October 13, 1889. The opening ceremony was preceded by the night lighting of the tower. The residents of the city did not enjoy it for a long time. A year later, a strong wind destroyed entire tower.

After 1989, city Most Hněvín acquired the restitution as historical property and in 2000-2001 carried out a costly reconstruction of the whole area. Roofs were repaired, new utility towers were built, a new pavement was laid in the courtyard, and the outside lighting of the castle was installed.  The castle serves as a hotel and restaurant, you can also have a wonderful wedding here as you can see in our video.

Castle Jezeří in Jiretín, Czech republic

Same as Castle Hněvín, Jezeří went trughout difficult times but there is something you surely don’t  know.

At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century there was a huge construction and cultural development of the castle. Since 1802, the Castle Theater has been in operation, the famous Eisenberg Choir performed here. Concerts in the chateau park were visited by many prominent personalities; like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or Ludwig van Beethoven, he was a close friend of František Maxmilián Lobkowicz (1772-1816), the owner of the chateau at the beginning of the nineteenth century.  Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 Eroica had a private premiere at the Castle Theater as well as Haydn’s oratoryo of the Creation of the World.

This list of prominent artists who visited Jezeří doesn’t ends. Among others, Christophe Willibald Gluck or the Vranic brothers can be mentioned. During World War II, Lobkovice’s property was confiscated and a branch of the Flossenbürg concentration camp was set up in this castle, here was also captured Charles de Gaulle’s brother as a prisoner of war.

We learned a lot and Estelle had a great time running around and asking thousands of questions. It was another exciting day.

 

Yours  Two and half women.

 

 

Èstelle’s first visit by the dentist.

Here just a short video of our drive to the dentist. Me and Marcus, we needed a yearly check up and we thought we can used this opportunity to show Èstelle how it looks by the dentist. She is only 3 years old, she doesn’t really need any check up, but we believe, if there is no any reason to visit a dentist for the first time, it is much better to show it to her in fun way, she will get used to the dentist and will not be scared. So the theory, lets see the reality in the future.

Our lovely dentist was unbelievably friendly and funny,  Èstelle felt there more like on the playground than in dentist surgery. Even the waiting room is amazing, with kids play area and they have also a mens waiting room with playstation and racing chair.

After check up Estelle got a toy ring and great job offer as Dental assistant.

I have a appointment for the next morning, so Estelle will join me to my appointment and do the assistant job. So wait for the next video, it will be definitively interesting.

Yours two an half women.

 

Éstelle’s 3th Birthday celebration in Dubai, UAE

Today is 22th of May 2017, yesterday was Estelle’s real birthday which we celebrated in privat. Today is Monday, which is delightful because Éstelle’s private home ballet lesson is always on Monday, this is a great opportunity for us to celebrate her birthday with her friends from ballet and from our Dubai community.

As we have been busy with preparing for this day since days, we were still not sure about the color and the theme of Estelle’s birthday event, my mum came with a wonderful Idea of celebrating Ésties birthday always in the same color for the next years till she will be 18. I got so much excited about this idea, last birthday was in red and white and we all loved it, why not stay with this theme for the next years, especially as my mum said, just imagine that when Estelle see anywhere this red white polka dot motive, it will always remind her her birthday and also that we infinitivally love her. It will be also very nice to have birthday pictures in the same color, we can make beautiful photo collage how the years goes by.

We spend all night with house decorating and blowing Éstelle’s new pink bouncy castel with little pool and slide, it was so big, it took us pretty long time and lets not forget that blowing up the castel was extremely loud, we did it front of the garage hopping no one will come to complain how loud it was.

The night before her birthday I told Éstelle a good night story about little princes. The princess had a birthday and wanted to have a pink bouncy castel with a slide and pink bicycle, but it was so difficult for her parents to organize all her wishes, but ……

At the morning when Éstelle woke up, she got her pink bouncy castle ……

Here the party pictures! Have fun ….

Yours Two and half women.

