Musings of Amy

November 14 was visiting morning at the kids’ school.  Except Sarah’s teacher was out with a back injury, and asked that we visit his classroom when he was back.  He didn’t want us wasting our time observing the substitute.  So I had four hours to divide between 3 kids.  We all talked about it, and I decided that I would visit each child for one hour and then go home and make lunch! 🙂

First up, though, I hung out with Lexi in Kindergarten.This is her buddy, Lars.  They have been friends since pre-school and he is one of the few Swiss kids she has had playdates with.  I love that at this age, gender doesn’t matter, just if you are nice. 🙂

Every morning the children sit in Kreis, or circle time.  The teacher talks to them about what is going to happen for the day, they sing a few songs, maybe play a game, and if necessary, review the rules of behavior.  Alexandra still doesn’t talk in Kindergarten, but she has lots of kids who will still play with her and take care of her.  But she does love to sing in Kreis. Frau Meier is holding Findus the cat.  Poor Findus is sometimes scared to be in Kindergarten and needs the kids to help him feel welcome and explain how things work. And if you are the birthday kid,  you get to take Findus home with you for the night.

After an hour with Alexandra, it was time for me to visit Sophie.  She had Handarbeit, or handicrafts, and was learning how to sew on a real machine.  And not just any machine.  Oh no, this is a Swiss school, so the kids get to learn on Swiss sewing machines, namely Bernina’s. To get a feel for the machine, they practice sewing on paper, with no thread in the needles first.  She is tracing straight lines, and they also practiced circles and wavy lines.

Then they drew stars on paper and sewed around the lines to cut out the stars.  A couple lessons later they put thread in the machines and sewed the stars together to make a pretty Christmas decoration that she brought home.

During long recess, the kids were each given a slice of Zopf, and the parents were invited to cut themselves a slice as well,along with coffee and tea in the auditorium.  I like to spend visiting day with my kids, rather than chatting with parents, so I cut a slice of bread, and went outside to share it with them.  Then they sent me back to get another slice.  Which I did.  I saw a couple other parents doing the same thing so I didn’t feel like too much of a criminal. 🙂

After break, I went to visit Noah in his classroom.  They were having an English lesson, which meant that Noah got to help the teacher a lot. At one point she asked him what the green thing on her desk was called and he shrugged his shoulders, so she asked me.  I  said “a plant” with an American “a” sound.  And she repeated it with her English “a”  so it sounded like “plahnt”.  I couldn’t help myself and I said it again, only this time I really emphasized it “plaaant”.  She busted up laughing, as did most of the parents. 🙂

The kids paired up and were supposed to go around the room taking turns pointing to objects and having the other child say the name of it out loud.  The little girl with Noah pointed to where he sits and he said “desk” to which she responded, “No, it’s a table.”  The troubles of having a bigger vocabulary then your classmates.  But I think he enjoys having a subject that is so easy.

I always have fun on visiting day, seeing the kids in their school environment.  It makes it so much easier to visualize and understand what is going on when they tell me stories about what happened at school.  It also makes me appreciate their teachers even more.

One afternoon Sophie came to me complaining about these weird rash on her stomach.  She showed it to me,and I asked her if it itched.  No, just felt weird, she said. I told her to show me in the morning, and if it was worse, I would call the doctor.  Well, it was worse, but it still didn’t itch, so I sent her off to school thinking it was just was some weird reaction to soap or something.  She does have very sensitive skin.

I couldn’t even finish the sentence, “She has these spots on her stomach” before the nurse told me to bring her in that afternoon.  Turns out that lucky Sophie had the chicken pox for a second time!  Even though the case she had when she was younger was quite severe, she is part of the approximately 2% of the population (according to our pediatrician) who don’t get immunity from the disease.  It’s kind of funny now, but when she is older it could be quite serious.  Adult chicken pox is no laughing matter, and usually requires a hospital stay, so I may look into getting her a shot to see if that bumps up her immunity any.

She got to stay home from school for the rest of the week, which gave her the opportunity to start on her Christmas presents for Alexandra.  She wasn’t super sick, but she did get tired easily, and had a bit of a headache, so we made sure she got lots of fluids and rest.

I called her teacher and apologized for sending her to school at the height of her ability to infect the rest of the class.  If I had even the slightest thought that it could be chicken pox, I would never have sent her.  But she and the principal decided it wasn’t necessary to warn the other kids, and make it seem like Sophie was the culprit if the whole class came down with it.  Who knows where she picked it up, it could have been from someone else in the class, and there was no point in making a big deal about it.  I appreciated that.

