Happy Halloween!

The girls are getting dressed later to go out trick or treating, but even Wilder is getting in on the action

Missouri/St Louis

Here in Missouri Bluet was reunited with her sister (she even told her she missed her), and we went to the Zoo in St Louis, along with the Missouri cousins.



And playing in their cousins' garden


Then onto the farm, where they have been learning to drive



Proudly wearing their new raincoats



Carving 'punkins' at the cabin

Final Dad-and-Bluet Zurich photos

On our Saturday together in Zurich, Bluet got a free balloon from the Zurich film festival, bought a watch from the junk fair with her pocket money (a 1990s swatch, no less), and for some reason for the first time ever wanted her photo taken with the painted bear that sits outside our local Migros supermarket, and which she has routinely ignored every one of the 100s of times we've passed it since we moved to Zurich

Mr B sitting up

Baby Wilder became Mr Baby, became Mr B, and that's what we tend to call him (or, on occasion, baby Wilds). He is now 3 months old and has begun to sit up (with a little help). It makes him very happy as there is more to see. He is also now responding to the direction voices come from, and likes to smile, especially if he thinks he is about to eat or have his nappy changed. The big kids are also enjoying playing with him, with Bluet desperate to lend him her (very old and ragged) blanket at any opportunity

New Crayola Crayon Colour

 

Not found one yet, but I hope we will

Other things that Bluet does when Ilona is away

With Veronika's help, Bluet made an owl family which includes the 5 of us, and Hugo, our next door neighbour. Wilder is the baby owl in the nest:



Bluet's greatest wish for her holidays? To play outside at Nana and Wayne's house with Ilona and Dingo (pictured)



Bluet also chose her first book from the school library. I heartily approve this choice:




She also collected a lot of conkers. Here, some were finally put to good use and turned into a giraffe

Swiss Schooling

One unexpected benefit of living in Switzerland is that we get to experience a different approach to schooling. We may have mentioned previously that Bluet got to go out into the woods and cook sausages whilst she was in kindergarten. Well, the teaching of these vital life skills steps up a notch when you enter first class, as you can see by this letter we received home a few weeks ago, telling us that on the Monday of the next week, Bluet would be doing 'Ausflug' whereby they would again be going somewhere in the woods to learn knifecraft, and the children were then instructed that they could bring their own penknives, as long as they were of the permitted type with the non-pointed blade (pictured; Louis bought a pointed one with him and was not allowed to use it) - sold as my first swiss army knife in Switzerland. So Emily headed into town and found one for Bluet, which I think more or less instantly became her proudest possession (probably because, as she told me, Ilona was too little to have one). She had it engraved with her name too, which was fortunate as otherwise the teacher would've written on it with a pen. They taught her how to cut safely (e.g. cutting away), and how to close the knife safely, and then she made a magic wand. I am pleased to report she still has all her fingers. She was saddened however to not get a chance to play with fire, one of the other first class activities. And she is very jealous of the saw on my pen knife, as she believes this is only safe for bigger kids and adults, but would quite like to have them.



Anyway, on the Sunday whilst Emily, Ilona and Wilder were away, we went into the woods near our house, and both of us did some whittling with our respective knives.