Flying visit

This weekend we had a quick visit from Abatha (or Abita as Wilder says), Lila (Nina as per Wilder) and Nate (still Nate). Wilder is still asking where they are every morning since they went home. We showed them what we could of our local surroundings including:

Friday lunchtime we all got to go to Ilona's classroom to hear her read her story about when she lost her first tooth.

We managed a walk outside at Putnam Park

And after German on Saturday morning, lunch at the Rye Ridge Deli in Stamford

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

Not the Eiffel Tower

It wasn't all Eiffel Tower, all the time. We also had time to take one of those open top bus tours around Paris, where, amongst other things, we saw the Eiffel Tower. There was also plenty of time for the kids to pretend to be street urchins, pizza, a walk up the hill to Sacre Coeur, trips on the metro galore, and a memorable lunch of crepes on a very steep street.

Paris! : Eiffel Tower

So here we are, last Saturday, exploring Paris. The highlight for most of the kids was the Eiffel Tower (which Bluet said was the most beautiful tall building). The highlight for Ilona was her new shoes. Bluet was fascinated by all the souvenir sales people peddling their wares around the tower, and we ended up bringing 5 Eiffel Towers home with us. She has also been spotted pretending to buy and sell these Paris souvenirs. As you can see, we walked all the way around




Here is Bluet's picture of the tower



And her tower souvenir



Ilona's shoes:

Heatwave

Last week Nate, Lila, Scott and Abatha joined us all the way from St Louis. Our time was mostly spent trying to keep cool as we are in the middle of a never ending heatwave. We have a new swimming pool for the garden, complete with slide, so this was the perfect opportunity to try it out, and patch the leak that has already developed.

Other options for keeping cool include jumping into the nearest river.



However, we also took the train to Paris. So here is most of the group at Zurich Station, waiting for the TGV. More to come......

Last American Photos

I think we finally overcame jetlag last weekend, and all is more or less back to normal. Still, here are a few more of our holiday snaps - this is where we were over New Year - out canoeing on the Current River, as per the Corse family tradition


Meanwhile, the kids got to spend their New Year with Abatha, Scott, Nate and Lila. When we returned and told them we would have to fly back to Switzerland, they told us they would rather stay at Abatha's house forever.



Once we got back to St Louis from the river we took Bluet to her first ever 3D movie (Sing) - she was very excited when things started sticking out of the screen (and kept the 3D glasses to wear around the place).

Here are Bluet and Ilona exploring the woods near the cabin



Bath at Nana's house