Medieval.....

Yesterday we went to a birthday party in a real castel 15 min from home. And the children had to wear costumes, they were really cute .....

It's snowing !!!

Again it makes me sooooo excited !

This morning Mara and Tristan woked up and dressed themseves in snow equipment and went outside to make a snowman before breakfast ... they were even more excited than me !

Bernard very seriously just reminde me that we haden't got yet the snow tyres on the car so we cannot drive.

I will try to take some pictures later but I have to make the most of the few next hours because Bernard took all the children to Berne (by train of course) so I can work for my PGCE and my christmas craft stall. You can have a look at some of it at http://fairieswool.blogspot.com/

Talk to you soon

The reste of the holidays !

After our fantastic 3 weeks in the UK we spent the rest of the holiday around here.

We were lucky with the weather with lot of sunshine and temperatures between 26° and 32°C ... much better than Whales !!

Mara had her 7th birthday the 26th of July and get a new bike, Bernard had his mountain race the 10th of August and he made 4h15 (for 31 km and 2200m up hill) and Gaspard had his first birthday the 16th of August. Between those highlights we went swimming in the lake, I took a few sailing courses, Tristan learn (in a few minutes!) how to go on a big bike without stabilizer (at 3 years and 3 months we are quite proud but he is still in nappies !!) and we had some barbecues with friends ... nice relaxing holidays !

Mara went back to school this morning and Tristan is starting the Steiner school tomorrow he will go two morning a week and is very exciting.

Here are some pictures, those in the mountain were taken in Zinal (were the race ended) our favorit place in the Alpes most of you had already heard about !
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We are coming !!

Juste one more week and we will be on holiday !!!!!

Here the summer just arrived for the first day of summer, it is 29°C the children are playing in the paddling pool, Gaspard is sleeping under a tree, Bernard is reading is paper under another tree and I ... I am in front of the computer ! But just a quick word because we are all very excited to come in England next week, to see YOU and speak english, and eat vinegar crisps with real ale, and drink elderflower fussy drink (I am putting sparkling water in my elderflower cordial but it is not the same as the "ça pique") !

So we are coming next week. We have the ferry booked for monday the 30 of June !

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU !!

But yesterday we went to visit friends of us who are working as "young cow and goat keeper" in the mountain with their 3 children ... and one day we are coing to do that too, because it is soooo beautiful up there. Bernard helped our friend to put up the fence that mean walking in the mountain carrying wood and everything, but even after that he is still motivated .... Yoohooo it is one of my dream so I really hope we can do it.

Some picture taken yesterday :

The view from their chalet




And Gaspard sleeping in the backpack while we were playing in a little mountain streem very cold !



And my friend milking a goat :

3 years old today

The 16th of may 2005 at 2pm Tristan arrive in this world ... and look at him today !!!

He is the most funny little boy I have ever seen, everyday he makes us laugh. Tomorrow we are having a little party ... under the rain I am afraid, but we had to have a cake today too. You know what one says "a chocolate cake a day keeps the doctor away" !!


Some picture of the little fellow taken the two last weeks

Laughing Gaspard

We are playing with our new digital camera. We have just enter the 21 century because until recently we could only take 12 pictures at the time and of course had no video or panorama fonction !

So here is a little video of Gaspard

News

Ok maybe you don't really care about the dog and would prefer photos of the children ... faire enough !





We had a very nice week-end and this time it was sunny so I have done everything I wanted in the garden for April. And now it's raining again ... but I don't really care, and we are goint at my parents for four days on wednesday and they live under a microclimat with 300 sunny days per year.

Tupac

We had "our" dog Tupac for two weeks and now he is gone again.

It had became very hard for me to take care of Tupac with 3 children and at the same time the person who looked after Tupac during our stay in England missed him so much that we have decided that Tupac would stay with him in Auvergne and come back for holiday. So he has been there during 7 weeks and came back for two weeks here and it works very well.

Taken yesterday morning just behind the house:

July in the UK

We miss you and your fabulous country so much that we are coming back this summer !!

I am planning our trip at the moment. We will leave switzerland the 27 of June probably and come back around the 22nd, and during those 3 weeks we will visit Madingley of course, but also, the Isle of Wight, Oxford and Edinburgh. Sooooo cool I am getting exciting !!

I need to do that because this april have been very depressing so far, regarding the weather only but still I would like to saw and plant things in my garden but it is always so wet ....

Anyway to be sure to have plenty of sunshie we are coming in the UK this summer isn't it a good idea ?!

Amy & Tiffer

We had the nicest time with Amy & Tiffer, it was a bit like being in Madingley again but with the snow !

The thing that is so good with friends staying with us is that : 1) Bernard take time out of work 2) we do things we never take the time to do normally (like the lovely horse riding in the snow !) 3) the children are so happy they don't even think about annoying each other !

So please Amy and Tiffer come back another time we have such a long list of things to do together ..

And for the other who might be hesitating to visit us : don't hesitate we will be very happy to have you !!

Ski holiday in Zinal

Last week we were in Zinal and that was GREAAAAT !!! 5 days of sunshine and one day of mist but most important 6 days of snow. We shared a chalet with our friends that some of you may have met (the two that came to visit us four time in Madingley !) and their little baby : Gaspar (without the "d") ! We had organise a very precise schedule to know who was skiing, who was looking after the Gaspar(d)s and who after Tristan and Mara. It works out very well and everybody enjoyed his stay. Mara won her first medal in the slalom (every child get a medal of course but Mara is sooo proud of it !) And Tristan managed to turn alone friday and before that he enjoyed skiing holding the ski pole and even did it with Mara. I was very proud of myself too because I skied most of the week and did some progress too, I have to otherwise Mara will ski better than me very soon, I know this will arrive one day but possibly when she is older than 6 years old !! And next year she ask me to teach her snowboard ...

Gaspard is 6 month today !!

Incredible Gaspard is 6 month today, and we left Cambridge just six months ago and it seems ages !

I am going to prepare a nice organic carrots puree because he is still to young for the chocolat cake ... or maybe I will bake a chocolat cake anyway for those who are old enough to eat it !!

This morning Bernard, Mara and Tristan are on ski but the wind was too cold to take Gaspard too. I gave the camera to Beranrd, but I am not sure he will have time to take any photo at all.

Last week Mara had four days of ski with the school. She enjoyed it soooo much that the first thing she ask on saturday morning was to go skiing again !

A few picture of the ski week with the school. Mara is the little one in red.

Week-end in Zinal

Sorry for the bad quality of the photos but I only had my mobile.

We went for a little week-end without the children in Zinal. Saturday it was snowing and what we call "a white day" that mean that you can't see anything, but Sunday we had 40cm of powder snow and a big blue sky.

We still hope that some of you might come to sky with us one day.