Freiheit!

With a quick stop in the
playground in the
middle: there's always time.

Joey and I spent the morning shopping and cleaning and generally getting organized: these things won't be so easy for a while now, because today is the kids' last day of school before their three-week Easter vacation. That may sound excessive, but remember, the kids are in year-round school here: their longest vacation, this summer, is only a little over four weeks long.

Alex came tumbling home first with his arms full.  His teacher had helped him make an Easter basket, and he brought it home filled with treats.  When I commented on how nice it was of the teacher to give him so much candy, Alex was quick to correct me: "No, mom! These candies were from the Easter Bunny!"  Ella came through the door just at that moment: "Oh, wow! Alex, does your teacher know the Easter Bunny?" You know, just in case Alex had an in.

Alex and his Easter haul

But, for all the treats that the kids showed me, there were more that were squirreled away immediately into the darkest corners of Ella's and Alex's respective rooms, for today was also the last day of school before Mother's Day.  Ella's been dropping hints for days, now, asking me what I'd like most.

It's incredibly sweet: she takes Mother's Day very seriously, and last year I received no fewer than two dozen cards and pictures.  Because of the vacation, she's started production even earlier this year.  I'll certainly have to buy more construction paper.  She's already let it slip that I'm getting seventeen coupons (Said Ella: "The most valuable two are for eating vegetables.  And there's lots for babysitting the boys. And one for going to the store with you. I don't really enjoy going to the store.  It's kind of a waste of my time, I think." Yes, my daughter is extremely important and very busy.)

She spells my name as accurately as any
 Starbucks barista.

But she simply couldn't wait to give me one of her presents, and so this afternoon I got this little treasure.  She said that she's been working on it for four weeks in her handicrafts class: she cut the shapes out herself with a saw and then sanded them for ages ("I'm really proud of my edges, Mom. Do you see how they're completely rounded?" They are!) And then, of course, she painted it. ("The texture on her fur was my teacher's idea, but I think it looks really, really pretty.")   Ella's obviously proud of her work, which makes it all the more special: sometimes this whole motherhood gig isn't so bad at all.

While Ella finished her afternoon at school and Joey napped, Alex and I enjoyed our last quiet afternoon together for a while.  I'd noticed him looking enviously at Joey's coloring book, and so this morning I picked him up his own coloring book and a set of markers.  His gratitude was so dear: "Oh, Mom! This is amazing! How many markers did you say there are? Twenty-five?! Mom, the price tag says five francs! That's so much money! Mom, thank you so much!  This is the best thing ever!  I think I like this color of blue the best of all the colors. Will you color with me? Now?"

And so we did, until we noticed the wind whipping at the caution tape that landscapers had posted around the newly-seeded lots near our house: Wind!

Grandpa Flugan gave Alex a kite for his birthday this year, but it hasn't really been that right combination of warm and dry and windy up until today. So this afternoon, Alex taught himself to fly a kite, and I quite like his method: he runs and runs as fast as he can into the wind so that the wind catches the kite, and then stops when he hits the street and runs back to do it all over again. He was exhausted (but happy) by the time Ella got home.

Success!

Winding kite string: that's part of it, too.

Ella found a nice place to decompress.

He had a little time to rest before it was time to head out to meet Dennis: the Zürich office often invites families to their weekly TGIF parties, but this was this first time we were able to go.  So the kids celebrated the start of vacation with ice cream and running around the courtyard while I got a chance to meet a few of Dennis's colleagues.

And Joey had to be just like his sister.

Our friends had us over for pizza this evening, but it was after 6:00 before the time we left Google and  headed over, so everyone was exhausted and a little fragile.  Still, delicate emotions aside, pizza and videos at a friend's house was infinitely easier than going home with hungry kids and trying to gather food together myself, so I, especially, was incredibly grateful.

My little scooter gang.

The kids had talked me into letting them ride their scooters to Google, which was nerve-wrecking to say the least on the way in, but really fast and easy and amusing coming home, when there were two of us to shepherd our kids through the city streets.

Dennis and I play a pretty good zone defense, even when the kids have the advantage of wheels.