"Geburtstag Party"

Ben's 9th birthday is this Saturday.  However, we're also flying back to the United States that day.  So last weekend we celebrated Ben's birthday.  We gave him a few choices for what party to have, and he chose the "Water Park / Slumber Party" party.  So last Friday afternoon we picked Ben and Megan up after school, along with 2 of Ben's friends, and we all went to a local indoor water park.  The kids got to have some fun in the water for a few hours and eat some pizza.  Then we all came home for some birthday cake, and then the boys had a big sleepover in the living room.  They played video games, watched some shows, and ate popcorn.  Finally, the next morning we all ate pancakes and Ben got to open his presents.  Overall everyone had a lot of fun.  It was a different kind of party than we usually have but it was great.  Ben had a great "Geburtstag Party."

Easter At School

The international school held an "Easter Egg Hunt" last week for all the American families.  Evidently everyone celebrates Easter in Europe, but only Americans do the "hunt" thing.  Anyway, since there was candy and chocolates involved the kids didn't mind going up to school on a Sunday.

Life At Random

Here's another collection of random scenes from the past few months.  Winter has been taking its sweet time in leaving, but we're finally turning the corner I think.  The snow is just about gone around the villages, and some of the birds are already returning.  Recently we've hosted a few sleepovers, done a little more skiing, had a few play dates, done lots of bike riding, and of course the kids have been busy at school.  And oh yeah, Ben and I built a haunted house out of Legos for our next Halloween.  Anyway, we're all staying busy.

Funny story...a few weeks ago Megan said to me "when we move back to Midland I'm going to have to learn English."  She was of course speaking English when she said this, so I asked her what language she thought she was speaking.  She told me she was speaking German because we were in Switzerland.  I then had to explain to her what speaking a different language actually means.  Anyway, she was all confused.  It's interesting though how much the language issue has become such a huge part of our lives over here, even for the kids.  All four of us are much better now than we were at this time last year, but it's still one of our main issues every day over here.