Fasnacht 2010

Fasnacht (or the Swiss German version of Mardi Gras) is something we've only come to know since living in the Swiss German part of Switzerland. The celebration does not always land on Fat Tuesday, but actually depends on the community where you are living. Wädenswil celebrated it this weekend, with loads of parties and parades. We went to the main parade today. I don't quite understand the whole tradition, but it has evolved into a sort of Halloween, where the children dress up in crazy costumes to celebrate. In fact, everyone is dressed in crazy costumes and everyone throws lots of confetti.

Daddy at the parade with his girls. (Tyler is asleep in the back.) Fortunately, it was a beautiful, sunny day.

The funniest part of the parade were the people dressed up as politicians. I didn't get all the inside Swiss jokes, but I know that they actually paradied some of people running for the local town counsel. (They were easy to recognize because their pictures have been plastered all over town.)

Some of the bands had hilarious costumes. These guys looked like Care Bears.

The cowbell ringers are a tradition, but they were so loud that Anna and Mariah plugged their ears while they passed.

The girls liked this band the best. They all were wearing king and queen masks (with holes in the mouths for those who played the wind instruments.

Back at the house taking a break on the swings.

Happy Birthday Rob!

Rob's birthday is the last in a string of three winter birthdays in our families. All this celebration makes the cold winter days fun!

The girls helped me make a cake. I asked Rob what he wanted and he just said "chocolate, lots of chocolate". So that's what I gave him. I call it the Swiss Chocolate Mountain Cake. It has my standard super chocolate, chocolate chip cake inside, with melted chocolate Toblerone frosting and decorated with "Toblerone mountains". The thing was RICH. Even Rob could barely stand eating it with the chocolate Mövenpick ice cream it was served with. Anna Claire and Mariah made the Swiss flag that went on top.

So happy to celebrate with Daddy!

Come on Dad, blow them out!

Mariah can't wait to get a taste of the chocolate.

Oh boy, all that cake was just tooooo much. Tyler could stand for more, though!

Playtime for the kids

While Rob and I were away on our Valentine's weekend, Monica did lots of fun dress-up and playtime with the kids. She took some fantastic photos.

Here is kittycat Mariah.

Mariah and Anna Claire, all dolled up and ready to go.

Funny faces!

Look at my pretty nail polish!

Tyler wanted to join in on the dress up fun. (I can't tell you how often he is wearing a crown or a bow or a headband. It's the influence of his doting older sisters.)

Princesses seeking out a treasure.

It's cheese roll time. Monica would roll the girls up in a blanket and call it a cheese roll, after their favorite food.

Surprise Valentine's Weekend

Rob surprised me this weekend and whisked me away to Davos for a Valentine's Ski Weekend. It was so much fun. The snow was great, the scenery was breathtaking and as an economics buff, I was thrilled to be in the place where the World Economic Forum meets. We did a little night skiing too. It was Rob's first time and he loved it because there were NO CROWDS. Personally, I prefer the sunshine!

I had to stop and take this picture before I headed down the mountain. Beautiful!

Babies and Balls

We went to Planeta Magic again and the kids had a blast. Especially Tyler. "Ba-ba-ball."

Ski time!

It snowed a bunch today so we decided to bring the girls out in the back yard to practice their skiing. Here they are, all geared up and ready to go.

Whoooosh! Here goes Mariah down the hill!

Oops. A little crash at the bottom. But, she's happy to just lie there and eat snow.

Back up the hill again.

Anna Claire had a few crashes too. But she got right back up!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

We celebrated Tyler's first birthday today. It was not a huge event, after just doing a big birthday party for Mariah. But I think Tyler enjoyed it. It was just going to be a family affair, but the missionaries came over, so we celebrated with them too. (This is good because we are overflowing with cake here -- still of lots of Mariah's quadruple layer princess cake leftover.) He is such a sweet little boy and brings so much joy to our family. We are so glad to have him!

Gosh guys, is this whole thing for me?

I made Tyler a teddy bear cake. It was so easy compared to Mariah's princess cake. I just used chocolate and butterscotch chips (sent by Rob's mom, I can't get them here) and added cupcakes for ears. The only mistake I made was doing a yellow cake instead of a chocolate cake. I thought it would be too chocolatey with all the chocolate chips and frosting, but it really did need chocolate in the cake too.

Regardless, the cake was good enough for Tyler. He loved getting his first big taste of pure sugar! (Note: Tyler is really generally a happy boy and smiles and laughs a lot. He just NEVER smiles for pictures.)

"I'm all sugared out, mom!"

Mariah's Birthday Party

This year is an on-year for birthday parties and Mariah really wanted--you guessed it--a Princess party! In anticipated, I had my sister send a bunch of cheap princess party supplies from the U.S., such as princess rings, candy princess bracelets, sparkly wands, princess hats, etc. These would have cost a fortune here, but in the U.S. they are hardly anything. (What's with the price differential on party products?) Fortunately, our new au pair, Monica, arrived just in time for the party. She was a little jet-lagged but helped out with all sorts of things. Not least, she is a photographer and took loads of great photos!

Happy Birthday Princess Mariah!

I made Mariah a giant Purple Fairy Princess Cake for the occasion. This was similar to Anna's cake last year. But this time, the cake was taller and narrower and turned out looking more like a giant tube than a gown. I had to do a lot of last-minute hacking and carving to get it to look more like a dress. But the cake inside was delicious -- alternating layers of my signature chocolate cake and pink strawberry cake. I also made tiny little "teacake" cupcakes for the kids to eat. (They all wanted big pieces of cake too, of course.)

The final masterpiece.

I put the fairy wands in a vase as a centerpiece, but that didn't last long. All the fairy princesses wanted to wave one.

When the princesses (and princes) arrived, they got to decorate their own princess hat. I love these old medieval princess style hats. Disney has done too much with the tiara lately and completely ignored this old medieval princess style. Here is Mariah's friend, Emily, in the foreground.

We played a couple musical-chair type dancing games. The princes and princesses could have danced the whole day. (Mariah, Kaia, Christina, Charlie, Anna is behind)

Mariah, of course, was the star of the dance show. (Mariah, Christina, Anna Claire, Charlie)

Blowing out the candles. Yeah, Princess Mariah!

Socializing with her friend Kelsey. This is classic Mariah -- cheerful and friendly. The theme was a Princess "tea party" so I set little tea sets and had little tea snacks to go with them.

Devouring the "tea cakes".

It's present time. I think Mariah now owns just about everything princessy on the market.

Happy Birthday Mariah!

We celebrated Mariah's third birthday today as a family. She wanted a princess cake -- which she is getting later for her birthday party. So today she got another version of a princess cake. And, of course, she received lots of princess presents. Grandma Judie sent her a green "princess dress" with sparklies all over the front. And, of course, we had to make her a birthday crown. Anna did this one! Mariah was quite pleased with all the attention. We are so glad you are part of our family, Mariah! You add lots of sparkle and fun!

Princess Cake #1

Hi! I'm 3 years old and I'm lovin' it.

Lots of presents for the princess.

Check out my new dress!