Grace's Baking & Zumba Birthday Party

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Grace turned six years old today and to celebrate, her teacher and classmates held a very special morning hour just in her honor. They do this for every child that has a birthday and it is wonderful.

The ceremony starts with Grace choosing two friends to leave the room to read a book with her. Once the kids are outside the room, her teacher works with the other students to get the room ready for the birthday child. A couple of children close all of the blinds in the room, another child hides a present, and they all prepare the room. A special chair covered in gold fabric is brought out and a table is covered with a red velvet tablecloth hemmed with a white leopard print. Very regal.

Upon the table, the teacher places a large die, a catepillar candlelabra, a wrapped gift, musical instruments, bubbles, and a windmill music box. Grace is then led back into the dark room with the two friends she selected, Annabella and Ryna, carrying the largest sparklers I have ever seen. The part that glitters is at least in diameter the same size as their faces. There's a wow factor for sure.

The festivities continue with Grace picking a favorite song for her teacher to play on an acoustic guitar and sing while the students play various instruments like cymbals, bells, etc. Grace can't think of a song so her friend suggests they sing "Go tell it on the mountain" - a song they'd practiced for the winter concert. The die is used by each student to roll and anytime it lands on Grace's age (6) everyone has to do some sort of physical activity. They all jumped up and down on their chairs six times one time and stood in place while jumping on one leg another time. A gift (a bejeweled and glittered masterpiece bottle of bubbles) was hidden somewhere in the room and the children played a game of "heisse" and "kalt" with her until she found it. She personally lit all of the candles on the caterpillar. There was a candle for each year of her life. Grace also got to wind up the music box and blow bubbles into it. The children were happy when a bubble would float up and Grace was using the motion of the windmill to keep the bubbles from falling to the ground.

A couple of my favorite moments included each child waiting his or her turn to get up and walk over to Grace. They would shake her hand and offer a birthday wish. My German is nicht ser güt so I wasn't sure what some of those wishes were. I also really liked that Grace got to personally hand out her cupcakes to each of her classmates.

For dinner she requested fondue and she spent the afternoon swimming with Rob at her favorite pool. The only way to keep Ally from throwing a fit about not being included was to tell her that Grace was going to get a shot.

A shot at freedom from her little sister is what we meant but we just said a "shot." This weekend she will celebrate her birthday with her friends. Grace is having a cupcake baking & Zumba party. We only hope it will be as nice as the celebration at her school.

School Etiquette

Grace walks to and from school by herself now and has done so for a few months. Granted, we only live 450m from the entrance, but it is a contrast to Pittsburgh, where parents stood with their kids to wait for the school bus. This is just one of many reasons I enjoy raising the girls in Switzerland. I am not saying bad people don't exist here but it's a different type of mentality. Folks are always watching and looking out for each other. I think they are mostly watching to make sure everyone adheres to the "rules" of living here. This also means kids are taught to follow the social norms and another parent may end up correcting Grace if need be. I like that. Now. And it's only taken me 18 months to embrace the differences between life in Switzerland and life back in the States. I still miss Target though.

I am also impressed with the etiquette they are taught in school. On snow days, the kids use brooms on shortened handles to clean their shoes and boots of excess snow. Once inside the building they go through several other motions, completely independently of an adult, such as taking off the ubiquitous rain slickers and hanging up their kinskis (v-shaped reflectors that all 5 & 6 year olds must wear), and last but never least putting on their finken (house slippers).

It's not just a beautiful life. It's a well mannered one as well.

Winter's Calm + the girls

This is the view at the entrance of our apartment building

picking up Ally from her kinderkrippe (daycare)

Care Package

My friend Akiko sent us a care package from Santa Barbara filled with treats from Trader Joes. The spread was much larger but we made short change of it :) Thanks, Koko! You sure know how to make us miss home more.

Kinder-Universität Zürich

There are so many wonderful programs for children in Zürich and this is just another example of one we can't wait for Grace (and eventually Ally) to experience. All children from the 3rd - 6th primary class, are welcome to attend  FREE lectures at the University of Zürich.

Here's are a few working titles for upcoming lectures this Spring:
 
Dogs in space, war horses - how animals make history? 

What to tell a worm he can do?
 
How do you make a sound? 

Archaeological digs from history?
  
Grace's school has a reading night at our local library. The children pick out books from the local library and parents volunteer to read the books at different stations throughout the evening. This is all coordinated through the Elternrat (AKA PTA back home). And summertime around here is even more fun. There's a mini olympic competition to find the fastest kid in Zürich. Different heats with kids grouped by age running and then advancing depending on how fast they are. More meets until they find the fastest kid in Zürich. I wish I grew up here! 

Home for the Holidays

We spent the holidays in Dallas with Rob's family and had a very nice time. The trip started with a four hour drive to Frankfurt, since there aren't any Zurich - Dallas direct flights. We spent the night at the Steigenberger (highly recommend the new rooms - had to take pics because it was divine) Hotel and flew out the next morning nonstop to DFW. It was an 11.5 hour flight and the girls did well considering it was an 11.5 hour flight! I thought bringing plenty of DVDs, games, and toys was essential to zero in-flight demonstrations of how ugly sibling rivalry can get but now I know better, it's all about the food/snacks. And keeping the girls separated. On the flight home, one of us sat between the two girls and the result was much more pleasant and quiet, a piece of cake.

The girls loved playing with their cousin Sophia and we all were thrilled to meet Sophia's little sister, Shay. Our first meal was In-N-Out, which we also made sure was also our last meal Stateside. You cannot get a decent burger in Switzerland. We also spent an evening out of the house for 24 hours compliments of Rob's parents, Virginia and Stan. I am still pinching myself over that gift!

Shopping felt great! I love Target, Nordstrom, and strip malls. Anything I wanted was within a few minutes drive including spa pedicures and Starbucks. Thanks again Milge for the pedi/girl time! The girls also got their hair cut which was more challenging than you may realize. Grace is currently trying to grow her hair out. "Out" being as long as Rapunzel's. Ally enjoyed the attention and sat perfectly still for the hairdresser. She really enjoyed having her hair styled.

Eating out is something we do in Zürich but not nearly as often as we did in the States and for me, meals are a big part of what makes a holiday fun. Rob's Mom spoiled us with her homemade meals. Brisket and enchiladas a plenty. Lawry's is a Texas institution and we had dinner there sans kids, the night before the Texas A&M football team. We also had lunch with my friend Sydnie and her significant other, Levi, at a restaurant that made fresh guacamole table-side. Syd flew in from L.A. and took us all to Legoland. See you in California next time, Syd and Levi!

Virginia also made cupcakes and we celebrated the girls' upcoming birthday by singing happy birthday to each one of them. Joy x 3!

I flew to Philadelphia for a couple of days to visit my Dad. I enjoy this time with my Dad so much. We eat out, retire early, and talk about the weather and what to do with my Mother's belongings. It's a quiet time for which I wish I had more time. I also took this time to disperse more of my Mother's ashes. My Dad is selling their home soon and one of my Mother's favorite pastimes was to watch the birds just outside her kitchen window. She would devise plans on how to conquer the squirrels that would pillage the birdseed but that's another story. I thought her first and only home was a fitting resting place for some of her ashes.

I hope everyone enjoyed their time with family and friends. Happy 2013. No onto those resolutions! And someone is turning 6 in a few weeks.