Big but Busy week

Where to begin?? It’s been such a busy week around here.  Henry started school yesterday and it was a total success!! We have enrolled him into the Ecole Privee Bilingue or the Private Bilingual School here in Lausanne called Club Alpha, and he is in what they call the Educative Kindergarten.  The youngest you can start is 30 months or 2 1/2 years and Henry hit that milestone on Saturday.  Another must is that the child must be fully potty trained.  This has been an ongoing issue for us.  I’ve always heard boys are harder, but we were taking two steps forward one step back.  I’m sure all the moving back and forth from Switzerland didn’t help but we are fully potty trained at this point – Yay Henry!  Both yesterday and today he stayed dry for the 5 1/2 hours he was at school.  School starts between 8-8:30am, they can play until 9 and that is when the lessons begin.  They start each day off with an English lesson taught by a native English teacher, and they do puppet shows, sing songs, read fairytales, etc.  After this the majority of the day is in French.  They have recess from 10:30 – 11:00 am and lunch as a class at noon.  At the school the children have a private chef and they will never eat the same thing twice.  They also abide by the Swill nutritional system, meaning they will never have french fries or any fatty foods on their plate, it must always be balanced.

For instance, yesterday Henry had:

Le tortellini au jambon cru
Et asperges vert
Emulsion mousseuse d’artichauts
Salad de saison
*****
Compote de pommes
Et crunchy au chocolat

or in English:

Tortellini with ham
And green asparagus
Foamy emulsion artichoke
Salad of the season
*****
Applesauce
And crunchy chocolate

I guess I’m going to have to amp up my cooking abilities if I’m going to have to hold to that standard 🙂

After lunch they play outside if it’s nice or in their gym for 30 minutes before being picked up at 1pm.  I’m very happy with the school.  Henry will be learning to read in French and they guarantee it by age 5-6.

Yesterday I finished my 12th hour of French tutoring and I’m really loving the language.  My tutor is a very good teacher and really pushes me.

Tomorrow is our 4th wedding anniversary.  We will be spending it very romantically with a 9 hour daytime flight with 2 kiddos 🙂  That’s what love is about right??

Tomorrow morning we leave very early in the morning for the Zurich airport.  Our flight isn’t until 10:15am but with the kiddos, the carseats, the bags and how massive the airport is, we have to allow for ample time.  It’s also a 2 1/2 hour drive there but it’s totally worth it for the direct flight to Philadelphia.  We land in Philly at 1:45 pm EST and then we drive to Camp Hill, after the customs process, getting our bags and picking up the rental car.  We’ll probably arrive in Camp Hill around 5pm, just in time for dinner with the families, running around for the boys, bath time for the boys and then an early bedtime (or to them very late with the time difference!).

Saturday is my sister-in-law Asia’s baby shower and I’m thrilled to be able to be home to attend.  The shower is outside Philadelphia, so I’m leaving Henry with the boys, Asia’s hubby Thomas (or Henry’s brother) is coming to Camp Hill to spend the day with the boys, Henry will drop the boys off at my parents place Saturday afternoon and then we’re all meeting at Thomas and Asia’s house Saturday evening where we will stay.  We have an early flight to catch Sunday morning so staying at their place takes off about 1 1/2 hours in the car that we won’t have to do Sunday morning.  Sunday, Henry and I are headed to St. Peter’s Island…alone!

With Henry’s newest promotion, he has been invited to the Awards trip which takes place in St. Peter’s Island, which is in the British Virgin Islands.  It’s a small island near Tortola (where we will be flying into), about a 15 minute yacht ride.  The hotel has around 35 rooms and his company will have 26 of them.  It’s going to be such a fun trip.  I’m close with many of the wives and many of the couples were at our wedding.

St Peter’s Island

The trip doesn’t start until Tuesday, however Henry and I going 2 days early and will be there from a Sunday to a Sunday.  To say I’m excited would be an understatement.  I’ve been through a lot in the past 6 months with Henry’s travel, our family’s move, the move back to the US and now the move back to Switzerland.  I would rarely say this, but I do indeed think I deserve this.  Henry and I really need some time to ourselves.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to miss the boys like crazy, but they will be having the time of their life with both sets of grandparents and all the cousins.

So in just 3 short days we’ll be trading our very beautiful snow views for this:

Insert Henry and I into this photo with a few cocktails in hand

Absolutely breathtaking

Another big accomplishment to note: Thomas is finally walking!  He’s been taking steps to and from the couch to the coffee table (2 max) but last night he just started standing in one place for a long time.  Then today all he wants me to do is when I put him down, he wants to be in the standing position.  Since then he has take 3-4 steps a couple of times.  We are getting there slowly but surely.  He just crawls so quickly  and chasing after Henry is just so much easier that way!  Henry walked around 11 months and Thomas looks like he’ll be there in just a week or so…probably right when we leave.  I keep trying to upload the video here but it’s not letting me…oh well.

Well I best get back to the unfun (is that a word???) of vacationing and pack for all of us….tomorrow will be here before we know it!