Sauriermuseum Aathal

On today's agenda was a trip to the Dinosaur museum in Aathal. Not far from home, this museum surprised us by the sheer volume of bones they had on display. There was an outdoor shed where the kids could use the tools on hand i.e., brushes, rakes, brooms, to unearth a large fossil. Grace is an excellent big sister and always takes the time to explain to Ally how to do something. We are currently experiencing the golden age of sibling-hood if there's such a thing. The girls get along very nicely most of the time.

If you asked Ally she would probably tell you the best part of the visit was the dino rocking horse.

Heart Cake

Happy Easter weekend. Grace is on break from school and she requested a day of baking with her babysitter, Emily, to pass the time. The cake they were attempting to make was a heart cake (made of velvet cake) inside a vanilla cake. It turned out great! It also took two whole afternoons of baking to accomplish it. Emily loves to bake and Grace is learning a lot about measurements, fractions, and patience in the process. The tutorial for this cake is from i am baker.

After baking I told Grace this was called heart cake and she responded, "i thought you said hard cake, which it was!"

More Soccer

Grace is really enjoying learning how to play soccer and Ally really loves using the soccer cleat cleaner one can find near any soccer field. Our weekends have been filled with amazing weather and a lot of soccer practice just for fun. We got lucky and caught a bunch of young women playing a game quite competitively on the same pitch Grace practices on during the week. Our youngest enjoys looking over the fence onto the field at the players. She does this while being pertched precariously on her stroller. She then yells out the random, "yeah!" anytime someone makes contact with the ball. She is Grace's biggest fan!

Lindt & Sprüngli Factory Shop

Today Grace and I went to the Lindt & Sprüngli factory shop and took a workshop with some friends on how to make our very own Lindt Bunny and pralines. I am certain the adults enjoyed themselves as much if not more than the children. It was truly a memorable experience! And the fact that it was an afternoon eating Lindt chocolate, well....

 Are you curious how the bunnies are made? We made another stop motion movie just in case you were dying to know. 

The Scooter

Kids in Switzerland are not allowed to drive until they are eighteen years old. So as you would expect, they are very good at riding scooters, bikes, etc. We started Ally as soon as she was tall enough.

Grace is playing soccer

Grace has been watching youtube videos of Leo Messi and is super excited to finally put all those hours of practicing with her Papa to work. She's also swimming on Wednesdays. I like to think of it as cross training. Cross training so that she can always defend her Playmobil sets from her very determined younger sister.

In the woods

Most kindergarteners here spend some school time in the woods. Gathering, exploring, and learning. Grace's class is no different. The bright V-shaped reflectors around the kids' necks are worn at all times the children are not on school property and every school year a police officer visits and teaches the children how to properly cross the street by themselves. Everyone knows young children bike, walk, and ride their scooters to school and these reflectors help us easily identify the newest members of the pedestrian community. It takes some getting used to and I am still learning to appreciate the (very) early freedom and independence children are given here.