Turnips, Fall and Birthdays - A November Recap

Wow am I behind on my blog posts. Here it is practically winter and I haven't even posted about our warm, hot summer.  There just isn't enough time in the day folks.  Here goes a November recap.

Who can resist a big pile of leaves

November started out warm with periods of cold rain and ended with snow and fog.  The fall colors were in spectacular form in early November.  It was truly magnificent and we were able to enjoy some nice fall hikes on the warmer days. November also included our first turnip parade and many birthday parties.

The turnip parade

The Rabechilbi, aka Turnip parade is a traditional fall festival here in Switzerland.  People (mostly children) carve turnips (Rube) sort of like we carve pumpkins but a little different.  As I quickly learned since I  was at Kindergarten with Ali on the morning of the parade with a specific list of tools in hand to help carve her first turnip. Later that night there was a procession of kindergartners and 1st graders carrying their proud turnips around town with a small candle inside.  It's a cute tradition.

7 girls and Miles for birthday lunch

Alison also had a parade of birthday parties.  Hard to believe she is 5 already. They make a big deal out of birthdays at kindergarten.  Each student in her class had a role to play in her being made to feel like a queen for the day including a crown, cape, necklace, special songs.  It was quite elaborate.  Since her actual birthday fell on a Thursday, her "long" day at school, she had her kindergarten friends over on Friday after school for lunch and cake.  Inviting 6 girls over to our place whose language I don't understand was a bit intimidating, but nothing compares to the invitation disaster that I inflicted upon myself.  Rookie mistake and lesson learned is all I have to say.  The Friday party went well and I only forgot to pick up one of the girls from kindergarten.  Luckily her mom was at the school, plus she lives right next door. It was pouring rain so getting 7 girls into their rain gear to walk home was a bit of a huge task.  Then there is that whole language barrier. The kids speak Swiss German, a language I don't understand, but luckily Alison now does. So if I didn't understand something, I just asked Alison.  "Mom, she wants you to call her mom'.  Ok good to know - great now once again I have to utilize my poor German skills for yet another painful conversation.  All is all it went much better than I expected, actually fairly calm until the sugar rush from the funfetti cake hit but by then it was almost time to go.

End of circus show

On Sunday we had a circus themed birthday party with her "expat" friends.  I am so thankful for the community of friends we have made here.  Everyone had a great time. And sandwiched in between all that was my birthday.

The following weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving in Basel with some good friends.  We always bring the insanely expensive turkey (100$ for a 12lb bird), while the host family makes all of the fixings. This year I did make green bean casserole from scratch (except for the fried onions - thanks IKEA) and a homemade pumpkin pie, complete with homemade crust.  A first time for everything.  It was fun and delicious.  I always get a kick out of seeing Erik grill the turkey on the balcony (since it won't fit in our oven) and the fact he has to put on a coat or sweatshirt to step outside.

Now we are gearing up for Christmas and enjoying the markets and the traditions that come with this time of year.  Wishing you and your family all good holiday cheer.

