Musings of Amy

After the back to school business, which was rather tame as all the kids were just moving up a grade, not changing teachers or schools, we geared up for another round of birthday bashes.  First up was Sophie’s 11th birthday.  She decided to have her friend party on a different day, so that it wouldn’t be rushed,as Thursdays Sarah has violin lessons and then I have mutual in the evenings. So on the actual day we just did the usual no chores, favorite meals and cake and presents.

So fun to see how well she is growing up.

And so are her tastes.  She loves things like perfume, nail polish, jewelry, and my scented body wash. So I got her some of her own and she was very happy.:) Lexi worked for a long time on a card for her, that included a picture. And Sarah surprised us all with her present.  She had made it in arts and crafts class at school, and it took her several months to complete, working an hour or two a week. Isn’t it beautiful?

She scratched the design into the glass using a special needle.  No glass etching cheater cream here.  Just little strokes repeated over and over and over.  Definitely worth a giant hug!Sophie keeps it on her homework desk where she can see it every day. Sophie was the only child who did NOT pick out any Lego at Legoland for her birthday.  She likes the rides, but isn’t into the actual bricks themselves.  Does still like Playmobil, though, so she isn’t growing up too fast. 🙂

I have absolutely no memory of why we took this photo, but it was too funny not to include. 

We consumed 5 birthday cakes in the month of July, with more to come for Alexandra’s birthday, so I think everyone was thrilled when Sophie decided she wanted birthday pie instead.  She chose banana cream and I tried to make it extra special with fancy piped on whipped cream. For two boys who don’t like bananas, they seem awfully excited about this pie, don’t they? 🙂

You are the cream filling in our Oreo cookie of a family, Sophie.  The sweet center that holds it all together!  Happy birthday!

After celebrating so many birthdays in our family, it was time to celebrate the birth of our nation.  We had the traditional cervelat sausages for lunch, and then that evening we busted out the real fun, fireworks!

It’s always a fine balance between waiting until it’s dark enough to make the fireworks looks cool, and early enough that the kids get enough sleep.  Getting easier now that the kids are older, though.

Traditionally, many people start out the day by going to a farm for breakfast.  There are hundreds all over the country that offer this holiday meal, but you do need to reserve a spot pretty early.  And it’s kind of expensive, although considering you are getting fresh baked Zopf (braided bread) ,eggs, sausage, meat slices, cheese and fresh fruit, most of it grown right on the farm you are eating at, it’s not outrageous.  We could never afford it when the kids were small, and now with Chris’ food allergies we don’t dare.  But I think it might be fun to at least recreate the fancy breakfast at home.  Might have to remember that for next year.

The towns don’t really organize official firework displays, but if you are up in the mountain areas, they have coordinated bonfires.  Meaning, if you are down in the valley, you can look up and watch bonfires light up in succession all along the mountain peaks.  My friend saw it one year and said it was really beautiful.  Another thing to add for next year.

It’s always a bit of controlled chaos, helping the kids all light their sparklers, keeping the hot ones separate from the cool ones, and in between, lighting the fireworks the kids can only watch, not touch.  Usually after a bit, Chris takes pity on me and comes down to help. 🙂  His fear of someone getting burned is stronger than his dislike of the whole process in general. haha

And the favorite classic, Wizard Dueling with sparklers, never fails to entertain. How handy that the sparklers come in red and green, just like the sparks in the movie. 🙂

This year I was determined to also buy some “big” fireworks.  You know, the kind that shoot up in the air and then explode?  Even stopped at a few stands trying to find some.  Thought I had been successful until we opened the box and lit them.

Hmm, pretty, but definitely not what I had in mind.  Oh well, we still enjoyed them.

Happy birthday, Switzerland! You rock!

For Noah’s actual birthday he wanted to invite his friend from church to spend the night.  Since Max’s little brother is Alexandra’s good friend, we invited them both to come.  What a fun treat, and how glad we are that they hadn’t left for their summer travels yet. 🙂 After dinner, we got straight down to present opening.

Some of the presents were a bit anti-climatic for Noah, as he had chosen them at our visit to Legoland the month before, but it’s still fun to finally be able to build them!  And Max gave him a very cool present, his very own fireworks!

Those are extra fun seeing as how 1. August is just around the corner….

Noah wanted another cake with the black fondant on it, like at his birthday party. Apparently he loves the way it tastes.  But it was just a plain flat cake, no smarties inside this time.And I still wasn’t very good at getting the fondant to be smooth. Oh well, practice makes perfect!

