Morges Book Club

Monday was my last time going to the Morges book club. In fact, it was not only my last time, it was also two other members' last time as well, and we are all leaving within days of each other.


It was a great evening with talking, eating, and drinking wine late into the night. I will definitely miss being part of such a nice group! More pictures are on Flickr.

End of the Year Spectacle (the sequel)

Last night Rowan had another end of the year spectacle at school. The first one happened when my sister, Georgia, and I were in Paris. I was so sad to have missed it, so was glad that they had another one. The first, that I missed, took place in Ro's classroom, and was only his class. This one involved the entire school. He was so nervous that he ordered Pat and the girls to stay home, and only allowed me to come. In spite of his fears he did really great, and there were no tears at this one, like there was at the last.

Here are a couple of not-so-good videos, for those who are interested:

Afterward he and I celebrated with some ice cream at the stand across the street from our hotel

Three cheers for a successful evening!

There are a few more photos up on Flickr.

Catching Up: Neuschwanstein & Playmobil FunPark

In May (Really? Only May? This trip seems ages ago.) we took a road trip over the Ascension holiday to Neuschwanstein and the Playmobil FunPark.

Neuschwanstein was fun to see, though it did rain the whole time we were there.

It was also one of the most touristy places we have visited. The courtyard was packed and there were tours going through at very regular intervals. In fact, I don't think there could have been more than five minutes between tours because Rowan and I stopped for a couple of minutes to linger over the "cave", and in that short time the next tour caught up to us and we'd lost our tour group.

Anyway, in preparation for our visit Rowan and Niamh (mostly Rowan) watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and read King Ludwig's Castle, The King and his Castle, and Stephen Biesty's Castles. I recommend The King and his Castle and Stephen Biesty's Castles, but was not so impressed with King Ludwig's Castle. But I'm afraid that not having looked at them in a while, as well as not having them on hand, I can't get more detailed on the books than that! One or more of the books mention the King Ludwig loved the story of St. George and the Dragon, and at least one of them had a picture of the wall in the castle on which a mural of St. George is painted. So knowing that story definitely helped keep Ro interested while touring the castle. But even with all our preparation, I'm afraid that the children's favorite part was probably not seeing the castle, but riding in a carriage up to the castle.


In fact, poor Neuschwanstein was not even the 2nd star of the show, because everyone's favorite part of the weekend was the Playmobil FunPark. Though the kids haven't been exposed to much Playmobil yet, Pat has very fond Playmobil memories, and was quite interested in going. It is a three hour drive from Neuschwanstein, and five hours from Morges. Because of the amount of driving involved we'd decided not to go, until my friend Laurie visited. Before coming to Switzerland, she and her children had stopped at the FunPark, and she couldn't stop raving about how wonderful it was for young children. When she pointed out that it was also the only one in the entire world (none of the other parks have the outside play areas, which is really what made it all worthwile), we were convinced.

I took a lot of photos at the park, but in looking back over them, I feel that I did not do a good job at all of capturing the park as a whole. It was huge, and there was just so much for the kids to do. There are no rides like at Disneyland, it was instead more like a giant playground, Playmobil-style. I wish we could have stayed for one more day. Thanks Laurie, for talking us into it!

More photos from our trip can be found, as always, on flickr.

Packed Up

a few select items waiting to be boxed up for the air shipment

The movers finished packing up today and the apartment is almost empty, except for a few items we still need to take to the hotel and very large herd of dust bunnies.


Niamh was too tired to be bothered by dust bunnies (the photo has been carefully framed to hide them), and took a nap on the bare floor. She's been running a fever all day. Rowan had it first on Monday night, then Muriel got, it. Fingers crossed that it stops at Niamh. She seems okay as long we keep up the children's motrin.

This afternoon I took the kids to the beach, leaving Pat behind to work on the apartment.

Niamh obviously feeling much better

But by dinnertime Niamh was burning up, and was sick enough that she not only didn't eat dinner, but couldn't even manage ice cream afterward. So I took Ro and Muriel outside the hotel for some ice cream while Pat stayed behind with Niamh.

Rowan showed Muriel how to walk through the sprinkler puddles, leaving footprints like a dog.

I have to say that this all looks fairly idyllic from the photos, but the reality has not been so much fun. Sick kids, Muriel not sleeping at night, living in a hotel, moving stress, and Rowan throwing the worst tantrums I have ever seen every thirty minutes or so, all have me looking forward very much to putting this all behind us.

Goods Shipment

Emily and I are trying to get a bit organized before the movers come to pack everything on Thursday. They will return on Saturday to load the truck. The air shipment will travel via Zurich and should arrive in Loveland on July 12th. I don't understand why it takes so long if traveling by air.

Our sea shipment will cross the ocean aboard the CMA CGM Rossini. The ship will depart Bremerhaven on July 4th and should arrive in Houston on July 27th. Customs clearance and delivery should occur by August 13th. Anyone want to take bets on when it will actually arrive?

Niamh's Pistol

The kids made lego pistols today. Niamh's can be seen below. The picture was taken prior to adding the trigger guard, but after adding the pilot.

Rental in Loveland

We submitted an application for a rental house yesterday and should hear back sometime on Thursday.

The rental market for larger houses is very tight here. Agencies were calling and cancelling our appointments all morning, as their houses were now off the market. The general hypothesis is that people are being kicked out of their house due to foreclosure and are now looking to rent.

The house we are moving into has four bedrooms, three of which are fairly small. Rowan and Nimah might end up in bunk beds. The backyard is currently only partially fenced, but the agency indicated they would fence the rest if we asked them to.

The house is located here.