She also got some cool spray on foam from the doctor that is especially for chicken pox, but didn’t exist when the kids had it before.  It cooled the skin, took away the itch, and helped the dots scab over quicker.  We have some left over if anyone else needs it. 🙂

That sounds so much nicer in German, Räebelichtliumzug. 🙂  Anyway, the day after Halloween was our villages annual turnip parade.  I went up to school in the morning to help Alexandra carve her turnip.  Noah made his alone, and the older girls didn’t have one. 🙁  I asked if they wanted to carve small pumpkins again, but they weren’t interested.  Well, Sarah may have been if she wasn’t still sick.  Poor thing, she missed all the fun this year for TWO holidays.

When I arrived, I was a bit later than the other parents, so I didn’t take any pictures, just got right down to business.  But I have carved quite a few of these, so I was finished before most people.  Before I left, Alexandra wanted to show me some papers in her binder. This is her running to get it off the shelf.

Look at all those busy moms and dads, slaving away for their kids.  So sweet. The lady in the striped shirt is my neighbor, and the head lice lady. 🙂  That’s how I got the job.

Can you see Alexandra’s turnip down in the right corner?  Get a good look now, because it’s the last time you’ll see it.  It broke before the parade even started.

The kids had free play when they were done making their lanterns, so Lexi and her friend Vivienne colored while Chloe held her sweet baby brother, Gian. Chloe’s mom and dad have 4 kids and she is the oldest at age 5.  I feel a special kinship with them. 🙂

We drove up to school without Papa, since the kids needed to be there earlier than his bus got home.  He just stayed on it and rode into town, then walked up to school to meet us. It worked out pretty well.  Love Swiss public transportation!

Alexandra and Rafael were at the front of their group, but Alexandra’s lantern fell and broke while they were still waiting to start.  So she just held his hand and sang the songs. She still had fun, though.  Sarah’s class were the candle lighters for the younger kids, and followed along the parade route to relight any candles that went out.  Sarah should have been one, and I even bought her a special lighter to use, but again, she was sick.  Those are her friends, Sophie and Maheshi.

After the kids all walked past, we ran down to the town and circled around to meet up with them on the route. Periodically they would stop and sing songs and we wanted to hear them. It’s such a magical night for the kids.  The town sends out a letter asking everyone to turn off their outside lights so the lanterns will shine brighter. I know this picture is blurry, but I wanted to catch what it actually looked like out in the dark.  So pretty.

I wandered through the crowd and actually found Noah and his friends.

The parade wound through town a bit and then ended up back at the school for more singing and then treats! Noah and Alexandra got the traditional soft rolls filled with a chocolate bar from the school.  And the big kids got hot punch and delicious soup prepared by the Elternverein, or parent club of Aeugst.  They do it as a service, but do ask for a donation to pay for the ingredients.  Nick was so happy they did it this year, as they skipped it last year due to lack of willing volunteers.  We were generous with our donation in appreciation.

After the parade is always so much fun, as so much of the town is together, talking and laughing and just enjoying the good atmosphere. The little boy in the blue hat is Noah’s good friend, Yahel and his mother is my friend, Karen.  We walked the parade route together, until Chris showed up. My other buddy, Monica is in the black jacket next to her.  It is nice to feel accepted and included in such a small town that could be very unfriendly to newcomers but is the exact opposite.

Next year, I hope Sarah is feeling better and that we carve our pumpkins again.  I felt like I missed out not having my own lantern this year.

Lots of the kids in Sarah and Sophie’s classes were going trick-or-treating, or “Halloweening” as they called it.  I asked the girls if they wanted to go with their friends, and Sarah definitely did.  Sophie wanted to go, but with me, so I decided to take the three younger ones around myself.  This required a little rearranging of our traditional celebrations, however, in order to have time to get it all in.

Since everyone was home for Wednesday afternoon, we had some of our usual Halloween scary feast for lunch.  Sadly, I did not watch the refresher course on how to properly shape my mummy pizza, so he came out a little wonky. But it was rather delicious! I also made a veggie tray that was supposed to look like a Jack-o-Lantern face.  It kind of did. 🙂

At 5:30 we went out to go trick-or-treating, sadly without Sarah who had gotten a fever and thrown up and was unable to go. 🙁  Noah’s friend also wanted to come with us, although he didn’t bother dressing up.  Didn’t seem to faze anybody and he got just as much candy as my kids.  Too funny.  It was really fun, and we saw lots of other kids in little groups also out begging for treats.  I am so glad we went, and will definitely make sure the kids can go again next year.

