Couldn't resist these shots with Alinya in the flowers.

Bowling Birthday Party

This year for Hannes' birthday party we went bowling. I hadn't been bowling for a very long time and it was really fun! The boys were all into it and our game went by fast. Now it's Saturday and it's going to be an at home day with a few little junk sorting out projects planned. I need to get to the dump with a load of old things and will also continue sorting out clothes/toys for the upcoming room switch and redeco. Will keep you up to date.

Thanks to Joyce for the adorable little knitted vest for Alinya! I dressed her this morning putting an eggshell colored onesie on and thinking it looked sort of boring but didn't really have a sweater or anything that looked cute. So, when I went out to get the mail, there was a pkg from NZ with this great little vest in it. She looks so cute in it and I love it. I can see it will become a favorite.
She tried to reach up to the piano for the first time today. It looked really sweet.

Mom and dad have officially left Swiss soil! Their flight just left about 30 minutes ago and we just got home. Hope they have a good flight and we're looking forward to hearing that they arrived safely. Thanks gma and gpa for a fun time..we miss u already.

Our day in the Alsace area of France was fun. It was a beautiful sunny day and we ate outside at a little cafe and felt like lizzards soaking up the heat. Mom was starting to feel kind of wimpy and now she has the full blown flu. We are all staying mostly well...two visits to the ER in the last few days but nothing too scary. Dylan had a sore ear on Sunday already but I like to wait and see if it is really sore so at 5 am on Monday morn we made a visit to the pediatrics unit at our local hospital. Today when Hannes woke up, he discovered a tick on his chest. We do have a lot of ticks here so it wasn't extremely unusual. I got my little tick removal items ready and pulled it out...only a little piece stayed in and when I called my pediatrician (closed Thursdays..our kids always get sick on Thursdays of course!) I got a message and the suggestion to call the ped unit at the hospital. They said if a little piece was in there, we should come in. The lady who helped us couldn't get it out either, so here we are at home again...several hundred lighter probably! Grandpa stayed here with Dylan and Liam. It's great to have some help. So mom is buried in the covers up to her nose, eating a piece of toast every once in awhile and drinking apricot nectar occasionally. Hope she is feeling up to snuff again soon.

April 5th means birthdays at our house....Hannes was 10, Grandma was 63 and Uncle Ed was 60. Ed was the only one who wasn't present for the celebrations this time. Mom was given a beautiful teapot by dad and Ralph and after politely saying oh, how lovely, they admitted sheepishly that they had recuperated it from our garbage dump. Stinkers! If only it had been pretty! It is numbered and signed though so now mom is on a mission to discover that the thing is worth thousands and thereby have the last laugh! Mom did easter eggs with the boys just before bed. We had a fun day and hope to slip over to France tomorrow. We have semi sick kids so will see how they are in the morning. Some nice folks from Bern (hi Heidi and MH!) have said they would take the kids for the day........hoo boy..no kids for a whole day!

We spent our days in the Cinque Terre area. Cinque means 5 and there are 5 beautiful towns spaced out on the coastline in a spread of about 5 or 6 miles. There are walking trails between all of the towns, some easier than others, but you can do the entire distance in about 5 hours. We all walked from Riomaggiore to Manarola and then Dad, Ralph and Hannes did the next leg alone while we had some cappucino and gelato. We were in this area with mom and dad years ago and it has changed quite a bit due to tourism but the core character has remained intact.

Finally some pictures!

We have been enjoying gma and gpa's company very much! As we are close to a lot of really cool spots here, we took off in the car and headed down to Italy. About 6 hours from here is some of the prettiest coastline. Several gelatos, espresso, pizzas and fresh pastas later, we are home again and reflecting on our experiences. It is almost midnight so I think I will let these shots be all for now. Will work on it again tomorrow.