Easter Eggs and Double the Grandparents

Grosi and Katie took on the job of colouring Easter eggs for all of us.

First we got to cook the eggs. Katie did awesome and I don't think she broke any eggs putting them in the pot

Then it was time to take them out again. These ones were coloured as they were cooking in water and some kind of natural red wood colour.

The traditional coloured eggs. Now it was time to decorate them with stickers.

Maya helped with this part, but after she was done she said it was a ball and threw it. She didn't do more after that.

And the final result! Yummy "Eier tätsch" for supper. (we take turns hitting eggs together and the one with the strongest shell wins)

Easter Sunday

We really enjoyed the tradition that has developped for our Easter. Our family goes out to the farm for the weekend, but on Easter Sunday Jeff's parents come for dinner and the afternoon. We are so blessed that both sets of grandparents get along so well.

Katie was posing with her Easter loot, but I deleted the picture from this blog by accident and can't get it in the right spot anymore. We didn't do an Easter egg hunt until we got home. One smartie per egg makes for great entertainment for a while and spreads the candy much further.

Maya is all for chocolate on Easter. More so than Katie, but I'm not quite sure if more than Jeff;)

Reading her book with Grandma

Maya raring to go for the after dinner walk.

The grands

Maya liked the stroller. She was able to tell us when she wanted out and walk, but when she got tired she would get one of us and point to the stroller. "Up"

Katie was fishing in a puddle by the Waldkafi. She was very successful catching all kinds of leaves and sticks.

Grosi and Maya watching the "boys" throwing branches into the river.

Off walking with Grandma. Maya walked quite a while before she asked for the stroller again. Katie walked the whole loop along the river and back along the top.

More treats!! It was a great weekend for the chocoholics in this family.

It was a great weekend!

Easter Weekend

Much belated and nowhere near complete, but I figured I'll just thow something up on this blog. I might add more posts about this weekend, but we'll see
The girls did very well on their way to the farm. In this picture they were singing to each other and holding hands. They do have other moments, but those I usually don't want to commemorate with pictures

Maya was helping Grosi wash potatoes for one of the many yummy meals we had over the 4 days we were there. Thank you Mueti so much for all your help with the girls, the cooking and the visiting.

Katie's favorite seat. A tiny little parkbench. Must be more comfortable than it looks.

Both girls dancing along with some kid show.

Smiley waiting patiently (this time anyway) for her food.

Coffee time. The first time outside, but definitely not the first one of our visit. Since we have at least 3 if not 4 per day.

Second most comfortable seat in the house - Mommy

And then of course there's the regular chairs, but even those work better if you hang off of them im some kind of strange and cute way.

My Grosvater would be sure to make comments about how I could never sit still and properly either. Katie is for sure my daughter;)

Don't leave them alone

This is from last week, but I thought it would make some of you smile so here it goes.
Recently I started meeting with a dear friend just to share what's going on in our lives, how we deal with issues and stuff and to pray together and for each other. Normally someone is around to look after the girls while we meet, but last week Maya was still with us. We met in the livingroom and Maya was just around playing. As we were sharing and praying she had walked into the kitchen to explore...
... and found some treats from when my friend and I got set up for hot chocolate and tea.

I'm sure you could have guessed what happened.

Caught in the act!!

Yummy, yummy chocolate, whatever form it comes in. Some kinds are just messier than others. I'm sure all you mothers out there have similar pictures and stories. Hope this one made you smile (if nothing else at least you didn't have to clean up the mess ;)

My Little Chicken Catcher and Egg Gatherers!

So Katie really likes our chickens. They've become quite tame over the last couple of weeks, and Katie's newest favorite game is to try to catch them. Lets have a look.
She calmly follows the chickens...

...then gently makes her move.

Success!

Look at me, Mommy!!

And another catch! The chickens are quite good about being girl-handled. And Katie really is quiet and gentle with them. If we ever go and butcher them, we know who to send in to get them:)

Maya always wants to be part of the action, especially if it is outside!

Off to go and collect the eggs.

She's telling me to stop sticking the camera in her face all the time and just go and get the eggs.

Mission accomplished, the eggs are gathered and in her bucket.

Which she then promply took along as she ran away from me toward the back or our property. I guess she knew that I'd be directing the girls to go back inside after the eggs were gathered, and she wasn't quite ready to go in, eventhough it was still pretty cold outside.

