A week in the Alps

our cabin is in the background

We just got back from a week in the alps, an old cabin was loaned to us by some friends. It was a great place to relax, and we were forced to sit around the fireplace reading books talking as the weather turned wet a few days into our stay. We got out of the house a few times in spite of the weather and stomped around in the puddles and also visited a salt mine close by. There are goats up there and the farmer milks them twice a day and makes cheese out of the milk which we were able to try. They had their annual goat festival while we were up there and that included alphorns and a few other special traditional touches. They even had goat raclette. There is a girl staying with us for a few weeks this summer, we call her MH but she has a lot more names, the funniest one being Hairy Melon. This comes from switching around thefirst letters of her name, Mary-Helen. It has been nice to have an extra set of hands around to dry tears, dishes or stay home with the kids while I run to town. A person could get used to having her around but she will go back to Germany in a few days.

It has been since June that I posted...yikes. When I don't post for a looonnnnggg time, it usually means that my life is going at some sort of mach speed again. In further detail, my laundry room table is piled higher and deeper, noone has socks or underwear that they haven't already turned and used on both clean sides and there is no food in the fridge. The garbage is piled high and flies are circling, weeds outside are hip-level and I am looking strangely frazzled. That is what my life is like if I haven't blogged in awhile. I guess I don't feel like I can spend an hour on the computer if some of the above chaos is not under control. So now my laundry is happily folded (and put away) the fridge is full, my weeds are sleeping (you can't weed in the dark can you?) and I am thinking about YOU! Plus my computer was on the blink for over two months. Beat that.

House

Almost finished! We are nearing the end of the house project...we are loving the color and it will be done just in time for summer and our summer activities! I will post more when all of the scaffolding is down.

a fun Sunday

a german family

Sunday we spent some time with some awesome people in a beautiful place. It was a very wet, miserable day and we met some of our friends in a cabin in the mountains. There was enough decent weather for us to take a little hike.

long time no write

My life is going by at the speed of......three very active boys. I endeavor to keep up but most days I am happy if the laundry got put away let alone the boys kept up with. I must say it is more fun when the days speed by then if they drag. I am feeling slightly guilty as Ralph is outside working in the barn and I am keeping the fire going in here with the additional excuse that we have a boy over for the weekend and I want to be in here if he needs me. Since they are all asleep, I could technically go help him but I guess I will just watch him from my aquarium window. Let's see, my program today was....7 am wake up and long stretch before being pounced on by two boys, breakfast and getting dressed and then going to the school by 8:10 to get on the bus and then go to rhythm with the boys for my 'visit the school day'. Return to the school and bring in the snack I made (chocolate chip cookies) and have them guess the ingredients of the cookies: farine, bicarbonate de sodium, oefs, sucre, chocolat, sucre, sel, sucre brun et vanille. Then to the store to get ingredients for stew as we had a few people coming for lunch and get it in the oven in time for the meat to get tender. Go get the boys at school and finish setting the table for 8, feed Liam his lunch and put him to bed. Walk to the bus stop to get the visitors, serve stew. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon together, showing property and chatting. To the train station at 5..one extra boy stays here for the weekend, pancakes for dinner, clean up, put four boys to bed...come downstairs and veg with the computer in front of the fire...watch husband work.

the end

And so ends my mad blogging hour....this is to make up for no signs of life lately. As you can see, we were gone and slightly occupied. Off to bed for me.

A brand new room

We finally got the carpet in for the boy's room. We have been working on this project for probably close to two months now and it is finally nearing the finish line. We put the carpet in on Saturday, which turned out to be mottled blue, not solid blue like I ordered...but since we had to wait almost a month for the carpet, I decided that I loved mottled instead. Right. Anyway, we put it in and it looks great. Here a pic of the old style and the new from the same vantage point.

Chalkboard paint

just before the carpet went down

Mottled blue. Argh. I mean Yippee!

Hannes turns 7

One more birthday bash..the last one for awhile thankfully. Hannes is 7 years old. Since we had just been to Legoland, I had some fresh inspiration for a cake. Whew.

Deutschland or Bust!

We recently took a trip to Germany. Our main goal was to catch up with our good buddy Uwe, who is in the eastern part of Germany right now. We also got to meet some of his friends and see some interesting places. On our way back home we stopped by Legoland. We all had a lot of fun as there are great things to do for kids and adults of all ages.

The birthday bash!

Last year I was too chicken to have a birthday party for the boys because I couldn't speak much of the language. One year later, my french is far from perfect but I felt up to the task of communicating with 5-7 year olds successfully. Since the boys' birthdays are close together, we decided to celebrate them together and get it all over with at once! It was quite a fun day, actually only two hours worth of birthday party but hours of getting ready! The boys loved having their friends over and it was nice to get to know the other kids in their class. They are a surprisingly nice bunch of kids! I have even more respect for their teachers after spending two hours with them though.

A visit from friends

A visit from two very popular kids at our house....they helped us to get ready for the big birthday bash that we had the next day!

Dylan is 5

I will choose to write in red as today is a RED LETTER day. Dylan is 5!! I was telling him this morning about the first time we saw him and umbilical cords and belly buttons and then when we brought him home to live with us and to be a part of our family. He listened intently and I can tell it is something we will have to tell again. He still loves Spongebob and was excited that many of his things were a Spongebob theme. We had a Patrick cake and he chose to have toasted sandwiches for his birthday meal. Now we are enjoying a nice relaxing Sunday before a new school/work week starts. The sun is shining again after every day this past week haviing brought snow to our area. Not much but when you have had a taste of spring weather, you don't care to see anymore snow. One more week of school and then two weeks of spring break.