Autumn leaves

Now that we have a big yard with two huge trees, we have lots of leaves to rake.  The kids are happy to do it -- as long as they can jump in it afterwards.  Plus, Rob has a new Saturday chore system which allows them to earn money for college.  It's motivating for Anna, but not the others quite yet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday in the U.S.  No worry about presents, just lots of good food and plenty of thankfulness.  Here in Switzerland, Thanksgiving is rather disappointing.   We often get together with other families, but there is no holiday, so we have to rush and do it after work and before it gets too late for the kids, who have school the next morning.  This year we just did our own little dinner.  I miraculously found a frozen turkey the day before, so I had to rush to unthaw it and brine it before the big day.  Kari made homemade rolls.  I never make these and they were so yummy.  This is the first time I've actually made the turkey myself and it turned out marvelously tender with the brining.  I'm really good at the dessert side because that is my favorite part.  Because our gathering was so small, however, I skipped all the other pies and made my standard pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust.  It was a lot of work for a small family meal.  But, hey, Thanksgiving only comes once a year.

Posing with all our chefs.

Natasha is ready to eat!!!

Ya! Ya!

Natasha is not one to sit quietly at the dinner table.  Almost every night without fail, she gets up from her seat, climbs onto the bench with the other kids, stands behind them and hugs them while rocking and singing "Ya, ya, ya, ya".  I really thinks she means "La, la, la, la" but she can't pronounce her L's yet.  I should reprimand her for leaving her place, but it's so adorable.

Start spreading the news. . .

Rob and I just returned from a refreshing trip to New York City.  Rob has a conference there each November and I have joined him for the past couple years.  I love returning to the Big Apple.  I have so many fond memories of the place, especially because it is where Rob and I met and dated.  Plus, there is a certain reviving energy I feel every time I visit.  We get to see shows, go to museums and meet up with old friends.  Rob will never live there because he doesn't like the crowds, but I love the crowds, the excitement, the anonymity (and perhaps the independence from my overwhelming job of motherhood) that I feel when I'm there.  Someday we will have to take our children.

The view out the window of our fancy-schmanzy midtown hotel.

I finally was able to see the September 11 Memorial.  It is quite beautifully done. 

However, returning there still gives me chills.

I convinced my parents to meet us there.  My dad had business in New York anyhow.  It was so much fun to see them and CK, Carl and their darling baby Athelia Claire.  What a treat!

Here I am in front of 1 Liberty Plaza, my old office building. 

I think it's getting some sort of a facelift.

Rob is not very excited to have his picture taken in Central Park.

I went for a run in Central Park and had to take photos of the autumn leaves.  Switzerland is beautifully green, but the fall leaves are not as nice as the East Coast.

Rob in front of his old apartment building -- where he lived when we were dating.

And Baby Number 5 will be. . .

We wanted to do something fun to inform our children of the sex of our upcoming new baby.  I made cupcakes and wrote letters on each of the cupcakes.  I then scrambled them and the kids had to unscramble them to find out the sex.  Here is the final result:

 You would think that the kids would have figured it out immediately by the color of the cupcakes.  But blue is Anna's favorite color so it's not very gender-typed in our house.

Notice the look of surprise and excitement on everyone's faces -- except Natasha, who doesn't know what to think.  Tyler somehow thinks that the new baby will replace Natasha in the family (because "she always hits me").  Sorry bud, she's staying with us for life!

Halloween Party!

Our ward does a Halloween Party each year.  Because there are not usually many Halloween activities in Switzerland, the kids look forward to this party for months and invite all of their friends.  This year is the first year in awhile that I didn't prepare ahead and order costumes from the U.S.  It turned out just fine.  Anna wanted to be a bat, so I just sewed wings onto a black shirt, made a mask and, voilà!  She was a bat.  Mariah wanted to be a witch, and witch costumes are easy to find here.  With Tyler, we just threw together a pirate costume from old clothes and Natasha wore Anna's old bumblebee outfit.  Everyone seemed happy.  

Halloween night itself was extremely exciting!  Our new house is on a street full of expat Americans and Brits.  And, many of the Swiss on our street spent some time living in America.  As such, it is known as the "Halloween" street.  Americans come from all over just to trick or treat on our street.  Those who want to participate just put pumkins outside their door.  Some houses even did the whole scary haunted house decorations.  I couldn't believe it.  I almost felt like I was back in the U.S.!  Although I bought a lot of candy to give out, I still ran out by 7:30!

Tyler the fearsome pirate, exhausted by all his knife fights and ship stealing.