I was a little concerned how the sleepover would go, but everyone had a great time.  And they actually went to sleep before midnight. I am glad that even though it’s the middle of summer, we are still able to make Noah feel special.  Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Maddie is probably my kids most favorite cousin, although she is technically Chris’ cousin.  She is always so fun, has lots of imagination just like they do, and is always up for something new.  So we wanted to make the most of her visit and show her a really good time.  To that end, we took her to the area near Gruyere for a day of sightseeing.

First stop was the Cailler chocolate factory/museum. It was a big more crowded than our previous visit, but considering it was summer, we still didn’t have much of a wait.  I think about 15 minutes. And we found plenty to amuse ourselves until then.

The first time we came here, some of the displays/lighting/special sound effects scared our kids.  sigh  But this time, they were older and they were able to enjoy it much more.  They even laughed at how silly it was that they were frightened the first time.

The best part of this tour is the tasting room at the end. Sarah and Sophie made a vow to taste one of everything.  Sarah almost made it, but then she felt like she was going to really throw up, so she stopped. 🙂  Sophie wisely quit before she got to that point.

Now they don’t just set you free, willy nilly, in this room filled with goodness.  They do try to educate you on the proper way to enjoy chocolate.  But I don’t know if any one actual pays any attention to this sign.

After the chocolate binge, we went to the theater and watched lots of old fashioned commercials for Caillier.  Our favorite movie, though, is the one they made of a tour through the original factory.  Visitors are just walking by the machinery, no barricades, no hair nets, no contamination worries.  Cuh-razee!  And you can immediately see why they had to stop those kinds of tours. 🙂

Next we drove over to the Gruyere castle.  There is a short hike up the hill from the parking lot, and although not too strenuous, it was a hot day and there is no shade on the trail.  So the first thing the kids did was cool off in the fountain at the top.

There are several restaurants, shops, and apartments found within the outer castle walls, just like when it was originally built.  Very picturesque and touristy.  In fact, at all the restaurants we passed there were many tourists eating fondue.  We know they were tourists because no Swiss would EVER eat fondue in summer.  It is considered a strictly cold weather food.  The smell of the cheese, combined with the heat, kind of made us nauseous to be honest.

The castle itself was gorgeous and very interesting.  Plus it was nice and cool thanks to those thick stone walls.  First up was a little film explaining a short history of the castle, including when they had to fight against the invading French, and were victorious against horrible odds.  Hopp Schwiiz! 🙂

Then we were allowed to wander through the castle at will, looking at whatever caught our fancy. This most definitely did, although we still aren’t sure if it is a joke or real.

The English translation would be “The authentic helmet of the Count Hippity Hop”.

In the kitchen Sarah decided to bake some Lexibread. 🙂 This was a special day in that everyone seemed to get along really well the entire time.  We just had fun and truly enjoyed being together.  Maybe it was the calming influence of Maddie, who knows?

This is peeking out one of the castle windows down onto the gardens.  Wouldn’t it be fun to have a wedding reception there?

The above room is where the local leaders would meet to discuss the welfare of the area and work out problems without fighting.  It was also a hang out spot for the soldiers, where they played games when not on guard duty.

Sarah and Noah were so inspired by their surroundings, they spontaneously started doing some fancy “castle dancing” together.

Ah, good ole Switzerland.  Super old fountain still providing clean drinking water 100’s of years later.  It was a very long, sweet, fun filled day.  We didn’t get home until pretty late, but it was unanimous that it was worth it.

As promised, we returned to Cafe Sprüngli on Sarah’s actual birthday for breakfast.  Unfortunately Alexandra was not able to accompany us, as I had agreed to watch a girl from her Kindergarten that same day, and they needed to stay home and play together.  But we did have an exciting visitor, cousin Maddie came to stay with us for a week!

Alexandra was less sad about missing out on the cafe when the girls told her I had forgotten the way back to the car, and we ended up lost and having to call Papa to help us figure out where we were, and how to get to where we wanted to go.  But before all that we had a nice visit to the English bookstore where Sarah got to pick out several new books for her birthday.

Later that afternoon, we went down to the jewelry store so Sarah could get her ears pierced.  Months before her birthday she had told me she wanted to get it done.  Then about 2 weeks before the big day, she got cold feet.  But she changed her mind AGAIN and decided that yes, she wanted her ears pierced.  Until we walked in the store and she started shaking from nerves, and saying that maybe she didn’t want to.  I admit, I nudged her very strongly to just get them done.  I stood right next to her and held her hand while the first earring was put in.  Then the real tears came and she didn’t want to do the second ear.

