ICS International Festival 2009

Elise's school held their annual International Festival last Saturday, and it was so much fun! It began with a parade of nations, with kids dressed in the colors (and sometimes costumes) of their countries, carrying flags. It was really amazing and inspiring to see how many countries are represented by students at school. For example, the 9 girls in Elise's classroom come from Argentina, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, England (and Elise from the US). Pretty amazing!

This was Elise's big performance day. She has been part of several extracurricular clubs / classes throughout the year, and many of them performed at the festival. First was primary band, where she plays the piano / keyboard. She started taking clarinet lessons in February at the local Musik Schule, so next year she plans to play clarinet in the band. Later in the day she performed with other third graders on the recorder, then with ICS singers. They sang several songs along the theme of the earth and friendship across the world. And, finally, she performed with the Scottish country dancing group. This was a class held during lunchtime that she didn't initially sign up for - until a few of her friends told her how much fun it was.











The other highlight of the festival was all the food booths from the different countries. It was so fun to eat Norwegian waffles with brown cheese, South African dishes, Argentinian samosas, (fruit rollups from the US for the kids), and Swedish chocolate cake (and there were too many other booths to try!).

As far as classes for the kids, Elise has been able to participate in the clubs / classes that performed at the International Fair, as well as girls football (soccer) an art class and a jewelry making class. All of these activities are taught by teachers either during lunch or after school, and kids have an opportunity to sign up each term. So, there was no extra cost for anything, and she was able to do it all at school - no driving around for mom! So easy!

Elise also takes piano lessons from an American woman and has participated in the Royal Academy of Music assessments this year (she passed her theory test with distinction, and has her practical exam tomorrow at one of the other international schools across the lake). She has been taking horse riding lessons since we got here, and is also doing a swim training class. When we went in December to the nearby pool for Elise to be assessed for a class / trianing group, the director said that she must join the Meilen swim team "for the good of Swiss swimming." They thought she was an amazing swimmer! I couldn't help but imagine what they would think if they saw all the great swimmers every year at OMPA! With the new baby coming, we didn't want to join the swim team (they practice 20 minutes away), but perhaps we will join this fall. And, Elise will definitely join the ICS swim team that starts in grade 4.

Nathan and Will have lots of classes at their preschool, including Sakadula (music) and yoga. They go to art class on Friday mornings, and they now both take swim lessons at the nearby pool (Nathan took during the winter, and now Will has started in his own class). I also take the boys to an English-speaking playgroup sometimes, where their favorite part is the singing time at the end.

There's always plenty to do (and, of course, we're still trying to take vacations to explore Europe as often as we can)!

Springtime in Switzerland

It's springtime here and it's BEAUTIFUL! Everything is so green. Flowers are blooming all over our yard, and the leaves on the ivy of the house are coming out. Elise tried her hand at some nature photography and took this great photo of Chinilly the cat (she belongs to our neighbors but is often in our yard - a great arrangement from the kids' perspective). She often jumps on the window ledge outside Elise's room at night and peers in.

And, Meredith is growing bigger and getting cuter every day. She's nearly 4 months old in these photos. What a happy, peaceful little girl. The first comment anyone makes when they see her is "so viele Haare!" (so much hair). Yes, she has a lot of hair and it just keeps growing. What a little beauty...

Mother's Day

I am so blessed to have such great kids! They really are wonderful. We had a nice Mother's Day, with Dave and Elise making a nice big breakfast of waffles (they said if I didn't always get up so early, it could have been breakfast in bed!). Nathan painted a very nice cup and saucer for me at preschool, and William made a plate. They were both wrapped up very nicely, and the boys were excited to have me open them! Elise made a necklace for me. Motherhood is a lot of work (especially with kids at these ages), but 100% worth it!

Shokoladefabrik (chocolate factory)

What better place than Switzerland to try your hand at chocolate making! Elise, Nathan and Will went to a class at the nearby "Kindercity" and got to make and bring home their own chocolate (along with a souvenir apron)! Switzerland really has a lot of activities catering to kids. Kindercity is a combination kids' museum and amusement park. They have these fabrik (factory) classes that kids as young as 2 (Will) can join. Next time the kids want to do the breadmaking class! And, of course, every time we go they want to play in the fun activity areas, and ride the train and go-carts!

The actual Lindt and Sprüngli chocolate factory is just across the lake from us in Kilchberg. They have a factory store which Elise and I were very excited to find!

Plenty of Experience with Swiss Health Care!

We had a chance to experience the Swiss health care system again - this time not for nearly such a happy reason as the birth of baby Meredith. Dave spent a week in the Universität hospital in Zurich being treated for a bacterial infection!