Unbelievably warm and gorgeous fall day

Enjoying some sunshine

Wants to be buried

She got to sit in the teachers chair on her birthday

Strange birthday ritual at school

The circus birthday party

More circus antics

Her sweet friends

Riding the train

Snowfall on Thanksgiving morning

Erik grilling the turkey 

Ali helped with the beans

homemade cream of mushroom soup

Thanksgiving dinner

Ali and Fran

Birthday girls

Thanksgiving feast

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Her proud turnip

Turnip parade

Ice skating

Kindergarten for Ali

Ali started kindergarten in early August.  Hard to believe our little girl is old enough for that milestone. Many of you have asked what kindergarten here is like compared to the US.  Well it's a bit different. The children start kindergarten when they are 4 or 5 and stay in kindergarten for two years.  The day starts at 8:15 and is over at 11:45.  She doesn't go at all on Wednesdays.  On Thursdays she comes home for lunch and has to be back at school at 1:30 for a short 90 minute session. And all of them walk to school, rain or shine, sleet or snow.  There are no buses or drop off zone.  Lucky for us Alison doesn't have to cross any roads and the kindergarten is a short 6 minute walk from our apartment.  She does go under one busy road, so it's nice there is a tunnel for the kids to walk under.  The most she has to worry about is getting run over by an older kid on a bicycle speeding home for their lunch break.  The kindergartners and the first graders wear a fluorescent sash around their necks with their names on it.  In the winter it will be dark when they walk to school so I am assuming it's so they can be seen by other bicyclists and cars.

Miles and his scooter

They do not teach academics in kindergarten - no push to read, write or learn numbers.  The emphasis is on playing and socializing.  They do lots of crafts, sing songs and play games. The kindergarten teachers only speak Swiss German.  But since it is not a written language, they switch to High German when they start first grade.  Therefore there is a High German teacher in the classroom a few days a week "teaching" a bit of high German since most of the children only know Swiss German.  I will say Alison's German has improved tremendously in the short amount of time since she started. I don't know if she is speaking Swiss or High German to be honest but her teachers say that she seems to understand and speak very well.

She has two teachers, one for Monday/Tuesday and a different one for Thursday/Friday.  On Friday they have "Turnen" which means they go to the gym and do some sort of games/ exercise.  Not surprisingly this is Alison's favorite day to go.  They play outside every day for a short time after "Znuni", their mid morning snack. We were sent home with explicit instructions of what they can and cannot bring in their znuni taschli (snack box).  Alison takes fruit and crackers most days.

Ali's kindergarten is right in front

They have a shorter summer break (only 4 weeks) in addition to several breaks throughout the year: 3 weeks in late September/October, 2 weeks for Christmas, 2 weeks for sport holiday in February (when everyone in Switzerland goes skiing), then a 2 week spring break in April.  They are very strict about taking them out of school even in kindergarten.  We must now comply with the school holiday schedule.  No more going on vacation during the off (much much cheaper) season.  Oh well.

That being said it was not an easy start for Alison in kindergarten. The first two days she was OK but starting on the 3rd day she had a bit of separation anxiety.  There were tears and crying (from more than just Ali). There was lots of time spent in the classroom in the mornings with her. (Thank goodness Erik had a flexible work schedule that week and I had a friend who watched Miles).  But by the end of the second week she was fine and is now willingly going to kindergarten.  I think it really caught us by surprise as she had been so excited to go for so long.

His teacher dubbed him 'the great chicken farmer'

Now that Ali is in school I thought I would have some free time but really I don't.  Between playgroups for both kids (some mornings & some afternoons), grocery shopping (2-3 times a week), trips to the gym (if I'm lucky) and practicing my German, there isn't much down time.  I do enjoy meeting my other mommy friends for coffee when I can. And then once or twice a month I get 2 hours to myself on a Friday morning.  Woohoo!!

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Erik and I had our first "eltern abend" (parent teacher meeting) with her teacher that doesn't speak much English.  Although it was good practice for us, I found it a bit challenging to say the least since our German is still pretty rudimentary. What is funny is I walked away thinking how awful it went and Erik thought it was great.  Just found it a bit unnerving that we didn't understand 100% of what the teacher was telling us about our child. I think she said she is doing well.

And that about sums up kindergarten in a nutshell. I'm sure after we get back from the holidays, Alison will start walking to school on her own.  She has already made a few friends she can walk with.  In the meantime Miles is getting mad crazy practice on his scooter.  Thank goodness for the scooter as Miles is a huge dawdler, so the scooter lets us go places much faster than if that boy had to walk.  Today we had to walk back and forth four times to the school in the cold rain and holy cow it took us forever.

We are looking forward to heading back next week and spending some time in the fall foliage of North Carolina.  It will be our last trip stateside for quite a while, so hope we get to see as many of you as possible.

