Crazy Hair Day

School is a-winding down here with only 2 more days left. I'm not sure if I'm more excited or sad. I'll have to wait until after the first week of summer break to make a verdict.

In the meantime, the boys are enjoying all of the madness that accompanies the end of the school year- class picnics, treats, movies...and crazy hair day. This was held in Sam's school last week, and Andrew about had a fit when he realized that he would be the one taking Sam to school on the tram (So what if I made him look like a girl?). Fortunately for Andrew, Sam blended in just fine with all of the other international students and their crazy hair that day.

Sam and his boys- Fletcher and Enzo- on the tram to school.

Luke also wanted in on the action, so before we left to get Sam I did up his "do" as well. Unfortunately for me, Luke was the only kid with wacky hair on the tram in so I had to endure lots of stares from the reserved Swiss.

The Garden

The lush gardens are often the first thing people notice when they come to Switzerland. The Swiss are amazing gardeners, but it also helps that the entire country is on miracle grow. Take my flower garden for example. Here is what it has looked like during the last 5 months:

February
These little beauties started to pop up everywhere.

March/April
Tulips sprung up like crazy and all of the trees started to flower.

April/May
When the tulips went away the irises came.

Then the peonies... it was like some beautifully orchestrated floral symphony.

June
Which brings us to June. Most of the perennials have since left (not the roses), but if you look closely in the picture below you will see a new addition to our yard. Something added by my own hand...

... a vegetable garden.

About a month ago I planted my first vegetable garden, and I hated it. It was way too much work. (Who knew??) My biggest problem? The watering and the weeding.

BUT, I am happy to report that as time has gone by, the garden and I have come to an understanding. Actually, Switzerland and I have come to an understanding. It has been raining here like crazy, which means that I rarely have to water my garden. Plus, some of the plants are starting to yield produce, which is much more exciting than I expected. Another fun thing is that we have discovered that most of the trees in our yard are fruit bearing trees. We just spent the last two weeks feasting on cherries, and the other trees are bursting with growing apples and peaches (at least I think they are peaches). We also have grape vines and a raspberry bush growing.

And now for the million dollar question: Can ANYONE tell me what type of tree/plant this is?

The Rhine Valley

Andrew and the boys had two days off last week so we headed up to the Rhine Valley for an overnight stay. The Rhine Valley (located in Western German) is peppered with castles, and with our boy's affinity for all things medieval, we decided it would be fun to go. We stayed along the Rhine River, which within a 45 mile stretch, has about 20 major castles on it. The placing of these castles was done with the purpose of taxing river traffic, and often the castle Barons would place a chain in the river, preventing boats from passing without paying the self imposed tax. Selfish, but it resulted in some pretty cool castles for us today.

Bacharach, Germany

We stayed in Bacharach, and if anyplace screams "story book Germany" this is it. Aside from it's beauty, it is a very relaxed village which is a huge plus for me.

The hotel where we slept was the original castle wall.

We took a little cruise to St. Goar which is an hour upriver.

I don't know why, but Afton didn't seem to appreciate the castles as much as the boys. Maybe if one were painted pink we would have seen some enthusiasm.





I really try hard to keep my kids quite while are touring, but it is next to impossible to do when we are touring a castle. While we were visiting this castle the boys were madly dashing around and at one point I heard one of them yell, "THIS IS AWESOME!!!" I had to smile that time.



We saved the crown jewel- The Burg Eltz- until the very end of our trip. Just look at that shot below, how awesome does that place look?



Unfortunately, this is what the Burg Eltz looked like when we arrived...



As you can see they are doing some major restoration work, so most of the castle was covered in scaffolding. Now, for those of you flooded with pity for us, don't worry. We plan on going back once this castle is restored to all of it's glory.

The upside is that there was a beautiful hike to get to the castle. It was a nice ending for our little getaway.