As we head into this weekend we have NOT A THING planned, with the exception of our normal Sunday evening church! I think this might be the first time in a long time we have nothing penciled in. I am looking forward to doing a few projects around the house and taking some long walks. It might be almost pumpkin patch time!

Weekly Happenings at the Kolb house…

1. Owen is an exceptionally good climber and his #1 goal this week has been to play on top of the coffee table. Or the dining room table. Or the patio table.  Oh yes, and his #2 goal is to bring rocks in from the atrium and dump them onto the tile floor. I tried to describe the “terrible two’s” to a Swiss friend this week…ironically it isn’t in their vocabulary!  Apparently only American kids get ornery at age 2. Still not enough to convince me that I would rather be Swiss

2. Jackson loves school. And this my friends is the last day of the first of three weeks of Fall break. What kid gets 3 weeks of fall break? Anyhow, he is missing his buddies and routine! As am I! I love not rushing in the morning and I love that he and Owen are getting more brother time but I do miss the down time of only having one boy at home!

3. Learning to be brothers takes a long time, maybe a lifetime! The boys are daily sharing lots of laughs and playing battle of the wills.

4. Owen is having a burst of new words this week! He is so proud of himself and it is neat to see Jackson encouraging him.  When we ask him “who loves _______ ?” He yells “I do”. Some of his his other words lately are “M&M”, “baball”/baseball, “taco”, and “ummy”/yummy.

5. My semi-OCD tendencies come out when I do things like making family albums from 2009, 2010 and starting 2011 at the same time.  As well as taking some online Speech Path courses. 10 hours of classes done and done with 2009, halfway done with 2010 and not even sure I will last through 2011.  I may not ever go back to Speech path but at least I will have family albums, right?!

6. And just so Seth doesn’t feel left out I will add that he basically runs the show in the consular section right now! After a summer of training all of the new officers and getting shifted over to American Citizen Services he is now covering for people as they receive their shipments of household goods. Somehow he keeps his cool even though he is often doing his job and the job of many others. Did I mention he is still in the bidding process and we are SO ready to be done?!

Jackson quote of the week:

Yesterday I asked Jackson what he thought we could do to make Seth’s day easier. I suggested Jackson collect trash from the bathrooms since it is trash day today. Jackson responded with “no, that’s not really what I was sinking (read: thinking), I sink maybe I should go take care of organizing daddy’s money for him, his coin basket is making his room so messy”.

this is a random pic from last yr at this time! Amazing how they have grown!

So there you have it, a whole lot of nothing at all. Have a great weekend, folks!

this is how it’s done, Owen

ewww.

strategy…be the hitter and catcher..get that ball before Jackson

ball thief

Jackson wising up and guarding the bat and ball

“who me?”

“we aren’t opening the gate, mom, we are guarding it!”

Disclaimer: This got way longer than I thought….it’s more in the informational category so not so exciting! Feel free to skip in hopes that there will be something more interesting coming soon!

Since I just posted our guest round up I figured it may be a good time to do a random “guesthouse” post.  As I have mentioned before, this past yr in Bern we have hosted 24 guests! I have kind of made it my personal goal to get good at it. I really want people to come, relax and feel like they have a great time on their vacation. We have learned as we have gone and as we close this season of guests I feel like we have learned a few things that I thought I would pass along.

1. Prepping the house for guests

I start the preparation days in advance!! Not meaning that I work and work for days in advance, but that I spread it out so that I am not completely exhausted when our guests arrive.  I used to save the cleaning for the day before because I wanted it to be nice when they arrived. But I soon discovered that this house is way too big to try to do in one day. (we couldn’t have so many guests without this kind of space so it is a bonus)  I now have kind of a system where I do fresh linens a few days out and then follow it with different jobs that can be done ahead. I save the floors and dusting for the evening before. And then there is the fact that I used to think I could do it all myself but I have succumbed to the reality and now I have Seth on board to help me!

Now that I have a system I can devote more time that last day before to getting to the grocery store and doing some baking. Oh yea, and then once the guests arrive I let them know that I would rather spend time with them than clean. I maintain as best I can but I don’t stress. I mainly tidy and occasionally sweep if it is in desperate need, but otherwise I just let it go and enjoy the visitors.

Quick confession: I don’t iron sheets, even when I pull them out and toss them into a ball onto the bed. Both of my grandmother’s are gasping right now but I figured it was better to be honest. Sheets will be clean, but very wrinkled around here!

