Kyle's Switzerland journal

While we were in Switzerland last week, the kids were to keep a travel journal as part of their homework. It was something I wanted to have them do anyhow, but thankfully the teacher assigned it so they kids did it. Here is Kyle's journal (with translations).

We went to New York. We went on a airplane to get to New York.

We had dinner with Max and Leo. Max likes monkeys. We woke up super early.

We had lunch with Max & Adam. We took a subway. We had cupcakes at the park. Now we are on

our airplane to Zurich. We are crossing the whole Atlantic Ocean. yesterday we started at the Pacific Ocean. I can't wait to have chocolate in Switzerland.

We had a special kid hotel room in Zurich. We have a teddy bear soap.

I got a affen (monkey (in German)) at a toy store. We ate special treats, sausages and fondue.

We hiked at Uetliberg. We made a big leaf pile. We messed it up.

We went swimming at the hotel in Zurich. We ate a yummy pretzel salami sandwich on the train. Tomorrow we will take a train to Lucerne.

We are in Luzern (German spelling). We made cookies with the pastry chef Bettina.

I made a monkey cookie. I can't wait to play on the mountain. We are going to the mountains.

At Mt. Titlis we went sliding down a little mountain. We went on four gondolas. We were 10,000 feet high.

We played in the snow. We took a train to the gondola. We saw some pretty mountains. My favorite part was sliding.

We took a airplane ride to New York. We saw bunnies and we fed them leaves. We went

watch shopping. We walked to dinner by the lake and pretty bridges. I had a wonderful time in Switzerland with Mommy, Daddy and Emily. (Note: The latter description of feeding bunnies, watch shopping and dinner by lake and bridges was still in Lucerne.)

#3

Kyle and Emily will be the proud big brother and big sister to a baby brother coming early March! We are all quite excited about this little guy. Here are a few pictures from around 19 weeks. 

Confined space... but not nearly as confined as Kyle and Emily had it!! 

Just sleeping and purring like his big brother Kyle

 Little (big) baby feet! And you can see toes! 

Deep thoughts

Kyle playing tennis

Once a week, the kids have half days of school back here in San Diego (yes, I know I missed the Kindergarten pictures - take 2 post, but sadly didn't take pictures the second start). The past few weeks we have been taking the opportunity to play som tennis together. Kyle has really gotten back into it and Emily is getting there as well. 

This video is from early October. He liked to hit it on the second bounce. Since then, he goes for the first bounce, as it's played in the game, and has some very strong hits. He gets frustrated with me because I can't move fast enough to get his power shots. I know I'm biased, but he's doing very well with tennis. 

Earning a pouch

Kyle is on a roll lately with the things he's said.

Kyle: I'll just sleep in grandmas room so I don't wake you in the middle of the night
Me: great. You know when the baby comes it will wake me in the night to eat
Kyle: That's just crazy
Me: Well it has a small tummy so can't hold enough food to last super long between meals
Kyle: What will you feed it?
Me: Milk. I'll give it milk.  My body makes milk when the baby is born.
Kyle: How?
Me: When a mommy has a baby her body can make milk
Kyle: Wow that's crazy. But I can't make milk because I can't have babies because I don't have a pouch. But Emily does. Or she will when she grows bigger. She has to grow bigger to earn a pouch.

Kyle's thoughts on chivalry

I had the following conversation with Kyle and Emily today at lunch over a delicious bowl of clam chowder soup and crab sandwiches.

Emily: Mama can I have some of that soup?
Me: yes
Kyle: can I?
Me: Yes, but I am going to have some first.
Emily: Can I have some next?
Me: Yes
Kyle: But I wanted to be next.
Me: I thought you were being chivalrous
Kyle: [whines]
Me: Ladies first
Kyle: Then I wanna be a lady.

Kyle & Emily swinging at 5 years old

Apple picking

This weekend we took the kids to Julian to pick some apples. After last year's experience picking pears, we decided to try apples and hopefully avoid the worms. While we saw a lot of apples that had worm holes, we avoided those apples while picking. Unfortunately, we did get a handful of apples that had worms in them when we cut them. As fun as apple picking is, I'm not so eager to fresh pick my apples anymore... Just don't like getting wormed apples. 

Happiest Place on Earth

After arriving home late on Tuesday evening and getting reoriented on Wednesday, we took Thursday to head to the Happiest Place on Earth! School would have to wait a day. 

Riding their favorite ride, the Flying Dumbo's!

Emily and Daddy riding Big Thunder Mountain. Kyle was unsure of it because of its tunnels. And apparently it was a good thing he didn't ride because Jeff said he would not have liked it. Emily did great on it. She was a little shell-shocked, but kept it together. 