On Sunday morning, April 26th, Dave mentioned that his elbow hurt. It quickly became red, painful, and very swollen. The swelling spread quickly up and down his arm and it seemed like he was getting the flu. Dave went to work on Monday and Tuesday, before getting an appointment with the Rheumatologist on Wednesday morning. The infection was diagnosed, and Dave was given antibiotics to take at home, but told to come back the next morning to be admitted to the hospital if the infection wasn't responding. So, Thursday morning when the redness was still spreading, Dave, Meredith and I all went to the doctor - expecting Dave to be admitted to the hospital. He was admitted, had surgery that night on his arm since the infection wasn't responding to oral or IV antibiotics, and spent the next 5+ days in the hospital! The surgery was a bit scary, as it was the first time he'd ever had general anesthesia. But the care was very good.

We have said so many times in the last couple of weeks that we are incredible grateful to be living now (not 100 years ago when the arm probably would have been amputated) and in a country with such good health care as Switzerland.

We still don't know how Dave got the infection, but it spread quickly because of the medication he takes for his chronic arthritis (the medication weakens the immune system).

Dave had a removable cast for a week or so after coming home, and he still has the Spitex (home health care) coming to check and dress the wound every other day, but he's back at work and getting into the swing of things. Again, we were so thankful for people's willingness to help us (including a priesthood blessing). Dave readily admits that he wasn't a very good hospital patient. While I kept telling him to enjoy the time to rest, he just wanted to come home!

We're all glad that he's home now, and thankful that he's doing better! As Elise wrote in a get-well poem for him, it just wasn't the same here without him!

Skiing near Innsbruck

We left Salzburg and went to the Achensee Resort in Achenkirch, a town on the Achensee (lake). It was a Kinderhotel, and we had done lots of research beforehand to find the perfect hotel that had activities for all our kids' ages (and for us). The ski lift was located directly across from the the hotel, and it had a kids club with kids' activities as well as babycare. So, we all had a chance to go skiing / snowboarding. Elise, Nathan and Will all took lessons on Monday morning, then Nathan continued the lessons for the entire week, both morning and afternoon. He did a great job, and even competed in a ski race on Friday. He got second place in his group and got a medal! He was so proud. And the ski school did a great job - they had a professional announcer announcing the race - the 115th International Achensee Race, (when Nathan came, he was announced as being from the USA, backed by the new president Barack Obama, etc. etc.) - it was all so cute. Then they had a big medal ceremony before lunch, and it was all made into a video and shown on the hotel channel in all the rooms for the next couple of days! Nathan also took a couple of swim lessons while we were there. William went to the kids' club and of course charmed the teachers. And Elise skiied with either me or Dave, whoever wasn't taking a break that day! Elise has gotten to be a confident skier - she's passed me by (of course, my excuse is that this was my first time skiing this season, but I'm not sure that really mattered!). Dave snowboarded with Elise and they even went up the higher lift on the last day (and in Austria, that's pretty high!). It's great here, because the runs are really long - they have a lot of mountain to work with. Elise was also lucky enough to have 4 days of horse riding lessons in the afternoons as well. We had fun as a family at the hotel pool and also on a horse buggy ride through the town. And, I must say, the food was incredible! They had a kids' buffet and great menus for the adults... It was such a nice resort - fun for everyone - and even a good opportunity to practice our German where they don't have the Swiss dialect.

The Sound of Music

Before going on our trip to Salzburg, we watched The Sound of Music which was filmed in Salzburg (and prebooked our tickets for The Sound of Music tour on Saturday afternoon). The tour was four hours long and took us around the city of Salzburg as well as to several sites from the movie. It was really fun to see everything - including the town of Mondsee in the lakes district of Salzburgland which was home to the church where they filmed the wedding scene. We rode around on a giant bus painted with The Sound of Music characters, which was a little hokey, but seeing all the different beautiful areas made it worth it. The bus was completely full, and at one point the guide asked who had seen the movie more than 10 times, and a whole bunch of people raised their hands. I thought that was crazy, but, guess what - our family is well on our way to the 10 times mark! Since we've been home, the kids want to watch the movie all the time. And we all have those songs in our head. William charmed everyone on the bus by singing the songs (his favorite is "16 going on 17" which he sometimes changes to "16 going on 18" or whatever number pops into his head). Nathan's favorite song is "The Hills are Alive", and Elise's favorite is "My Favorite Things". We certainly won't forget Salzburg, or The Sound of Music, very soon!

Salzburg, Austria

For Spring Break last week, we went to Austria! We drove from Zurich through Munich to Salzburg, where we stayed for 2 days. Salzburg is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthplace, so we read a book about Mozart before we went. The city was absolutely beautiful! We took a horse carriage ride through the old town and learned a lot about the town itself. Then we went to Mozart's birthplace and saw where he grew up. We also saw some of his instruments (klavier and violin). Salzburg is a small city of only 150,000 people, but 2 million people come each summer to the Mozart music festival! We tasted Mozart kugeln (chocolates with hazelnut, pistachio and marzipan inside) - which none of us really liked. We took the funicular up to the top of the mountain and toured the Festung castle. And, we stayed in a castle hotel! It was a great old castle a bit outside of Salzburg - we stayed on the third floor in a big suite of rooms where everyone had their own "king bed". We had a great breakfast downstairs each morning, where the host and hostess, two lovely grandparents, told us about things to see and places to go in the area. They were so hospitable! On Sunday morning they showed us the chapel that is part of the castle, and when they found out that Elise plays the piano, they took her to the music room on the second floor of the castle where she played the grand piano. When it was time to go, the kids were running around playing on the big lawn outside and didn't want to leave! Salzburg is absolutely beautiful and so charming - our whole experience was wonderful. It is definitely on our list for a return visit!

