Hands

Playtime

Yesterday was a bit wet and miserable, with the snow meting everywhere. Still the kids needed to go outside and run around. They found a sledge whilst out and about, and optomisitcally tried to slide down a hill in the mud.

The sun has gone to bed

Here is Ilona's latest music video, where she performs her favourite song from the sound of music. Enjoy

Ilona about town

1. At our house, watching the sound of music, which is now her favourite thing (after Iggle Piggle) to ask to watch. She also is very funny singing 'the sun has gone to bed' over and over


2. Wearing her crown (Bluet also wears many crowns, as you may have noticed in previous photos)


3. On Monday Alexandra was off ill, so Ilona came to work with me, and rode around on this trolley. She enjoyed herself. I got some work done



4. On Saturday mornings Bluet goes to phonics class, while Ilona gets to go have coffee in Starbucks

Ilona has her photo taken

Ilona has realised that we take quite a lot of photographs of her and Bluet. She has now started to ask me to take her photo, at which point she always tries to look her best. Here are a few of the snapshots she has asked me to take:



And one she didn't ask for

What we've been up to

Well, just before New Year we took the train to a small town just outside Basel where there is a water park attached to a hotel (and little else). We stayed the night and the kids spent a good part of 2 days jumping into the pool with abandon (and armbands). This was enjoyable for all, but because of all the water, no photographs exist.

Anyway, here they are before we set off. (and a photo of Bluet when we went for a walk in the woods near home


Meanwhile we are now back in the swing of things.

A couple of weekends ago we bought a basketball to use in the school playground. It is almost as big as Bluet. Also, Ilona has been riding her bike.





Bluet had her haircut last weekend, I tried to do a before and after. Here is how it turned out (the before after, not really the haircut).

Happy New Year!

Of course, with small kids our New Year celebration didn't make it to midnight. So instead here is our Xmas day. We drove back from Slovakia, stopping overnight in Salzburg where we drank the last of the mulled wine. We got back to Zurich on Xmas eve, and then spent Christmas day at our house, where presents were opened (in a remarkably restrained fashion) and Christmas food consumed. On boxing day we got on the train and went to check out Bern, which was a pleasant day trip. Then on Sunday morning Nana and Wayne flew back to Missouri.




And we really did get Ilona a dustpan and brush for one of her presents, because she always wants ours whenever we are using it



Also, I forgot to put this picture of Ilona on the last blog: