Ice Skating

Because the boys didn't get enough skating last week at hockey camp (and Abbie was just a wee bit jealous), we went ice skating as a family on Sunday. Actually, 4 people skated and one took pictures. John voted that I should risk re-injuring my knee until I could attempt to do it on skiis.

The day wasn't the best day we've had, weather wise. Every so often it misted rain. We've been told, "There's no such thing as bad weather in Switzerland. There's just bad outerwear." I'm not sure I'm going to buy into that completely, but I was willing to deal with a very light rain.

We had to drag the kids off the ice after a couple hours. They did enjoy a break for Swiss Hot Chocolate, which C.J. told me was made with real steamed milk. Abbie has decreed that if her brothers are going to play hockey, she should get to take ice skating lessons. Fun stuff!

The good news is that skating is a pretty cheap activity. It only cost the kids around $2 each for unlimited skate time that day. The boys own skates, but we did have to rent a pair for Abbie.

Here are more pictures from the day:
Ice Skating Pictures

Brendan's Birthday

In our family, the birthday person gets to choose the dinner meal. Abbie chose McDonalds. Brendan wasn't very particular. He said we could go to any restaurant. It just had to be in Germany.

I'd heard that the Bodensee area was beautiful, so we decided to do a day trip to the German side of the lake. Switzerland, Germany, and Austria border the lake. We drove to the town of Friedrichshafen, about 2 hours away. In honor of Brendan's birthday, we let the kids watch a movie in the car. The in-car DVD player is growing on me, as John and I had a nice time talking while we were driving and there weren't any whiny children interrupting us! Even Lucky came along for the ride. We didn't think we could leave her at home for over 12 hours, and we didn't have anyone who could come let her out. Upon arrival in Friedrichshafen, we walked around for a bit, quickly deciding that the best thing to do in the town would be a boat ride. The very friendly lady at the tourist center informed us that the best boat option would be a catamaran trip to Constanz, in Switzerland. Actually, it was the only place left where we could take a boat. She even insisted that Abbie was 5, as children under 6 travel for free. (Abbie was a bit concerned that we were cheating and it wasn't right, but we assured her that we had been 100% honest with the ticket agent and it was her decision to "hear" that Abbie was 5. I guess some lessons in honesty and integrity are sticking!) We took the ferry across the lake to Constanz, which is a beautiful town (and about half the travel distance as Friedrichshafen). We had a pizza lunch and then walked around -- first the town area and later a walking path by the water. The kids even stopped to play at a playground. In the late afternoon, we headed back to Friedrichshafen and drove to a restaurant by the Zeppelen hangar. I was hoping that we'd be able to see one of the blimps take off or land, but it wasn't in the cards. The kids enjoyed dinner, though, and Brendan even got a free cocktail. (I did check to make sure it would be non-alcoholic!) Some kids might be bitter that they asked to go Germany for their birthday and we spent most of the day in Switzerland, but Brendan enthusiastically said, "I got to go to Germany TWICE for my birthday!" That's the attitude I like to see! It's just one of the things I love about my 9 year old! I also love his determination, his intelligence, and his ability to set goals. Ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, and he will tell you with 100% confidence that he's going to be a CEO. In fact, he's a bit irked that our good friend Ray won't write the code for the virtual reality gaming system he has designed.

Brendan's birthday pictures.

Abbie's Field Trip

Part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program is "unit of inquiries" where the class focuses on a particular unit for 6 weeks or so. These are cross-discipline study areas and the school attempts to connect all the subjects (math, writing, etc.) to the unit. Abbie's first unit was "Work it Out" which discusses how people connect with each other through their work in the community. They started off the unit by discussing how the classroom functioned and various jobs students need in the class (line leader, paper distributor, etc.). From there, they moved on to discuss jobs in the school community. They interviewed the school secretary, nurse, custodian, etc. Finally, they talked about jobs in the community and took field trips to the fire station and a dentist. On the way, they talked about the stores they passed (bakery, butcher) and how those jobs helped the community. As part of the unit, each child had to take a field trip to visit a parent at work. Abbie could have chosen to shadow me for a day and help sort laundry and go to the grocery store, but she decided to see what John did. (smart girl!) So, one afternoon I picked her up after lunch and delivered her to John's office. Abbie can now happily report to her classroom that a CPA gets to drink soda at work and talks to a lot of people. .

Hockey Camp

Brendan has been asking to play hockey practically since he could walk. Since there are about 300 soccer teams in Pleasanton and maybe 1 hockey team in the valley, we decided to push soccer and ignore the hockey pleas. I liked the idea of driving to the local field for soccer games vs. driving all over the state for hockey games. Plus, we heard ice time is limited and you don't have fun practice times. Well, now that we are in hockey country and Brendan's new good friend plays (and loves) hockey, it was getting hard to ignore the pleas. We took the advice of Brendan's friend's mom (they're Austrian), and we signed both boys up for camp during their break from school this week.

They started off the week looking like this:

And ended the week each scoring hat tricks during scrimmages.

I was really impressed with the camp. They went on Monday and came home with a bag full of equipment -- helmets, neck guards, shoulder pads, elbow pads, jersey, gloves, shin/knee pads, pants, padded shorts, sports cup, skates, a stick, and a bag to carry it all. Who knew the real reason I should prefer soccer. Compare the previous list (plus long underwear and socks provided by mom) with soccer's equipment list: jersey, shorts, socks, shinguard, cleats, ball. Which set of gear is less likely to come home sopping wet? Which set produces more laundry? But, I digress. Besides providing a lot of gear, the camp was well organized. They split the ice into three sections and had the 6 and under crowd in the center, Brendan's group on one side, and C.J.'s group on the other side. Everyone spoke German. The boys quickly learned to listen, watch what the other kids did when the coach stopped speaking, and then go copy them. The kids weren't the only smart ones. By the end of the week, the coaches figured out that the boys didn't understand a word they said and, if necessary, spoke to them in English. Oh, the camp even provided a snack every day.

Regardless of my taunts during the week, "Wow, that bag sure seems heavy!" "Hmm. Are you ever going to be able to put ALL that gear on?" "Sure looks cold out on that ice!" the boys loved camp. They want to join the team. Will this get me out of being a soccer (oops, football) mom? Noooo. Now, they want to discuss the possibility of playing both sports. Ahhh, the joys of motherhood.

Here are some more pictures of hockey. Boys playing hockey.

Brendan is #63. Blue jersey, red helmet. C.J. is #15. White jersey, blue helmet.