Lindt Chocolate and Jücker Farm

We went on a few other outings during our holiday week at home, including the Lindt Chocolate Easter Market, and Jücker Farm.

The Lindt / Sprüngli chocolate factory is just across the lake from us in Kilchberg, about 20 minutes away. At Easter time they open up a big warehouse full of Easter chocolate, including the famous Lindt bunny wrapped in gold foil with a red ribbon with a bell.

Jücker Farm is a great farm with a market and lots of fun things for the kids.  We relaxed in the hammocks, tried out the tractor (I told the kids we had tractors like this when I was growing up in Perry), fed the goats, had a snack at the market, and had plenty of fresh cider!

Sechseläuten 2011

The first Monday of our spring break, April 11, was also Sechseläuten.  This is a Swiss Holiday a bit like Groundhog's Day in the US.  The name means "chiming six o'clock," and goes back to medieval times.  It celebrates the arrival of spring and the lengthening daylight hours that allow people to work until 6:00pm.  There is a big parade of all the guilds in the city, culminating at six o'clock with the burning of a giant snowman, of Böög, which is stuffed with explosives.  A fire is lit under the snowman and tradition has it that the quicker its heard blows off, the better the summer will be.

We didn't go to the big parade and festivities in Zurich, but we had our own Böög to burn at home (Dave had purchased this last year when he helped out for the Bain Service Day at a place in Zurich where handicapped people assemble products for corporate clients - this is one of their products).  We went out to our garden and set up a place on the lawn for our snowman, then let it burn!

Blumen Selbstbedienung

We had two weeks off in April for Easter holidays, and the first week we stayed at home and did activities around the area.  On the first Monday we went to the Zurich Zoo, which is great - it's so big that you can't see everything on one day.  This time we went to the rainforest area and it was amazing.

We also stopped at the tulip field near our house to buy tulips.  This is one of my favorite things to see in Switzerland during the spring.  All over, there are fields of tulips that are "Selbstbedienung" / self-service.  You just stop and get a pair of the clippers that is left at the "Kasse" / cash box, and cut the flowers you want.  Then you drop the money into the cash box.  All on the honor system - and it works!  We've done this other years, but we just took some photos this time.

Street Fair in Uster

We were just going to return our skis for the season at a shop in Uster, about 20 minutes away from our house, when we happened upon a street fair.  Of course we stopped and had a lot of fun (we had Flat Stanley with us - for Avery March - so he had fun too).

My favorite part was the fact that the whole family, including Meredith, could ride the bumper cars.  In the US - no way!  The liability would be too much.  But here in Switzerland where you have to be responsible for your own choices and you can't just sue someone if you get hurt, you can decide what you want to do!  The kids rode ponies, a giant swing, and some other rides, before walking back through all the stalls of different things for sale.  What a nice spring day!

That evening, as part of Elise's school exhibition project, Elise, Dave and I went to the symphony in Zurich.  We booked the tickets that morning online, and we were seated in the "Orchestra Pavilion".  I didn't know what that meant, but it turned out that we were seated just behind the orchestra.  It was so much fun to see the conductor and all of his expressions (and actually hear him making "du, du" noises.  What a cool experience, and of course the symphony was beautiful.

These photos are from the walk over to the Tonhalle (symphony hall).  Don't we live in a beautiful city!

Yes, those are the Alps in the background.

Elise's School Play

Elise was part of the school play, "There's Something in the Soup", written by a group of secondary students.  Auditions for the play were open to grades 4-12, and Elise decided to do it.  The play was part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the school, so it included scenes from each of the 5 decades since the school opened.  Elise was singing and dancing in the 80's scenes!  I must say the leg warmers and fluorescent colors brought back memories!  She had rehearsals once a week, then every day for the two weeks before the show.  They got to perform for the school, and for 3 nights in a row!  It was a great show.  One of the things Elise liked best was getting to know some of the older secondary students better.  That's another great thing about this school, is that there is the opportunity for experiences like this.  It was a great show, and Elise is looking forward to next year's play.

Meredith Talks

Meredith is now talking nonstop!

Dave's 40th Birthday!

