As usually happens, all the good things were happening on the same day; a hike with the Stake and our village’s only-happens-every-three-years Chilbi (carnival). To keep the peace with the kids, I promised them that as soon as we got home from the hike, whoever wanted to could head over to the Chilbi with me. Nick was the only one who declined my generous offer. 🙂
We were very lucky and found a parking space pretty close to the school, which is where the Chilbi was set up. The kids loved sneaking peeks out the classroom windows, watching the big tents and rides being set up on Thursday. As one child who shall remain anonymous said, “Whenever the teacher started talking about something boring, I would just look out the window and watch the workers!” Yes, how kind of them to provide distraction from your education like that.
The weather was absolutely perfect, so sunny and warm, which made for a good turnout. The kids all saw several of their friends, but for some reason didn’t want to go hang out with them. They did at least say hello, though. 🙂 I don’t know about the kids, but I feel like we are very much an accepted and liked part of the community, even with all the strikes against us; Americans, Mormons, and tons of kids. Probably why I don’t ever want to leave Aeugst, it would just be so hard to pick up and start all over again, and you never know what kind of crazy neighbors you might end up with! Here we know about “mean lady” and steer clear of her. Everyone else is fantastic! Anyway, that is half of what made the Chilbi so fun, seeing so many of our friends and neighbors there.
The Chilbi itself is very old school. They pride themselves on it. Nothing electronic about any of it, except the fan keeping the bouncy house pumped up. The “big ride” is a glorified swing; a boat attached to a pole, that two people can stand up in and rock back and forth. There was a huge line for it. There was also the famous Aeugst version of a dumping tank. Two people climb up this ladder thing and sit down on a special bench on opposite sides of each other. Then they start throwing heavy bean bags at the other person’s lever, that will make them fall down onto a pile of pillows. Adults were doing it, little kids were doing it, I was sad none of my kids wanted to do it with me. It looked like a lot of fun!
After looking at all the little booths set up for different crafts, and selling local wares, like honey from the giant beehive in the forest behind the school, the kids decided they most wanted to go in the jumpy house, so that is what we did. 
I purchased four coupons, one for each of the kids. But then at the last minute, Alexandra decided she didn’t want to go in. 
Only 4 kids were allowed in at one time, to prevent accidents, so Sophie had to wait and go separately from Sarah and Noah. She was a little bummed about that, cuz a bouncy house with siblings is way more fun than one without, but she ended up smiling and laughing when her turn finally came around.
After that, the kids wanted to head over to the regular playground right next to the school. Alexandra loved running through these tunnels, yelling the whole way, (cuz it makes a cool echo) then popping out the other side and saying “Boo!”. 
The girls tried to run and jump on to the tops, but were not successful. I had to show them how to brace their first against the end of one tunnel, to hoist themselves on to the top. 
They played on the teeter-totter for a bit, and then started climbing on the slide. I had no idea that Noah could, or even would, climb on this thing. Last time I remember, he was terrified of even trying. This time, he climbed on every side, except for the rock wall, and had a blast. He has really matured and developed so much in the last 6 months. It’s fun to see. 
While the kids were playing, I had fun watching the little kids trying to put out the “fire” in the apartment building. The best is that in order for the hose to work, the parent has to continually pump the water out of a little bucket. So if Junior wasn’t doing that great a job aiming at the windows, Dad would get a little frustrated and try to coach him from behind. Too funny! 
Just before we were going to leave, a group of kids from Nick’s school class came walking by. I heard Till, Nick’s good friend, ask another boy if he could have one of his coupons. Apparently, he needed an extra one to ride the boat/swing thing. But Haidar said no. So I waved Till over and handed him the coupon I had bought for Alexandra. He gave me a huge smile, and a big thanks, than ran off excitedly to get in line. So sweet how something so simple can make someone so happy.
We had stayed later than we planned, but only by a bit. And it was all the gorgeous weather’s fault, anyhow. So dinner was late and baths were rushed, but it was a fun day that we will always remember, and that’s what is most important.