Meredith is Blessed

Meredith looked like a little angel today for her blessing at church - and she acted like one too. She was wide awake, but didn't cry at all. Dave gave a beautiful blessing, and the Spirit was very strong. He held her up after the blessing for everyone to see, and she was just so beautiful, with her big bright eyes and full head of dark hair! Listening to the blessing, I had such an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my children, and for Dave and the priesthood he holds which enabled him to give the blessing. I even decided to bear my testimony in church today (in German, no less!). We have truly been blessed with a wonderful family!

Happy Birthday, Dave!

We celebrated Dave's birthday in March, in between his trips to the US for work! We had a weekend of festivities, with a trip to Uetliberg - the highest mountain peak in Zurich. We drove, walked, then took a train up to the top. After lunch at the train station restaurant, we hiked the final 10 minutes (about 25 minutes for our family) to the top. There was a lot of snow still there, and a fun observation tower which Elise and Dave climbed. Now every time we drive anywhere around Zurich, we notice Uetliberg and recall our hike to the top!

We had our now traditional cake for Dave's birthday (these special cakes from the Japanese baker are beginning to feel like an entitlement), a birthday dinner, and gifts from the family.

Spoiled with Kindness

In the six weeks since Meredith was born, we have been overwhelmed with so much kindness from so many people here. We had more meals brought to us than we could have imagined (from families at Elise's school, church, and Dave's work), so many gifts and cards for Meredith (including a birthday cake), a baby shower, the boys' preschool generously keeping the boys longer while I was in the hospital, and countless other offers for help if we needed anything! We are so grateful for all the kindness.
And, we had a wonderful babysitter named Cristel who came over in the afternoons to stay with Meredith while I went to pick up the boys, and she played with the boys while I took Elise to various activities. The kids loved Cristel and had so much fun with her (and it was wonderful for me to be able to go to the grocery store without any kids - and even take the older kids sledding one day at our nearby sledding hill while Cristel took care of Meredith at home). Cristel was here studying German, but just returned to the US this week. She really made a difference for us when Meredith was so young - and we all miss her!

Meredith is growing well and is adored by the kids. Every morning when they wake up, Nathan and William's first words are, "Where's Meredith?" When I respond with an evasive, "She's sleeping," they immediately go looking for her - either in her room or in Mom and Dad's bed. They love being the big brothers. And, Elise is a huge help at home - she is so responsible. What great kids we have been blessed with!

Nancy's Birthday

I had my birthday on February 19th, and we celebrated with breakfast in bed for me (Elise and Dave's surprise idea), then cake and family presents at night. We have this amazing cake baker (who is apparently a pastry chef at a 5-star hotel). He's Japanese and speaks only a little English and German, but was referred to us by the mother of one of Elise's classmates. The cakes are so great - covered with fruit on top. We've now had 5 cakes from him (after living here just 6 months). In any case, my birthday cake was great - and the gifts, especially those that were hand-made by the kids (Elise has picked up knitting) were wonderful!

A Trip to Interlaken

Last week was "Sportferien", aka ski vacation week, at Elise's school. Since it was so soon after Meredith was due, we didn't plan a big trip, but we did spend two nights in Interlaken. Interlaken is about 2 hours south of Zürich, situated between two lakes, the Brienzersee and the Thunersee. We stayed at one of the nicest hotels in town, thanks to a great deal I found on the internet (it gets expensive when you have to book adjoining rooms to accommodate our family of 6)! What a beautiful area this is. It's called the Jungfrau region, because of the Jungfrau peak. There are tons of wintersports here.

We got our first taste of real Swiss sledding (sledging in British English, and schlittel in German). This is serious business - there are sledge runs just like there are ski runs. We went to Grindelwald, a popular ski area 15 minutes up the hill from Interlaken. We took a train (not a ski lift - you take a train up the mountain and get off where you want to start sledging), and had a great time. Dave and I took turns staying with Meredith at the lodge half-way up the mountain while the others went up higher and sledged down. Elise took Nathan, and Dave took Will on the first run - so much fun!

We also went to Thun and saw the Schloss Thun (Thun castle) and some of the Altstadt. The whole area is just beautiful with the two lakes on each side, and massive mountains shooting up on the other two sides. No wonder this is such an international tourist destination!

We ate at the Des Alpes restaurant while we were there, trying the cheese fondue appetizer one night, and the chocolate fondue dessert the second night (our family's favorite - hands down - was the chocolate). Now we're investigating the best chocolate fondue set to buy so we can enjoy chocolate fondue at home (you're dipping fruit in the chocolate, so it's somewhat healthy - right?).