Trying to Catch Up!

Sorry everyone for not posting anything sooner. It's been a busy week. We got the keys to the flat on Tuesday. However, we don't move in until mid November when the sea shipment arrives. At least I am able to do laundry there which is so nice! (5 people and over 3 weeks of clothes is a bunch!) I am going to take some pictures tomorrow of the flat and I'll post them to give you an idea of where we are going to live.

This past weekend we walked around Neuchatel and went to a Cathedral - Collegiale et Chateau. The pictures are smaller but you can click on them to enlarge them, I think. I'm experimenting again! Sorry, I tried it but it didn't work. I formatted the pictures too small.

It has a beautiful pipe organ. Parts of this cathedral date back to the early 1500's.
On the side of the cathedral they have a garden area. It has some neat little hideaways and a bridge that we enjoyed crossing.
The boys ride their scooters quite a bit. Children start riding scooters here as soon as they can walk. I've seen some very little children riding scooters very well. Some adults ride them to work. Kate, Maggie and I just follow behind. The stroller has been a life saver. It's not very wheelchair accessible and all the steps make it hard on Kate with her crutches. We are adapting.

Of course we have to walk down by the lake. The kids enjoyed feeding the ducks and a swan was there the next day.
Of course I couldn't do a post without giving you a new picture of the Alps and the lake.

Jason's Birthday

We had a fun birthday celebration. Katelyn was in charge.

On Wednesdays, there is only 1/2 day of school for children in Neuchatel. So we headed to the Maladiere Center (Mall) to do some grocery shopping. Since our sea shipment hasn't arrived, I needed to get something to bake the cake in. We had a chocolate cake mix and powdered sugar that came in our air shipment. We had a mission.

While we were there, she had to take a picture of the balloon birthday cake. She thought it was fitting since it was Dad's birthday too!The mall is celebrating their 2nd Anniversary. It's a nice place and not too big.

We found some aluminum pans and they were a good size to fit in the oven. We made everything by hand and did a lot of stirring. We did some conversions and the following was the outcome. I forgot, Kate had to buy some sprinkles for the cake.

When Jason arrived home, he had to hunt for his 2 birthday presents. We got him something "Switzerlandee". I think he looks very European in his new scarf and sweater coat.

After dinner, we turned off the lights and sang "Happy Birthday". The cake was delicious!

Jason's drive to work

Jason has been taking some pictures on his drive to work. The following two pictures are from Monday. That is the only day we have seen the Alps.

Today he took some pictures that show the temperature change very well. This first picture is 5 minutes out of Neuchatel. It is raining pretty good.

This is when he was 10 minutes out.

Here he is 20 minutes out. Kate and I saw quite a few cars on our way to school with a couple of inches of snow on their car. Jason said they had about 4 inches at work.

Was Jason driving when he took these pictures??? I plead "no comment". Winter has arrived!

The Room is Quiet!

Since everyone is at school and Jason is at work, I thought I would catch up on the blog since it is very quiet.

I took the boys to school this morning. It was their 1st day and they were very excited to go. I think I was having a harder time. They are going to ride the train back home by themselves for the very first time. I think they will do fine and they have cell phones if something comes up. I am anxious to hear how everything went.

I wanted to share some pictures that I have taken . I thought this one turned out really neat. The sun was trying to shine thru the fog one morning along the lake.

This picture I took this morning. It is the first time for me to see the Alps since we have been here. It is definately getting cold. They are predicting snow for Wednesday and Thursday. Welcome to Switzerland!

Hotel des Arts

Hotel des Arts is our temporary home. I thought I would dedicate this post to Nursie Pooh and Mrs. Peeps. If you have ever been to their blog, you would understand. I am also practicing on this post. I am trying to get a little bit more familiar with how the blog program works.

This is our living room. The kids fight over these 2 chairs. They have the best spot for viewing the cartoons in French and a place to put their hot chocolate! Also, they have good connections to the internet and can keep their computers charging.



Of course I could not resist taking pictures of the bathroom. Kate is very curious about how that bidet works. However, I haven't heard the boys say one thing about it.

For the shower area, I am so thankful we at least have a shower curtain. I think everyone is getting use to handling the shower hose.

The kitchen reminds me of college. I can't wait to have a dishwasher again. The picture is a little bit dark but at least you get an idea of how it looks. The table is also my computer desk.

