Easter in Australia vs Easter in America

Moving from Australia to America isn't really that much of a culture shock, especially when you move to a state like California. Although I'm sure there would probably be more than a little culture shock moving to Texas or a southern state.

For the most part, our life here is pretty similar to our life back home in Australia and the transition was pretty easy. There was no need to learn a new language (unless you include trying to understand the Imperial System and Farenheit!), there was no adjustment to weather conditions that we're not used to, we already knew most of the tv shows, and the cultural customs are generally pretty similar. I say generally because there are certain times of year that I am reminded that there are indeed cultural differences between our two countries. And those times are holidays.

Right now it's Easter weekend which is a pretty big deal back home in Australia. It's the biggest holiday of the year. I mean, it's a four day weekend. Holidays don't come any bigger than that. It doesn't even matter if you're not Christian. A magic rabbit visiting homes to deliver chocolate eggs is about as far removed from the original Easter story as you could possibly get. So, much like Christmas, for most Australians Easter comes with no religious context at all. It's just an extra long weekend to spend with family and eat chocolate. And that's what surprised me most about Easter in America. It's such a non-event here. And when you consider how religious much of the country is (or appears to be from the outside), that seems more than a little strange to me. And to every other Australian or British person I know living here too. But maybe to most Americans it doesn't feel like a non-event. Most Americans I've spoken to about Easter are not aware that Easter is a four day holiday in many countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Just like most of my friends and family back home are unaware that it's not much of a holiday here at all. Unless you've lived in another country and experienced their holidays, how would you know that something celebrated in both places could be celebrated so differently?

So that got me thinking about the differences in how we celebrate Easter in Australia and America and I thought I'd share them with you here. A little expat education!

Macy's Flower Show 2015

Earlier this week we headed into the city to check out the Macy's Flower Show. Each year, to celebrate the arrival of Spring, Macy's hold a flower show in many of their stores around the country. The flower show in San Francisco's Union Square store is always beautiful. This year's theme, Art in Bloom, brings together the worlds of art and floral design.

52 Weeks: Week 13

Week 13: Lemonade Stand

Do you remember the lemonade stand that the girls had with friends a few months back? Ok, it was actually in August so it may be a stretch of the memory. You can see it here. Anyway, since then Ava and Lola have been super keen to have another lemonade stand. Their friend Solly has been keen too. So last week we got together after school to hold a lemonade stand at a local playground.

April Fool's Day 2015

Did you prank your kids yesterday? Were you fooled by any pranks yourself?

We love a good April Fool's Day prank in our home. The kids knew that I would have something planned but they didn't know what. So it came as quite a surprise when I managed to prank Ava in exactly the same way as last year: the gold old frozen cereal trick! You'd think the fact that I was ready in front of her with a camera as she attempted the first mouthful of Cheerios would be a give away but I guess she was engrossed in her Mindcraft game and didn't notice (hence her headphones).

Lola thought it was hilarious, but little did she know her own breakfast prank was coming...

Eleven Months Old

Eleven months. Crazy, right? I can't believe that this little one with be celebrating her first birthday in just under a month. I am in total denial!

Last month I ended Mathilde's ten month post with "Hopefully next month I'll be sharing my roly-poly walking girl with a few more teeth!". Well, I'm pleased to say that I can tick two of those things of the list. Can you guess which two?

52 Weeks: Week 12

Week 12: Maker Faire Street Team

One of our family's all time favorite festivals is coming up in just under two months: Make Faire!

The kids and I are so excited for Maker Faire. We've been the last two years and it's just such a fun event. Two days full of robotics, crazy contraptions, technology, scientific experiments and all round fun. There's always so much to see and do for all ages. Maker Faire is fun for adults and kids alike. You can see our previous visits to Maker Faire here and here.

This year we're helping to spread the word about Maker Faire by being part of their street team. This means that we've been out and about, armed with a stack of flyers and post cards which we've been putting up in local cafes, stores, bars... If you see a Maker Faire flyer somewhere in Berkeley there's a good chance we put it there!

Here's a look at the girls out and about all over Berkeley putting up their flyers and postcards over the last few days...

We're going on a Macaron Hunt

Today was some sort of official Macaron Day. There seems to be an official day for everything now. I need to keep a special calendar full of all the important official days. Somehow I keep missing International Nutella Day, and that's just wrong!

Anyway, today was Macaron Day NYC and from what I've read online, patisseries throughout New York handed out free macarons to customers all day. Now, we don't live in New York (boo!) and it seems that this special day was only celebrated there, but macarons are pretty damn tasty so we just had to join in the festivities. Unofficially.

So, this afternoon after school we met up with a few friends and went on a macaron treasure hunt, visiting four local stores that sell macarons: Masse's Pastries, Virginia Bakery, Paris Baguette and Cafe Clem. To make it feel more like a treasure hunt I made up a simple map for the kids to follow. It's a good thing that three of these stores are on the one street, and the fourth is just down a side street. My map only needed two lines!