Natasha the Bumblebee who wouldn't keep her antennas on even for a minute.

Mariah, the evil witch (and our little drama queen).

Anna, the giant bat.

Tyler, the pirate who did not want to walk the plank.

Again, Mariah, the scary witch.

Mariah loves the limelight!

Carvin' pumpkins

I love this time of year.  Fall is in the air and the harvest is evident everywhere.  Farmers' markets with fresh produce abound.  If I drive the farm roads, I find lots of self-serve shops, where the farmers just line up all the pumpkins, put price labels on each one and leave a money box for you to pay.  I can't imagine this ever working in the U.S.  Wouldn't teenagers come along and steal the moneybox?  Aaaah, the refreshing 1950's trust that still exists today in Switzerland!

And, of course, it's time for pumkin carving.

Natasha is thrilled to help dig out all the gunk!

Yes, Mommy made us wear our paint shirts so we wouldn't ruin our jammies.

We cleaned out the pumpkin and Daddy is going to carve it.

Venice: Heading Home

We have had such a wonderful time in Venice that it is hard to say goodbye.  I've enjoyed being in a place where the sounds are different.  Instead of motors and honking, we've heard instead the creaks of hand-pulled carts and the tapping of shoes on the ground.  The sounds, mixed with the misty water and patchwork of colored buildings will make this place hard to forget. 

Goodbye magical land of rivered paths!

Ciao!

Venice: Day 2

On our second day here in Venice, we left early to explore the town.  I'm not sure why we took the stroller, as we just had to drag it up and down the stairs on bridges.  But the kids had a great time running around and exploring the streets.

St. Mark's Square was busy as usual.  The kids loved feeding the pigeons more than seeing any of the architectures.  While we were there, Anna Claire was thrilled to figure out that the source of the water leaking into St. Mark's Square came from under the church.  There are empty tables piled up everywhere so that people can walk on them when the water gets too high.  Fortunately, we did not see much flooding anywhere.

In the afternoon, I took Anna, Mariah and Kari to see a glass making factory on the island of Murano.  It was fascinating to watch them create beautiful masterpieces by melting the colors together. I bought a beautiful pitcher that reminds me of a colorful Matisse painting.

We took the girls to a special evening tonight to see a performance of "Il Quattro Staggione" by Vivaldi.  This is where he lived, so there are all kinds of Vivaldi productions here.  The girls are just starting violin when we return, so we hoped to inspire them by this performance.  They loved it.  The string players all came out in 18th century dress -- complete with huge skirts and white wigs.

Hello Venezia!

The kids just couldn't get over the displays of EXTREMELY fresh seafood.  Not to their liking!

Tyler, wishing he could hop onto that gondola.

Running along the bridges.

Anna and Mariah, ready to go to the concert.  Because they are both taking violin, they loved it!

All the family.

Snacktime!

Mariah at St. Marks Square.

Anna, getting a little tired, while Mommy reads up on the history of Venice.

Hi everybody!  This is just after some Chinese people stopped us so they could take a picture with our blonde kids.

The Palace.  Beautiful!

Touring the canal.  This is one of the richest houses along the route.

Feeding the pigeons at St. Mark's.  Right after this, we noticed a sign that said, "Please do not feed pigeons."

Along the canal.

Mom and her girls!

Every photo here is picture perfect!

Glass making on the island of Murano.

Window shopping in Murano.

The kids bought masks with their "savings" money.  They couldn't wait to show them off.

Venice: First day

We are in Venice right now and it is picture perfect.  We drove here and parked at the nearest town, then took the train to Venice main station.  From there we took a Vaporetto (water bus) to our apartment, which is in a charming neighborhood 15 minutes from St. Mark's Square.  

After arriving we headed out to check out our neighborhood and eat some good Italian food.  What I love about Venice is how quiet it is because it is car free.  One can imagine how peaceful things were before the invention of the motor.  All we could hear were the clicks of heals on the pavement or the rolling of carts creaking along the narrow streets.  This is how everything is delivered in Venice -- it arrives by small boat and then is hand-carried to its destination.  

I also quickly realized how difficult it would be to live here with children.  A toddler could easily wander off the sidewalk and plop right into the water.  There are no fences blocking off the water -- it wouldn't be feasible.  I was a bit scared for Natasha!  I think that's why we have seen very few children here -- the town is populated mostly by tourists and senior citizens.

Walking around this evening was like doing a professional photo shoot.  The lighting was perfect and the background could not have been better.  Rob got excited because we now have a good camera so he took most of the shots.  I will mostly let the pictures speak for themselves.