What is a trip to Disneyland without a ride on the Carousel?

Daddy with Kyle and Emily on Goofy's roller coaster

Bug's Land spinny type ride 

And I would ride 100 miles...

This summer, Kyle and Emily biked 100 miles! Quite impressive for just-turned-5-year-olds to do in a span of less than 3 months, if you ask me! Thankfully we lived right off the bike path that went everywhere so that certainly helped. 

Video just after their 100th mile completed!


Posing for pictures after completing their 100th mile just before our apartment.

Sleepy head

Kyle is quite the sleeper. He often has a hard time getting up. Here he is after a long, hard sleeping nap. He just couldn't get out of his tracks so he curled up in the sun spot, just like Bailey used to do, and purred on Miko a little bit more while he tried to figure out the afternoon. 

Batman

Last night we came back to our apartment to find a winged creature patrolling our hallway. At first we thought it was a baby bird, but after many fly-bys, we learned otherwise. It was a bat! To compound the problem, we were home to pick up a few items and then head out again. The bat had other ideas for us and we never made it back out. Thankfully this morning the bat was no longer in our hallway.

Jeff watching the bat fly through the hall with his bat repellent tools to see if we can make it to the stairwell or the elevator without crossing paths.

Kids were a bit scared

Cousin's dinner time

Kyle, Emily and their cousins Isaac, Evan and Ryan gathered around the dinner table at Grandma's house. What could be better?! (And Miko too - see Kyle's back)

Kindergarten - take 1

Kyle and Emily started Kindergarten in Madison. Since we weren't going to be back in San Diego in time to start there, we figured we should start them in Madison if the school would allow such an arrangement. And they did! So here is Emily in her class on her first day of less than 3 weeks of Kindergarten in Madison. 

Emily's teacher is the same teacher Ben had when he was in Kindergarten so that was nice. Kyle had a different teacher and the separation for the kids was great, but they were across the hall from each other which was a nice comfort to them both. Plus, Ben was just down the hall as well so even better. 

Kyle's classroom. The kids are all sitting at the rug. Hopefully a close up of Kyle from Jeff's picture roll. 

Gorilla hair

My conversation with Kyle

Mommy: Let's get haircuts today. Kyle you are starting to look like a gorilla.
Kyle: Well actually Mommy gorillas have really short hair close to their head so I don't look like a gorilla.

Of course! Don't mess with the monkey expert!

Grandma Sondra's birthday

We went to visit Grandma Sondra for her 90th birthday! It's hard to believe she's 90 years old. We all had a great time catching up and going out for chili at a chili bar! Who would have thought such a place existed?!

The kids had a great time having bedtime stories with Grandma too. They didn't want to leave. After searching high and low for a kid book for stories, Emily suggested the story that she and Kyle wrote together. 

And the kids found it funny to lock us out of the car so they could 'drive'.

High rise sprinkler

What do you do when it's a hot day and you live on a second floor apartment? Turn on a sprinkler on the patio, of course! And maybe spray some people walking below... 

Ben days

This week we had a few days that Ben spent with us while his normal summer camp was closed. Kyle and Emily LOVED having Ben days! We went bike riding, to the farmer's market and got some goodies, to gymnastics and swimming! He is such an awesome older cousin. So thoughtful and just so pleasant. 

Eating treats from the farmer's market. Nothing like a giant cookie at 11am after a 2 mile bike ride in the heat! (And I was running)

Ben jumps into the pool! He is a jumping machine! He and Kyle must have jumped in and out of the pool 100 times!

Kyle flips into the foam pit at gymnastics. A new trick he had learned in camp and was eager to show off. Unfortunately, he also learned the hard way later that he should ONLY do flips into foam pits and not onto concrete. Thankfully in that instance, he landed smack on his back and not his head. Needless to say he was hurting, but not devastatingly so. But he certainly learned a hard lesson.

Tarzan Princess Emily!

Emily's first 2 mile run

In an effort to stave off nausea or make it better, I have been trying to get out and run each day. Today, Emily decided she didn't want to ride her bike along side of me as she normally has done, but rather wanted to run. I was a bit hesitant to allow her to do so at first, but she was insistent. So she ran. And she ran most of the 2 miles with me! I had her and Kyle switch positions - from bike to runnings - for a short distance, but they both wanted nothing to do with the other mode of transport. And Emily did a great job running with me! She was great! Her first 2 mile run! Go Emmy!

A very short break on Kyle's bike

Kyle runs for a very short distance

2 miles completed!

Video of Emily running