our table set and ready, with a view to take your appetite away!

Our last day here was beautiful and finished off with a great meal cooked by our evening magic fairy, Annalisa.  We are not quite ready to leave this place but we take with us a lot of new great memories, a little sand between our toes and some minor sunburn:)

Dylan jumping in

Greece

Greece has been everything and more than I imagined.  Blue skies, white buildings, friendly people, warm breezes, clear water and awesome company. 

our partial view from the house

Hannes getting a treatment

unfortunately the connection wasn't fast enough to put any more than two pictures on...I will try to do some more at home. 

40 is not so bad after all!

Our view from the Château de la Tour

The old haunt from our early europe days

pretty much all their fault

an Oregon girl with her toes in the Mediterranean Sea

Our kidnappers



Ralph wishing he could be out on that big cruise ship in the harbour (yeah right)

la palm d'or, Cannes

boys being boys

Aschi getting a french haircut. The lady wasn't too happy looking but ended up being nice, giving Ernesto a great cut and giving us a great restaurant tip for that evening. She was sorry to report that she wouldn't be able to do much for Ralph's hair, announcing that it was just too late:)

fish market, beauiful, smelly and loud

There is nothing quite like getting away from the old four walls.  And when there is a special event involved, like turning 40, it's especially fun to do something unique.  My unique thing involved a big surprise, a road trip, croissants and capuccino, a winding road through quaint villages, a grandma willing to take over kid duty, routes revisited and an old haunt rediscovered.  Cannes holds a lot of memories for me and that is where we ended up, with our bare feet in the sand and palms blowing in the breeze.  A lot of laughing, eating, walking and talking was also part of this too quick weekend.  Nothing like being treated like a queen to make you feel like one:)

The Regates Royales was on, a ton of old, beautiful sail boats in the harbor at Cannes and then sailing during the day.

Goodbye magical place and thank you to those who helped make it happen by taking care of the kids; Nani, Sharon and Heidi and Markus! We love you and appreciate you and what you do for us! Love H

 

soup for 30

Nic selects her favorite cheeses

Raph and Julie

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one of our last outdoor evenings?

just enough camping for Alexandre, notice his little table:)

boys watching a combine

looks like fall....

borrowed harvest from the neighbors!

luusbueb

Sunday after our union mtg, we had the younger crowd over for pumpkin soup. Boy was it good and fun too.  No pics of the desserts as they were top secret.  No secret however, were our bulging stomachs as we headed for bed!  Thanks to all of you cool people. 

Swiss cousin fest

the swiss cousins, Alinya, Nils, Liam, Dylan, Logan, Sharon, Nigel, Hannes and Manuel

We were together for a family fiesta yesterday and the cousins had a good time together...a mix of english, swiss-german and french is heard as they communicate with one another.

Nina starts back to playschool

outside of her building

checking out passing cars, holding the obligatory pair of slippers for in the classroom

her cheesy fake grin

a little concerned about the situation...

Alinya started back to school today too.  She has been talking about it all summer so was very happy to go!  Then we got there and she had a different teacher than we were expecting and she got very clingy.  I was thinking there might be tears or refusal to stay but I said a brief goodbye, slipped out and then was gone. When I came back at 12, she was happy to see me but had also had a great time. I will be taking twin girls with us on the same day that are from our same town and will start kindergarden with Alinya next year.  Her mom and I will trade off carting kids to school.  Otherwise things around here are good, we are back in the sleep rhythm as of last night when I finally took drastic measures and knocked myself out with some help from the medicine cabinet and slept past 2am for the first time in days.  Right thru till 5:30! Ahhh.  Dylan had a soccer game last night so we were home kind of late.  It is cooler here, feeling more like fall than summer.  No frost on the pumpkin yet but it is feeling chilly in the morning. 

A year from now I will be accompanying child number 4 to kindergarden and that will mean 4 free mornings for me....what a strange thought.  I might have to take up knitting or something! 

school begins

After getting home and discovering that my memory stick that I thought was full of pix from our
vacation was actually empty, I am skipping over some of our trip and return home to present to you the first day of school!

the big fourth graders

Liam and his best buddy Alexis

Alexis' mom, Violetta

on his way into the classroom

Don't really know why these pictures turned out blurry.....

Special company

a couch full of kids

liquid gold from the Leen ranch

My aunt Carol making waffles

listening to a record

this is a hilarious shot, it looks like Carol is telling Alinya, "your mommy has a baby in her tummy" no, we are not expecting number 5:)

Alinya wasn't so sure about 'Nerv's dad' as she called him