Laowai

We just got back from a little vacation to the southern part of Switzerland. Much to our chagrin… the girls do not enjoy the same things that we enjoy when we go on vacation.

They don’t want to gaze out the window at the spectacular views. They want to take advantage of the surprisingly empty train and treat it like a playground.

They don’t want to enjoy a relaxing lakeside dinner – they want to finish up ASAP and go to the carousel accross the street.

They don’t want to head to the historic part of town and see some of the sights… no they want to act goofy and go slowly in any ol’ part of town.

They don’t want to gaze at the lovely architecture. They want to splash in a fountain.

They don’t want to sit at a sidewalk cafe and enjoy a peaceful refreshment. No – they’re happy to sit on the curb and eat some gorp.

They’re not so interested in art… unless they can climb on it.

And they don’t want to have a quiet stroll after dinner. They’d rather fill up some water bottles and start a water fight.

Oh well – if we can’t beat em’ we’d better join em’.

Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle 
Little sack of sugar I could eat you up. 
Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, pickle, pickle, pickle, pickle 
Little sack of sugar I could eat you up.

Hey, hey, hey, my little sack of sugar, 
Ho, ho, ho, my little sack of sweet. 
Hee, hee, hee, my pretty little angel, 
Pretty, pretty, pretty, I could eat your feet.

Hey, hey, hey, my little honey bunny, 
Ho, ho, ho, my little turtle dove, 
Hee, hee, hee, my little sack of ‘taters, 
So pretty, pretty, pretty, I could eat your toes.

Hey, hey, hey, my tootsie wootsie, 
Wrangle, tangle, dangle, and my honey in a tree. 
Ho, ho, ho, my butterfly fritter, 
So pretty, pretty, pretty I could eat your nose.

Google, google, google, a coo and a cuddle, 
I kick your foot, like a bicycle pedal; 
Pretty little hoot owl and a one-eyed frog, 
So pretty, pretty, pretty I could gobble you whole.

Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle 
Little sack of sugar I could eat you up. 
Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle 
Little sack of sugar I could eat you up.

How did I not know about this funny little song about my funny little daughter?

I finally finished this quilt that I started when I was pregnant with Bea. Yeah!

I’m really glad I finished this project before moving on to quilting Claire’s quilt. And now Bea wants a quilt too – so I’ll be thinking of a design for that…

It was a cheesy birthday. We got him a cheese book, a cheese knife and some Easy Cheese. Yes, I paid nearly ten francs for this fine, fine cheese. Happy Birthday!

We’re really getting into this now that Claire can go on some of the rides. This was the tiny Mannedorf Chilbi. A thrill for the girls, but pretty low key too. Nice.

Let the girls stay in their jammies until 10:00 a.m. Took care of some errands in Zurich including new shoes for Bea (she is growing like a weed). Went to a playground that we haven’t seen since before Claire was born. Yummy Bretzel Koenig (Pretzel King) for lunch. Kicked off chilbi season with a ride and cotton candy. Watched the swans in Lake Zurich. Happy girls, happy Mommy.

Bea had her final day of Kindergarten this morning – well first year kindergarten anyway. She’ll be back to start her second kindergarten year in just 5 weeks. I’m feeling an urge to put the brakes on as we all seem to need a break from the school routine. We have been through an epic journey with this first year, but I feel positive at the moment. She has ended the year happy and with some sweet little girls that are her friends.

To commemorate the year I made a coloring page with Bea standing in front of her school. Also, it was a good excuse to try out my updated drawing software.

Kindergarten_Bea_coloring_page

Going to The Tour de France was always something we dreamed about when we decided to move to Europe. But then after went to the Tour of Switzerland a couple times we just hadn’t thought about going to The Tour de France lately. Until yesterday morning when Brian was catching up on tour news and since it was passing into Switzerland said “why don’t we go today”. It’s amazing that we can decide on a whim to to go to The Tour de France. We decided to go to the finishing town called Porrentruy. It took a few hours by train. We got back well after bedtime for Bea and Claire, but it was worth it. 

Starting out on the train. We believe in loading our children with treats and more treats when we travel. It just makes everyone happier. Ha.

There is a parade of sponsors before the riders come into town – it’s called the caravan. They throw lots of loot and candy. We really got into it – you feel like you’ve hit the jackpot when you reach up and catch something – something like a plastic keychain. And of course the girls liked it because come on – candy is falling from the sky. One of the sponsors is a bottled water company – they give free water, but since you can’t throw bottles of water at a crowd they hoze the crowd down with a mist of water. 

Come on Nesquik Bunny give us something good.

Here’s our loot – our only disapointment was that we didn’t get a polk-dot hat.

Claire fell asleep after the caravan came through and then soon the bikers came.

There’s the yellow jersey on Bradley Wiggins:

American Levi Leipheimer:

There were so many team cars and so many bikes on top of cars – they zip through pretty quickly.

George!

George!

George!

I like George – George Hincapie of course.

In my giddy excitment I forgot to actually yell GEORGE! Do you think he noticed?

The bikers were pretty spread out at the end of this stage because there had been some climbing earlier in the day. We were about 3 km from the finish. So it turned out great – we got to see them come through in groups for quite a while instead of one big woosh of riders.

Here’s Claire on the way home – finishing the day with more treats. We were all tired, but it was a great day. Vive le Tour!

Claire says pacaroni instead of macaroni. And she says crap mom instead of clap mom.

Bea keeps asking me to make treasure hunts (like the one she saw on Peppa Pig). I just draw pictures of things on index cards. Like a picture of her bed and then on her bed is a card with a picture of the freezer. At the end I put some chocolate coins that I had tumbling around in the chocolate cupboard. Cheap thrills and no reading required.

The people that move into this apartment after us someday are going to have some treasures of their own to discover on the patio. Pink painted rocks will be left behind with all the other rocks that hang out on the sides of our patio space.

They found a bider… spider in the water. 

Look who’s wearing a nightie for the first time. Seems like yesterday when I made these four flannel nighties for Bea.

Rowdy girls right before bedtime.