Kusnacht Badi

Today I took the kids to the Lake Zurich shore. There are Strandbads, or Badis for short, all along the lake. We went to one in Kusnacht which is my favorite by far! It has grassy area for lounging, but a small sandy beach for the kids and zero entry into the water. We spent about 4 hours there today with some friends. Not too hot, water not too cold, and only 5 francs to get in! A bargain afternoon in Zurich!

Are we back in Belleville?

We noticed a sign for "selbst pflucken erdbeeren" along the side of the road last weekend, so we decided to check it out. Sure enough, there was a huge strawberry field for self-picking! Just like back in Michigan! We'd never gotten around to taking the kids berry picking back home, so we did here. They LOVED it. Aidan had been learning about plants at school and worked in his class garden, but the fruit and veggies hadn't grown enough to pick yet when school got out. The kids were enthralled with finding the perfect berries. We got almost 2kgs of berries and ate them within the next two days. Fun times!

Luzern Transportation Museum

Lainey lounging on a train ride

Standing on a huge boat, next to a huge plane!

10-4 good buddy!

Maybe Lainey can get some of the roads taken care of around here!

Where to next?

Aidan and his first love, trains.

Checking everything out down below.

On Sunday, we drove out to Luzern to see the Verkehrhaus Museum. I had heard it was really cool, especially for vehicle-loving boys. We had a great time checking out trains, cars, trucks, planes, boats, and scooters. There was a huge courtyard area where kids could pretend to work on a construction site (just one more example of all the construction around Switzerland!) and ride scooters and pedal cars. There's also an IMAX theater there, but we didn't have a chance to check it out yet. It was a little like the Henry Ford Museum, only dedicated to Swiss vehicles.

Our days of spelling are over!

You know how parents often spell things when they talk so that the kids won't know what they are saying? Those days are gone for us. Aidan loves to figure out what we are spelling, and unfortunately he's good at it. In fact, just last week Jason made some comment that something looked like "S-H-I-T". Aidan promptly responded "S-H-I-T...shit, shit? What's that?" GREAT. "Just an adult word Daddy shouldn't have spelled," I told him, "forget about it." Luckily he did. We are much more careful now. We speak in code. Like "let's go to PPC for D, later". (meaning Pizza, Pasta, Ciao for Dinner). The only trouble is, Jason and I rarely know what code the other is using and we end up having to say the whole thing anyway. Oh well. I guess it's the downside to having such a brilliant child ;)

Mom is the Boss (no matter what language you speak!)

One of the things I've said to the kids in the past that has stuck with them is that "mom is the boss". Usually, this is used in situations where I don't feel like entering negotiations with a 3-year-old and 5-year-old. Now, the kids use it on each other when they think I'm on "their side" about something. If I agree with Aidan, he tells Lainey "you know, Lainey, Mom's the boss" and vice versa.

This is funny in it's own right, but last Friday as we were leaving the pool after Aidan's swim lesson, the phrase became even more popular with the kids. Lainey was having a fit about me not letting her get a lick-pop (lollypop for those who don't speak Lainey-ese). Aidan was ignoring her and gathering his things. As I was just about to pick her up and tote her out of the building, a little girl comes up to us and says "Die Mutter ist das Chef". I must have looked at the girl a little funny, because she repeated herself and sure enough, she said the same thing again. I couldn't believe it! "Die Mutter ist das Chef" translates to "The mother is the boss"!

I hadn't said anything to Lainey and neither had Aidan, so this girl couldn't have any idea that she was repeating a common phrase in our house, but in German! At least we know that it's universal that moms are in charge around here.

(By the way, the other funny common phrase the kids picked up from me is "Mom is not an octopus!". I said this one time when they both wanted me to do a bunch of things all at once. Now anytime I'm busy and Aidan asks me for something, Lainey tells him "Mommy is not an octopus". Too cute.)

