5th Grade Project

Last week Sophie had her first multi-week project due. It is called the 5th grade exhibiton project. At the beginning of the project the school had a parent meeting to let the parents know what the kids would be working on for the next 6 weeks. Kids had to pick a topic that they were passionate about, research it and do a project on it. We were urged to stand back, offer support but let our kids do it on their own. Good advice but really hard for a mom like me (read pushy!) to stand back and not take an active role in the project. Sophie chose to do her research on Therapy Animals. She did a fantastic job and ended up with a great poster and wrote a childrens book, complete with illustrations about the topic. I am so proud of her for doing such a great job all on her own (and so proud of me for truly staying out of her work!) Congratulations Sophie!!!

Tadpoles

Sophie and Noah spend an enormous amount of time at the stream that runs a bit behind our house. Their most recent discovery was tadpoles. Much more exciting than all the broken pottery Noah found. (Although he is still sure that it are true artifacts.) They went out armed with old nutella and mayo jars and returned with three tadpoles. The jars weren't good enough for these very special tadpoles so they were placed in a Waterford crystal bowl (you never use it anyway mom!!- True...)So these little guys are living in the lap of luxury. I have already warned them that when they get legs and can remove themselves from their bowl they need to go back to their stream.

Western Stadt Juch

Noah's class has been practicing square dancing for the last 2 months or so. They have been joining classes with the local Swiss school so their kids could practice their English and learn the dances. Yesterday was their big Western Days party at the Swiss school. The kids had a great time. There was a mechanical bull to ride (I had to nix it for Noah because of his knee), leather tanning and metal forging. This I loved. Hot coals, open fire with kids sticking pieces of metal into it and then smashing them with a hammer. I venture to say this would not be on the list of activities in the US! Kids had a ball! Noah was the time keeper for the dancing. He stood in the middle and clapped and whooped it up.

Easter Skiing

So we had one last day skiing on Easter Monday. We had all kinds of weather from blizzard to warm sunshine. We experienced our first off piste skiing (leaving the groomed marked trail) trying to get to the bottom after Noah had a bad fall and hurt his knee. Not anxious to try it again soon. Powder covered the tops of Noah's ski boots. Sophie and Thomas loved it however and given that Noah was in pain (turns out he tore a ligagment!) he may want to try again when he is feeling ok.

Chess in the Park

I took the boys (Sophie was fishing with Dad) into Zurich just to wander and we found a park with this great chess board. They played a game while I people watched.

April Fool's Day 2010

Yes, that is HAIL that my children are playing in! Come on Spring!

Ferry ride

So yesterday I had an invite to join a friend in taking the kids to one of those indoor playgrounds with jumpy castles and trampolines. Pay a huge sum of money and let your kids bounce for five hours or until they vomit- which ever comes first. Of course I said yes. The place is on the opposite side of the Zurich lake from where we live. The easiest way to get there was to take the ferry across. I think my kids had almost as much fun on the ferry as they did jumping! A few pics of the ferry ride. They were moving too fast to get any at "Trampolino"!


Sophie on deck- it was windy!

Noah and his buddy Sully

Watching the waves

A little calmer hair!