Ili laid a marble

Shortly after breakfast, a marble arrived. Bea said "Ili's laid a marble . . . .!"

A&E

Ended up at the emergency ward of the children's hospital this evening, after Ili came running into the kitchen saying she'd swallowed a marble. No chocking—thankfully—but she could feel it wedged in her throat, so we whizzed out on our bikes (hospital only 10 minutes away) to have her checked out. Luckily, all was fine, and hospital brilliant. Hopefully a lesson learned.

Saturday night at the A&E!

Swim party at Allenmoos

Carolina's little brother and sister invited both Bea and Ili to their joint birthday party at Bad Allenmoos. It was scorching hot and we all hung out in the grill area so we could barbecue. Kids spent lots of time in the water so Bea got to swim with some of his class mates. Papa joined us after work for an evening swim too.

House bound

Bea was due to go to Viktor's for lunch, but came home and plopped straight into bed feeling unwell. So, all activities cancelled, and we stayed in — shame, as it was a gorgeous day. Lots of time spent on the application for an apartment this week (deadline tomorrow). Fingers crossed we're lucky.

Happy Birthday Papa

Papa's birthday today (although sadly he attended a neighbour's funeral, so celebrations on hold). No school on Wednesday afternoon so the Hof was bursting with children's activities. Almost all the kids seemed to be there today in their swimming gear playing in the water fountain or sand, and running backwards and forwards to collect picnic items, blankets, umbrellas for a huge camp they were making. Bea had a fab time!

Papa as seen by Bea and Ili on his birthday cards.

Ben Howard

We caught up with an old friend visiting Zürich today (Gair and I used to see a lot of each other as Ili and her daughter Tilly were born here a month apart). Interesting to see how the girls have both grown. A big night out for mama and papa tonight, the very lovely Ben Howard at the Kaufleuten.

Reading and running

Bea's reading seemed to take a bit of a leap forward today—which is great news—and he seemed to actually enjoy it (he's previously been surprisingly reluctant). In between showers we took the bike and scooter out and ran around in the park. Was nice with just the two of them (no friends joined today and Antonia postponed until tomorrow).

Even more swimming!

We had planned an early morning swim in the lake, but although it's like mid-summer, the lake is still just under 20 degrees (too cool for the kids) so back again for the third time this week to Bad Allenmoos for a dip. Zinnia came along with us today and Bea was very proud showing off his solo sliding.

Saturday on roof

Kids started off the day at the school's flea market — Bea spent some well earned pocket money on a pirate ship. Lazed on the roof for most of the day (finished yet another Roald Dahl book) and the kids also cooled off in the water. Bea showed us his dance that they are preparing for the children leaving Kindergarten, which is based on a Hawaiian dance and exceptionally cute. The leaving party will be on the 11 July, so can't wait to see him perform it!

Bridge jumping

Met up with friends Ryan and Hil and their two, Sophie and Charlie, for an evening down at the river swimming area (Obererletten). The highlight was definitely both papas jumping off the bridge which the kids thought very funny indeed! Kids played well together, giving us some good quality beer drinking time. Germany was playing in Euro 2012, so crowd was in full voice and the kids spent some time running around with the ball too. Nice to get out for an evening in town.

Ryan (left) and Frith, jumping off the bridge over the river Letten. WOW!!

Bea and Soph playing footie, by the Obererletten river swimming spot.

Swimming day

We needed to be by the water this afternoon, as it was simply too hot hot hot to be anywhere else!! So we skipped Bea's afternoon music group and headed straight to Allenmoos after lunch. Bumped into friends there so Bea had Sophi to zoom down the water slide with, and considering in the afternoon they had bigger kids to contend with and their crazy slide antics, Bea and Sophi did amazingly well. Papa joined us and we all stayed late, had dinner there, and arrived home in time for bed and an almighty thunderstorm.

Lazy day

Still hot here, so after picking Bea up from school, we hid from the heat most of the day. In the late afternoon Bea joined the kids out in the Hof doing timed bike laps, was funny hearing them chanting "Beathan, Beathan, Beathan . . . " He said he was the fastest!

Ili scooting around Scherr Schule.

Trip to Allenmoos

Headed to Allenmoos today for a cool-off in the water. The biggest highlight was Bea's solo venture down the 72 meter flume. It was so great to see!

School trip

Bea set off on his first school trip today (postponed from last week). So he had an early start with rucksack on his back to Rumensee a little lake not far from Zurich. From what we heard all went well although it was very hot and all the kids returned back to Kindergarten very hot and exhausted.

Running up that hill

Hot day (perhaps a bit too hot for the hills), and we headed to the mountains on the hunt for some Swiss flowers in bloom (which we found aplenty). The cable car ride as always was good fun as we were silently swept up the mountainside. This was a walk we had done before (Hoch-yBrig), and we were trying to retrace our steps to find the second cable car to take us up from 1400 m to 1700 m and so place us on a ridge walk where we'd be treated to wonderful mountain vistas. In theory. But we were two weeks early! No higher cable cars running—which on the plus side meant no crowds of ramblers—but it also meant with two little ones we wouldn't make it up to the top. So we headed for shade (24 degrees at least) and had a picnic (although I did try to hitch a ride for us all with a local 'farmer'). The children did amazing with no complaints from either, and walked with us to marvel at the flowers and take in the mountain air. We walked upwards until we were too hot to head any further. After an ice cream refresher and a trampoline session for the kids (Swiss mountain restaurants are something else!) we headed back down through the forests (missed the last returning lower cable car) to fall into a restaurant to an expensive pizza dinner. Children exhausted (Bea in particular), and muscles stiff, but a great adventure.

Bea and Grandma going up!

Little flowers amidst the flowers.