50 Years

The school celebrated its 50th anniversary today, so they hosted a birthday party.

This afternoon was the kids party. They served a BBQ lunch (bratwurst, hamburger, or veggie burger)and hosted games ranging from pony rides and face painting to 3 legged races and relays. All the kids from preschool to high school attended. Since the school wanted them all to show school spirit and be color coordinated for pictures, every child got a free t-shirt. They even learned a song -- "It's Gonna be a Good Year", a spin off from "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyes Peas, for the occasion. Oh, and of course, they sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cupcakes. They even counted "Are you 1? Are you 2?... all the way up to Are you 50?" The Head of School gave a little speech and talked about how birthdays aren't any fun without presents -- so he told the kids that he had decided to give them all a day off from school this year. The only catch is that the students, administration, and parents' association all have to come to a consensus on which day. Brendan said he's going to lobby for a day off when Uncle Craig visits, but those days are already holidays. (That's good for Brendan as I think it could be a hard sell to all the non-related kids at the school -- not that Uncle Craig isn't a cool guy and all.)

Tonight was a cocktail party (Apero) for the adults. They passed wine, beer, and appetizers all night. We even had a champagne toast and mini cupcakes. It was fun to see everyone dressed up and socializing without kids. We hired a babysitter, but if you didn't have a sitter -- no problem -- the parents' association organized group babysitting in another building. And the total cost for the events? Nothing out of pocket for us. I'd say "free" but the politically correct term over here is "included" as the funds do come from our tuition.

Soccer Fans

Soccer fans come in all shapes and sizes over here in Switzerland. Here's a particular cutie who showed up to watch C.J.'s game yesterday:



And just in case you don't believe how close they were to the field:



C.J. was number 6 for this game.

Happy Birthday Abbie!

My baby turned 7 yesterday. We celebrated as a family at Alparamare, the biggest covered water park in Europe. It was a fitting venue for my water-loving girl, and we all had a blast riding the water slides, catching waves in the pool, relaxing in the sauna pool, and floating in the lazy river. The facility is open year round, and many of the slides are indoors. I'm not sure how the sneak peeks of the outside would be during a snowfall, though. Fortunately, Abbie had a gorgeous day and we all loved our ventures outside. We topped off the day at McDonalds. It was nice not to cook, but absence isn't making my heart grow any fonder as far as fast food goes.

As much as I try to plan family traditions, they seem to be born from spontaneity. I had a random squirt bottle of chocolate left in the fridge, so I wrote "Happy Birthday" on Abbie's breakfast crepe. Others got "Love", "Cute", "Star", etc. Who knew it would be such a hit. (Duh, chocolate for breakfast!) Everyone is already talking about what will be on their crepe for Brendan's birthday. And thus a new tradition is born.

The water park highlighted a few cultural differences for us. First, the changing room was co-ed. Yes, there were private stalls you could use to change, but the benches, lockers, etc. were shared by all. It was actually quite convenient as the family could stick together. Second, all the slides were regulated by traffic lights. You pushed off on green. With the exception of one group of teenagers, everyone stuck to the rules. Either teenagers are the same across the world, or it was a group of expat teenagers.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, adorable, spunky, active 7 year old! I love watching Abbie's face shine with excitement and how she embraces the world. She is my planner and needs to know exactly what is happening every moment of the day. Case in point: she didn't know what to do with herself all day Saturday as she was worried we wouldn't get the Happy Birthday sign hung or the bow on her chair. There was no way this child could go to sleep trusting that I would take care of staging the birthday setting.