When we got home, we had our Halloween shaped Jello jigglers, bloody fingers and witches knuckles with Papa.  Then it was time for our favorite scary story, that we’ve heard so many times it isn’t scary anymore. 

But if we tell it by candlelight, it’s still pretty magical.  I had to put the paper in a special plastic holder because it was getting pretty worn over the years.  I will have to make a copy for each kid as they leave the house, so they can continue the tradition. 🙂

Happy Halloween to all my little goblins!

That evening, after the Halloween Carnival, it started snowing.  And it didn’t seem to stop for about a week!  The kids were so excited, and spent all Sunday afternoon out playing in it.  Good thing we had just gone through all their winter gear and made sure everyone had everything they needed!

This was still just the first day, so you can see grass poking up after they have sledded down a time or two.  That soon changed.

I love when my big boy gets a chance to act like a kid again.

The other kids were having so much fun Sarah finally gave in to our coaxing and went out to join them.  But Chris had already been outside long enough and was cold, so he only got an indoor shot. 🙂

And this was taken out the boys’ bedroom window. 

The snow was so beautiful that is got me totally in the Christmas mood, and I made all my Christmas cards in three days!

This year was my favorite carnival so far, for several reasons.  We did a much better job of dividing up the organizational duties, so no one person had to do it all.  It was in our very own building, so we had more freedom to choose the time and date. And we were able to come on a completely different day to do most of the set up, making the actual date of the party much less stressful.  And finally, it was the first big project/hangout since summer where I got to spend lots of time with my friends.

It was a great turnout, and lots of people volunteered to run booths. Including the missionaries, which was perfect since so many of the attendees are not members of the Church. Also, aren’t the decorations pretty awesome?  The bats were made by a very crafty and talented lady in our ward for a youth dance a couple of years back, and she kindly let us use them for the carnival.  I think they make the whole room! You can also see the back side of Nick running our Guess How Many booth.  I had so much fun decorating the jars and filling them up with fun treats.  I had done it last year, and decided that rather than one big jar, it would be more fun to do lots of smaller jars, so people had more chances to win.  He did a great job keeping all the different guesses separate from each other and with their respective jars. Here is a not so great front view.

Some of the booths were crafts, like this cute one to make a colored pasta necklace.  And in the background was where you could order a crazy witches potion to drink, mixed for you by Miss Sour Grapes herself!

I was running my Bingo game in a different room, so Chris kindly took these shots for me.  He always tries to get at least one of each child, and then a few random ones of other children he deems especially cute. 🙂

Sophie was a bit miffed by the end of the party because all the non-Americans thought she was a dwarf or a gnome.  They have no clue what candy corns are!

Sarah wore the witch costume I bought for myself a couple of years ago.  I also let her wear my high heels to complete the outfit.  Yes, they were a bit big, but only a tiny bit!  She is growing up so fast.

Noah had a part in the haunted house the Faith in God leaders were running, so just wore that as his costume to the party.  I made him the lab coat from an old white shirt, and am pretty pleased with how it turned out. The crazy, mad scientist expressions are all his, though!

It made me happy that Sophie and Alexandra decided to wear their candy corn outfits I had sewn a couple of years ago again.  And even happier that they still fit! Don’t you just want to eat her up?

A bit separated from the party by necessity, since I didn’t want to try and scream out numbers over all the other noise in the main room, was me and my bingo game. Yes, that is a child’s costume I am wearing out of desperation since I didn’t want to be a baby again, and didn’t want to come not dressed up. I had so much fun getting things ready for this game, and the kids who figured out where I was came back more than once.  I think it may have been the full size candy bars I was giving out as prizes. 🙂  I even had some gum for kids who didn’t/couldn’t eat chocolate, but one of my own kids ended up with one because they liked the witch so much! I used my many stamps to make the game cards, and then laminated them, so the kids could mark the spaces with a dry-erase markers and then wash them off when they were done.  I am for sure doing this again next year, although I can’t decide if I should decorate the candy bars the same way, or try and come up with all new creatures.  Probably a bit of both, knowing me.

It was a great party, and my kids came home so happy, and ready to start the mad candy trading.  I can’t wait for next year!

I am way behind on my posting.  I will get to it soon.  But I just had to post this little gem out of sequence because it cracked me up so much and is so sweet at the same time.

Last night I was in the kitchen helping Sophie wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen.  Noah appeared and handed me a note, along with a pen and a blank piece of paper to write my reply.  This it what is said..

“Dear High Queen of the Charles Clan, I hope it is okay if I have read the three books of the series “Hunger Games”.  If it is not okay, I regret to inform you that I have already done so.  Please let me know if I may watch the film, “Hunger Games” next Saturday.  Please write your answer on the enclosed piece of paper.

