Happy Birthday MJ!

Today we celebrated Matt's 31st birthday! I thought about having a party, but since he's been gone for the last month, the kids and I decided to be selfish and keep him all to ourselves. He even took the day off work so we could spend the whole day together.

We started the day off with a big birthday breakfast, french toast with blueberries and whipped cream, bacon, eggs and Florida orange juice. Then we headed out near Zurich to Jucker Farm. Right now, they are having their Kurbis (pumpkin) season. They have hundreds of pumpkins in all shapes, sizes and colors. They have giant prize winning pumpkins, pumpkin sculptures, and pumpkin in all of their food. For lunch we had pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin ravioli, and for desert, pumpkin cake! So good!!

Unfortunately, it was rainy and freezing. So, after lunch, we picked out pumpkins for jack-o-lantern carving and headed home.

In keeping with the theme of the day (eating), I prepared marinated salmon for dinner and a chocolate amaretti birthday cake for dessert (recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis).

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chocolate-amaretti-cake-recipe/index.html.

Happy Birthday Mattie J!

We LOVED spending the day celebrating YOU! We adore you and are so happy you're home where you belong!

Peter Pan & Princess Pig Tails

Fun with Aunt Jenny-Part 2

Day Trip to France

La Montagne de Signes (Monkey Mountain) in Kintzheim, France 

This was such a blast. For an entrance fee of 8 euro, which includes a handful of popcorn, you can enter this beautiful park and feed some of the 280 monkeys inside. One little mischievous monkey kept giving us problems. First, he came up and stole my park pamphlet right out of my stroller. He took it up a tree and proceeded to eat it. Several minutes later one of the park employees tracked me down and returned it to me all chewed up. Umm...thanks?

His antics didn't stop there. A bit later we came across the same monkey and Rach went to give him her last piece of popcorn. He took it, put it in his mouth, and then snatched her glasses right of her face! He obviously didn't know who he was dealing with. Rach yelled, "HEY!!!" and grabbed them right back. He then grabbed on to Danny's jacket with both hands. We literally had to pry him off. 

Four little monkeys

 Colmar and Eguisheim, France

We visited the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, but were terribly disappointed to find that the Picasso exhibit had been closed. Fortunately, they had a room full of knight armor and swords. Danny was thrilled! After that, we walked around the scenic towns admiring all the beautiful buildings and flowers, we enjoyed a bit of French cuisine, and we stopped at every cookie, chocolate, and pastry shop we passed on the way back to the car. 

Fun with Aunt Jenny-Part 1

Heidiland

Matt's sister Jen arrived last Wednesday! Thank goodness! Unfortunately the first couple of days she was here, the weather was nasty. Finally, one morning we woke up to a clear, sunny day and headed to Maienfeld. Maienfeld is where the famous Swiss author, Johanna Spyri, spend many of her childhood summers. It later became the scenic background for the book Heidi. 

Rach and Dan enjoying lollipops in Heidi's outhouse