Chance Quote of the Day

Chance was one of the first kids to arrive to school this morning and while I was talking in the hallway, Chance went in his classroom, sat at his desk and began to draw. I walked in to give him his water bottle, and at the same time Praket, the only other kid in the room asked Chance if he'd like to play Snakes and Ladders. It went down something like this:

CHANCE: No Praket, I am working on my paper.
PRAKET: Please Chance, there is no one else to play with me
CHANCE: NO PRAKET. Why don't you just go play with a ghost or something.

Genetics at Work

I think we've concluded, Chance got Ryan's eyes, and Brooks got mine.

Who Needs Bathing Anyway

ME: Chance, time for a bath
CHANCE: Why mom? I have school tomorrow and I am just going to go there and get dirty anyway?

HMMM......Could this be why? Sadly, I don't think it was school that did this to him, I think it was the fact that our house cleaner is on strike until the move!

Happy Birthday To Me

Another year older, aint it great? This was my 4th birthday to celebrate on the European continent. I always associate my birthday's here with going somewhere exotic.......Spain, Ireland...this year we did a little precelebration by spending the weekend visiting Josh and Katherine in Geneva and a night in Montreux. I love dragging out my birthday!

Monday, the 5th, was an extended Easter weekend, and so we took the opportunity with Ryan off work to celebrate it then. We took the boys up to the forest for a little exploring

and found some really cool wood piles to climb on.


Not sure where Chance has picked up this WAZ UP MAN stance, but it keeps finding its way into our pictures. For now we are embracing it as a "cute" gesture.

Views from the top were amazingly clear and the Alps spread out before us like.......like something. You get the point, they were stunning and clear, and they had to know it was MY birthday weekend to cooperate like this!




So back at the house it was (probably the last, boo hoo) Sprungli cake, some fireworks atop the cake in a very Swiss fashion,

and then it was on to my gifts. See anything strange? Look closely?

Yes, even my husband must be in a little bit of subliminal denial about my age. How can I be married to someone THAT OLD! No, I am no longer 32.

Brooks was sad he didn't get any cake, but he's holding out for his birthday in September. He said he can maintain his physique without any extra calories. Instead, he was pretty happy knawing on the end of the balloon stick.

And then to end the festivities, Chance had 3 pieces of white paper in his hand, and begins cutting away letting it all drop on the floor. Mom, I am making you a birthday puzzle.......HMMMM. I say, oh boy Chance that will take me all night to complete that puzzle.

So in the morning when the "puzzle" had all been cleaned up and thrown away, he asks, "Mom, where's the puzzle I made you? You said you'd stay up all night putting together?" And the kid was serious.

And if all those festivities weren't enough, on the actual day, Jane and Jen put together quite a nice spread for me, making me feel extra celebrated. And then I returned home to the sweetest birthday card. I think Mimi is getting a little sappy about us moving home, but at least I know who to call should I get swarmed by bees. Yes, my mommy does love me!

Our Final Weekend Get Away

Two things we had to do before leaving the land of cheese and cows....was to take one last little weekend trip, and go meet Josh and Katherine's newest little bundle Benjamin. Brooks really wanted to go and meet his new pal. He said he wanted to teach him to sit up and roll and scream. Benjamin was so adorable, mostly just sleeping the whole time. Just before the end though, he woke up for us enough to hold him and snap some pics of the boys.



Chance begged the whole drive to Geneva, could he PLEASE show Josh this cool thing on his nintendo. And ole Josh was quite the sport to endulge Chance.



And no trip is complete without some sort of incident, unfortunately for Brooks he fell victim to the Baby Keks. Just looking at this box brings back memories of me as a teenager. My family frequented this little outside burger dive on Lake Austin, where you'd place your order at the counter and then they'd call your name over the loud speaker to come and get it when it's ready. Well, lucky for me, I went to grab us a table while my dad placed the order. Soon enough, STACEY BABY CAKES, STACEY BABY CAKES, YOUR ORDER IS READY. THAT'S: STACEY BABY CAKES, YOUR ORDER IS READY. The terror of that moment apparently still haunts me.

But back to the story. Basically Josh and Katherine got some good parenting advice from us: don't feed your 6 month old Baby Keks cause a piece will inevitably fall in to your baby's mouth and make him choke. Unfortunately for Brooks, he bit off too big of a piece, and a full on choking scene ensued. But never fear, we all survived to tell the tale. And probably scare Josh and Katherine with our parenting antics once again!

After a great little visit, we drove back down to the other end of Geneva to Montreux to stay for the night. We actually stayed in Glion, a little town hugging the cliff above Montreux, at a fantastic little B&B that had some amazing views over the lake and opposing Alps.

We arrived late in the evening, well late by Baganz standards (given our kids go to bed at 7). It was about that time, and we still hadn't eaten dinner, so the little French owner of the B&B told us we had 2 options.....a 5 star hotel's restaurant or another more casual one. Clearly we opt for the latter, and take a nice little stroll down the windy road, only to find that the casual option is just a little more than casual. There were 2 other occupied tables in the VERY QUIET place, both gazing at eachother glistfully over a full bottle of wine. And then we walk in. Sorry folks to ruin your evening. Brooks, happy as a lark even at his bedtime, decides the place is a little too quiet and begins to test his voice. After several attempts to take him outside and try to get him to fall asleep, we remember that this is the never sleeping child, and what on earth would posess him to fall asleep when he could be partying instead. So, we say to hell with these people that have the luxury to gaze at each other and sip wine in peace, we'll never see them again!

The next day brought a terrific Easter breakfast in a room overlooking the lake. The B&B had some fantastic homemade panatone bread and spicy jelly. I've really grown accustomed to the European breakfasts, I am really going to miss them!

And while the little man took his morning nap, we took advantage of some good photo snapping moments.



Last stop the Chateau Chillion.


A very well done, not too touristy castle. I think when Chance takes European history one day, he can raise his hand in class and say: ya, I've been to that one, and that one and that one!





And on the way home, at last we stopped by Grueyers...

We had always wanted to see this town but the train ride was over 4 hours to get here for a town that didn't warrant more than an hour or two. So as we were driving home we saw the sign, and decided to punch it in the trusty TomTom to see just how far of a detour it would be. 9 KM. The stars were falling in place for us. An unexpected little surprise, so we took the detour, drove all the way to the base of the town where you have to park and walk up a steep path to the car-free town. We said, NAH, we can get the just of it from here, turned around and drove on home. But just the sight of it from afar was enough to check it off the list, and now the list is complete.