Lucas helped me to show the size of the refrigerator. We are adapting to it. The wine rack holds ice tea, coke zero and an orange drink very well. The compartment above that is the freezer. It holds 2 ice trays, bag of frozen beans and a bag of left over sauce that I made. I have 3 grocery stores within 5 blocks. It's good exercise to walk but I can't forget the bags or the cart.

The bedrooms are a nice size. The best thing is the comforter on the bed. It definately keeps you nice and warm at night. Kate has some of her stuffed animals that helps make the room a little bit like home.

Kate's 1st day of School in Switzerland

The day finally arrived and Kate was just a little bit nervous. I drove to school without any problems. I was amazed at how dark it still was. I don't know if it was because of the fog or if the sun normally isn't up at 7:30 a.m.

Kate met Ms. Greenbaum and instantly liked her. All I heard after school was how nice she was and she is very nice.

There are 8 students in her class. She is in the English speaking classroom and has French class 2 days a week. Tomorrow she will go on a field trip to see a play - "La sorciere du placard aux balais" (The Witch in the Broom Cupboard). I hope that goes well.

I was able to take some better pictures in the afternoon when I picked her up. I thought I would take a picture of the parking lot that we park in. It has a very nice garden. It is actually parking for the apartment complex right beside the school. They have 15 minute parking on one side which parks about 6 cars at the most. Many people park on the curb but I am not brave enough to do that yet. I am guessing there is about 150 students that attend the school from preschool thru 5th grade.

Kate is on the top floor which is called the 4th floor. Ground floor is zero here. She takes the elevator up in the morning and also at lunch time.

I thought the logo for the school is great. There are about 25 nationalities attending this school. At Christmas time they have a "Christmas around the World" where parents and children have a table and they give a little presentation on their cultural traditions.

I have already been given a parent volunteer form. Kate is making sure I sign the dotted line.................................... Ha Ha

2nd Attempt at Bern

Hello Everyone!

Today I am going to add more pictures of our adventure, I hope. The internet connection at the hotel isn't always that great and it takes forever for the pictures to upload.

We started our day a little bit later and there was lots of sunshine and happy moods. I forgot the guide book back at the hotel but I figured I could find my way. Our goal was to see the Bear Pit. The kids had their cameras and all the pictures from today are provided by one of them.

I thought I remembered the way to go but I didn't turn left soon enough and we walked a lot farther than we needed to. I would guess 2 miles more. The boys were good about it. We got a different perspective of the city. We saw it from the other side of the river. I thought this was a great picture of the Parliament building.

We walked upon Einstein's Museum that looked like a great place to spend a few hours. The kids begged me to go in and ask for directions. I did and the woman was nice enough to give me a map. She recommended walking along the river and we weren't far. We will visit the museum on the next trip.

The river was beautiful and it was a fun nature walk. I think we were about half way when we ran into a fence and the trail was closed. There was an alternate path but of course it was all uphill. It was too steep to push the stroller so I carried Kate and Devin pulled the stroller. Kate got scared because she thought we were in the middle of the "bear pit". During our long walk about, I was able to convince her otherwise. We ran into a nice woman and she pointed us in the right direction. We finally made it to the bear pit. It had been at leat an hour since we left the train station. There was only 1 bear and his name was Pedro. We were a little bit disappointed because we thought there was going to be more bears. People were feeding him and continued to beg for some more.

We were all in agreement to walk right back up thru the downtown area. It didn't take us more than 20 minutes to walk up the hill. The kids couldn't believe I made them walk so far out of the way. I told them it was a fun adventure that they would never forget! Of course they were starving and they spotted a Mc Donalds. The boys didn't want to eat once they saw the price of a meal. $13 for everything you see in front of Kate.

There was a German bakery right next door and the boys bought some doughnut like balls. They loved them. They thought they got the better deal of 1 Fr per ball.

We ran into the clock tower Zytglogge-Turm. It was built in 1530 and has so many functions.

We were all tired from the walking and decided to head back home. We remembered to get on the right part of the train this time. When we walked out of the station in Neuchatel, this was our view. It sure is beautiful.

I believe the kids had a great time and did a wonderful job taking pictures. Of course, I had to take the last picture of the day.