Kindercity and Kyburg Castle

During the summer we also took a fun daytrip with Karen and the kids to Kindercity in Volketswil and Kyburg Castle near Winterthur.  Kindercity is a "hands-on museum" with a lot of explore.  We had a nice time, exploring playing, climbing on the climbing wall and dancing on the giant piano keys.

Then we went to Winterthur to Schloss Kyburg.  We had been there once before and remembered that it was one of the best castle tours around (our kids are pretty unimpressed by castles now, since they've seen a lot, but this was still fun).  They have scent boxes where you can smell different scents of herbs they used to cook with, and guess which one they are.  You can try on clothes from the time and use a pulley and some gripping tools to try to hoist a giant square stone (with all 5 of us - minus Mer - we did it)!  You can see the armory and even the torture chamber.

Soccer Camp for Nate and Will

Nathan and Will both went to the Intersoccer camp for a week in July and really enjoyed it.  Will went for the mornings, while Nathan went for the full days.  Lots of the boys' friends from school were away on holiday, but Nathan's good friend Filip came, which made him very happy!

Nathan's Reading

Nathan is a great reader now, and he spent time this summer reading.  He "climbed the Matterhorn" in the school summer reading program by reading over 1,000 pages!  William is also starting to read and can sound out lots of words.  He also made it to the top of the Matterhorn in the reading program with Mom, Dad, Nathan and Elise helping to read to him!

Meredith at Flügerberg

Meredith finished her 1.5 year time at Fluegerberg in June.  After a few rescheduled dates, we finally had the final party in July.  Fluegerberg is the bilingual preschool where Nathan went for 1 year, William for 2 years, and Meredith for nearly 1.5 years.  Paola is the director of the preschool and is great with the children!  She grew up in Switzerland and spoke Swiss German (and some high German) with the kids (she also helped me with my German by always speaking German with me).  Tatem has been there for the last couple of years and was the English-speaking teacher.  And Emelie was an additional teacher who did Sakadula (music and movement) and some other activities with the kids.

The celebration picnic was a lot of fun, complete with a performance by the kids and a video for all the parents to remember Fluegerberg.  It is closing, as the Milena Danielsen had started it in her house as a solution for her own 3 children's care while she was working outside the home.  Now her youngest, Liv, is going to kindergarten, so the preschool will be finished.  It was a great environment for our kids, and we're thankful they were able to go here!

Rheinfalls, Stein am Rhein, Luzern, Solothurn and Bern

We took some fun trips within Switzerland in July while our friend Karen was here visiting (and while Elise was at her camp in Germany).  First we went to the Rheinfalls.  We've been there before, but it had been a while, and it was a lot of fun.  This time we took the boat across the river to the lookout point, then walked up to the castle on the other side.  We then took the boat ride right up to the falls, where we got a good spray!

After visiting the Rheinfalls we went to one of our favorite towns in Switzerland - Stein am Rhein.  It's a medieval town that is absolutely beautiful with its painted buildings in the main square.  We also stopped by at the local chocolate shop, which is always very nice!

Another day we went to Luzern and saw the well-known covered bridge.  We even ran into the Mormon missionaries on the street there!

Finally, we took a day-trip to Bern, with a stop first in the town of Solothurn.  Solothurn is really a pretty town with lots of beautiful old buildings.  We even found a street called Barfüssergasse, where Karen and the kids posed barefoot!

Also on the way to Bern we stopped at the temple in Zollikofen.

Finally we went to the beautiful city of Bern.  We walked down the main street and saw the famous bears in their new bear pit (called Bärengraben - bear grave) in German!