Lainey's Pajama Party

Thursday night, a friend of mine asked me to watch her youngest daughter because her older daughters were given tickets to the Zurich ballet. (The tickets were from a prima ballerina who is a parent at our school. She is so tiny she looks pocket-sized. How she ever gave birth is beyond me. But that's another story all in itself) The little girl, Sara, is Lainey's closest friend here, so of course I said I'd watch her. Since the ballet wasn't until 7pm, I planned a PJ party for the girls (and Aidan). They were so cute, cuddled on the bed I made on the floor watching High School Musical 3. It totally reminded me of sleep overs with Becky and Kelly! I made a blanket bed, just like my mom used to make for us. The kids stayed up until Sara's mom came at 10pm to get her. I couldn't believe my kids stayed up the whole time, but the minute Sara left they both passed out on the floor and I had to carry them to bed. Let the summer fun and late nights begin!

Aidan can Swim!

I was beginning to think I'd never see the day, but on Friday at his swimming lesson, Aidan "officially" swam!

He's been taking lessons since he was 3 (off and on) but never seemed to be brave enough to do what the teachers said. Even at the start of this session, only 5 weeks ago, he wouldn't put his head underwater and couldn't relax enough to float. Just blowing bubbles was tough for him!

Then on Friday, after his lesson, Lainey and I were playing around in the pool and Aidan came diving in (literally) and said "watch, Mom!". Sure enough, he ran, dove under water and started floating and paddling!

He doesn't do it gracefully or very far or very long, but he's definitely getting the hang of it. This Friday is his last lesson of the session and I'm hoping he'll pass this time (the last session, he didn't pass because he wouldn't go underwater). This time he's trying to pass the first and second levels (crabs and seahorse). Here's hoping he comes out of the pool on Friday with 2 patches!

Hello Speed Racer!

Today was Lainey's last day of Gymbo for the summer and Aidan's first day off for summer vacation. I told him we could have a special Mommy-Aidan day. He wanted to go go-karting with his friends.

We went to this great place near Zurich where they got to wear racer uniforms and had to wear serious motorcycle helmets. (There weren't enough suits for everyone, though). The helmet was heavy and Aidan didn't want to wear it and wasn't going to drive until he saw some of the other kids driving. Then he decided, the helmet was worth it! He was a little nervous starting out, but he got the hang of it quickly! He was the fastest driver of his 4 four friends and was passing them! He was steering well and didn't cause any crashes. I think we may be in trouble 10 years from now!

Aidan's Kind of Birthday

I had Aidan's kid birthday party on Monday. Most of his friends would be gone all July (most people go back to their home country or travel all month from his school), so no one was available to come to a party near his real birthday. So we did it on June 22, instead of July 22.

When I was home at Christmas, I bought all his party supplies at Target (God, I miss Target!). That was good because I only decided the week before to have this party! Not much time to plan. I had planned all these fun games: scooter races, a stolen car hunt, grilling hot dogs out in the woods, red light/green light. Unfortunately, a cold snap came through Switzerland on Sunday and brought lots of rain. LOTS and LOTS. And COLD.

So I spent all day Sunday, re-planning the party. Have I mentioned how small our apartment is? I had 11 kids to entertain, now inside my little apartment. FABULOUS. I quickly hired my 7th grade neighbor to help with crowd control at the party and devised some new games. Instead of the outdoor games, we did pin the license plate on the car, did a craft, and played the British game Pass the Parcel (which is a fabulous game I'll explain to anyone who cares). I grilled the dogs on our gas grill at home and all was fine.

Aidan was very happy with the party and I was very happy when 6 o'clock rolled around and all the kids went home. I am definitely a proponent of paying to have parties somewhere other than my house. (I just couldn't do that in a week's notice)! Next year, we're going somewhere! My masterpiece! Yes, I did make this cake!

Our guests

Birthday Boy!

Best present were 2 Super Soaker water guns. They've already gotten some use of them!

Europa Park

Yesterday, we went to Europa Park with some friends. It's in Germany, just over 2 hours away so we went for the day. The kids had a great time, especially since our most recent trips were more adult-oriented and sightseeing than "fun" for kids.