Miles enjoys the 1st day of kindergarten also

Her first school craft

"The great chicken Farmer"

Ali doing her chores at the farm

Miles on his way to the forest

Mountain Camping Trip

Coolest playground ever made

A few weeks ago we went camping in the mountain area of Lauterbrunnen. A bit different from our usual camping spot in the Italian part of Switzerland. The campsite was beautiful, although we did get one of the last spots available since we rolled in a bit late on Friday night.  Although a tad bit muddy, with a hint of a slant, we made it work since we were only staying two nights.  The campgrounds are so well equipped here complete with nice, clean wash facilities, a fun playground and even an indoor play area for the kids.  And they are super quiet considering how large they are and how many people were there.  Seriously we were lulled to sleep by the sound of the surrounding waterfalls. And the stargazing was spectacular.

The next morning we realized we couldn't actually leave the campground as there was a half marathon starting at the entrance.  Luckily, unlike Florida marathons that start at 6 am or earlier (Disney) this one didn't start until 9:30am so we watched the start of it before going off on our adventure for the day.  We drove to nearby Stechelberg, which was one of the transition areas for the Inferno Triathlon  that coincided with the half marathon.  This particular race did start at 6am with a 3km swim in a nearby glacier lake, followed by a 96km road bike leg, followed by a 30km mountain bike segment and then finishing with a short 25km jog up to Shilthorn (2970m), a mere 2100m of vertical change several times throughout the course.  Craziness, at least it was a beautiful day for it.  Still trying to convince our friends Jamie and Leslie to come back over for that one next year.

Looking down at playground from hill up high

We took several gondolas from Stechelberg up to the beautiful town of Murren, an idyllic car free Swiss Alp village.  We then rode the always fun funicular up to the top of another mountain to find what may be the best playground ever. This particular playground had a flower theme, complete with a pretend cheese house, zip line, several slides, big lounges for the adults and even a water feature. But the backdrop for this particular playground was breathtaking;  an unbelievable view of three of the most famous swiss peaks - Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch.  It was insanely beautiful.

We then hiked back down to the town of Murren, along what was called a children's activity trail.  It was really fun for the kids with crazy slides and zip lines in the woods. Back in Murren, we met up with one of Erik's former boss' from the US who was site seeing with his wife.  They were also amazed by the beauty of the area.  It was truly a gorgeous day.  I mean the pictures say it all.

The next day (Sunday) the weather was not quite so gorgeous, with scattered rain in the morning. For some reason it never seems to fail when we break camp that we end up bringing home a wet tent.  Small price to pay.  Later that day, Erik and Ali hiked to Trummelbach Falls, Europe's largest subterranean waterfall. Children under 4 were not allowed so Miles and I hung back and drank some coffee/hot cocoa, which was probably a good thing considering Alison came back speaking only of how loud it was inside.  Erik, the geologist, was of course fascinated and went so far as to say we should take every visitor we have to this place.  Perhaps next time I will get to experience it, hopefully with some more visitors (hint, hint).

Happy campers

Although we are not frequent campers by any means, we really do enjoy it once there and have a hard time convincing the kids (and ourselves) to leave. We always tell ourselves we should do this more often. There is just something about this beautiful country, that we have totally fallen in love with. And to be unplugged (mostly) and surrounded by incredible mountains and waterfalls with happy kids, well what more could we ask for really.

Coolest playground yet

In Murren about to ride the funicular

Cheese house at the playground

Getting his adventure on

Miles zip lining

The three peaks - truly magnificent

One way to get around

Feeling blessed

Our kids are so lucky

"The hills are alive with the sound of …."

You go first

Long slide into the forest - awesome

Our muddy but awesome camp spot

One of many waterfalls

Matching hat day

A real picture not a postcard

Start of the half marathon included alp horn players

Beautiful day for a run with 2100m of vertical change

Unbelievable view