Mother's Day in Ballenberg

We spent all day Saturday unpacking and making our new apartment livable. It was a grand effort as our apartment came with no lights so Luke had to drill into the concrete ceilings for all the bedrooms, living room, kitchen, etc. Plus we downgraded from a 6.5 piece apartment to a 3.5 piece apartment so we have WAY too much stuff and had to ask for an extra cave (aka storage room) to store all the things we now need to sell. It took us the entire day to make our apartment a home. So Sunday we decided to do something fun. 

We drove to the Swiss city of Ballenberg which is really a large open air museum. 

There are more than 100 century old buildings from all over Switzerland. Each building had a description and most had some sort of exhibit such as bread making, weaving, etc.

It was an awesome place to go with a preschooler. Jack loved running around outside, going in and out of the homes.

One of the houses had an exhibit of how cheese was made 100 years ago. We even got to buy some homemade cheese that was made that day from the cows outside. It was delicious!

We had lunch in the Tincino region where the houses have more of an Italian flair

Although it was a great place for kids, it was not stroller friendly. Most of the paths were rocks and steps and made pushing a stroller a pain in the butt

There were lots of animals for Jack to chase

And even a petting zoo

There was also an area just for kids with a carousel

And swings

And a slide ... with a view!

On a completely different note, I thought I'd take a second to talk about a real difficulty raising a child here in Switzerland. Here in the Swiss playgrounds, the kids can be downright nasty. I have noticed that parents here do not seem to intervene or even pay attention to their kids at the playground. Thus, there are many bullies. I have no problem giving a tongue lashing to a 4 year old bully, but the problem is that none of the kids here speak English. So reprimanding a child who has just shoved Jack is very difficult. I know a few phrases in French, but now that we are living closer to the German areas I think I need to learn some German phrases. Case in point, this little boy (shown below, running with the hat) was the playground bully. He would stand at the top of the slide and step on the kids hands who were trying to climb up, then he would shove them down the slide. I saw him do it to Jack and for Jack's sake I wanted to punish that kid so Jack knew what he did was wrong. But the little boy spoke German and his parents were no where to be found. So I just said what I needed to say in English, gave him the evil eye and he tried my best to scare him. Jack felt validated that I stood up for him, but the little bully had no idea what I said and continued to bully all the other kids. In a country that has 4 national languages (none of which are English) I guess the language barrier will always be a problem.

Anyways, back to my original post. Jack loved Ballenberg. We spent the whole day outside enjoying the beautiful landscape

And Jack was thrilled to see all the farm animals

Although we spent the whole day there, we only saw half of what there was to see. So we will be going back. I would highly recommend a visit here if you ever have a chance.

And to top off the day, we were able to enjoy chocolate from the Ballenberg chocolaterie. 

Paris - Day 3 & 4

Easter Sunday we headed over to Notre Dame again for their Easter service

 The place was packed with people wanting to get inside

Right before they opened the doors a procession passed right in front of us. Jack thought it would be funny to stick his legs out of the stroller and try and touch (or trip?) the men. One of the men stopped and smiled at Jack and tapped his foot with the big pole he was carrying .

Once the doors to the church opened we found ourselves in the middle of a mob. I was thankful Jack was safe in his stroller or he would have been trampled. I have never experienced such a rush of people trying to push past me... and all to get into church!

Once we were inside, everyone resumed their religious countenance again

Jack started getting loud about half way through the service. So I had him look for Quasimoto up in the balconies. I told him the lights were Quasimoto shining his flashlight down to search for any misbehaving children. I can be such a mean mommy... but he spent the rest of the service quietly watching for Quasimoto

After the service we noticed several military men patrolling the church with firearms.

We met up with our friends for Easter lunch

Jack was happy to see Daisy again!

After lunch we headed to the Rodin museum where the kids were able to play in the garden. Here is a picture of the museum and behind the butt statue

After the museum we walked to the Eiffel Tower and on our way we stopped by Napoleon's tomb

A carousal at the Eiffel Tower

Sunset at the Eiffel tower

Picnic dinner waiting for the lights to come on

Finally at 9pm the Eiffel tower lit up

Monday morning breakfast at our hotel

We headed across the city to visit the Sacre-Coeur church. The place was more packed than any other sight in Paris

We had a street artist draw a family picture

Jack had to give him some pointers

We met up one last time with our friends and had a picnic lunch at the base of the church

But we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us so we had to take off right after lunch and head home. This area of Paris was my least favorite, it was pretty dirty and the crowds were unbearable.

One more side note about Paris is that it is NOT stroller friendly. We had to carry Jack and his stroller up hundreds of these stairs... not an easy task, especially when you are pregnant.

The drive home was beautiful and uneventful. Now we are busy getting all settled into our new apartment... pictures coming soon.