2011 is a big year for Dave too, as he celebrated his 40th birthday!  He was busy with travel for work, but we did manage to do some celebrating both on his birthday, March 16th, and on the following weekend.  When we all got home on Wednesday afternoon, we presented Dave with the main present - a DVD with memories and birthday greetings from family and friends.  He was very surprised!  It was so fun to see him watch the video - thanks so much to everyone who sent me a video clip.  We were also able to schedule dinner out for Dave and me that night at the amazing restaurant, Spice, in Zurich.  It's on a hill in the Zurichberg area overlooking the city.  The restaurant was excellent, and a nice way to celebrate his birthday.  The week before, we had gone shopping for watches, and he picked out a real Swiss watch on Bahnhofstrasse (it is absolutely amazing how much you can spend on a good Swiss watch - more than a car in the US!  We didn't spend that much).  Then on the weekend, the kids made Dave breakfast in bed.  That night we went to the kids' favorite restaurant, Pizza, Pasta, Ciao, where Dave had a special birthday treat (the Swiss love fireworks!).  Happy Birthday, Dave!

Elise's First CD

Elise has been doing some recording - singing with a few friends from school at the recording studio of one friend's uncle.  And now it's official, Elise can be heard singing some solos and with the group on the CD, "Rocking Around the Globe", a collection of songs in English that are part of the English language learning program for students in grade 4-6 in Swiss schools.  Pretty cool!

Our Big Eater

Meredith takes the cake (literally) for the biggest eater in our family.  She loves to eat!  And now that she talks more, she can demand more food!  ...sorry for the interruption, Meredith just came in to ask me to get her some food from the fridge (no kidding)!  Oh, and I forgot to mention, her favorite food is CHEESE (we are in Switzerland, you know)!

Braces for Elise!

Yes, just before we left for our ski week, Elise got braces.  I say she looks pretty cute :)

Ski Week in Serfaus, Austria

We just got back from an amazing week in Serfaus, Austria.  The kids had a week off of school for "ski week", so we went to the kinderhotel "Löwen" for the week.  It was outstanding.  We've stayed at kinderhotels before for Easter break, and this one was as great as ever.  Serfaus is only about 2 hours 45 minutes away from our house.  It's a very cute little village, with a great ski area connecting 3 resorts, Serfaus, Fiss and Ladis.  So the skiing opportunities are huge, and we were lucky to have excellent, sunny weather every day we were there!  It also turned out that there were 4 other families from the kids' school, ICS, also staying at the Löwen, including the Pfaff family with 4 kids similar to our kids' ages.  So they were able to play together.  There were also 5 or so other ICS families staying at other hotels in Serfaus, so we saw them on the slopes.  That was a lot of fun!

We had excellent breakfasts and dinners every day at the hotel (a different children's buffet every night and a 6-course dinner served every night for the adults!).  It was incredible food!  The hotel had a great waterpark with a pirate fun area and giant indoor slide.  We played there a few times and all had a lot of fun.  We were so tired every day!  There was a kids club with a giant ball play area and many different activities during the day and after dinner for the kids.  Meredith went there during the days while William, Nathan and Elise all went to ski lessons.

We can't decide who was most improved in skiing, because all 3 of the kids made so much progress this week!

William can ski now.  He started at the Kinderschneealm with his teacher Saaida, and ended the week taking the lift up and skiing down the blue hill with his class.  He finished first in his class in the race on Friday morning!

Nathan was already a good skier and now he is great!  He loved his teacher Danielle and got much faster over the course of the week, while still being very well controlled.  He finished 2nd in his class ski race (although we're not sure he wasn't first, since he actually went so fast that he passed the person in front of him, so the timing may have gotten mixed up!).  He was very focused on the race and said he wanted to get first or second.  He did a great job!

Elise was in a really fun group with a teacher named Peter, who always had a smile on his face and took the class on a big adventure to the very top of the mountain on Tuesday.  Elise is a great skier and even got to try riding a "Snow Fox" (a short ski with a seat and handle bars) which she said was very scary.  I saw kids from the more advanced classes riding these, and it looked pretty crazy!  All the kids really enjoyed their lessons.

I also took a private lesson one day and had a major breakthrough.  My teacher Andi said there were just 2 movements important in skiing.  Then we practiced those 2 moves and it was so easy!  We went down the red hills with no problem.  Why didn't anyone tell me that before...I feel so much more confident skiing now.  Dave snowboarded and had a good time - but Elise and Nathan are quickly passing even Dave by in terms of their skiing skills.

Saturday we celebrated my birthday and I couldn't imagine a more fun way to do it than with my family.  We went down to breakfast and I opened my present which Dave had organized - a beautiful collection of memories and pictures from family and friends.  I was crying as I read it!  It was so nice of everyone to send these notes (they definitely make me sound better than I am!).  Dave, Elise, Nathan and I skied together, and Meredith and Will went to a kids club.  Afterwards we had crepes all together in Serfaus, then went to the waterpark in the hotel.  The birthday celebration ended with another wonderful dinner at the hotel.  Thanks for a very happy 40th (yikes!) birthday!

At the top of the mountain on my 40th birthday!