After our Heidelburg adventure the Friday before we tried to go into Easter weekend with the mindset of LOW KEY! The only plans we had as of Friday morning were that we had invited over 2 couples from church for a casual Brunch on Easter morning.

On Good Friday we took a long walk by the river and talked to Jackson more about the meaning of Easter and specifically Good Friday. We had been reading to him in the weeks leading up to it but it was neat for it to be the real day.  While we were skipping rocks by the river Jackson and I found a rock with lines on it that looked like a cross. He held onto it and thought it was so neat since we were talking about the cross.  If I can get him to help me find it I will post a picture.

We colored eggs together and just enjoyed a quiet day at home.

On Saturday some friends invited us to go on the boat on lake Thun. It was a nice unexpected outing. It was a gorgeous ride. The first half we had glorious sun and the second half we got to watch as a storm rolled in. We got off the boat just as the rain got going. The boys had a wonderful time! I think I had expected the boys to be content to watch the water and look out over the side of the boat..for at least a few minutes. After about 10 minutes they were both ready to run laps around the boat deck. So it goes. About halfway through we gave in and bought them ice cream so that we could all sit for at least 10 mins and enjoy the scenery!

handsome “little BIG boy”

our friends Karen and Andy brought their dog Bella. She and Jackson kept each other company throughout the boat trip. Check out the color of the water!

this may become Seth and I someday if we never have a daughter! This was for real! This dog belongs in Paris!

The Easter bunny did make it to our house in Bern. He brought us a basket for all of us to share. He seemed to focus less on candy this year and more on Spring activities. The basket had a new ball, jump rope, a kite and a bubble tumbler! (since the boys are learning to share (ie fighting over toys constantly) we decided to do a joint basket to reinforce this)

Karen brought a fruit salad…almost too pretty to eat!

the guys showing Jackson how to play an egg knocking game

Jackson happily joined in

We kept the menu simple with my mom’s sausage egg bake, fruit salad, rosti (Swiss hashbrown-type dish) and bread with some berry whipped butter. We finished it off with mini cheesecakes!  I got away with only making the egg bake, whipped butter and the cheesecakes!

Monday we really did nothing but take a long walk together and laze around the house.

Last week was the annual Fasnacht festival here in Bern. Lots of confetti and costumes and marching bands! You can google it to hear about the history. For us it meant heading downtown Friday afternoon for the kinder parade. We went with some of our new Swiss friends from Jackson’s school. That was fun to hear about how they went as children. The kids had so much fun seeing all of the other kids dressed up. We marched with the bands through the old cobblestone streets and ended at an area near the cathedral where they had games set up for the kids.

Here are a few photos. We avoided the “grown-up fasnacht” knowing that it would likely be scary for our kiddos. The kinder parade was just enough for us! The boys came home EXHAUSTED! They both crashed early that night after skipped naps and so much excitement.

my super hero….the theme was Zoo animals but he wanted to be a super hero

and our little dino just could not make sense of being taken out of his bed early to get a costume on!

Jackson and Ella..she is Swiss but her family lived in Houston. Such a sweet family.

superhero reunion

only in Switzerland…(this may be the name of an upcoming blog series. I am working through some culture shock before I launch it. I don’t want to get myself sent out of the country!

we saw at least 50 Pippy long stockings during the afternoon….brings back so many fun slumber party memories. I had no idea the Swiss loved her so much!

not a great picture but the only one of the 3 of us! Should have gotten one pre-parade. My super hero and dinosaur were fading!

We got our fill of confetti until next yr!!

On Valentine’s Day, the O’Leary chicas along with 2 friends came to visit for the week. We had such a fun time.  The boys got spoiled rotten by all of the attention. We walked by the river, shopped, toured Bern, Thun and a couple of towns in France, ate, laughed hard, and had a wonderful time!

One of my memories of living with Annie was of her making her famous devil dog cookies. They were awesome! So for her visit I made heart-shaped red velvet whoopie pies! They turned our better than expected. I was sure they would look like big blobs. And I had about a 4th of the food coloring I needed. So mine were hot pink and not so red but you get the idea.

here was the recipe I used…

http://annies-eats.net/2010/02/08/red-velvet-whoopie-pies/

Enough about the treats..here are a few pictures from our time. I haven’t uploaded them all yet.

So fun to have Annie, Suzanne and all of the girlies here! Wish we all lived closer! Still having some withdrawl!

I have to admit, Seth and I were both shocked to realize that he was turning 32 this year. All year long he thought he was only 30. Oh my. We are getting older faster than we thought. I think we still think of ourselves and post college, newly weds who just happened to have our kids at a young age. Anyhow, back to the birthday.

Last Sunday was Seth’s birthday. We let him sleep in and baked him a chocolate cake while he slept. When we woke him up we served him breakfast in…nope not bed, in a tent. And Ikea igloo tent. Jackson was so excited! He and Seth sat in the tent and ate breakfast sandwiches.

Late morning after Owen had napped we gave him his gift and had some cake (to avoid the boys having their sugar rush before their nap).  We gave him a tent to go camping with the boys! For those of you that don’t know we live just above the river and in particular the campgrounds along the river. I know the boys will enjoy lots of daddy bonding with the new tent!

Here are a few pictures.

being silly