Europa Park is a combination of Cedar Point and Disney World. It has tons of rides and each area is themed on a different country in Europe. There was England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Greece, and Scandinavia. It kind of felt like the World Showcase in Epcot Center. It was pretty authentic in decor too, as we've been to a few of the areas portrayed. In the France area, there was a replica of the river and buildings we saw in Colmar with my mom. The Swiss village area looked exactly like Zermatt, and in Germany we felt like we were back in the English Garden in Munich. They did a great job "theming" the park. The rides even went with the theme. There was a bobsled coaster and Jungfraujoch plane ride in Switzerland. In England, they had a London Bus ride and the train station was Victoria Station. In Greece we rode the "Pegasus" kiddie roller coaster, and in France we rode boats through a marionnette show in a park.

Many of the rides are just like those in the other parks, just with different names. Like this one in the picture below that made my friend Becky and me laugh so hard we cried: It's one of those old-fashioned car rides that the kids can drive, but it's called "Oldtimer Fahrt". Hilarious! Other than that, they had the "Koffee Kopjes" in Holland (the same thing as the Teacup ride in Disney), roller coasters just like those in Cedar Point, Jungle Boat rides, and interactive shows like Disney's. You can tell the same ride manufacturers sell to all the parks! But it was fun to have the themed rides and the thrill rides. They even had characters wandering around for pictures and autographs.

Here are a few more pics of the day:
At the entrance

Swiss "glacier flyer" ride.

EuroMaus is the mascot of the park. Does this remind anyone of Mickey, perchance?

Aidan, Lainey, and our friends' kids, Ben and Joe (who are also from Michigan!)

Lainey steered this ride as she sat on my lap. She said "mommy, this is just like bumper cars!" and I responded "only when you steer!" since we just kept going toward one side, hitting the rail then going the other, hitting the rail, and so on!

Ben and Aidan in front of one of the rides in Greece.

Daddy, the beefeater! Can you tell Lainey has her face painted? Sparkles and all. What a Fancy Nancy.

Seriously, this is the same ball as EPCOT! The ride inside is like Space Mountain.

Leaving at the end of a fun day!

Sports Day!

Last Wednesday was Sports Day at Aidan's school. In the US, we call it Field Day, but it's the same thing. The cool thing is that the kids were separated into teams with other grades. Aidan was on the gray team with kids in K, 1, and the 4 year-old preschool kids. He had a great time and Jason took the day off to go up to school to watch and cheer Aidan on. Aidan did a great job in the events, especially the obstacle course! He's pretty athletic and coordinated compared to the rest of the kids his age. He was really proud to get his certificate at the end of the day. Getting ready for the first event.

Water relay race.

Proud certificate holder!

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.

Tooth Fairy...Please Report to the Barnett's House ASAP!

My baby lost his first tooth! After weeks of wiggling and wobbling, he ran into our room this morning yelling "My tooth fell out in my sleep!" He was SO excited!

It's been really loose for the last few days, but he wouldn't wiggle it a lot or let anyone touch it. He just wanted it to come out on its own. It was funny, though, that he thought it would literally fall out at any minute and walked around for a little while yesterday cupping his hand under his chin "just in case it falls out, Mom". Apparently that is what happened this morning! He said he woke up and felt something in his mouth and when he went to spit it out, he discovered it was his tooth. I'm so glad he didn't swallow it! That would have taken some of the excitement factor out of it!

The really funny thing is that Aidan's friend James, lost his first tooth yesterday. James realized his tooth was loose the day after Aidan did and Aidan's tooth came out the day after James'. He thinks that is pretty cool.

Here are some pics of our loosey-goosey boy (I know they aren't the best, but it's hard to smile and open your mouth and pull down your bottom lip!)

The loose one is the crooked one on the bottom.

Now, there's just a hole!

The first "toothless grin" photo!

Zurich Underground

Jason, Joyce, T, and I went on a really cool walking tour of Zurich today with one of the secondary teachers from Aidan's school. Mr. Greaves has been living and working in Zurich for almost 30 years and knows all sorts of cool stories about living in Zurich since the BC times.

He showed us where the first Celtic civilizations lived, he took us into some underground tunnels and ruins of thermal baths that prove that the Romans had lived here, and he even took us into this teeny-tiny tunnel that used to be the "open" sewer system of mideval (sp?) Zurich! He told us stories about Charlemagne and lots of other historical figures that lived or passed through Zurich in the last 2500 years or so. It was really cool to see how archaeologists found ruins underneath modern buildings.