The lady was very kind and understanding, and went to get her a chair to sit in so she could calm herself a bit.  I rubbed her back and helped her take some deep breaths til Sarah said she was ready for the second earring.  She didn’t want me to take any pictures, it was stressful enough as it was, so I honored her request.  But here is one from later on.

That evening we opened presents.  She had already gotten the books from the bookstore and the earrings, but her siblings and Maddie had a few things for her.

Sophie knew Sarah was going to get her ears pierced, so she made her a pair of earrings using a Shrinky Dink Jewelry kit I had bought for her.

I did have one more special gift for Sarah.  12 is a special birthday and I wanted to commemorate it even more than we already had.  Sarah and I share the same birthstone, so for her special present I gave her the ruby heart ring I had bought myself with one of my first paychecks from my job at the law office, years and years ago.  She was very surprised and happy.

Finally it was cake time!  I was certain I had bought candles in preparation for birthday season, but I couldn’t remember the “safe place” I had put them when I needed to.  So we improvised. 🙂And now she is old enough to join me in Young Women’s  Congratulations, Sarah!

I wanted to take full advantage of our Legoland passes (those things aren’t cheap!), and so invited some friends to join us for the day.  Unfortunately, most were unavailable but one friend asked if she could just send her oldest boy with us.  You bet! It was our first time going during summer vacation, and so we had to deal with crowds, long lines and a bit more heat than we like, but it was still a fun day.  The best part being that since it was summer I wasn’t worried about getting home at a semi-decent time.  We closed the place down! 🙂

I felt a little bad for our friend, Abrahm.  Even though he is younger than most of my kids, he is much braver.  He wanted to go on lots of rides that were vetoed by the group as being “too scary”.  He was very gracious about it, and didn’t put up a fuss at all, even though I am sure he was pretty frustrated.  He did convince the kids to go on one new ride that they all ended up LOVING!  It is a lot like the Buzz Lightyear ride, in that you have laser guns that you shoot at targets for points, but instead of space, you go through Egypt and the pyramids.  Sometimes, if you time it just right, something funny will pop up out of a crate or box when you shoot it.  Even I had a great time.

We did go on one of the smaller roller coasters, albeit after much coaxing and convincing.  This was the excellent advice Sarah gave Noah on how to deal with the fear and strange feelings in your stomach as you go up and down at high speeds.  “It’s better if you scream.”  Turns out, it really does help!  Although, he still wasn’t a huge fan and would be fine with never going on it again.

When they finally kicked us out of the park, we headed out to find something to eat.  I wasn’t exactly sure where the Burger King was, but knew it was close.  Ended up not being able to find it and told the kids we would just drive until we saw an exit with a Burger King sign.  Yeah, finally pulled into a McDonalds in Austria because the kids were starving by this time!  I did find the Burger King on our next trip, but I don’t think it saved us any time.  EVERYONE from Legoland was there, and it took us over an hour to get our food.  Seriously not even exaggerating.  Won’t be doing that again.

It was a fun trip, but I much prefer our “off day” trips when the crowds are much smaller.

For my birthday this year I wanted to do something outdoorsy. So I asked my hiking guru friend, Tanya, to suggest a nice, child friendly hike and if she would like to join us.  She readily agreed and we decided on a path that she knew all the kids could manage and would enjoy, as she had done it before.

The morning of my birthday, we woke up to a not great forecast in the area where we intended to go.  But she checked out another trail, and it was going to be perfect weather, so we quickly changed plans and drove out to the Klangweg, or music trail.The view, and the weather, could not have been more perfect.   So, first you take a cable car up to the top of the mountain.  Gotta love a hike where all the hard work is done for you! Then all along the trail across the top, there are different instrument stations. Some of them are pretty crazy, but all of them are meant to be played.There was even a teeter totter that had a ball roll across the xylophone middle as you went up and down.  So fun!

Towards the beginning of the trail we passed this little woodcarvers shop.  I was sad he wasn’t around.  I totally wanted to buy myself a clock! Aren’t they cool? Tanya’s son had the great idea to collect some of the sawdust and use it as kindling for our fire later.  So we scooped up a bunch into a plastic bag and stowed it away.  Turned out to be a fantastic idea!

The trail was relatively flat, but it was long for little tiny legs, so we made sure to go nice and slow and build in lots of rests, aside from all the stops at the instruments.

I am so glad Tanya picked this trail. It was all I hoped for on my birthday. I definitely want to go back another time with visitors.

