Laowai

The house is ours. Brian took a quick trip to the US and signed all the papers on Thursday. He also walked through the house and took a bunch of pictures. The girls talk about the new house everyday and I’ve started sorting through old clothes and baby toys. The big move is getting closer and closer.

The view from my kitchen sink – can’t wait to see the girls playing out there.

The upstairs hallway is spacious and bright. There is even a piano up there now (behind the camera). Brian noticed that there are built in book shelves all over our houes.

My bathroom:

This will be Bea’s or Claire’s room:

The other girly bedroom:

Lucky me, lucky me – Brian confirmed that I have a lilac!

Sigh

Bea had two birthday parties this weekend – quite the social butterfly. I made another bag for a gift. It’s a pattern I’ve been meaning to try for a long time (similar to this pattern). I like how it turned out.

And here’s a bread hedghog. 

Brian did the Zurich marathon again yesterday. I think this is his 8th marathon. The girls made flags to cheer him on. Hop, hop, hop (as the Swiss say).

Since it has been very cold and cloudy here – I had to create a little spring-time vibe in the form of a dress for Claire.

I used the Music Box Jumper pattern from Olive and S. And some ridiculously expensive gingham. Claire chose the color.

We are in the pants patching stage of childhood.

We went from Winter to Spring and back to Winter in just two days. We went to Bellinzona – a town in the Italian part of Switzerland. It’s famous for its three castles and its stratigic position that links North and South through the alps. It didn’t start out great because Claire barfed on the train and then Bea locked herself in the bathroom and couldn’t get the lock open moments after we checked into the hotel. Luckily it got better.

We braved the cold rain and saw some of the lovely town and one of the castles on our first day.

The next morning I did a little happy Snoopy dance when I opened the curtain and saw blue sky and lots of sunshine. Yeah. We made the most of the sunshine and hiked up to the two other castles. It was extremely windy. The girls – especially Bea – were great little hikers. I just wanted to sit against the sunny side of the castle and bask in the warm sun.

We hated to head home. It was a beautiful train ride until about halfway through when we went into a tunnel. We came out and the landscape was completely transformed into winter – a whiteout – snow everywhere so suddenly. You could hear all the people on the train remarking with surprise. It was still pretty but – come on – we are done with winter!

I do love setting up an Easter egg hunt for the girls. All the cute foil-wrapped chocolates, the Easter grass and fluffy chicks. This year I made fabric baskets from this pattern. The pictures don’t show it but this was the second year in a row that it snowed during our egg hunt.