Balancing Baby and Bonjour

A week later and I’m now able to get back into posting.  We arrived back into Philadelphia last Thursday afternoon, and again the transition went pretty well.  The flight (and day) was loooonnng, but we mustered through it!

Last Thursday our morning started at 4:30 am Swiss time (10:30pm Eastern time) and after a 3 hour drive to the airport (worth it for the direct flight), checking in with 2 kiddos, 2 carseats, 5 checked bags and us, an 8 hour flight and then long lines at immigration in Philly, a stop at Target (essential to pick up the necessities like milk, bread etc), we were back home by 3:30/4pm Eastern time – yes that’s an almost 18 hour day of traveling.

The first night went fairly well – the boys were just so exhausted and by day 3 everyone was back on their schedules.

Friday Henry has his Halloween party at school and he had a blast seeing everyone again! They had a bunch of stations with different prizes at each.

Sunday we drove home to Camp Hill to see both of our parents and Henry’s sister and her 10 kiddos – it was like a huge playdate for little Hen!  We only stayed the day just because we wanted the boys to get some good rest…and the hurricane was coming.

Monday the storm started and Henry’s school was cancelled so we enjoyed a day of cuddling while the winds blew and the rain just kept coming.  By night, the winds were 60-70 mph and then by 9 pm we lost electricity.  That made for a long Tuesday morning just because it stays dark so long and the boys were up and playing by candle light.  We played so hard that Henry fell asleep on me at 11:30am – that hasn’t happened in a long time.  By noon the electricity was back on and we were super excited…it was already getting cold in the house.  We are very lucky because a lot of people are still without it and it’s pretty chilly out.

Yesterday was Halloween and it was nice to be home for it!  They don’t really celebrate it in Switzerland, so I quickly put together some costumes since I hadn’t planned on trick or treating.  Henry was “John Deere” or a farmer and Thomas was a cow.  Henry had such a fun time ringing all the door bells and saying trick or treat and “Happy Halloween!”  We went out with neighbors and their 5 month old daughter and then we all ended up at another neighbors house for a few beers while the kiddos played.  Such a great night. Once we got home, which was still pretty early, Henry (John Deere) handed out the candy.  Along with that, he also invited everyone into our house by saying “Come on in to our house and play!”  All the kids (which were older) got a big kick out of that!

Alex (our neighbor) took all the photos so here are the ones I have for now, more to come!

Ladies man

Too cute

Hey mom…

Alex, Missy and I with the babes

Deb and Len’s house

Showing off his bambaids

Henry was loving Halloween prep!

Many of my friends and family often ask what I miss so far about being here.  Besides the obvious – which would be my family and friends, here are a few more!

1) Target.  I use to go there at least once a week and you can get pretty much anything there.  Here is Suisse you pretty much get everything at the Migros or Coop – their 2 main grocery stores, but it’s not the same.

2) My coffee. Yes, they have really good coffee here and yes we will buy a drip coffee maker once we move into our new place, but Nespresso coffees aren’t the same.  They are amazingly good, but I feel like I need at least 3 to start my day.  Our temporary apartment has a Nespresso machine, and it comes in quite handy, but I do miss my coffee at home.  At home each morning I would have my (big) Starbucks mug full of yummy coffee – always with either some French vanilla creamer or hazelnut creamer.  Crazy enough – coffeemate is made my Nestle, which is based out of Vevey, Switzerland, but they don’t sell it here.

3) The space.  I realize that our home back in PA is quite large and that we’ll eventually grow into it, but I’m still adjusting to the size of places here – I mean we went from 9,300 sq ft to 1,600 sq ft (our new place has about 2,200 sq ft).  Our temporary place is nice, but it has very unsafe steps to the upstairs (you know the kind with a huge gap that small children can slip through), and we don’t use the upstairs bedrooms.  I’m a little weird, I’ll admit, but I like being on the same level as the boys.  The downstairs has 2 bedrooms, so we have Thomas in our room with Henry next door…it’s tight! The refrigerators here are very small – which then means you have to go to the store every few days.  Back home we could stock both fridges and not worry about the store (besides little things) for like 2 weeks.

4) Shopping.  To be honest, I haven’t ventured out to go shopping yet, but I do miss the mall.  Some days I just went there to get out of the house, especially when it was rainy!

5) The language.  Switzerland isn’t a place where the language is French but most speak English – all in all most people only speak French, some with broken English.  Google translate is my best friend over here – I take it everywhere!  I have met some really great people that are in my shoes and 1 Swiss family that lived in Boston for 4 years – it’s all about stepping out of my comfort zone and saying hi to everyone!

The food is great here, I love that I can walk everywhere and rarely do I drive.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about coming home next Thursday.  I am really loving life here, but going back to my comfort zone (especially for the holidays) will be awesome!

That’s all for now,

Xoxoxo Tara

This is our current view – I think I take a photo each day just because it keeps getting better and better!

Xoxo Tara