A Busy (but slow compared to what we're used to) Week

At the Forest Huus for Aidan's friends' party

Roasting sausages on a bonfire

BBQ with Friends from School

some of the girlsa few of the guys

some of the kids

a gourmet gathering!

18 kids...all up WAY past their bedtimes!

Last Monday, Jason's parents flew home to Detroit. Life, as we know it, was back to normal. Busy, but normal. I did all sorts of fun things on Monday...vacuuming, dusting, rearranging Aidan's room and putting his clothes back in the drawers that I had emptied for PatTone and Mamaw and Papaw to use, laundry, changed sheets, etc, etc, etc. "Normal" is not as fun as having guests, but necessary I guess!

The rest of the week went like this: Mommy meeting, Aidan playdate, Mommy German lesson, Mommy art class, Aidan fieldtrip, Lainey playdate, Aidan playdate, Lainey Gymboree, Aidan class picnic, Aidan and Lainey playdate, Mommy online class, Lainey swimming lesson, Aidan swimming lesson. Whew!

Then the weekend came! More "normal" fun!

Saturday morning Aidan and Jason went to a combined birthday party in a foresthuus for 2 of his classmates. A "foresthuus" is a little house in the woods that can be rented for parties or campouts in the area. The boys had lots of fun grilled sausages on a bonfire, going on treasure hunts (kids), and drinking beer (dads). While the boys were at the party, Lainey and I baked a Key Lime Pie and walked down to the designer sample sale that was being held in the garage of a building down the street from us (strange, but legal and true!)

After the party we dashed to the mall for a quick shopping trip (which is never quick if you've ever shopped with my husband who shops for sunglasses the same way he shops for a new car or other major purchase). Then we rushed back home to change clothes and pick up our donations to the BBQ we had to be at that evening.

The BBQ was at our friends' house from school. Aidan goes to school with the youngest of their 4 kids. The family is from just outside Boston and arrived in Zurich around the same time we did. There ended up being around 10 families invited. Needless to say, my friends' house is W-A-Y bigger than our apartment! Seriously, their house is amazing, huge even by US standards, with an inground pool and huge garden. The kids had a blast running around together. At one count, there were over 20 kids there! The adults had a great time, too.

The people who went were all the women in my "international cooking/lunch club" and their families, so we all cooked up some pretty fabulous dishes, if I do say so myself! We had beef tenderloin, grilled shrimp, chicken kabobs, roast veggies and cous-cous, lentil salad, watermelon and feta salad, salmon salad, home-baked fruit bread and foccacia; and for dessert-Key lime pie, yum-yum cake, pavlova, and cheese cake. (The kids had burgers, brats, fruit, and chips, of course!) Even the drinks were interesting, one of which is apparently quite common but new to me, called "panache", or "shanty" in some places, but is really just beer mixed with lemonade! Quite good, actually. We ended up staying past 10 o'clock since Cheri's older kids were acting as baby-sitters keeping the little ones entertained.

Sunday morning, we got to sleep in! YES, SLEEP IN! Even Aidan didn't wake up until after 9! I need to take him to parties on the weekends more often! Since we had such a busy week and Saturday, we decided to lay low on Sunday. We just went into the city for a while and then went to the pool. That's pretty low-key for us! There is a beautiful pool near our house with lots of kiddie pools and slides so they kids had fun splashing around and seeing their friends.

Yep, just a normal week.