Finally Outside!!

My house is a mess, the laundry only half folded, the dishwasher clean but still full, Katie is going potty for the second time AFTER bedtime, but I figured that it's been 10 days since I last posted anything so I had better do it now as next week will be just CRAZY busy. So just be forewarned, this will be the last post for a week or two. Anyway... Katie going for a tractor ride to go see our chickens. In a matter of less than a week they have become very fun part of our routine.

Our little intense driver.

I like being able to recycle our kitchen scraps in our own backyard. So do the chickens. Usually just before lunch (if I'm trying to stretch Maya with her nap), or then after we ate and Maya is sleeping we take the table scraps and wander over to the chicken coop. We now get 6 eggs every day!!!

Proud egg collector and chicken feeder.

So pretty

Yesterday she spend over 2 hours hunting for worms under rocks and in the garden to then take over to the coop and feed the chicken.

Now that the kids are getting older, Uncle Marc can do a lot more things with them. We so enjoy having him here regularly. We had to cancel having him for two weeks and we really missed him.

On Sunday on our way to Jeff's parents for supper we saw this bike on the side of the road for free. It'll need new tubes but Katie is thrilled to have it and is learning the concept of peddaling.

Maya is inspecting this contraption and also wanted to try it. She was able to hang on very well, but of course the pedalling will wait for another year or so.

Wheeeee!!

Backyard farm, Grosi's farm, and just life

So, another week has gone by. We were able to take it a little easier this week as we've been going 11 days straight. We spent a couple of days at the farm and did some things around home. Yesterday was a beautiful day and I was finally able to hang my laundry outside again. (On a side note - it's snowing again today so I'm glad I did my washing when I did) I have a feeling this post is going to be all over the place so you'll just have to bear with me. Anyway, yesterday we all went outside for a little walk. The girls had a lot of fun walking and exploring on their own. Maya kept up with us very well and was quite independent, she didn't want to hold hands, but wanted to walk where she wanted, at her pace. Yay for growing kids!! It's crazy to see that some of the clothes that Katie was wearing last fall seem to fit Maya this spring. It won't be long before I'll only have one size of clothing for both girls.

Katie was chasing leaves for "my parents". Not for "mommy and daddy" but for "my parents" She's busy trying to work out how all the relationships work. A couple of weeks ago she told me something that "my Daddy's mommy" did. Grandma would have worked too, but she's figured out that Grandma is also Jeff's mom. It's kind of cute to see how little kids learn and grasp things. Anyway, after a little walk down tothe barn Katie tossed a interlocking brick off Jeff's chainsaw carved chair to have a break. Maya wanted to sit too, and promply planted herself on the tossed brick. They were so good just playing while Jeff and I discussed cage arrangements for future rabbits (more on that in another blog sometime).

For now our backyard farm just consists of 6 laying hens. We picked them up this Friday and already had 8 eggs. They are young chickens and the eggs relatively small, but we're glad to have some critters again, and I think it will be good for the girls too.

After less than 24 hours we already had some eggs! We haven't eaten any of them yet since we have 3 dozen still that I just got from a farmer a week ago. Good thing we like eggs.

The girls hanging out. It's nice when they are cuddly. Doesn't happen very often.

During our time at Grosi and Grosvati's we enjoyed some nice warm sunny weather. (Though nothing compared to Switzerland where they were sweating in 25 degree weather)

We closed the gate off the deck and let the kids play for a bit. And of course, the only thing they could get into, they did. Katie dumped a bucked full off sand all over the deck. So we got her to clean up her mess, but she didn't seem to mind and actually had fun sweeping the sand down between the floor boards.

One of the highlights for Katie at Grosi and Grosvati's is their hot tub. Her and Jeff had a lot of fun while I gave Maya her bath. I made it to the hot tub room just as they were getting out, so no swimming pictures this time

Katie still a little flushed from the hot tub got to have her bath too. Doesn't she look like such a big girl? Where has my baby gone?

Yes, I was there too.

My two girls "playing". Katie was playing with the laundry hamper and wanted to hide under it. Maya walked up and promptly went to bang and sit on it. I had to get Maya off of it since she didn't want to let Katie out again. Silly girls!!