Our Family Tree

The girls have had huge fun (and mommy too) in creating their very own family tree. During this exercise, we realise that we have some very outdated photos for some of our family members ... Rick? Colin? Howabout some new photies....

Easter in Zug, Switzerland

The timing could not have been better! A business meeting in Zug the day after the long Easter Week-end! So, with very little persuasion, we piled the whole family into the car and headed for the road on Saturday morning with a mere 600kms between our Zelený Dům and Zug.

What we didn't expect though, was the saturday ski traffic jams as all the resorts change over on Saturdays, so the highways and biways are jam-packed with ski rack donned vehicles. The 600 ks took us over 9 hours and we were really glad by the time we eventually got there.

Since we only arrived after 6, we persuaded the littlies to don their jackets and head out into the snowy weather to find a bite to eat. We settled on a little pizza diner - the only joint that seemingly had no smoking patrons (but that was short lived...).

George (my boss) and his family were booked into the same hotel as us. Upon meeting them in the breakfast room, they gave away all their secrets for sightseeing gems and so we set off with some options for the day. First off though, we wanted to have a look at Zug (our hotel was in Baar - a mere 5 kms from Zug). This was a very short-lived excursion however as everything was shut tighter than a badger's bottom and the town was not much larger than a postage stamp.

We soon left Zug (which flanks a large body of water aptly called Zugerzee) and carried on alongside the lake until this lookout point.
A herd of goats came ambling along as we got out of the car, and that hugely amused the girls.
There were even some Lamas in their midst - I must admit I have never seen a Lama before, but if "Emperor's New Groove" is anything to go by, they must have been Lamas.

While we were watching the goats and waiting for the photographer to get organised with his tripod and camera to take a decent family shot, the snow came belting down. It was the driest snow ever and blew off as it landed. It wasn't so funny though when it went down your collar and swiftly melted - it then became very wet indeed...
Not far from Zug in a town called Vitznau, George had informed us about a cog train that goes to the top of the Rigi mountain. We got there just as the train departed, so we had some time to look around. We came across a stunning waterfall on the hill above the town and had a great walk.
The view from the train was stunning! That is until we got to about half way up the mountain where the snow belt was.... The clouds were completely covering the berg and the visibility was 0. The only thing visible was the snow falling in front of your face.
The trip was reasonably long taking about 30 minutes to get to the top. We got off the train and ran into the little cafe /souvenir shop at the station to get out of the blizzard. Colin & Amber braved the snow to try to find some place to eat as the cafe could seat about 5 and was predictably full. I took the time to buy Saz a magnet and since the train was still stopped at the station when Colin & Amber came back with nothing to report, I made the sensible suggestion to get straight back into the train and go down a few stops to the previous village where we had spotted some restaurants.

We had a stunning stop in a cozy restaurant near the station in the village half way up the hill and then waited for the train to come past again before making the final descent. At the bottom, the weather was far more pleasant - especially since we could see further than the ground in front of our feet... So we ambled along the lake shore before heading off.

After leaving Vitznau, we continued around the lake to Luzern, had a brief walk and then packed up for the day.

Now, with Easter Monday approaching more rapidly than the speed of sound and the complete shut down of the entire town, we were getting rather frantic at our lack of Easter eggs and kicking ourselves all the harder for leaving the edible stash at the top of our cupboard back home. Eventually, out of desperation on the drive home, I made a dash into a quick-shop at a garage and secretly came out with some large bunnies and eggs for the expectant kiddies (all 4 of them). There was already much concern that the Easter Bunny would not find them here, so a no-show of chocolate would be a major let down!

Easter Monday arrived and as expected, the parents were woken up with shrieks and all variety of noises at the discovery of chocolate deposits.

Easter Monday was also the day that hosted the Easter Market in Zug. So, we set off in the morning to find out what the fuss was about and to the girls' delight, there was a whole fair!
The markets didn't hold nearly as much attention as the rides, but there was a promise of any choice of purchase up to 5 Franks, so the hunt was on. Horsies and gold jewelry purchased!
Did I mention that it was cold? Freeking cold! After lunch, the whole family crashed and had an afternoon ziz. For supper we found an enchanting old farm house, high on the hill overlooking Zug where the girls coloured pictures while we looked out onto the snowy vista and green hills of Zug.

The girls all dolled up!
On Tuesday, I had to attend my meeting at the European Hub Offices in Zug (about 1.5kms from our hotel in Baar). The day was very cold with a thick blanket of snow having fallen the night before and more falling throughout the day. Colin took the girls to Lucerne and amused them at the transport museum where they could pretend to be cargo train drivers, loading cargo and pushing their trains around (most of the time, Sarah was the Cargo and Amber the engine...). There was an Imax and extensive exhibits all aimed at kids so very interactive.
Colin arrived back in Zug just in time to pick me up after my meeting at the end of the day and we trucked off to find some supper.

