Blast from the Past

I had a Hausfrau kind of morning at home, cleaning up after the weekend and catching up on mail.  And then there was this, in case you're wondering what happens if you ignore a two-year-old long enough to write a blog post about Geneva:

Lunch and a card game

When the kids came home from school, after their peanut butter and jelly, I took them outside to play.  Joey stayed close and picked flowers and filled his dump truck, but Alex and Ella transformed themselves into She-Ra and Bo, and they ran off to look for sticks to turn into swords and bows and arrows.  They returned with their benign weapons, flushed with the excitement of finding the perfect hideout.  So I did what any good mom would do: I packed them some granola bars and juice boxes and told them to have fun.

The new headquarters of the Great Rebellion

Their not-so-secret hideout was clearly visible from Alex's and Joey's window, and I watched bob to and fro, picking berries and gathering wood for furniture, remembering when I did the same.  My sister went through a serious She-Ra phase one summer in particular, and that was all we played at summer camp.

Alex got tired, and Ella decided it was probably time for her to do her homework, so they came in for a rest.  For about fifteen minutes. Then Alex decided he wanted to spend his allowance on bubble gum at the corner store and talked Ella into taking him.  And Ella realized it was crucial to make a strategic map of the neighborhood to hang in their tree.  And they were off again, scampering around the apartment complex.

Triumphant return from the candy store

Joey looked longingly at them from the living room window while I made a casserole, one of the really naughty kinds with a good plop of mayonnaise and a can of cream of chicken soup, sent with love from Texas.  It just sort of seemed to fit with the mood of the day.

After dinner the kids ran outside to play again, and found Ella's friend Ella2 and her big brother Paul, and the four were off, laughing, in the dusk.

Who would have thought I'd find Mayberry in the heart of Zürich?