The "real" one for a change ...

A couple weeks ago, Mami read something pretty exciting in the paper and even though Andrin was rather sceptic in the beginning, he had to tell Mami before he fell asleep that he actually really liked our outing. We rode a steam engine from Liestal to Waldenburg. On the way there, we took about three stops (one of them to fill up the water tank:) and it took us about one hour. On the return trip, we took the "normal" train and we took about ten stops and it took us about 20 minutes ... It was a nice trip on a beautiful fall afternoon. We even discovered on our way there where we will go to pick out some pumpkins ... But tonight, we all had to take a shower. We all looked like we just got off a steam train. Which we did, of course!

Thursday morning

We have been welcoming fall into our heart! It is cold in the morning and then beautiful during the day. This morning, we went to our grocery store (Bigna walked all the way, pushing her doll stroller) and then had a painting session at the house. Andrin first wanted to paint with water color and then also finger paint. The children were busy for almost 90 minutes .... And seemed to love every minute of it. After that, it was back to making a beautiful mess with all our playing cards.

(Just in case you were wondering: this is NOT the Swiss flag!)

Bigna was delighted to paint her hands. 

Fully concentrated. 

Timid to get her fingers in this paint ... 

And then the entire hand had to be covered in brown paint!

While Mami is at school ...

These past few weekends have been busy. Mami had to go to school for her licensing and since Oma and Opa are on vacation, Papi had to jump in and stay home. But as you can see from the pictures, it was not too bad ... and some fun was had at home!

Going for a stroll ...

Our preschool boy

Andrin transitioned from his playgroup at his English speaking school to preschool. He is doing great and starting to learn some letters. He is always excited to tell Mami and Bigna about his new letters when we pick him up. But he also told us the other day that it is HARD work! While Andrin is at preschool, Bigna enjoys some alone time with Mami.

All the things we do for love ...

Mami never imagined that she would do something like this ... but she did. She knitted a SNAKE, her most favorite animal in the world, for Andrin. While we are at the zoo, Andrin always has to tell everyone that Mami does not like snakes. Sometimes, he takes a look at the snakes on his own!
And since Andrin already has a lot of presents waiting for him for his birthday, he already got the snake now.

Role play

At the moment, our house is either a fire station, a doctor's office, or a castle ...

Can you hear the cho cho ?

Another one of Andrin's elaborate constructions ... 

Meet the king: Kind Andrin (with a crown that hopefully will last longer than the paper one that he loved). 

Bigna is finally able to wear all the Tea Collection dresses that Mami bough just before we left Eugene!

The king is enjoying a special croissant in the morning. He wanted to put some chocolate sprinkles on top of it. I told him that he had to take a bite first, he took a bite right in the middle of the croissant ... silly king!

What a still patient ... 

Unfortunately, Andrin knows really well how to check the ears ... (He is playing with an old vintage doctor's kit ... it belonged to Mami when she was little)

And last, but not least: meet the queen! Queen Bigna! She also needed a crown after seeing her brother walking around with his own crown.