Kind Regards, Sarah”

I wrote her back that it was okay that she read the books. (They were on the Kindle for me, but she had read everything of hers on there, had heard about them, and wanted to know what all the fuss was about.)  I asked if she liked them, and if she would like to talk about them with me.  Then I told her that I would have to discuss her watching the movie with her father before I gave her an answer.  Then I handed the paper to the cute little messenger and off he went to deliver it.

When I saw her a few minutes later, I asked her if I could post her letter on my blog because I thought it was so clever and funny.  She said no, and I agreed not to.  But then, a bit later, the messenger reappeared, with a new note.

“Dear High Queen of the Charles Clan, I am very much relieved at your words.  Yes, I liked the books very much.  I shall think about your offer. It is understandable that you want to talk about watching the movie with the High King.  Yes, it is okay if you post my letters on Facebook.

Warm Regards,

Princess Sarah of the Charles Clan”

So, there you have it.  A favorite form of communicating things that are a bit scary to ask face to face in our family, and a peek into Sarah’s creative mind.

We had one giant project to complete during the kids’ fall break, move the older girls into their new bedroom upstairs.  They are getting older and need/want more privacy.  Sharing that big room with their little sister was leading to lots of arguing and yelling.  Also, it took longer for them to get ready for bed because they were refusing to get undressed in front of each other. It was a definite problem.  The only solution?  Give up my craft room and divide it into two rooms for the girls.

Of course, this meant that first I had to clean up my craft room. ha!  I also took this opportunity to do a bit of purging.  There was all kinds of stuff that I was saving for a project I might do “someday”, that I just didn’t have room for in my new space downstairs.  So out it went.  I also got rid of one of my big work tables, which makes it less convenient to have friends over to craft, but it was definitely necessary.

We also had to find a new home for the gaming computer and the kids’ treasure boxes.  It was quite a logistical puzzle. And of course, you have to clear out one room before you can move the new stuff into it.  But what do you do with all the stuff you cleared out?  Shove it into the play area, of course.

The girls’ beds came up first, as they were the biggest pieces of furntiure. They also got my Expedit bookshelf to use as a room divider.  We also put their dressers back to back on the end, and it makes a pretty good fake wall!  It was looking pretty empty in the girls’ old room, with just Alexandra’s little bed in there.  The downstairs hallway, however, was like a scene out of Hoarder’s. It probably wouldn’t have bugged me so much, except it stayed like that for a few days.  There was just too much stuff for us to do it all in one day.  It kind of reminded me of the hallway in Grandma Allphin’s house, with a walkway between all the stacks of boxes.  Which was a good incentive to get going and find a home for everything quickly.

One of the big problems proved to be the gaming computer.  It could only go where there was access to enough power cables, but had to be enough out of the way that a gaming marathon didn’t interrupt every one else.  This was where we had it for about a week, until we came up with a better solution.Not ideal at all, plus they kept stealing my crafting chair! 🙂

Chris was also worried that we now didn’t have a room exclusively for guests.  First, we rarely get guests.  Two, I don’t think it’s fair for our family to live squished together all year to please others a couple of weeks a year.  Three, if guests do come, we can just kick Alexandra out of her room for while they are here.  It’s what my parents always did to me when relatives came to visit, and I am not scarred in any way. 🙂  She loves a good sleepover anyway, and will be thrilled to get to stay in the girls’ room again.  So that settled that.

There was a slight adjustment period, where the big girls got used to sleeping in the “creepy upstairs”.  And for a couple of weeks I had to stay with Alexandra until she was asleep, because she didn’t like being all alone.  But all the strangeness rubbed off quickly, and now they are all thrilled with the new arrangement.  Whew!

The computer went where the Barbie house had been.  It does require a long extension cord across the stairs to function, but we just unplug it when it’s not being used.  We technically could plug it into the outlet in Chris’ office, but then we couldn’t close the door all the way.  And the kids like to turn up the volume, so there it is.

Sarah loves having her own space.  We are still in the process of decorating it, but she is very happy and likes that she only has to clean up her own mess, no one else’s!

Sophie has her half arranged slightly differently, with her desk up against the wall.  And yes, there are still a few miscellaneous things that need to be cleared out of there, but that will happen during Christmas vacation when Chris and I tackle the cellar together.

My craft area is awesome.  Honestly, I love it even more now than when it was upstairs.  Most things are within arm’s reach, and it was put together with a plan, rather than just cobbled together over time. 

