But I wasn't really intending to go back to the carnival today. I felt like we'd done it to death yesterday, and I was nervous about taking all three kids to such a crowded place without Dennis. Instead, we had some chores to do. For one thing, we needed to get Ella some new school shoes.
So the gang and I went to the mall this morning. I've scarcely taken Ella and Alex shopping at all this year, so they actually had a lot of fun, wandering through the toy shop and playing in the courtyard. It was as painless as a trip to the mall with three kids could possibly be.
On our way home, we had to switch buses right next to the Knabenschiessen fair grounds. While we were waiting for our bus, we bumped into Alex's German tutor, Frau Jenny, who told us that they were just starting a "magic" half-hour when all the rides were free. Since they'd been so good all morning, I decided we'd give it a go, and led my kids into the rapidly filling fairgrounds.
Dennis has a new coworker who actually comes from Zürich, and he and other Googlers were asking this man about the festival. He says that he only went to Knabenschiessen once, and only to ride the roller coasters: he never even went near the shooting range. "But didn't you need to practice marksmanship for the Swiss Army?" they asked him. "Didn't you get a gun when you were of age for military service."
"No. I got a saxophone." Apparently there are alternatives for reluctant soldiers: Dennis's coworker spent his compulsory service playing jazz in a military band.
It was all about the rides for my kids, too, and so it was for seemingly the rest of the canton during that magic half hour. The Swiss characterize themselves as very proper and polite, but all that went out the window when free rides were at stake.For most of the rides that our kids wanted to go on--the bumper cars, and the little kid rides that go 'round and 'round, there are never any lines. The kids just hop on whichever car they want, and then the attendant walks around, collecting tokens, before the ride starts But of course lineless these rides were a free-for-all, with parents jostling and jockeying their kids into place.
I left Ella and Alex to fend for themselves, and somehow they managed stare down the bigger kids who were trying to claim their bumper cars. If nothing else, they've gained a bit of gumption this year.
But I was getting tired of battling, so I asked the kids to find a ride that didn't require a battle royale to find a spot. So they chose a walk-through funhouse for their last ride of the festival.
It was coming up on lunch time when the free rides stopped, and I decided we might as well have wurst as anything, so I wandered with the kids up and down the street, where we grabbed things that caught our eye--sausages, corn, watermelon, ice cream, sugared almonds--to eat while we looked at the souvenir stands. But mostly, Ella and Alex kept their noses to the ground, looking for and collecting a pocket full of stray BBs that other kids had shot with their air guns. There's treasure everywhere.
Joey fell asleep before we even left the fair grounds, so we had plenty of time. It was fun, too, bumping into neighbors and parents from Alex's school. It felt like sort of a benchmark, going to a massive street fair and seeing a dozen people that we knew.
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| There's a path of these little happy faces leading from the entrance all the way to the kids' pool, one every ten meters or so. It's Joey's favorite part of going to the pool, looking for "happys." So these pictures are for him. |
Dennis came home from work at about the same time as we, and so, at last, we got to go for a big family swim. I'm glad that Ella's toe was better, because today is the last day that our neighborhood pool is open, the last day that we'll be able to walk down there and fly down the water slide. The water was frigid and the pool was mostly empty: it's probably time for the pool season to end. But I'm sad to see it over.
In honor of our last day of swimming, I'll link to this article, published today on NPR, about a Swiss artist, Ursus Wehrli. The pool where he took those pictures could easily be our pool: there are always massive stretches of grassy lawn in any swimming complex. And as for Wehrli's penchant for tidiness, well, that's become familiar, too.
Back at home, Dennis and Ella curled up to do homework. Ella's class is reading through a kids' novel called Der Räuber Hotzenplotz, and Ella had neglected to mention this reading assignment until last night, so tonight Dennis heroically helped her plow through four chapters. Dennis still has to help her with quite a bit translation, but he has Ella read each paragraph first, and she can do that fluidly, with great pronunciation, and she understands far more than I as she reads through this book.
You've come a long way, baby.
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| January |
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| September |
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