Skiing in Brunni-Alpthal

There's been a lot of talk about skiing at school (they're currently singing songs about skiing), and a lot of Bea's friends are off on skiing weekends, so not surprisingly perhaps, Bea was very keen at the idea of having another go on skis at the weekend. We headed to our nearest child-friendly resort (with lots of beginner "blue runs"), called Brunni-Alpthal (45 min away). We'd been out at friends for dinner the night before, so the early start we planned was quickly forgotten, but even after rolling up after lunch it wasn't too busy (not being a blue sky day) and Bea quickly picked his skiing up again  and did a really great job skiing down with Papa! He said he only fell over four times! They both really enjoyed it!

Biking

Ili is getting to like the balance bike, and she raced Bea around on the Polyterrace today doing laps.  I'm happy for now that she doesn't have a peddle bike in the city, as she'd be unstoppable! But by this summer, we should all be on wheels having weekend trips out and about!!

Snow at last

The children were excited with the snow this morning (first this year in the city), so we took the sledge up to Uetliberg this afternoon and messed around in the white stuff. Not enough to whiz down the sledge run, but it was great that the children wanted to pull each other on the sledge, and had as much time falling off as they did staying on. We had great fun!

Lakeside

So very grey this week, and even Lake Zurich looked a bit dull at the weekend. However,  Ili got to have a long lakeside ride on the "like-a-bike"on Saturday, while Bea had a boulder on the free climbing wall in the China Garden play area. We needed to get out and about!

Piano perfection

Bea worked really well practicing his pieces for his third performance in front of the other students and parents, and although he was nervous, he seemed to have enjoyed it and was in fact gloating when he came home that it was only him and another student that completed their pieces without making a single mistake. He was very proud indeed!

Back in Zurich

Shameful that these are the first couple of blogs of the year, but we're settling back to life in Zurich after a great Christmas. Bea is fine at school and has completed a whole week of what is only a very short five-week term until the "Sports Holiday"—hurrah!—and for the last couple of days at school they've had a drama teacher in to take the regular morning classes. Ili has been fine too, and while I was concerned she'd find the language change difficult, she instead seems to have gained in confidence with her German. We've had lots of friends over for the children to play, so have kept busy in that department. We've only left the city limits once, up to Uetliberg last weekend (the hill we can see from our apartment), and climbed the observation tower for the first time since we arrived in Zurich. While we could see the mountains, it wasn't such a great day to do the climb—cold, wet, windy—so we will have to return. Bea surprised me in that he was a little afraid of the height.

Can just about see Lake Zurich under the cloud of mist.

Ili and Bea

Just made me laugh. . . .  here they both are after Bea's piano lesson last Wednesday. We tried to fly one of Bea's Christmas presents on the playing field, but no joy. They had better fun without it!