It was a great experience and yet another reason I love Aidan's school! This tour was organized and paid for through the school...and you know by now that there isn't much in Zurich that is free!

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. So, sorry, no pictures this time! If you want to see the secret places in Zurich, you'll just have to come visit :)

Munich!

This past weekend, we boarded another train and hit the rails for Munich, Germany. Luckily, this time, we had a direct 4 hour train ride without any changes. We left Friday night and made it to our hotel by 11pm. Our kids are so good about being dragged around on our vacations. It didn't faze either one of them to be up so much later than usual. They went right to sleep in the hotel and were fine with waking up the next morning at 8am. Aidan is especially good about travelling. He helps carry or drag luggage and even push Lainey in the stroller. He volunteers to help and doesn't complain a bit. He's such a great kid. (Of course, so is Lainey, but she's still too little realize how to be of much help...but she helps by not whining and just going with the flow!)

Mamaw and Papaw hung with us too. They weren't fazed by all the walking and lugging of bags. They like travelling by train because they can relax with a glass of wine or a beer and let someone else worry about driving and directions! This was their first time in Germany and I can safely say we all had a good time.

Munich is a much bigger town than I expected. It's more like London or Chicago, quite big and new by European standards since 80% of the city was bombed during WWII. In fact, we learned that Hitler and his radical ideas started in Munich. The first meeting of the nazis was actually at the Hofbrauhaus (home of Oktoberfest). Pretty creepy. Jason and his dad even went to Dachau, one of the old concentration camps that is now a memorial site. It wasn't appropriate for the kids, so we stayed at the hotel and played in the pool.

The other interesting thing about Munich is the "Bavarian King", King Ludwig II. He reigned in the mid-1800's and was a bit looney. He built huge palaces and was obsessed with King Louis XIV (the Palace of Versaille in Paris guy). He never married (and was thought to be gay) and never really acted like a king politically. He spent his time and money building palaces and decorating them in the most bizarre way. In Neuschwanstein (the biggest, most fantastical) he even designed one room to look like a cave (Venus's Grotto to be exact). We couldn't take pictures inside, sorry, you'll just have to believe me that one room was grander and more detailed and more gaudy than the next. This is the castle that Walt Disney used as his inspiration when designing Cinderella's castle at DisneyLand. So you get an idea of what I'm talking about! Aside from the palace itself, the view from it of the surrounding areas was fabulous. It is located along the "Romantic Road" which is a cute road that winds all through Bavaria and has lots of little cottages and small castles located on it.

Here are some pics from the weekend: One of the arches in the city built by King Ludwig that survived WWII

Surfing in the English Garden! Really, there is a place where a river breaks and people from all around come to surf it. It was really cool to watch, cold too!

In the English Garden (kind of like Central Park)

Aidan would find USA sunglasses in a Munich souvenir shop!

THE place to be for Oktoberfest...but still pretty cool anytime of the year! There are men and women who come here in dirndls and lederhosen and hang out all day! They even have regulars' tables which are reserved for such people. You don't come here for a small drink or even a pint. You come here to drink SERIOUS beer and eat SERIOUS pretzels! (see below)

Aidan's pretzel is bigger than his head! He was in heaven!

These are the typical size beers served at the Hofbrauhaus, one liter mugs, called "Mass" (as in massive I think!). The tradition is to lift the beer, toast someone by saying "Prost!", then bang your beer down once, then finally drink. Legend has it that the banging down started because one of the kings of the time was not a strong guy and couldn't hold the big beer that long and needed to rest between toasting and drinking. Seriously, those are some heavy beers! The regulars sit there all day drinking beer and eating giant pretzels. Needless to say, Munichers are not as slim as the Swiss!

A side view of Neuschwanstein. I never did get a good picture of the castle itself because we went up on a tour bus and couldn't get the right angle. This is one reason I hate doing tour bus tours!

This is the less fancy castle at Neuschwanstein, the one where King Ludwig grew up. This looks like a dump compared to Neuschwanstein! However, the funny thing is that Neuschwanstein was never completed! Ludwig was dethroned and declared insane and killed himself before he saw his palace finished. Still today only 1/3 of it is complete!