And I really love the hidden storage! 🙂  My plan is to eventually remove all my stamps from their wooden blocks and store them in DVD cases on the revolving tower next to my table.  But that is a very long term project! 

Alexandra loves all the open space she has for playing now.  It is so much more fun to have friends over, and she takes great pride in tidying it up most nights. Plus there is room for her to grow into bigger furniture. 🙂

It was a huge change, but I think it was necessary. We can now happily stay in this apartment for much longer without feeling cramped.

The kids were really excited about Conference this year.  They started asking when it would be on about a month in advance.  I am not kidding myself, I don’t think they are so much looking forward to being spiritually fed as I am.  No, its the whole staying-home-watching-church-on-tv-while-wearing-pajamas that they get excited about. Oh, and the giant bowls of candy they get to play Conference bingo with, and also consume should they so desire.  Still, they do genuinely like listening to President Monson, and recognize several other apostles by face and name, so it is sinking in regardless.

This is generally what it looks like at our house during Conference time.

Lots of lounging around in comfy clothes, and kids coloring and playing Bingo all over the floor.  Even though we didn’t have to attend church the next day, we still had them take their usual Saturday night baths before watching the Saturday morning session that night.  They also like getting to stay up a bit later to watch it until the very end. 😉

The kids made Chris take this picture because they thought I looked so funny.  I did a bit of cross-stitching while listening on Sunday morning, and I wore my new magnifying glasses, much to their delight.I just can’t focus on those tiny stitches any more, and the glasses really help!  But they sure do change my appearance!

So, the boy turned 14 this year.  Lots of new stuff happening, lots of changes, most of it very good. 🙂  For one, he is old enough now for us to confidently leave him in charge while we go to the movies in the evening.  That has been really nice.  We have waited a long time for that. 🙂  Also, he is now Chris’ official home teaching partner, and they have fun visiting their families every month.  Nick loves playing with the cute little kids and it’s a good chance for he and Chris to do something special together.

Unfortunately his birthday this year fell on a Monday.  This year in school, Monday is his long day.  He leaves at 7 am and doesn’t get back home until 7 pm.  Not a whole lot of time left for celebrating.  So I talked to him beforehand about we should do, and we decided to do special food on Sunday, when he would be home to enjoy it, and presents and cake on his actual birthday.

His birthday meal request?  French onion soup.  I have never made it before.  I have only eaten it a couple of times, but it is always delicious, so I was excited to try.  I looked up several recipes and found one that I thought would be tasty, and that I could also follow all the instructions for.  It required a trip to the local butcher for some bones to make the beef broth.  Chris can’t eat the pre-made kind, the celery in it will kill him. 🙁  He sold me a slab of stew meat, and then gave me the bones I actually asked for, for free.  I am not sure if I didn’t make it clear enough what I wanted, or if he just wanted to sell me the expensive meat.  haha  Also, I had to buy a bottle of red wine, and there was some slight confusion on my part which kind was the right one to buy.  In the end I went for the lower end of middle, price-wise, and just hoped that it wouldn’t ruin the soup.

Funny aside, the week before we had gone to Germany to do our big grocery shopping, and I had bought a bottle of vodka to make my own vanilla extract.  You can’t get it here, and although the vanilla sugar packets work well, I wanted to have some liquid extract to try.  The kids were very concerned that I was buying so much alcohol and I had to reassure them that it would be alright. 🙂

The smile tells the whole story.  Nick LOVED the soup, and I will definitely have to make it again. It is really fun to cook for him, since he has a very adventurous palate, but you have to get the amount just right, since he hates leftovers and refuses to eat to them. Can’t have everything too perfect, I guess.

Monday night, once he finally got home and had a quick dinner, it was time for presents and cake. The kids had been waiting all day for him to open those enticing packages.  Especially Alexandra, who had made him a little book filled with original drawings.  His reaction was just what she was hoping for. 🙂

One of the cute little things Nick does is close his eyes when opening presents.  He loves the surprise of finding out what is inside as much, or more, than he does the actual gift itself.  So he likes to keep the suspense going for as long as possible, and keeps his eyes closed until the wrapping is completely off.

When Oma was here she asked what she could send for him, and I told her he had been talking a lot about a certain game that he played a few times and really liked.  I looked for it here, but it was about 3 times the price as in the States, so she got it for him.

It has been played on a continuous basis ever since.  Whenever I hear lots of hysterical laughter coming from the boys’ room, I know Life is being played.  It cracks them up that you can be a mechanic and live in a mansion, for example.  And they like to see how many kids they can fill their car up with. 🙂

That’s a lot of candles, kid. So glad you are here to brighten our lives.