Saturday evening our friends invited us  to their house for some time out of the house with the kids playing in the garden and an early dinner. She said her mom, Theres, would be providing the food!  Her mom brought a beautiful spread of cheeses, smoked fish and bacon, bread, vegetable soup and a wonderful strawberry rhubarb dessert!  The boys played with their buddy Anna in the garden and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. By dinner time they were covered in sand and had to be hosed down. It was a really nice afternoon and a much needed break from our prepping for the packers. We felt so spoiled and taken care of!

Daniela’s mom kindly agreed to share her recipe for the wonderful dessert! I will get back on here soon and share it! Saturday we are picking strawberries so I may wait until Sat!

And as if this didn’t spoil us enough Daniela is the one who took the boys yesterday and brought dinner. And our friend Merve is delivering dinner tonight. Some other friends, Karen and Andy are having us tomorrow night to get us out and away from the boxes.  It’s funny because when I wrote this post a few weeks ago I was writing it about us taking meals, it never crossed my mind that we might need them. It has been such a blessing this week when I feel like I am wiped out and distracted. It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye to our friends!

Well we survived day 1 of our packout. For those of you that aren’t in the Foreign Service and don’t have a need for a special name for everything that just means the movers are here. Our stuff is divided into surface shipment (will take the slow boat across the ocean and will arrive in 6-8 weeks), a small air shipment of necessities that will be shipped a few days before we leave and will arrive 2 weeks after we arrive and then our suitcases that will travel with us. Follow that? I know it’s very complicated.

Before we jump in, here are the hooligans yesterday as I wrapped everything up on the prep!

This is our 5th time in 5 1/2 years in the foreign service to “packout” and I have to say I think we finally have the hang of it. We felt really good going in to today and that is a first! My goal was to have everything sorted and organized in such a way that unpacking will be easy easier.  That part is yet to be seen but so far it did help the packing to click along.  The packers plan on being here through Thursday which sounds like a crazy amount of time!  They are doing such a meticulous job that I think each wine glass practically has a box of it’s own.

The boys spent the day between school and friends and our friend Daniela brought us a delicious dinner! She even brought flowers to brighten our now very white home! After dinner the boys enjoyed racing around the big empty spaces and between boxes!

The boys are peacefully sleeping and we are finishing the day with a strawberry mojito and an episode of Hoarders (this is to make us feel better about all of our stuff).

Yesterday I hosted a lunch for Seth’s coworkers. He wanted an opportunity to thank them for making this post a great one! He has really enjoyed working here and has had great co workers, both local employees and his fellow officers.

So, we picked the last possible day to have people and somehow we pulled it off. In some ways I felt like a crazy lady hosting a crowd just before packout and in other ways it felt like a really good way to finish out before we pack up.

For all you foodies, here is the menu…

Grilled Meat Platter- pork tenderloin, sausages, skirt steak

Grilled Vegetables

Fruit Salad

Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella Pasta Salad…this is one of Ina’s (we are on a first name basis now) but it isn’t online so I will get it for you!

Bread basket

For Dessert we served Brownies and  Triple Berry Crisp– this one I found on Gina’s Skinny Taste and it was delicious!  Served with whipped cream

All of the food turned out and everyone enjoyed a midday break from the office!   Thanks to the Consular staff in Bern for being such a great team!

People often ask how on earth we keep the boys happy on the long airplane trips and what we pack. Luckily we have only done the long flight with them once since coming to Bern because truth is no matter what you pack, it’s still a LONGGGGGGGGGGG trip. Being prepared does make it better but I don’t think that means you have to pack your whole house into a bag.

This week I packed the boys airplane bag to tuck away so it won’t get packed with our things next week. I snapped a few pictures of our favorite travel stuff to share with you!  *I am not getting paid by any of these companies to promote their products!* (I wish! )

Stateside I think that Michael’s and Target’s dollar sections are perfect for travel stuff. You don’t have to spend much and if anything gets lost of left on the plane no one will be heartbroken.  I sorted through our old travel bag today and most things have held up since we started the travel bag when Jackson was little and we flew back and forth from Bogota. Others we have collected along the way.

There are a few things other than the dollar days stuff that I think are worth investing in or collecting from around the house….

playmobil travel box…not sure if this is the official name but these are winners. They are magnetic boards with pieces that can be moved around.  These are tricky if you have little ones that put things in their mouths but great when they get bigger!

mini magna doodle!

reusable stickers by Peaceable Kingdom Press. These were given to Jackson by Annie and have held up for years! We love them. I have seen these in the US in boutique type stores and I believe they are also on Amazon too!

paint books with the paint on the pages…use q-tips for painting! Thanks, Stephanie for introducing us to these!

I SPY book. Can’t go wrong with this. It’s big but you can make so many games out of it.

old crayons…I collect the broken, shabby ones and that way we don’t care if they get left behind

our little bear friend…don’t tell Owen but this leash is going to be attached to him when we are in the airport if he refuses the stroller. We got this as a gift from Target when Jackson was little!

a cheap picture album with pictures of where we lived and where we are headed…not sure if this one will be refreshed before this trip but I will try. I know Jackson will be having a hard time processing all of it!

Story cubes and Brain Quest …I just added these because Jackson needs something a little more than coloring these days. I hope these are winners!

We packed it all into a clear backpack. We did this for our last trip and I was worried that the boys would then be nagging me for other things because they could see them. We didn’t have a problem with that and it was wonderful to see what we needed and not be digging through aimlessly.

We also plan to have a big snack bag. When the activities fail, grab them a snack.  I always assume that the kids will think the airplane food is scary (we all think it but they don’t give in as easily) so I plan assuming they will need a sandwich or something and lots of snacks for along the way. Some other favorites are raisins or other dried fruits, baby bell cheese, crackers and those squeezable applesauce packs.

Okay, just thinking about all of this has my blood pressure up! Fun times ahead!

PS- In Switzerland they have SUPER strict move out cleaning standards. As in, they don’t believe in wear and tear, it is to be in new condition. And spic and span. The Embassy highly recommends hiring someone so that it can be guaranteed to be up to standard. We had the first of 4 cleaning companies in for an estimate this afternoon. Their estimate was $2,900 francs….over $3,000. Gasp. Breath. Gasp. Wha?!!!!!!!!!!! Ummmm. What?! I think I may just fly my mom over to help me clean and use the change for furniture for the new house.

PSS- Owen discovered the whoopie cushion this week and is addicted!  God has a funny sense of humor giving me two little boys.

PSSS- Seth invited his entire office for lunch today…only 2 days til packout. Why not have one last shindig, right?!  One week from today I will crash!