Variety of Life

Well - About a week and a half ago, Rachel was in tears as she declared that "you and Dad always have plans for Saturday and we never get to have a choice and just play if we want." This was prompted by my announcement that we planned to go to Luzern on Sat. She declared that "we never went places when we lived in IA and we got to stay home and play all the time." Hmmmm. We really liked living in IA but did have to point out there were fewer things we did because certain things were farther away (ie... the Rocky Mtns were not a short drive away). And the adjustment to a different way of life/lifestyle here. The bigger grocery stores and shopping stores are open 'til 4pm (some 5pm) on Sat. and then closed until Mon. morning. Therefore, if we want to go anywhere involving window shopping/touristy type shopping, etc... it must be on Sat. AND, if we need to mow the yard it has to be on Sat. as the mower cannot be used on Sun. (I need to eventually pick up yet another duty from Bart and do it during the week). Sooo, Saturdays are very active here - everywhere - and then everything is dead on Sunday. If you've never been to Europe and do plan a trip - Sundays are good travel days - always check to see what might be open.
So, we still haven't been to Luzern. The girls enjoyed a whole day of staying in PJ's, playing with their toys, we got a lot done around the house and took the girls to the KinderZoo which IS open on Sundays. It was a ZOO - I'm getting too old to enjoy being surrounded by hundreds of little screaming kids who are petting goats, feeding ponies and camels and then licking the salt off their fingers from the popcorn (used to feed the animals). Gross! And I'm running around with the wet wipes telling the girls to wash their fingers off before they have ice cream - I'm sorry but camel slobber is just gross! As you can see from the pic's, they got to ride the ponies and just had a ball with that. Rachel really wants to take riding lessons. We told her when her German is a little better, we'd look into it (figure its a good way for her to get more comfy with the German as well).
Life this week: 1. My 1st haircut here - asked that they remove 3 cm's off the ends which she kept calling my "points" - I still look like me 2. Bart went to NY for a couple of days so we stocked up on children's Benadryl & Aleve - then he calls from the airport wondering if there were any books I wanted, I was so unprepared! But he did bring back a couple of People magazines which we will circulate around. There is a lot of book/magazine sharing going on. 3. Pray for my dad who is OK but suffered a job accident this week when a control panel was dropped and his legs happened to be under it - nothing is broken but is quite swollen & bruised. 4. Hosted a good ol' American feeling "poker night" for the Credit Suisse team (KPMG) and their spouses on Sat. Lots of food and the girls got a lot of attention but were very well behaved. Matt came in his "Gold" in honor of the IA vs Ohio game which sadly did not go the way of IA. 5. Hauling bags of dirt up to the terrace so I can get everything prepared for next spring and am planting/dividing perennials as able. I am definitely staying busy!

So - we start another week and hope whomever is reading this is doing well. God Bless.