Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween

This Halloween thing is fun, even if it's not really a European tradition. I had two parties to go to today. The first was at Gymboree and it was fun to visit with all my gym friends dressed up. While I did play, my favorite time at Gymboree is snack time, so here I am enjoying with all my friends.
I managed to slow down enough to have a picture taken with Kirstie (my favorite teacher) and Jimbo (my favorite clown). Look at my cool face painting too.


Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Pumpkin Carving 101

Mommy and I carved the pumpkin today -- I really didn't like getting my hands all goopy, but I loved making sure all the required body parts were in place: eyes, nose, mouth, eye brows, and ears.



Saturday, October 27, 2007

Lunch at Chateau Nonglard

What can I say, I have friends in high places. Jean-Yves and Olivier live in the village chateau. It's a wonderful place with lots of beautiful flowers, and trees. We even went for a walk and collected walnuts from one of the trees. Arriving for lunch above and lunch below. I had to be extra careful drinking out of the pretty wine glasses!


Mama and I climbed the wood pile, while we were on our walk.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Day trip with Jean-François




Today Mommy and I went on a road trip with my buddy Jean-François. He's such a nice guy and loves to make me laugh. We drove through the country out to a 1500 year old Abbey in Romainmôtier. It is reported to be the oldest abbey in Switzerland. It was amazing. I loved watching the school kids who were taking a field trip, while Mommy and JF checked out the old stuff.




There was also a really cute puppy who I liked bonding with. Of course you'll notice I had to bring baby doll along on the adventure.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Potential Halloween Costume


Roll of bubble wrap? What do you think? While Halloween isn't a big celebration in Switzerland, I've managed to plan for not one but two Halloween parties on the big day! I'll tell you more about it next week.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Mountain weekend

We went up into the mountains with my friend Mia and her two mommies. We have so much fun together. We stayed at a great B&B snuggled in a little notch up in the mountains. It was beautiful with all the leaves changing colors.

Mommies had their 5 wedding anniversary while we were on a weekend away. They were also supposed to take a hot air balloon ride, but it was too windy. So they will have to make plans to go another time.

This B&B was on a working farm where they had cool cows. We even got to help milk them. Then we had yummy fresh milk for our meals! It was so fun. They had a 1 week old baby cow there too. She was very little. The farm also had dogs. They were really big, but very friendly. I loved when they came up to give me kisses.
Here Mia and I check out the wood pile for the winter! Wow it was a lot of wood. Mia is so much fun to play with. We did lots of cool things together. We walked in the woods, played in the sand box, jumped on the bed and did a really good job sharing toys. Mia turned two in April, so I made sure to pay attention to how to do things when I get a bit bigger. Here we are at a really cool park in the German part of Switzerland. We were jumping on the trampoline. It was so much fun! We laughed and laughed and laughed.

Sunday was Ruth's birthday, so we went to the top of a really, really, really big mountain. We had to take two cable cars to get to the top. It was so cool to be in the clouds. We enjoyed having a yummy hot chocolate before lunch. We tried to walk around a bit, but it was sooo cold and windy, that we didn't stay long. Check back soon for more of my wonderful adventures.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Trip to Baden-Baden Germany




We drove to Baden-Baden, Germany to check out the spa town and visit with the Calders. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Hugh and Heather. We played in a cool play area while the adults went off to the spa! I had a lot of fun until I got too tired and then I just wanted my Mommies to come back and get me!


We had lots of good food to eat and ice cream of course. It was great weather, so we spent a lot of time outside playing. We even got to pet a Llama. Lots of good food and good beer (or so I'm told.)


Tales of the Spring and Summer

Wow – I can’t believe so much time has passed since I wrote about my life in Switzerland. I really like my life – it’s pretty cool to have two mommies and a pup that love me so much! I love them too! And I love to give everyone “big hugs” too!

So let’s see, my life since you heard from me last (way back in March) …

April: Good friends Steve and Heath visited us from Florida. We had a great time being tour guides through Geneva and we went to see some Roman ruins in Avenches, Switzerland. It was really cool for me to run through the old, old, old amphitheater. I celebrated Easter with my cousins from Germany. They drove all the way to Switzerland for the celebrations this year. We went a tulip festival, a Swiss chocolate factory, Gruyere cheese factory, and held an Easter egg hunt in our garden! It was so much fun and many of my friends came too! Mama had to go to Mexico City for work after Easter. She was gone for a long time and I missed her very much.




May: Most of May was spent with both my mommies home to play with. It was great!






June: And then Mama had to make another trip to Mexico City for work, so I suggested that Mommy, Chance and I go to visit the Calders in Germany. Little did I know when I made that suggestion – just how much time it required of me to sit in my car seat! Ugh! But once we got there we had a wonderful time with a trip to Playmobile Park, an animal park, celebrating Heather’s 5th birthday, and just having a great time. I watched Heather and Hugh do all sorts of things that I wanted to do too!




July: Here’s where the fun really took off. We went on a long airplane ride to the States. We spent a week with all the Felch family in the Pocono Mountains. It was loads of fun! We went to see a pretzel factory, a candy factory, a wild animal park, the lake, and the ice cream store lots of times! I loved spending time with all my family from over the pond. We even had some family from MA come celebrate Mommy’s birthday with us!

The next week in the States we did some work at the homestead on Woodland Drive and visited with great friends in the Yardley area! Then we traveled to Atlanta to visit two great-aunts on Mama’s side. Melissa Day also joined us for a trip to the GA Aquarium where we saw beluga whales and lots of other cool water critters.

When we returned from the States we took a train to Paris for a weekend trip. I got to see the final stage of the Tour de France. It was fabulous! When the riders went by I had to look really fast to catch a glimpse of the Maillot Jaune (the winner). Of course my first trip to Paris wouldn’t be complete without seeing some of the great places like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, so we checked those out too!

August: After all that traveling in July, we needed some time to rest. So we spent August hanging around the flat in Geneva. Of course we went to parks and playgrounds, but I spent every night in my own bed for a change.


September: Too much rest in August required a 4 day trip to London in early September. So we hopped a short flight and visited the Queen. She wasn’t home by the way … but we did get to see her Staterooms at Buckingham Palace, her horses at the Royal Mews, her flower garden in all the parks, and her art gallery. We also played in lots of the parks around London – I love the big, safe open places to run and play. We also went to the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, Kensington Palace, and as many playgrounds as we could find! The photo here is in front of Kensington Palace.


After the summer holidays it was back to our weekly routines of Gymboree class, Mommy and Me French class, play group, music class and now we’ve added swimming classes. I like the concept of the swimming classes, but it depends on the day if I’m really into it or not. In between all that fun I still have to help my mommies clean the house, do the laundry, cook the meals, clean the dishes, and do the grocery shopping. I have no idea how it all comes together … but it usually does. I love it when we have family sushi making meal. We all stand at the kitchen counter and each of us has a job – mine is to put the rice on the seaweed. One scoop for the sushi roll, one scoop for my mouth!

That seems to catch us up to date. I mustn’t get behind in my tales again – it takes too long to write them when I do.

I hope you enjoyed the stories and the pictures. Please write to me and tell me what is going on in your life!

Hugs and Kisses ~ Harper