2. Meal Planning

I always contact our guests before they arrive to see if there is anything they can’t eat or have allergies to. Then I plan the meals, trying to accommodate as much as possible!  It’s tough cooking for a crowd and I have learned that not everyone will like every meal but I do try to pick things with our guests in mind. I always have the meals planned but not necessarily for a particular day. For instance, I know that whatever day we decide to day trip meals need to be simple or hot in the crock pot when we return. Our favorite group meals for the year have been Ina Garten’s Macaroni and Cheese,  Gina’s Barbacoa Beef that we use for burrito bowls and a recipe I got from my sister-in-law, Stephanie, for French dip sandwiches. They are all easy to make and make a cozy dinner for a crowd.

Some things I always have on hand that I can make the day before…

Refrigerator bran muffins….the ones I wrote about here. They are an easy thing to keep in the fridge, I bake them up as people want them. So far they have been a hit and everyone is thankful for something healthy in the middle of their travels.

Tomato Basil Soup… knock off of La Madeline’s. I realized I have never posted this in the past so this will be coming soon! Most guests arrive in time for lunch (or breakfast their time) so I normally make a soup the night before and serve it with Bern Zopf bread, salami and cheeses. Everyone is always eager to have something Swiss so it is an easy way to get it in when they first arrive!

Something seasonal and homemade….having guests gives me the excuse to have something yummy around. I don’t often bake treats when it’s just us here so when guests come it’s fun to have something out of the ordinary. In February when the O’Leary chicas came I made those Valentine’s whoopie pies, they were fun for Valentine’s Day but also a fun memory of making devil dogs at Annie’s house!  When my parents came it was peach season so I made some Butterscotch peaches! This time around I made Southern Living’s Apple Cream Cheese Coffee Cake which isn’t on their website yet but I am sure you have seen it on the cover of their magazine last month! It was super yummy and people snacked on it and had it with coffee throughout the week. I also enlisted Jackson to make some fall M&M cookie bars to stow away for snacking.

This guy is the Guesthouse assistant, he is always the best welcomer, conversationalist and entertainer! As we left last week to run an errand I called for Jackson who was lagging behind. When I turned to see what was holding him up I overheard him saying  “bye guys, do you have everything you need before we go?”.  We have all learned a lot about hospitality this year!

3. Ring a ling

After a few rounds of guests got lost here and there and didn’t have a way to call us easily we decided to invest in a chargeable phone. It was cheap and easy and it has made it so nice to stay in touch. There would be no need for this in the US obviously but overseas this has been great. It got comical this summer when guests were so close together that they would have to take the phone back and mail it to the next guest so they would have it when they arrived in Zurich. It made train station pickups so much better!

4. Little basket

Before guests arrive I put a few snacks in their room as well as check to see that they have the Bern map and some other brochures from previous guests. Most of our friends and family are jetlagged so I make sure they have something for when they wake up at 2 AM starving and thirsty.  It’s a goal to have the wireless password written down in the room but that hasn’t happened yet.

5. Activities

So far our guests have not been lacking for things to do. It has been especially nice in the summer festival season. There is always something going on.  Nearly everything is about an hour away, or 15 mins away if it’s in Bern. I have a feeling we would have not seen nearly as much if it wasn’t for our guests.  If our guests have any plans for a day trip by train I try to strategically plan it for about midway through their trip. that allows me to get the house back into livable shape and allows my boys to get a breather day for naps, in hopes that they will refresh and be kind hosts for the remainder of the stay!

These are likely all things you all do too!  I tried to pack it with recipes and such to make it useful! If you happen to be guests in the Spring maybe we will have it running like a well-oiled machine!

Here is the picture round-up for the year of guests! Most are fondue dinner pics but in some cases I didn’t get a shot of that!  It’s been a fun-filled year!

Seth’s Parents, Joe and Jo Beth in January

O’Leary and Shaeffer girls in February

Bonnie and Leigh (and Katy Jo) in March

Higg’s and Bowen’s in April (no fondue with this little crowd- 6 adults and 5 kids that weekend!)

my cousin Jenny in June

my parents, David and Judy in July

My brother Graham and sister-in-law Tina in August

Dan and Margo, along with their twin boys Seth and Bryce in September

I have 10 extra pounds from this fondue dinner tradition with visitors but how can people come so far and not get to enjoy!? This Fall will be bootcamp around here! Unless another guest comes, in which case we will pull out the trusty fondue pot and get a bubbly pot ready for them! It’s in the job description of being a good hostess, right?!