London is a good place to turn 40!

This weekend was very exciting for a few of us! It was Kim's 40th and we decided that it would be fun to surprise her with a weekend away. Aschi organized the childcare and we got all of the tickets a few months ago. So in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, we took of for their house. Our flight left from Basel around 7am so we had to get going pretty early. Kim and Aschi were saying goodbye to Heidi R., who was going to keep their kids for the weekend when we walked in and began to sing 'happy birthday to you' quietly. She was well and truly surprised. A quick easyjet flight took us to London and we had a great weekend. We came home Sunday night and all had gone well with the kids. We had Alinya with us and she did really well, on and off of buses, tube, trains and plane, smiling at everyone she met. We got in some good food, good shopping but mostly just being together, good old friends enjoying each other's company. We spent some time with some great people who live in London and who are fantastic hosts...they actually babysat Alinya Friday night while we went out on the town. Hearing english was so nice, esp Sunday morn. Our experience with those special people gave London a heart. We did forget our cameras so these are all taken on the iPhone.

These were mostly taken last week and I just didn't have time to post them. The boys were excited about new shoes and I was excited about dew on spider webs in the mornings.

To vacinate or not to vacinate?

Ok, I am in a bit of a quandry here. Do I get the kids vacinated aginst the H1N1 virus or not? So far I have decided not to, but I change my mind about 30 times a day whether I am doing the right thing or not. Am I being an irresponsible parent by not doing it? There are so many good arguements for both sides. Alinya is 9 months old now and she is still getting mom's special antibodies so do I need to worry? Who has vacinated and who hasn't and what are your reasons behind it? I NEED to know. My pediatrician, who is definately not an alarmist, has left it up to us. Not much help there...but what it does tell me is that he does not think it is absolutely necessary. My mom is pretty sure she has the virus and has been fairly miserable for several days now. Can I be sure my kids won't get it if I vacinate or is there still a chance they could get it anyway?

Nolan, one of my Thursday kids, had his 9th birthday today. We had his choice of lunch (cordon bleu, french fries and raw carrots) and my choice of a cake, the hamburger cake. It was a fun lunch hour again. Acutally they are here from 11:05-1:30. That is the lunch break. They all come home starving hungry, eat lunch and then tear around the house until it's time to go back. They were just in Kenya for vacation hence the braids.

Raised Glazed anyone?

Since the nearest crispy creme is a few thousand miles away (I even love Roth's donuts, but don't tell my dad I said that) and the swiss are known for their yummy croissants but couldn't make a good donut to save their neutrality, we decided to make donuts. We had the help of a veteran donut maker and they turned out really yummy. We'll make a few slight changes to the recipe next time, but they were better than any I have tasted in a long time. Judy and Suzanne were here for a few days. I also decided to repaint in the living room and the kitchen to accomodate a recently acquired treasure and to display an older one. I was proud and excited to say that it cost me about a hundred bucks in paint and rollers and it made a great change in our room=cheap thrill, right?! That was until I pushed down on the paint bucket lid to close it while it was sitting on our stovetop and cracked the whole thing. Guess I don't know my own strength. Hey I wasn't Paul Bunyan in the 3rd grade school play for nuthin. Duh, so the 100 buck project just got another zero added to it and that stinks. But I'm still happy about the changes. And I can use two burners out of four on my stove.

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Alinya jives

Alinya was jiving with Marie Helen the other day to some tunes the boys had going upstairs