Happy Sun

So, we’ve had a really good past few weeks.  Let me explain.  About 3 1/2 weeks out of May and 3 weeks of June were rainy, icky, gray and nasty.  I was getting a little, well, a lot- crazy.  There were several fun things planned that had to be cancelled due to rain (such as a ward water-skiing day), and it was not cool.  It’s a good thing I was blogging about horses, so you didn’t have to hear me whine.  But then, then the sun came out and I was happy again.  (And for awhile every time we went out the kids would say, “Look Mom—sun!”  because that’s what I would say every time to them.  :) )  And lots of fun things happened.

First, we got a package in the mail from my parents with birthday presents for all the kids.  They were all books and we were all overjoyed.  Oh, and also a package of twizzlers.  Ethne laughed and said, “Grandpa’s so funny—he loves these!”  Oh, how well she knows him!  We’ve been having a great time reading our new books.  The book Ethne got was the Big Green Book of Beginner Books by Dr. Seuss, and we were all so excited when we read the part in ‘I Am Not Going to Get Up Today!” that says, “All around the world they’re getting up.  And that’s okay with me.  Let the kids get up in Switzerland or Memphis, Tennessee.”  And it has a big picture of little Swiss kids in front of the Alps.  Very cool.

On one Monday I let Jethro skip school and we went with our friends Kathrin and Saphira to the zoo in Bern.  We had a super time and it was really fun.  We got to watch the seals being fed as well as some puffins, which I thought was really neat because we went down and watched them through the glass as they dove down to catch the fish and they made all these sparkly bubbles when they swam.  Cool.

A while back I was looking for a necklace on Etsy, and I had Brett come over to see which one he would vote for.  And he said, “Don’t buy any.  I’ll MAKE you one.”  And I was like, that’s awesome, but when?  But guess what?  He did it!  It’s awesome too and I will take pictures and show you sometime.

And Jethro’s class had a Kid Restaurant that we went to one night.  Jethro was our waiter and we had soup, scrambled eggs, cracker-cheese appetizers, and pudding for dessert, all made by Jethro and his class.  All the kids had to rotate between being the cooks, the waiters, and the dishwashers.  They also learned about how to set tables, made the menus, etc.  It was really cool.  What a fun project.

Hazel’s class had a sleepover one night and then we came for brunch in the morning.  And then last Friday was the final day of school and there was a end-of-school carnival.  Here are some pictures from that:

Hazel and Jethro got to ride in a Twike- they were very excited. Another day our friends Kathrin and Saphira took us to a different pool in Bern.  I loved the set-up with the pool RIGHT next to the Aare River.  It was really fun.  They had a slide there that Jethro went down pretty much the entire time (after he worked up his courage to go the first time).

The next pictures are from when we went on a walk one Sunday afternoon. 

       One morning Ethne, Talmage, and I picked strawberries.  They are soooooo good.

 

       These pictures were at the pool.  This is the face Talmage gives me when he knows his picture is being taken.  HA HA HA!!!! Goodness gracious he’s funny.    Hazel likes to climb doorframes.

This is the cake I made for our Fourth of July party.  Is that awesome or what?  Very very tasty too.  Except that I don’t like blueberries, but it’s okay because my kids do.  We decided to have Hazel pose with it since I didn’t make a cake for her birthday.  Pretty cute.   These pictures are from our Fourth of July celebration too.  We had some friends and neighbors over to hang out with and eat yummy food with, and then the boys decided to go play some soccer.  So at our American Indepedence  Day party there was a guy from Africa, a guy from Switzerland, a guy from Uruguay, and a guy from the US playing soccer.  It was good times.

So that’s my catch-up.  Now we’re outta here for awhile.

p.s. My Canada post got 8 comments, and my USA post only got 1.  Apparently, Canada wins.

p.s.s. We’ve now lived here 6 months and 1 week.  So if we only live here for exactly 2 years, we’ve already been here a quarter of the time.  Crazy!!