Bam bam, a work plan

A fairly new cafe around the corner, Bam Bam, offers a pirate play area for children to play. Marianna (Maia's mother) and I have been hatching a plan for a while, and we've declared the cafe a work zone for us two mums to get some work done in daylight hours (her parents work in Japan) and we'll share looking after the two tots in this time. We'll see how it goes.

Spot the difference

Papa is still in the depths of Borneo, and we're still in deep snow-eo.

Advent cookies

A very creative neighbour made advent biscuits for all the children (big and small), and Bea and Ili got to have theirs today.  

Sledging in the city

We managed a couple of hours sledging this morning (although Bea and Ili would have happily stayed all day) before our butts started to freeze. Headed to Irchel a.k.a. "duck park", which is just up the road in the city where sledging is super gentle and thought it would be a good idea to let Bea try for the first time on his own.  He did great, but we'll have to wait until papa is back before we try anything steeper as three of us on one sledge isn't an option anymore—we're just too big!

Papa and his plane

This is what papa has been up to in Borneo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_sXVLax_c8

Found a snow hole

Found the perfect retreat from the snow today—all day—as we caught up with Sarah (my Irish buddy) and her girls, and ended up making mince pies for tea ("znuni"). Bea was inspired with Fiona's violin playing. A nice mellow day.

Snow snow snow

The children were super excited when they woke to see white rooftops and snow falling this morning. No sledging, but they played out in the school playground after afternoon Kindergarten. Bea's teacher flew back from Hawaii today, so she will be in a state of shock, and we say goodbye to the relief teacher as she takes them to the woods for the last day tomorrow for fire and sausages. Tonight we had the third evening of German/Swiss Christmas songs at the neighbours regular gathering—it's very cute—and we're starting to know the songs well.

Champagne and candles

While papa arrived in Sandakan (beautiful flight over the mountains of Sabah—I think this is Mount Kinabalu), we were out having a play date with Theodore (the little boy who's birthday party Bea's scatterbrain parents forgot to take him to) and his father in the tipping rain. The young lads wanted to go candle dipping, so we obliged. Bea was feeling super creative dipping two then twisting them together. Then off for piano practice, and on for some Bubbly at our friend's place (Gnome's impromptu birthday celebrations), which was a very nice way to lift a wet afternoon! The photo is of Zeki with Bea (Gnome's oldest, of her four children).

Island life

Apparently, this is a "stopover"! Papa has arrived in Kota Kinabalu and is in a room with a view by the ocean. Looks lovely. The real work, so he says, starts tomorrow.

Watching the wabbits

Just around the corner, in the garden of who I would say is Bea's favoured friend at the moment, they feed Vincent's rabbits before heading off to football. In footy, Bea was very chuffed that he set up a goal, and his team won!

Fondue

I received some pictures of Bea and Ili at the home of one of our neighbours. They went to play, and ended up staying for a Sunday night fondue supper.

To fly or not to fly

On a final practice run before papa heads off to Borneo tomorrow, they all tried to fly the plane that will be equipped with camera and GPS programming to fly over the rainforest. Unfortunately, it was way too windy!

Saturday night sparkles

The Christmas lights were lit in Zurich tonight. So after a takeaway dinner by the river (in our favourite spot) we toured the town. True to Zurich style, the decorations were very subtle and solely white—not a Santa Claus or Rudolf trying to get in a window anywhere. Shame! I must admit, I like a little more glitz and colour, but Bea and Ili were happy with the sparkles. While out window shopping, we couldn't help but notice this absolutely awful outfit for someone not much bigger than Ili — a fake leopardskin coat. Yuk! Nothing subtle about that ;-)

Pom poms

In Bea's Kindergarten this year, each child was given a little box to decorate and fill with a small gift. Day-by-day one is selected as a gift for another child. Last year, funnily enough, I remember Bea received his own gift back. This year he made a woolen pom pom that we had to squeeze in to the box. And we made our first Christmas cookies this afternoon too.

Candle dipping

Candle dipping started today, and for the first year both Bea and Ili pretty much made their colourful candles by themselves. One year I recall we could nip outside in the snow to help cool the wax in between layers. This year, as last, they had cold water butts to plunge the hot wax into. Not quite as fun, but certainly a lot quicker. Then off to piano, where Bea has to practice Jingle Bells. We also had a visit from our neighbours in France this evening, Jean-Louis the Lizard expert, and wife who have a son in Zurich.

Cooling the first layers in chilled water . . .

. . . and they start to grow . . .

. . . and grow more colourful.

The finished candles.