June Fun

 Like always, the end of the school year was a bit of a mad dash and a blur activity.  We seemed to have people coming and going for most of May and June this year, so there has been the added excitement of someone else in the house with us for quite some time.  And of course there were good byes to be said, accompanied by social events to spend time with people.

The good byes at TASIS this year were a bit tough.  I still haven't processed that the Millers are gone, and of course saying good bye to my friend Arrington was rough to say the least.  We also said good bye to Lauren and her family, which is a shame as they were only here a year, but were great to hang out with.  And then there was Josh Keith (though we will see him in NYC when we go!), the Bendels, and not TASIS related, but our dear babysitter for 4 years - Callie.  We will really miss having her here and helping out with the kids.  As it turned out, she ended up staying with us for a week after all her graduation stuff, which worked out to help us after Mims left and when there were some of the end of year things for us.  It was also when our cherry tree finally ripened and what a great loot we got from that tree this year!

Last hang out at Lauren's place - Eowyn, Lauren and Lilly, Cassidy and Jamison

Cherry picking off the patio 

Our last day with Callie before she left for her African adventure

Cherry loot

 Liam got this awesome puzzle (with 200 pieces I think), of the map of Europe for his birthday.  We had kept it in a cupboard for a few months because we thought it was a bit advanced for him - it says 7+ on it. But he wanted to try and do it, and after the first few times when mims was here, he is getting really good at doing more and more of it on his own.  It's quite impressive to watch!

Liam and his puzzle!

 As Liam's school year started to wind down they had another little spectacolo to highlight the "grandi's" who are moving up to the elementary school.  Liam's roll, because he's just a medio, was small, but still fun to see him in his school again.  He was a farfalle - a butterfly!  They also had a potluck lunch outside afterwards, so it was nice to see some of the other families and see the kids playing together.  Unfortunately James didn't make it, but Eowyn and I took photos and videos to show him afterwards!

Our little Farfalle!

Eowyn in her BAPRIBAP senegalese dress!

The Miller boys sharing a swing

More sibling care

 June 6th was also our end of year faculty event.  This year it was held in the Skipper's garden and there were a huge number of kids roving around.  Some of them were decidedly rough and tumble and we spent much of the time fielding Eowyn and Liam away from the brawls and towards other stuff.  The event itself was underwhelming with no dinner served and very dull farewell acknowledgements for those leaving, but it was nice to see some people one last time.  Anna also arrived from NYC that morning, so we dragged her along to keep her awake!

Kiddo madness

Helping Liam climb a tree seemed less dangerous than letting him run with the bigger kids

Trying to get a photo of a lot of the littles at TASIS this year!
Lilly, Delaney with Evalyn, Greer with Holly's baby, Nathaniel, Eowyn, Jamison, and Iona with Maddux (and Alexi)

 So basically 3 days after Callie left Anna arrived for a 2 and a half week visit.  Her first time in Europe!  We were glad to have her and only wished we could have showed her a bit more.  Unfortunately, even though school had ended James was still caught up in meetings for the week after, so she was stuck hanging out with me and the kids for much of that time.  We did manage to do a day trip into Milan on Saturday though, so after much traffic and 2 hours drive we made it in and had quite a lovely day around the Duomo.  The plan had been to go early and be back around naps or late naps, but because of the traffic we ended up getting there later and just staying till dinner.  Thankfully both kids took a nap in the strollers so we didn't have meltdowns!

Anna and James and the duomo

Eowyn pushing Liam!

Asleep!

More nap time!

James took Anna on the percorsa vita walk with the kids to show her some swiss nature.  The kids had a blast doing various obstacles and finding wild strawberries to eat!

Cheese!

Liam leaping over logs

Wild Strawberry Picking!

Goofy time - Anna with the kiddos

Taking a drink from the fountain on the way out

We also had one last BBQ with the Millers before they left.  We're so happy for them to be moving on to things that they are excited about, but sad to see them go for our own sake.  The kids were really funny - trying to play Uno (which was Liam's first time and Eowyn had no clue what was going on!)

A riveting game of uno

Sad face Josh

 Other random things we did with Anna before we left for our week in Greece (with her!):  a trip downtown to see the park, lake and the walking area

 A work dinner for the administration with family invited along - Birrificio pizzo and melting down children!

A visit to the lugano lido and the UBS pool on some hot days!

UBS pool - Eowyn snagged someone's toy!

 Playing at the square one last time with Cassidy and Jamison.

The "bus" game

I will post a separate one for our trip to Greece, but just to finish off Anna's visit, when we got back James took her to walk from Corona up San Salvatore.  The kids went too, but Eowyn ended up in the pouch (or as she says "the couch") for most of the time.  The views weren't so clear at the top, but it's a pretty good walk!

Anna and Liam

Sibling love - holding hands! 

At the top with daddy 

Cheeky chimps!

More Spring Time Fun and Visitors!

We are relieved that this spring is more "normal" than last with less rain and warmer weather.  We've actually done a lot more to make the most of the good weather by heading out on little outings with friends and visitors.