 

 

Ballet class in Dubai – Fortsetzung

The time goes by and I promised to report about the ballet class our little Éstelle. As you may know our Èsty will be 3 years old very soon, so I assume, she is pretty small child for going to professional ballet academy, she attends the very first class for the youngest kids. We are not planing to have a prima ballerina at home, I just truly believe that for every girl is very important to adopt not only good behavior but also she should learn how to move her body properly while she grows. This is the major reason why she is visiting this ballet class.

The kids in our class are very small, parents are asked to stay and watch their little ballerinas while learning to dance. This is great opportunity to observe your child and also the teacher.

I have to say that Estelle learned a lot since she is attending the classes, her teacher is amazing, always trying to keep attention to every child and also, which I find very important, the teacher is patient but also direct, so the kids having very healthy respect to her. This I find the most difficult, keep all going well in such crazy environment as loud music and little kids running around. I am every time amazed how well she is managing keep everybodys attention. The girls having fun and we parents enjoying the view of growing kids dancing around.

I definitely recommend to every parent at least to try some dance classes for their child. You never know, maybe you will find in your kid special talent with passion for music and dance.

Yours Two and half women.

P.S: Happy birthday our lovely friend Jana! We love you and miss you!

 

 

The beautiful life in Dubai

Today we treated ourself in our beloved beach resort of the The Westin Dubai Hotel. We visited this exclusive location with many pools and wonderful beach area very often because it is not far away from where we live and also because we are the proud owners of APC card “AVIATION PROFESSIONALS CLUB”, so we have access, which usually very strict is or you have to pay very hight fees to get in.

I simply adore this exclusive and peaceful retreat settled on Jumeirah Beach, the resort offers the perfect destination for the entire family to recharge after a long week with a breath-taking array of recreation activities, this location with many pools and wonderful beach area featuring exceptional views over the Arabian Gulf, the impressive neoclassical architecture fills the five-star luxury beach resort in Dubai with charm and inspiration.

My favorite dinning in Westin is the Bussola Italian restaurant, its outdoor location with amazing view over Marina is definitively worth to try. I love it.

Yours Two and half women.

 

 

Anantara Hotel Resort Dubai

Another beautiful location we visited this week. An extraordinary hotel owlets better say resort named Anantara.

Imagine a unique  luxurious Thai-style hotel with lagoon-style swimming pools which located on the eastern side of the Palm Jumeirah Island at Dubai Harbor. Enchanting beach side accommodation with over seas Villas as you know from Maldives, complemented by cuisine from Asia as well as the Mediterranean served at seven speciality venues, 3 Turquoise swimming lagoons, tennis courts and gyms, last but not least Anantara Spa needs to be also mentioned.

This magic place offer an urban escape unlike any other here in Dubai. You feel like in Maldives where one can savour moments of bliss surrounded in unimaginable magnificence, with view to Dubai coastline or Atlantis Hotel.

If you travel to Dubai and looking for a special place to stay, this will be definitively something  for you, an asian feeling in an Arabian setting.

Yours Two and half women.

 

 

 

First ballet lesson in Dubai

Our Estelle visited today ballet class for the first time here in Dubai. We used to attend  a music and dance classes for little children in Switzerland, but since we moved to Dubai we didn’t had the time to do so. I was very happy to find in Dubai the Harmony ballet Academy which looked to me very professional and good for little children and also not far to drive from home. My first impression of the teacher is good, she looks very professional, she was definitively ballet dancer and her communication with the kids is excellent.

Here some pictures. I will keep you up to date how much we happy with the lessons.

 

Trip to the desert of United Arab Emirates

As we already live couple of month in Dubai, it was a time to visit the desert. It is not very difficult and not very far, wherever you look, desert is everywhere, but for the real feeling of empty quiet desert place, you will have to drive a while.

But don’t worry, its worth it, looking out of the window as already worth every second. The very new and well maintained roads are surrounded by sand dunes, which are sometimes gold sometimes red shaded, simply beautiful nature where you will meet camels and herd of desert goats walking calm in peaceful golden desert.

We have been on private camel farm and met very friendly and very helpful people.  It was a wonderful experience and I am looking so much to the next desert trip with overnight and grill party.

We will definitively report you about it.

Your two and half women.