Switzerland: last day
This was a day of research - how do we get to Dijon? Where should we rent a car? How would we drive from Dijon to the Loire Valley? We spent the morning on the internet doing research. For breakfast, we had fresh pastries from the local bakery - chocolate croissants, regular croissants, bread and cheese. Ate them outdoors since the weather has just been wonderful lately. Kind of like the weather in California. :)
For lunch, Didier made salad dressing! I was so intrigued because most people just buy a bottle at the supermarket. He told me it was very common to make your own dressing with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and herbs. And apparently the balsamic vinegar we find at the supermarkets aren't the real thing. Balsamic vinegar is supposed to be very expensive. So he doesn't even use it himself. He calls it a cheap imitation. hehe, learning so much!
After lunch, DH and Viv biked to the local train station to get tomorrow's train tickets to Dijon. Didier and I stayed home with the kiddies. The older two played outside while I got to enjoy some quiet reading time (it's been rare). After half an hour, I heard crying. So I went upstairs where Ariane was taking a nap and found her standing in her crib, crying for her mom. I told her that "Mommy will be home really soon. In 5 minutes. Did you want to wait for Mommy?" She nodded so I went back downstairs after making sure that she would be ok waiting in the crib. Well, after 10 minutes, she started crying again. So this time around, she wanted to get out of the crib to wait for Mommy. I got her downstairs and took her over to Didier who was working on the landscaping outside. It was time for her afternoon bottle.
Once Didier went into the house to heat up the milk, the two older kids came back into the house for the rest of the afternoon. Entertaining them takes so much more energy than Ariane. We had to play "cook the shark" where I was the cook who had to cut, prepare, and cook the shark while one of the two would be the shark fillet. We played that several times because they did not seem to tire from this repetitive game. :p After a while, we went upstairs to play trains. Ok, I'm not that limber anymore. It was difficult playing on the ground and crawling around the toy train tracks. You end up feeling like a big oaf.
While playing, Cass told me she was hungry. It was getting close to dinner time so I didn't know the household policy on snacking. So I told her that I didn't know what she could eat without spoiling her appetite for dinner. We looked through the snack stash and she took a peanut, saying that the peanut would be good. I looked at her,"one peanut?!?" Yup, just one peanut would tide her over until dinner. Amazing! (Such small appetites!)
Back upstairs, while we were all playing, Zach went off into the bedroom. After a while, we were wondering, where's Zach? I found him sprawled out on his bed, taking a nap. haha! It was so sweet. He was a bit grumpy when playing trains so I guess it was because he was tired.
Well, DH and Viv got back from their very strenuous biking trip. After they washed up, we decided to eat dinner outdoors again. After dinner, we went down to the garden where the raspberries bushes were abuzz with bees. During the summer months, the kids would just pick raspberries and eat them. So we got to see that bit of action today. They weren't even scared of the bees! They just went right into the bushes, started picking the berries off and stuffing them into their mouths. We got to pick some too after getting over our fear of getting stung by the bees.
Since it was our last night, we stayed up late (11pm - oooh, so late) talking and watching movies.
For lunch, Didier made salad dressing! I was so intrigued because most people just buy a bottle at the supermarket. He told me it was very common to make your own dressing with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and herbs. And apparently the balsamic vinegar we find at the supermarkets aren't the real thing. Balsamic vinegar is supposed to be very expensive. So he doesn't even use it himself. He calls it a cheap imitation. hehe, learning so much!
After lunch, DH and Viv biked to the local train station to get tomorrow's train tickets to Dijon. Didier and I stayed home with the kiddies. The older two played outside while I got to enjoy some quiet reading time (it's been rare). After half an hour, I heard crying. So I went upstairs where Ariane was taking a nap and found her standing in her crib, crying for her mom. I told her that "Mommy will be home really soon. In 5 minutes. Did you want to wait for Mommy?" She nodded so I went back downstairs after making sure that she would be ok waiting in the crib. Well, after 10 minutes, she started crying again. So this time around, she wanted to get out of the crib to wait for Mommy. I got her downstairs and took her over to Didier who was working on the landscaping outside. It was time for her afternoon bottle.
Once Didier went into the house to heat up the milk, the two older kids came back into the house for the rest of the afternoon. Entertaining them takes so much more energy than Ariane. We had to play "cook the shark" where I was the cook who had to cut, prepare, and cook the shark while one of the two would be the shark fillet. We played that several times because they did not seem to tire from this repetitive game. :p After a while, we went upstairs to play trains. Ok, I'm not that limber anymore. It was difficult playing on the ground and crawling around the toy train tracks. You end up feeling like a big oaf.
While playing, Cass told me she was hungry. It was getting close to dinner time so I didn't know the household policy on snacking. So I told her that I didn't know what she could eat without spoiling her appetite for dinner. We looked through the snack stash and she took a peanut, saying that the peanut would be good. I looked at her,"one peanut?!?" Yup, just one peanut would tide her over until dinner. Amazing! (Such small appetites!)
Back upstairs, while we were all playing, Zach went off into the bedroom. After a while, we were wondering, where's Zach? I found him sprawled out on his bed, taking a nap. haha! It was so sweet. He was a bit grumpy when playing trains so I guess it was because he was tired.
Well, DH and Viv got back from their very strenuous biking trip. After they washed up, we decided to eat dinner outdoors again. After dinner, we went down to the garden where the raspberries bushes were abuzz with bees. During the summer months, the kids would just pick raspberries and eat them. So we got to see that bit of action today. They weren't even scared of the bees! They just went right into the bushes, started picking the berries off and stuffing them into their mouths. We got to pick some too after getting over our fear of getting stung by the bees.
Since it was our last night, we stayed up late (11pm - oooh, so late) talking and watching movies.
posted by pc at
11:52 PM
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