Maily

Grace and Ally are getting their first email accounts. I am adding myself to their contact list, of course. Aby, Grandpa Tom, Aunt Daphne, Nico, and Mickey Mouse watch your inboxes for incoming mail.


Introducing Maily for iPad from Maily on Vimeo.

- via swissmiss

Grace's first "homework" assignment

Grace's classmates were asked to take home and complete a list of things they like. Below are her answers (with translation) and some are pretty funny. For example, I have never even made nor know how to make ratatouille. I also think she confused the word "comforted" with "tormented."

 

Translation

Fruit: bananas, apples, grapes (seedless)

Food: Pasta, eggs, croissants, tomato soup

Book, story: fairytale books about princesses, Rapunzel, The Beauty and the Beast, Snow White

Song, music: bake cakes, in English: "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" ("Sparkle, sparkle, little star")

Toys: Baby Doll "Annabel", monkeys, blocks, arts and crafts

Falls asleep like this: a bath, a bedtime story, kisses from mom and dad

Is comforted by: her sister Ally, her doll "Annabel"

Animals: monkey, rabbit

Dislikes: Spinach, Ratatouille

Other: I love magic and origami

A Princess of Leisure x 2

This is what Grace and her best friend Felicity enjoy doing most. Spending time with each while sipping tea in their princess dresses. Virginia, Grace's Aby, handmade these dresses. That's Ally wearing half of her lederhose outfit. She is the antithesis of a princess.

Typographic Bird Houses

Some things are too good to live only on pinterest boards. These birdhouses by Nishant Jethi (via Swiss Miss) took my breath away. Really lovely.

Meine Familie

Minature Trains

There was a rather large display of minature trains at one of our local shopping malls. One train even had smoke pouring out of its smokestack. It seemed pretty random but then again we were only in the neighborhood to pick up groceries. 

Atzmannig Part II

Atzmannig is one of our favorite destinations on a Sunday. It has everything you need to complete a restful weekend. Hiking, dining, a very long rutschbahn, spielplatz in the clouds, and views. Unparalleled views.

Why Ordinary People Do Bad Things

Rob just had an article published in Wednesday's Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). The title is Warum ganz normale Menschen schlechte Dinge tun, or in English, Why Ordinary People Do Bad Things. I have the PDF (in German) for anyone interested in reading it. I also have the English version as well. Grace loved showing her friends the little pic of Rob in the paper. Then she asked if she could cut up the article to make a paper-mache elephant! I guess Rob has to work harder to impress the five year old set.

1200 Drinking Fountains

I has sticker shock when we first moved to Zürich and I went to purchase a small bottle of water from a kiosk at the train station.  The woman manning the kiosk wanted 5CHF for a little bottle of water!  Now, over 18 months later, I am happy to report that you don't need bottled water while out and about in Zürich and most surrounding neighborhoods for that matter. Zürich has over 1200 drinking fountains and the water tastes fantastic.

Here's a neat website from someone who is on a mission to find all of the fountains in the city and an interesting post on Zürich's emergency fountains (probably more interesting for folks who live here). I always wondered about these bronze fountains as well and it's good to know they serve a purpose. They are definitely plain in comparison to most of the fountains you'll find here.

Tier l Park l Goldau

We spent a really enjoyable afternoon with Rob's first cousin, Daniel, and his eldest son Nicolas today at Tier Park in Goldau. Tier Park is an enormous animal park situated in a "boulder strewn" area of Goldau and offers up close views of many beautiful and rarely seen wild animals. There are over 90 European species that call Tier Park home. We were lucky enough to see a couple of bears, a lone wolf, one lynx (in a tree), and many deer that roamed the paths alongside us humans. There was the requisite stop at one of the communal grilling areas for lunch and then more walking along the trails.

Rob's cousin, Daniel, suggested this park and we hope to return with him and the rest of his family, Carolina and Lucas, in the future. I think the best part of the day was watching Grace interact with her cousin, Nicolas. They spent the day laughing, running, and exploring Tier Park together. Grace's German is also progressing and both Rob and I realized that she knows way more than she lets on. She spoke to Nicolas only in German. She has easily learned more German in three weeks of public school (with three regular German lessons a week) than she did after an entire year at a private bilingual school.

Lesson learned. Kids are far more resilient than we give them credit for and if given half a chance will exceed our wildest expectations! And, I miss Target less with every passing Sunday in Switzerland.