Enjoying the house

Today it is a little cold and rainy and very windy, but a couple of days ago, it was absolutely glorious and I enjoyed hanging laundry outside.

The kids even did their math outside in our little back yard. It's wonderful to be able to send them out there when they're getting bored and cranky.

Since we arrived in Europe, we have been after the kids almost constantly to walk quietly and think of the neighbors and keep their voices down, but mostly to walk quietly! Mira, though the smallest of us, is the worst culprit. She runs everywhere and lands heavily on her heels, which I'm sure has been audible to every downstairs neighbor we've had so far. Now that we're in our own free-standing house, she seems to be taking full advantage and is running everywhere, as loudly as possible.

We are also enjoying the piano so much! It is out of tune -- Zed says D Major sounds particularly awful -- but I'm glad the kids are playing it a lot anyway. They've downloaded various free sheet music and are playing from our 10-inch tablet. Here are Zed and Mira playing "Daylight" by Matt and Kim. (The sound is bad and it's vertical again. Sorry!)

It really is nice to be in a house with a yard and no neighbors to worry about. There are two houses behind ours, set back from the road and our house. Jon and I met the owners yesterday and they're very nice. Beyond that, the neighbors are a Jewish cemetery, where we have seen exactly nobody so far, and the not very populated back areas of a large hospital complex, which is behind a big wall. We do have people walking right by our windows on the street side, but that is just entertaining so far.