Halfway along the trail we stopped to grill our lunch. That sawdust came in very handy as a fire starter!  Tanya was super sweet and brought along Luxembourgli and a candle to commemorate my birthday.  Near our grill spot was a restaurant complete with playground and bathrooms!  We also filled up our now empty water bottles there as well.  I can’t get over how perfectly everything worked out on this day.  I am truly a lucky lady.

Along the trail there were also fallen trees that had been carved into animals.  These are a couple of my favorites.

At the end of the trail, we rode another cable car back down the mountain.  Since we had two cars, Tanya had the clever idea of parking both at the beginning and the end of the trail.  This saved us having to walk to, and waiting for, the city bus to take us back to where we went up the mountain.  They all piled into our big car, some on the floor, and we drove them back to theirs.  Thank you so much, Tanya, for making my day so special and wonderful!

When I got home there was more celebration.  Chris had bought me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers.

Sarah made me this gorgeous trivet in school.  It is so beautiful that I just leave it out on the table at all times, whether we are using it or not.And of course, Chris baked me a cake.  (Yes those are the decorations from Noah’s party still on the wall.  It was a busy few days!) I am so glad I got to spend my special day surrounded by those I love, doing things I love, and generally feeling loved.  Thank you, everyone!

Noah also had his big friend party the last week of school.  On Wednesday afternoon, we invited a bunch of his friends to take part in a top secret mission, once they completed their spy training, of course. I am so sad I didn’t take any pictures of the invitations.  I  used manilla file folders, cut down to a smaller size, and attached a photo of each child to the outside, obtained from their class picture.  We had a map to our house, and all pertinent information regarding the party included as their “secret mission info”.

The goody bags were supposed to be briefcases and purses for the secret agents.  Not perfect, but they got the idea.Inside were lots of fun things spies might need when they are out on a job.

As the children arrived, I had them try and figure out different messages written in secret code.  This turned out to be much harder for them than I thought it would be, but they all seemed to have fun trying.

The next part of their training consisted of mastering the laser maze.  That was seriously the highlight of the party.  We timed them to see who could do it the fastest,and all the kids got into it, cheering each other on.(Thank you to Sarah and Sophie who helped me build the maze.) That game took a while, as everyone wanted to have more than one turn. heehee

Then we played Stomp the Bomb, which would have been even more fun if the yarn I used to tie the bombs to their ankles didn’t keep breaking.

To calm them down a little big after all that activity, we had them practice writing with invisible ink.  Some of them were frustrated that they couldn’t see what they were writing, but I kept assuring them that that was the whole point.  While the lemon juice dried, we went outside to practice our shooting skills.

I had made marshmallow shooters out of plastic cups, and I gave each child several mini marshmallows and let them try and shoot them into the bowls on the ground.

This proved to be much too difficult, as the shooters are not known for their accuracy. However, the kids had a blast seeing how HIGH and how FAR they could shoot their marshmallows.  This was the second hit of the party.  They were all thrilled when I told them they got to take their shooters home. We stayed out here for quite a while, but eventually the kids started to get too hot, so we moved it back inside for a drink.

While they were quenching their thirst, I handed out ransom notes to each child.  On it was a picture of a kidnapped toy that they needed to rescue as their final training exercise.  Sarah and Sophie had hidden the dolls all over the house, and they did such a good job that some kids needed to be given clues.

Eventually all the poor victims were rescued and reunited with their loved ones.

Present time came next.  And I was again so glad to see Noah receiving each present with genuine gratefulness and thanking the giver profusely, without prompting. He even got two of the same thing, and made sure the givers both knew how cool it was, because you always need more of the same Lego droids to make a real army. 🙂 Love that boy.

Finally it was time for the bomb cake! It was my first time really working with fondant, and my efforts were a bit pathetic, but Noah and his friends thought it was the coolest looking thing ever!  They were even more amazed when we cut it into it and it was filled with chocolate candy pieces.  Sadly, I was too busy passing out cake to get a photo of it.

In all the last minute hub-bub, I forgot to hand out their official spy id cards I had printed out.  Some of them had already left by the time I remembered. I had each child put their fingerprint on it, and write their name, then they could put it in their briefcase/purse to take home as well.  It was a super fun party to plan with Noah and he really seemed to have a great time with all his friends.

