We often have rough mornings because someone is not a morning person. But this day we had a really nice morning. Makes me think of a bumper sticker I saw a long time ago: sometimes I wake up grumpy, sometimes I let him sleep. In our house the grumpy one is a her. A little her who’s name begins with B.
Fireworks and crowds oohing and ahhhing. Corn on the cob with lots of butter and pepper. Big fields colored by the sun low in the sky. Old barns. Rummage sales. Outside parties with deviled eggs, potato salad in Tupperware bowls and pie. Mmmmm pie. Jello desserts. Parades and American exuberance. Purple cone flowers, sunflowers and plastic hanging pots of begonias on shady porches. Swings in trees. Ace Hardware. Big backyards. Overalls on kids and weber grills with hotdogs and hamburgers. Kids with sparklers. Pitchers of lemonade with tinkling ice cubes. My family.
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!
A pleasant walk in the forest of Wadenswil.
We melted down all our old stubby and broken crayons into muffin shaped chunks.
Happy belated Father’s Day Brian.
You are the strength in our family.
With three capricious girls swirling around you,
you keep us calm, you keep us happy.
What more could we ask.
Not much to report around here. Bea is finishing her last few weeks of school. I’ll never get used to the quick 5 week summer vacation here. I’m hardwired to think of summer vacation as I did in childhood – a long, responsibility-free three months. Hard to believe she’s almost completed her first year of school. She seems happy, introspective and mature lately. Sometimes she gets tired of her sister getting into her stuff or just hanging around. I don’t blame her for getting angry. Other times she is sweet and understanding with her little sister. She is growing out her bangs and they are down below her eyes now. She’s growing up so fast.
Claire is keeping us on our toes. She is refusing to take a bath since Mom was here and there was a tiny spider in the tub. It’s hard not to laugh when she is gripped with fear. Poor thing. I try to put her in the tub and she’ll lifts her little legs right up and starts crying. She is really into barettes and wants me to put 5 or 6 in her hair each morning. I found her in the bathroom squeezing toothpaste onto the floor yesterday. She’s still obsessed with her kitty – she’ll often introduce it to strangers on the bus or anyone that we meet. She looks forward to walking up the road to meet Bea after school – she’s very in tune to the schedule and if there is a change she will start to worry and ask about going to get Bea. Her knees are always scraped up from falling, but when it happens she barely cries. She’s learned about band-aids and it’s quite a production to choose one and then let her help put it on. She’s growing fast too.
Here are a few photos from last Friday. I took the girls to the Transportation Museum in Lucern. They wore matching tops that Aunt Jennifer made for them. They were cute and they were dressed perfectly for the hot day that we had.
A real mini steam engine – we got to ride in it.
Bea is ready to graduate to a two wheel scooter. She got to try one out at the museum.
This is a photo of a really cool artwork that moves and makes noise. You press a button and a ball bearing winds it’s way through – riding on gondolas and boats, passing through paths of chocolate, Through a miniature bank, going under and through and around all the icons of Switzerland from cheese to cows to castles. We love the Swiss Transportation Museum and we’ve fallen in love with this clever thing. What do we call it? Who knows, but it’s fascinating and the girls would sit and watch it all day if they could. Here’s a bad video that doesn’t show it very well.
We bought some legos at our Brocki last week and they were dirty! Makes me wonder what those kids were doing with them to make them so dusty and grungy. We did have fun washing them.
When Mom watched the girls during our cheeky vacation she came with a suitcase full of craft ideas and craft supplies. Everyday when I called and talked to Bea she went on and on and told me all the details of the crafts that she made. Sometimes I groan when Bea says she wants to do a craft, but seeing all the things that she did with Mom reminded me that there is always some craft that is new to her and exciting for her. I am energized to do more crafts with her – even if it’s the kind of thing where I have to do much of the work and she just does a little cutting or coloring – I should keep in mind that she gets a lot out of it. So thanks Mom – you gave so much to the girls and you reminded me to keep crafting too.
Laowai 