HIking at Atzmannig

Last weekend was gorgeous weather and a long weekend.  We had friends visiting from Germany so we decided to take them hiking at one of the places we had skied.  Great views and fun to see the mountain without snow.  Kids had fun both hiking and riding the rodelbahn (alpine slide)  down.  We did have a bit of a game convincing the three year old he liked to climb mountains.  He was a bit reluctant but finally climbed into the child carrier and fell asleep on mom's back. 

Mother's Day

This year for Mother's day Sophie cooked (with a little help) a huge brunch spread for the family.  We had pancakes, sausages, bacon, fruit salad, strawberry muffins and spinach salad.  Yummy!  The rain then kindly let up for an hour or so (we have had an incredibly rainy May- like everyday in May) so we could go for a walk in the woods.  Everything sure is green thanks to all the rain....It was a super day!

Spain with Thomas

Thomas is off to Spain for 9 days with his Spanish class. The entire 9th grade is away this next week on various trips. Thomas chose this one (one of 4 trips offered) which involves spending two weekends sightseeing in Madrid and Toledo and the week in between in Valloloid (just north of Madrid) living with a family and attending language school. Sounds great. I was a little choked up at the airport saying goodbye. He doesn't look too sad though, does he?

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.