A Day at the Beach

Andrin celebrated his 21st-month-birthday with a day at the beach with his two friends. One of our friends has a minivan available this week and we took the opportunity to load up all three little boys and take them for the day to the beach. They had a wonderful day. There was a little creek right by the ocean and the boys just played and played and played in it. It was wonderful to have them wonder off without having to worry about anything. Andrin loved to chase the seagulls, even though it was a little bit frustrating because he kept loosing the race. He also was wet after about two minutes at the beach, but did not seem to mind and just kept on going. He even enjoyed falling and tumbling in the creek. After all the excitement on the beach, the three boys fell asleep on our way back.

Fun in our park

Finally, Mami got some pictures of the fun that we usually have at the park. We spend quite a lot of time at the park around the corner. We like it because it is hardly crowded, it even has some shady areas, and there is a water feature. Today, Papi was able to join us and Andrin had lots of fun playing with him in the water and Mami finally was able to take some pictures without having to chase after Andrin.

One of the kids at the park gave Andrin a water gun to play with. It was so refreshing to see that he had no idea that it was a gun and kept calling it a boat.

We tried our best, Papi!

Sorry, Papi, that the Swiss soccer team did not make it into the next round!
We really tried our best, but I guess it was not enough!

Papi was a little bit worried (with good reason) that Andrin's beautiful t-shirt would not stay clean through the breakfast's blueberries!

Strawberries

It is strawberry season again! This year, Mami even had help in the field picking the strawberries and of course especially with eating them. Andrin early on decided which bucket belonged to him and would eat all the strawberries out of it and come up with it to Mami asking for "meeh eedbeeli" (more strawberries). Mami showed him how to pick his own strawberries, but he was too preoccupied with eating them.

Here is the proof!

If you thought that we were making things up ... here is the proof!

P.s. Baby powder really seems to have done the trick since we have not had any more "presents" in the middle of our lawn.

Andrin and Mami's stay cation

Stay cation ... If I remember it correctly, this word was "the" word of last year. Since we usually do not do something like this, Andrin and Mami had to try it out themselves. Mami realized that she had a lot of benefit hours and thus decided to take advantage of the annual camping trip at Jasper and take some time off herself. (Our next time off will be a vacation since we will be traveling to the North Umpqua, Crater Lake National Park, Bend, ... but more about that later.) We have been really enjoying our time so far. On Monday, Papi joined us and we all went up to Woodburn for some outlet shopping. Andrin got his outfit for his uncle Jorrit's (and Niggi's) wedding this September. Tuesday and Wednesday, we spent at home. We went to the park, played in our backyard, took a walk to see the excavator near our house, ... To say the least: we enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to some more days off at home. Luckily, the weather even has been nice for a change!

One of Andrin's favorite things to do ...

Cleaning out the fridge and putting all the little things on the counter.

Ready for some warm weather with his shorts (and of course the beloved school bus ...)

Just playing in the sand ... for hours. Andrin started imitating the excavator near our house. He digs up sand with the excavator (and makes the corresponding sounds) and then dumps everything in the truck that is waiting patiently. Whenever the truck is full, he takes off with the "beeping" sound ... clever boy. He really paid attention at the construction site (or maybe we just have spent too much time there ...)

Clothespins ... always fun to play with.

Fussball-Fever

Since Switzerland did so well during their first game against Spain, we are in the mood for some real Fussball-Fever. Andrin joined the celebration and even showed off his skills. Who knows, maybe he will be the next Fussball-Star ...

Throwing Rocks

Andrin loves to play with water and rocks ...

Salad Monster

What a scare!

Today, I suddenly was faced with a growling salad monster in the kitchen.
It even followed me into the living room and was chasing me.

Little Man in a Box

We always get Andrin's diapers online and there was a big package delivered the other day. Andrin had to point out that it was a "Paeckli" and had to help open it up. Then he decided that he needed to sit in the box and gather all his favorite stuffed animals around him and share his cookie with them.


He was unhappy when Mami tried to get the box out of the living room the next day and decided that he was not done with playing in the box and asked for a "Erdbeeeeli" (Strawberry) and ate it with joy in his box.

Our nightly visitor ...

I never thought that I would write about something like this ... but here we go! If you just ate something or else are not a parent and used to bodily excrement, I caution you to continue reading and looking at the pictures (just a warning:)!
The last three days, we have discovered a nice big pile right in the middle of our grass in the backyard. Clemens cleaned up the mess every morning with the consequence that there was a new, bigger pile there the next morning. We were told that this is rather typical for raccoons and that we probably will have a nightly present like that for at least a season. So there will be no more surprises here. And we also will not have to search all over our backyard for other presents. Who thought that raccoons are so neat and routine loving creatures?

A Day in the Sun

We finally had a summer day today! Andrin started the day with eating cantaloupe and really enjoying it (he ate an entire cantaloupe since Thursday, all by himself). He also had our first ripe strawberry from our hanging basket. We were outside a lot today. Andrin was really helpful in watering the flowers and vegetable with his new watering can.

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FINALLY .... We are ready for it!

You can count the minutes that we spent inside today on one hand! Andrin and Mami lived outside and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and nice temperatures. We took the sign and got the lawn furniture out, cleaned it, and even had dinner outside. Andrin even decided that he could not take his nap in his crib and we had to go for a walk to Hendriks Park for him to take a nap. Mami really wanted to take him to the park so that he would be able to play with the water, he woke up in the park after Mami just sat on the park bench for what seemed to be forever and then fell back asleep in Mami's arms when she got him out of the stroller ... silly boy! Once we got back home, Andrin just played for over a hour in the sand, using the excavators and filling the truck with it like he saw the construction men doing today in front of our house! There is only one drawback to the nice weather: Mami's seasonal allergies ...

Playtime

Andrin and Mami are home alone again (Papi went fishing) and we have been having lots of fun. This morning, we took our time to get ready, ate some good pancakes, then played in our pajamas until we were ready to move on. We went to Saturday Market and enjoyed some sun (by now, the sun is already gone again). We were still searching for Romanesco starters and were lucky to snatch the last six starters ... Andrin loved the opportunity to ride with the bike again. But as we were biking along the river path, I suddenly hear a "oho" from the backseat ... I have seen the signs before that the river path might be flooded, but I never actually seen it. We had to take a long detour because everything was just flooded. If that is not proof enough that we had way too much rain!