Fact.

It was our village’s Fasnacht celebration last Saturday or something.  Ethne was going to be in the paragde with her Kindergarten class, dressed as a bear.  Unfortunately, she got sick and so did not go.  But anyway on Friday Hazel got to dress up in a costume for school.  She chose to be Robin Hood.  I dare you to find a cuter Robin Hood anywhere.  She is so adorable.

And since the box was out, the other kids had to join in the fun.  :)  Thanks Kami!

Hazel and Brett went sledding.  I chose to stay in the warm house.  It has been durn cold.

But I actually did venture out one afternoon for a quick jaunt to take some pictures.
  
  
 
 
Orrin is cute.  And I think I can actually feel him getting bigger every day.



   
So I have to squeeze him A LOOOOOOT.

Anyway, I have to go to bed and be sure to get EVERYTHING done tomorrow because we leave on Monday morning!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ahhhhh!! 

Angel wings

Hazel

   

  

In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's.

-George Eliot (Silas Marner)

Ethne

 

Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with angels.
~Richard Purdy Wilbur

  

Ooooh, effects!

 

And then, a little slap-happy with effects.  :)

Bubbles

Bubbles are pretty awesome.  Mainly because little babies and toddlers and kids love them, and so will be kept occupied by them for fairly long periods of time. 

So I took some pictures of some.  Which was not as easy as you might expect since I was the one blowing the bubbles and taking the pictures, and the camera wouldn’t automatically focus on the bubbles very well.  But, it was fun.  Yep.

And, I have much better pictures to show- like of my kids and stuff, but haven’t gotten around to going through them yet.

And, I’m ill.  I went to the doctor this a.m. and got a strep-test done (he even showed me the test with it’s pink plus-sign for positive, which looked disconcertingly like a pregnancy test), and it came out positive so I got some antibiotics.

Yay for antibiotics so that I’ll be well for my trip which is in T minus 6 days!!!

   

And Happy Valentine’s Day.  They don’t have Valentine’s Day here (or Halloween or Fourth of July, or Thanksgiving) but Hazel and Ethne colored some valentines to give to their classmates anyway. 

This week.

 

I’m pretty glad January is over.  January is a pretty worthless month.  Actually I shouldn’t complain- I was busy planning our trip.  Which is in only 18 days!!!  Sometimes my stomach actually tingles I am so excited.  

On Monday I took Orrin in (late) for his 1-year shots.  They call them vaccinations here instead of immunizations, which makes me feel like we’re going to the vet instead of the doctor.  He didn’t appreciate his shots or the finger-poke, but he was almost just as traumatized having the doctor check his height and weight and poke him a bit.  The poor boy does NOT like strangers. 

Yesterday we had to go into Bern to get our pictures and fingerprints taken to get a new card to live in Switzerland.  I was not prepared for how cold it was outside, and so our walk from the parking area up 3 or 4 blocks to where we were going was a pretty distressing one.  Orrin didn’t have a hat, so he borrowed Hazel’s since she had a hood on her coat.  Neither Jethro nor I had a hood or hat, so our ears were freezing off, and even though Talmage did have a hat, he started crying almost as soon as he got out of the van.  The wind was just icy.  Brett met us there, and on the way back to the van, he chivalrously gave me his hat.  :)  I guess it’s finally winter here?

 

You know, it’s one thing for one of my children to be hard on clothes, but it’s entirely different to have to plead with her not to CHEW holes in her clothes.  grrr.

 

So last night Brett and Jethro went to Jethro’s parent-teacher(-student) conference.  They were gone quite a while, and when they got home I heard Brett say in a really upset, angry voice, “Get your pajamas on right now, Jethro!”  and then he came in and shook his head and muttered, “I am so ticked off with that kid.  I can’t believe it."  I was wondering what in the world?  Then I saw Jethro walk down the hallway and he was crying and Brett started to say something else, and I said, “We can talk about it later,” (as in, not in front of all the kids), and I was seriously thinking ‘what is going on?!” and I was getting so worried.  And THEN, they said, “JUST KIDDING!”    Apparently, they schemed together to trick me, and I was totally taken!  Jethro even put water on his eyes and his face was red just from being out in the cold.  Rascals!!!

Jethro’s teachers only had good things to say- they said his German (BOTH Germans, they pointed out- Hochdeutsch and Schwyzerdütsch –High German and Swiss German) is just soaring.  Brett and Jethro took sleds on their way to the school, and on their way back they sledded down the hill several times.  Jethro said, “I wish parent-teacher conferences were every night.

Last night Talmage whacked his head on something and started crying and he said, “Now one of my superpowers is dead!  But just one.  I have lots of superpowers in my room.” 

 

Jethro has been into jets lately.  He has written a couple different ‘reports’ on different jets, complete with pictures, like the F-14 Tomcat, and the F-22 Raptor.  He even made versions in English AND German so he could show them to different friends who speak one or the other.

I should be doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom.

 

On Tuesday Ethne’s class went to the forest, and apparently she got really cold and so the teacher called Brett, who called me, to go pick her up.  Her feet were wet and she also wet her pants, and Brett said she was throwing a fit when her teacher called.  It’s true that her boots are a bit too small, but I kindof don’t want to buy new ones just for the last bit of this winter, when we could possibly be moving this year.  Does that make me a bad mom?

Migros (one of the main grocery stores here) started a new promotion-thingee (remember Nanos?) called Animanca.  Every time you spend 20 francs, they give you one of the little stone-thingees that you can collect or put on a string around your neck and you can get special ones only on certain days.  So yesterday was one of those special days, so Jethro begged and begged me to go to Migros to buy groceries and get the ‘joker.’  There were sticky notes all over the house reminding me that Feb. 1 was the day for jokers at Migros.  I kindof love the ads they have.  I can only find one online, but if I can get a picture of the other ads sometime I will- it has more wild children/animals :

Seriously, if you run a business, you should start some little collection gimmick targeted to kids.  It works!