Sports holiday in UK - 13-21 Feb

While the Swiss kids are mostly compelled to go skiing for the annual "Sportsferien" (sports holiday) at this time of year, we instead had a visit to the UK, where it was a little more laid back, not to mention flatter. It's great when we get to do those things we don't do in the city — as well as spend time with the people we miss — so here's a few pics of our favourite things.

Literally, "laid back" kite flying. Was sooo very windy,
Bea preferred to fly it lying down!

Hours. . .

. . . and hours in the garden!

Walking to the badger setts.

Bea had the bright idea of launching the first worm into space!
Done with the aid of a Top Gear rocket launcher.
(NB. No worms were harmed during
the making of this launch)

Two-up on a tractor.

I've got a brand new . . . . !

Cousins catching up. . . .

. . . and tireless grandparents!! 

Skiing at Braunwald

Braunwald is a family-friendly skiing resort just over an hour from Zurich, and is a good step up for Bea with his skiing as it has a fair few beginner runs but ones that are more challenging and interesting than those at Brunni. It's a car-free resort, accessible only by a small funicular railway, the views of the mountains around are superb, and the sledging runs are great fun. We've walked here many times in summer, and even spent one Christmas here when Bea was two, and it was the very first place we sledged with Bea when he was even younger than that. There didn't seem to be as much snow here as in previous years, but still ample for sledging . . . .  and sledging with Ili is an absolute scream, she giggles all the way down. Bea was keen to keep on his skis and apparently he progressed really well throughout the day. Later in the afternoon we all took the chair lift up from Grotzenbüel (1560 m) to one of the higher stations, Seblengrat (at nearly 1900 m), just for the vista but was much colder up there so didn't hang around too long.

Bea and papa setting off from Grotzenbüel, 1560 m.

Ili on part of the sledge run.

Ili spies the cable car.

Going up to Seblengrat, 1897 m

Up at Seblengrat.

At Seblengrat.

On the chairlift going back down from Seblengrat
(Bea and papa are in the chair on the right).

School holiday

After just five weeks term since Christmas, the children have a two-week holiday from school. We visited the Tamina Thermal baths today. No piccies of the children inside (obviously), but this is the place, with bathing areas inside and out and water up to 39 degrees! Owwwch!!
http://www.taminatherme.ch/en/home/tamina-therme/thermal-water-world/thermal-water-world/

Back to Brunni, and a walk to a "Stuebli"

After two trips already this year, Bea is still very motivated to ski so we headed to the slopes again for a snowy Sunday. Bit of a heavy snow shower when we got there and thought we would have to bail out, but it all turned out good. Bea is progressing well on skis, and improving each time, and starting to ease off the breaks (moving out of the downhill "plough position"). After the boys had finished, we all had a walk up to a small Swiss "Stuebli", which is basically a wooden hut up in the mountains serving "warming bevvies", aka booze. Great fun walking up in the snow, and then sledging back down.

Ili at Brunni, before the sledging.

Iglu in the kiddy area at the bottom on the slopes, Brunni.

Bea in the snow.

Bea coming down from the Stuebli.

Frith and Ili, followed by Bea sledging down from the Stuebli.

Cinema experience

Bea was invited to the cinema by friends today, and has never yet been to the movies, so we thought it was high time he went. Papa took him this afternoon to see his first cinema movie — Amazonia, in 3D.

100 Days of School

To celebrate 100 days of 'big' school, the parents were invited to a festival at school this evening. Performance, and then food and drink. Every day since the first day of school, the children have threaded a bead and today was the 100th day. Something to celebrate I guess! Here they are, as part of the performance singing songs about winter and skiing.
I'll post another video of the children singing soon . . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfHdd1sb_VU&feature=youtu.be

Dance - End of term

It was the end of term for Bea's dance group, and as usual it was open to parents to take a look at what they get up to.

Skiing at Brunni Alpthal - second time

Bea was very keen to ski again, so we headed back to the nursery slops of Brunni Alpthal on Saturday morning for some more practice. Ili and I were able to sledge (lots of walking up), and the sledge run met with the ski run part way up/down (hence, the video of Bea coming through the trees!). In the video of the slopes (video one), keep your eye in the center for Bea! The first couple are of him at the beginning, and by the end of the day (video three) he'd improved leaps and bounds and the very shaky video was taken by Chris following him down!

Brunni when we arrived.

Ili playing in the snow at the bottom of the slopes.

Ili pulling the sledge up!

Youtube links here:
video one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xewddnVZUEA
video two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqkHFowOSaA
video three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=287SG9eA8N8&

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!