After her big Harry Potter blowout last year, Sarah wanted something more quiet and intimate this year.  She was turning a mature 12, after all.  And a big party seemed a little too childish to her.  So I made up some invitations for her three closest friends and they came over for a movie and slumber party the Friday night after school got out.Originally, she wanted to go to a movie in the theater, but there was absolutely nothing playing that she was interested in seeing.  So we improvised and had them watch a movie at our house.

One of the girls is not allowed to spend the night, so her mom came and picked her up after the movie. Then when the girls were up and dressed the next morning, we drove to her house and got her so she could have breakfast with us.  But not just any breakfast. Oh no, breakfast at the famous Sprüngli cafe in downtown Zürich.

Big girls get special privileges. 🙂 One of the moms told her daughter I would probably just decorate the house to look like the cafe.  Yes, that does sound like something I might do, but in this case, it was much simpler to just go to the real thing.  They had such a fun time. Sarah had a giant grin on her face pretty much the entire morning.  I am so glad we can give the kids special treats like this once in a while.And that hot chocolate is soooo good!  It was a nice reward for myself as well. Sarah immediately requested that we go again on her actual birthday, just us.  🙂

My favorite part of the day was the drive home from Zürich.  Here the girls had just had fancy schmancy breakfast where they behaved with perfect decorum.  And now they were in the back of our van, laughing, giggling and singing silly rhyming songs at the top of their lungs.  Oh and waving crazily to passengers in cars we passed on the road.  The specialness of 12 year olds!

Every three years the city of Zurich throws a giant party, for a whole weekend,  right downtown on the lake.  It is pretty epic and we always attend.  This year we headed down on Friday night to enjoy all the fun.  First, we needed to get some dinner.  Why is it that sausages cooked at a fair like this always taste so much better than the ones we grill ourselves?  My friend thinks it is because they are cooked at a low heat for a really long time, and there could be something to that.  Or maybe it’s because they add crack to the filling…either way, they are delicious!And getting to share your bread with the ducks makes them even better. 🙂  Nick decided he didn’t want a sausage, but instead wanted to try a cornish pasty.  He declared it very good, and I have since made them a few times at home.  They are laughably easy and so very, very tasty.

One of the most novel things about Zürifäscht for my kids, is that they get to walk right down the middle of the street without worrying about cars or trams running them over.  We often drive down this very stretch of rode to get to the zoo, so they know very well what it usually looks like. There are lots of stands selling food, but also very many selling trinkets, t-shirts, toys and other assorted stuff.  It’s always fun to look, but we rarely buy any of that stuff.  We would rather save our money for the rides and food. Chris is dressed so fancy because we picked him at work and came straight to the party.

Unfortunately, pick pockets are becoming more of a problem downtown than they have been in the past.  So they had this large warning reminding people to be careful.  We have never had a problem, but I know at least one person who had her wallet stolen out of the bottom of her child’s stroller. Sad.

My favorite fair food is the battered, fried apple slices.  We even discussed buying a fryer just so I could make them at home, but I decided it would be better to only have access to them on  an infrequent basis. ha! 

The older kids are always so patient while the younger ones have a spin on the car carousel.  Then we headed over to the bumper cars, where I proceeded to get a rope burn from the “safety strap”.  Although I am pretty sure it was due to user error.  Looked pretty gnarly for a few days afterward, and I also learned that aloe vera with Lidocaine is good for sunburns, but makes rope burns hurt even worse…

Hands down the best thing at the fair this year was the giant bouncy house area they had set up in the park.  There were all kinds of different ones for the kids to try, and it was all free. Can’t beat that!  We must have stayed there for a good hour, just letting the kids have fun.

As we slowly made our way back to where the car was parked, Alexandra was very excited about the ferris wheel she could see up ahead.  I thought she wanted to go on it, but as we got closer, she firmly declared she had no intention of going on it.  Way too scary.  Ah,my children really are wimps when it comes to rides. 🙂

I had to take a picture of this ride.  Have you ever seen a more bizarre mix of characters?  I have no idea what they were going for, or how it even pertained to the ride, which was a fun house.  And the giant Care Bear tied to the front is just sad and needs to go a.s.a.p. Yikes!

I love seeing my boys showing affection to each other in this way.  And speaking of sweet things, just as we were leaving we bought a bunch of cotton candy, the other treat that is only good at a fair.

As you can see, Noah had inhaled his long before Sophie had made a dent in hers, and that was sharing it with Alexandra! 🙂

I had originally thought we would stay and watch the fireworks that night, but the kids were tired and just wanted to go home, so we left.  In three years when it comes again, they will for sure be old enough to stay up so late.  At least I hope so, fireworks are my favorite thing.