Laowai

A few photos from Brian and Bea’s weekend adventure.

I’ve been waiting and waiting for Winter to arrive, but now it’s Spring. It sort of snuck up on me. We went for a little walk through the nearby vineyard today. The grass is greening up and primroses are growing in all the yards like dandelions.

There are always lots of cats around. I think we saw five today. 

Everyone seemed to be out cleaning up their yards and doing their pruning. A couple people were planting their gardens.

These are on the side of the barn where some sheep are kept. Looks like some awards maybe. The Swiss around here seem to be very into animal husbandry. Many people keep chickens or rabbits. There’s a girl on our way to the pool who keeps a turtle in a little fenced yard. We learned this week that his name is Max.

We made kites this morning according to these simple instructions from Maya Made. They are made from just a sheet of letter size paper and they have tails made from plastic bags. It was warm enough for short sleeve shirts. The only thing missing was the wind – so we’ll have to try them another day.

Right now I am in love with these socks and the little feet inside them.

Jennifer and I did some sewing from the new Oliver + S book called Little Things to Sew. We made the cutest little reversible bucket hats. I can’t wait to try more things from this delightful book. Our springy weather is inspiring me to do some sewing for the warm months.

Jennifer made this one for Claire – my favorite (the hat… not Claire).

The day after we visited a castle we made a couple cardboard castles.

Jennifer, Jenna and Mom left early this morning. It feels a little like the day after Christmas.

When we moved I didn’t anticipate the difficulties around visits. Of course I imagined we would have melancholy feelings whenever we had to say good-bye, but there are also difficulties adjusting to being with our family or without them. It’s like changing modes. It’s hard on the kids. They are off their schedules, more prone to outbursts and generally hyper when we travel or have visitors. And yet I wouldn’t change a thing because I have such a great time when we see our families and we have wonderful experiences that we’ll remember forever. 

So we girls had a blast over the last ten days – laughing and smiling all the time. Thank you so much Mom, Jennifer and Jenna for making the trip! 

Here are some of my favorite photos from the past few days with Grandma J., Jennifer and Jenna. We are filling our days with lots of activities and the girls are so, so tired each night. 

Two blondes at the transportation museum.

Building a road

A scooter race

Getting groceries

Bedtime stories with hunkle Brian

There has been a little bit of arguing – here they are having a she touched me fight

A beautiful warm day with lots of smiles in Rapperswil

Jenna has gotten the hang of the scooter

Claire is digging all the attention she gets from Grandma

Oh – and one more. Aunt Sandy gave me the nicest compliment on this photo but it really was taken by Jennifer. 

We went walking around the old town of Zurich today and saw some of the Fasnacht parade. Lots of fun. The girls are going to bed very tired every night and Jennifer and I spend our evenings downloading and editing all our photos. I’m so glad they are here.