Brian ran the Zurich Marathon again on Sunday. And since Grandma and Grandpa C. are here they got to watch him. It was a miserable cold and rainy day – I felt really bad for the runners. But somehow Brian got his best time ever. We waited and watched for him inside a tent so we were nice and dry.
As usual I didn’t get any great pictures of him. This one was laughably bad. That’s him with the umbrella covering his head. I blame my shortness.
Another amusing ad for Switzerland that I just had to share.
Jennifer said it was one of her very favorite parent moments when Jenna learned to ride her bike and now I understand. I’m still smiling, just thinking about how fun it was to cheer her on and see her determined face. And then the proud smile – it’s hard to find something more rewarding than that look on your kid’s face. I’m just sad that Brian couldn’t be there – he’s in the US all week.
Here she is:
Here’s Claire doing some coloring. If you look closely you can see that her picture shows how different she is from her big sister.
Claire takes the markers and smashes them with all her might ’till the markers are stubby and she has these splotches. It comes naturally to her to bang the markers just as Bea, naturally, would never ever do that. Bea has always been careful and methodical when we get the coloring things out. Of course Claire tends to try things – like drawing on herself – just because she’s the second one and it takes a little more effort to get attention when your the second one. But she also shows that she has a real sassy spark to her personality. We enjoy her.
Uhg we’re stuck in a cold rainy spell. It reminds me of when my parents were here for the month of May when Claire was born. Rain and fog everyday. Bea’s forest day is cancelled tomorrow because there’s supposed to be snow.
Brian and Bea braved the weather and took a little trip to Winterthur.
Claire took a nap:
And I picked up this old project. It’s a quilt that I started more than five years ago. It’s been sitting around un-loved all that time. Then recently I felt like I needed something to do with my hands and I couldn’t wait ’til Claire’s quilt was ready to quilt. This miserable weather just makes me want to sit on the couch, watch bad TV and quilt.
I just hope it clears up by a week from now because Grandma and Grandpa C. will be here. We want them to see the sunshine.
If the Easter Bunny ever retires I’ll apply for his job. I love all the pastel, springy, sweetness that comes with Easter. And I love to put together Easter baskets. Last year I bought enough candy and chocolate for a family of 12. This year I tried to have some restraint.
Bea made this bunny at school.
What are those white streaks? Oh noooooo – it’s snow. We had a really quick Easter Egg hunt and came inside for our Easter baskets.
Claire is so cute in that coat – it reminds me of this.
I made little fabric baskets and bunny bags for the girls.
And of course we decorated cookies.
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!
I’ve wanted to have that title for a post for a long time… so we went to Basel for a couple days. I like Basel. I can’t wait to go back. Brian wanted to ride his bike there – it’s part of his goal to ride from our home to each of the five countries that border Switzerland. Basel is right next to the border of France and Germany. It’s is an hour from Zurich by train or about 5 hours by bike. The girls and I took the train.
There were flowers blooming all over the city
And puddles for jumping
We decided not to eat here
Basel has an excellent Zoo – we loved the penguins
and the seals and sea lions
Someone repaired a building with Legos
We walked through the market
Lots of old, beautiful architecture and lots of modern sculptures scattered around too.
Here’s the Rhine River
Even though we saw lots of cool stuff – I feel like we only saw a little bit of Basel. It would be great to wander around some more and visit some of it’s many art museums.
For some reason I really have to twist Bea’s arm to get her to go for a walk in the vineyard. I would go there everyday if she would be more agreeable. She always has a good time once she’s out for a while but the whining sort of puts me off sometimes. Anyway – we made it out for a walk yesterday and counted 16 different kinds of flowers. Claire is proving to be a very enthusiastic walker. It was lovely.
Laowai 