Oops. I thought I posted this weeks ago. It got lost on my post list. Here are some pictures from our visit in Zug a few weeks ago. We drove up for a picnic lunch and then drove back during naps.  Our friends Nick and Kima live right near the lake so we met them there.

We did things a little differently for mother’s day this year. We celebrated on Sat because Seth was worried that so many things would be closed on Sunday. The boys took me downtown to the market that I LOVE! I could spend hours roaming the market, taking in the sights and smells! Now I knew going into it that Jackson didn’t have the same feelings because 10 minutes before leaving the house Seth told him about the plans. He screamed “I don’t like mothers day and I DON’T LIKE THE MARKET”. So, we browsed quickly to keep the troops happy. Jackson actually had a great time and lasted longer than expected. After taking it all in we hopped over to the homemade taco stand and bought tacos and quesadillas to take to the park nearby. We also bought some cherries and blueberries at the market to add to the picnic. We had a fun lunch and the boys got to run around.

Yesterday on Mother’s Day Jackson and Seth made Pioneer Woman’s Lemon Blueberry Pancakes which were amazing!! Jackson gave me the cards he had made at school last week and the boys tried so hard to behave! (It’s Mother’s Day stressful when kids know all you want is for them to be easy-going and on their best behavior) We had a pretty chill day of bike riding and church!

Deeper thoughts on motherhood later…for now, some pictures from our day

I love how they put the bouquets into old cans

Super curious how much the farmer would sell this painting of a tomato for! I *may* have asked Seth to sneak back during a weekday market to ask. I love it!

a proud bride and groom parading through the market.

These days Owen feels so big to me, this picture reminds me in the big picture that he is still my little guy!

these were my favorite flowers of the day. Jackson picked them out with Seth…saying he knew I would love pink!  Truly blessed to have 2 beautiful, healthy boys and a husband that helps me raise them!!  Thanks boys for a special Mother’s Day!

In our grocery store there is a bagged salad section similar to what you would see in the US. When I am lazy and don’t feel like washing lettuce (read: every time I go to the store because I am in a season of my life that does not warrant lettuce washing except for RARE circumstances)  I head on over and grab a bag of greens.  A few months ago I discovered that they have one bag that is the salad of the month. During the Fall I was pleased to discover chopped apples in one of the bags. Since I don’t speak German I usually don’t even attempt to decipher the ingredients. I just glance in the bag and if it seems relatively normal I snag it.

Yesterday I hurried through the store on my way to get Jackson from school. I grabbed the salad of the month for May. Much to our surprise last night we had a salad with heart shaped carrots.  Somewhere in the Swiss alps there is a machine set to cut carrots into hearts for the month of May.

I can’t even imagine what the salad of the month for June will contain!!

For my entire life I have seen dandelions as weeds….until coming to Bern. In Switzerland they eat dandelion leaves in salads. In our garden there are lots of leaves and no flowers because our boys pick them..and we don’t use the leaves for salads. A few nights ago I was on a walk in the evening and saw loads of lanky dandelions, naked of all of their leaves.  Guessing one of our neighbors had a nice salad with their dinner. I have heard people here talk about eating them with egg and bacon but when I googled it it seems like there are lots of salads out there using dandelion leaves. Who knew? I didn’t.  So, if you are running low on greens and have an abundance of weeds, I mean dandelion leaves, get picking!

After writing this and getting distracted I opened a bag of salad mix for dinner and I am pretty sure we had some dandelion leaves in there. I can’t say I noticed anything extreme but I still don’t think I will join our neighbors in picking our weeds.