It's been a long time since James and I headed up Monte Tamaro, and we certainly haven't done it with the kids.  We decided to make a little morning out of it and bring a picnic up with us and it was a beautiful sunny day.  The only thing we didn't bank on was the fact that there was still SNOW on top of the mountain!  So thankfully I brought a couple of extra layers and we managed it fine, but it was definitely not what we had expected to see in mid May!

Surprised to find snow at the top!

Merry go round trio!

A mountain of snow! 

View of the mountains

Liam and Cassidy on the outlook of the church

Family photo!

Me getting to do the zip line again

Now that's a ride with a view!

Cheesy grins on the "Grondolo"

 We also had a long overdue visit from Amu and family.  I feel like we've been inviting them to come since we got here, and almost 7 years later they finally took us up on it and came for a weekend.  I'm just sorry that it was such a long drive for them for such a short stay.  It would have been nice to have an extra few days.  Luckily we had mostly good weather, so we had a chance to walk around town and show them the lake, as well as a hike on the percorsa vita (which took longer than it should! but was fun).  We ate out on the patio at Bellavista to continue our enjoyment of outdoors, and spent an evening on our patio watching the sun go down.

Sunday was spend hanging out around the breakfast table talking and catching up.  I am so happy to get to know Sana and Parya more as adults, since we have had very few meetings over the past years.  And also for Amu and Auntie Fariba to get to know James a bit more.  We also got to show them around campus with arts festival happening before they had to head back to Mannheim.

Lovely picture of Amu in the park downtown

Sana-lein all grown up

Selfies photo - Auntie Fariba and Parya!

Walking the percorsa vita was quite strenuous

Family photo on the percorsa vita

In other spring news, we are so excited to be getting more fruit from our strawberry plant this spring.  Last year I think we had a measly two and this year we've had more than a dozen.  They have been beautiful and delicious - or so the kids say.  James and I only managed to eat half of one each!

Liam with a handful of our strawberries

Mims came for her spring visit a bit later this year, and I'm thankful we finally had some better weather!  The last few times have been pretty dismal.  The kids have been going through some challenges these past few weeks/months, so unfortunately there were some challenging times during her visit, but I still think that having Grandma come through regularly keeps them really familiar with her.  Eowyn definitely has been a lot more particular about who can do things or not, and by who, it really ends up just being me.  I feel a bit drained by it for sure, but I am reminding myself that these are just particular phases in these little beings' lives.  Liam is still very much testing boundaries and feeling out the defiant thing.  Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by it, as it seems like if it's this hard at ages 4 and 2 what will the teen years be like?  But then I remember that James is an expert in teenagers so we'll be all set, right?!

During Mims' time we of course had a morning for her to visit Deborah the wonder hairdresser who works miracles.  This time Eowyn had to come too because our babysitters had all left already, and amazingly she managed to hang out in the salon for the whole deal - (not a small feat since it was 1.5 hours!)  We made a morning of it and had lunch out at Etnics and did a bit of wandering around town.

Mims all spruced up with a new haircut!

Look how shiny and smooth the back looks!

Over the weekend we had great weather and managed to finally take Mims out to see some sites.  I had no idea she'd never been to Como, so we went for a morning and lunch to show her around a bit.  We came across a mini train near the lake so we let the kids have a treat and ride on it.  Unfortunately Eowyn was too young to go unattended so I had to go too.  6 laps later I was fairly nauseous, but the kids were loving it! 

So we have definitely allowed special treats into the kids lives at this point.  Gelato is one of them.  But what I've learned is that one ice cream each is just a ridiculous amount, so I get one small ice cream cup with 2 flavors, and then I ask for 2 cones and put a small amount on each cone - enough for them to lick and enjoy for a bit, but not enough to go into a sugar coma, and normally there's enough left in the cup for me too!  Win-win-win! 

Train ride in Como

Photo by the lake

Liam monkeying around in the playground on the lake 

Eowyn 

Mims with a beautiful view of the mountains and lake Como behind her 

A shoulder ride nap for Liam

Lunch at our favorite pizza place in the old town 

The kids were being so cute - Liam giving Eowyn hugs and Eowyn playing peek-a-boo!

Rounding out the day trip with gelato - can you tell how pleased they are?

 On sunday it was supposed to be another 78 degree day so we planned to go to the Lugano Lido for some lake and pool time.  It was a bit cooler when we arrived because of some weird clouds sitting over the sun, but the kids had no problem splashing about in the 16 degree celcius water!  We were joined by the Dibberts, Diloughrey's, Loves and Walser, so the kids had plenty to do.  We started off playing in the sand by the lake, and later as the sun came out more we headed over to the kids pool and set up there so we could watch the kids in the water and have a picnic lunch.  I'm amazing how much more confident both Eowyn and Liam have become since we were there last summer.  They are fairly independent and don't need us to hover right over them, which is of course great for us.

Mims and Eowyn on the beach at the Lugano Lido

Cassidy, Liam and Drake daringly venturing in the freezing water

Eowyn and Liam having a blast in the kiddie pool