Tuesday was the drive home, fortunately going quicker than the trip down....

And much to our surprise, the Easter Bunny had visited our house as well!

Easter eggs by the dozen were collected and stashed and are still being eaten nearly a month later.

Sarah goes Solo!

The Bee has finaly gone solo on her bicycle!

This last week-end was stunning weather in Plzen, with the warmness out approaching 10+ degrees . The sun was shining and we dusted off the bikes from the store room downstairs and headed down to the river via the tyre pump at the garage.
Sarah, still being on training wheels, was starting to give me complete nervous breakdowns as the bike would tip over on the slightest uneven ground because of the trainers. After pumping tyres at the local garage, I sent everyone off home for Dad to take off the training wheels and explained to Sarah that it was now time that she learned because the training wheels are now dangerous because she is too big for them. This was very happily understood and there was much eager anticipation at their removal.
So, we headed off down to the river trail with my bicycle left at home so I could help Saz (hang on to her for dear life as she leans the bike over completely so that I am holding her up and propelling her forward!@!). Colin & Amber went off ahead, and Sarah and I took our time and even stopped to throw stones in the river. After Colin & Amber joined us again after a lap of the river, we all went back together to see where the water had flooded the banks and I ran next to Sarah trying my best to keep her upright on the bike.

On Sunday, we took the bikes out again, and while Colin & Amber did the river route again, Sarah and I decided to practice at home first. We did some laps in front of the house and I started to remove my grip and she was finding her balance nicely. We then moved to the back of the house and here she did her first solo act for the first time, going for a few seconds on her own without support. When Amber & Dad got home, we showed off her new found skills to them:

Skiing in Sölden

So, this was the view from our guest house balcony - not bad hey!!!

We had great sunshine (for about an hour), which made the girls blink and squint...

There was a little chapel on the hill next to our pension, and the girls and I went to explore it. The photo below is from the side of the church.
The guesthouse had a farmyard out back, and the girls specially bought carrots from the local Spar to be able to give the sheep a treat.

We stayed in Oetz which was about 30kms from Sölden, so every day we had the drag of driving 30 minutes through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world..The girls, all dressed up and ready to ski!
The slopes at Sölden were really stunning - very wide and the snow was in great nick. The downside was the crowds. This photo was taken on the Saturday when the ski resorts do a change over, so most of the patrons were packing and leaving or arriving and unpacking with only the locals having a chance to hit the slopes. The next couple of days was a complete zoo.
The resort itself is situated on a couple of glaciers, so once you ascend the first few lifts, you can do some amazing routes with lookouts at over 3000m. Unfortunately, we had overcast weather while we were there with complete cloud cover from about 2000m, so the trip to the glacier was pointless as we couldn't even see our skis higher up the mountain.

Unfortunately, the little Zazz got sick the day we arrived, so we probably spent more time babysitting than skiing and were restricted to the very basic slopes when we were skiing. Amber took a big leap forward on this trip though, doing some decent reds with Dad and doing really well. The tractor girls... (an old farm tractor was parked outside the restaurant...)

Amber loses her first tooth!

Ever since Cousin Vincent showed off his wiggly tooth to our two girls, and on looking at the horror on their faces I had explained that losing teeth was something that only happened when you turned 6, there has been a fixation with the magical number 6. Somehow, this was the age when everything changed and you were suddenly a "big children". Well, Amber turned 6, and being the dutiful mum, I checked her teeth for signs of fallage. Little did I ever expect that I would indeed find a "wiggly toof". It was definitely the fastest fallage I have ever witnessed! From first examination to all out was a sum total of 3 days!

And here is what happened when it came out ...

For Sarah the sight of Amber's tooth lost it's novelty fast

Amber's 6th Birthday

Amber and Saz have been counting down the "sleeps" to Amber's birthday for about 3 weeks, with the excitement building gradually as the number dropped from needing two hands to just one. We even managed to get them interested in what a calandar is! At least now it has a use, illustrating the dwindling days until present time, err... I mean... birthday!

We offered Amber the usual choice of dictating what kind of cake she would have, and after some indecision between a fairy, butterfly and a hedgehog, she decided that a heart cake would be nice.

Our usual cake-making routine is a night-before scenario where we are both piecing together fine art on cakes at 2 a.m. trying every shortcut and standards dropping by the minute. This year, a stroke of genius befell us and we offered Amber the chance to decorate her own cake any way she wanted to.

3 packs of (different coloured) chocolate topping, half a pound of sprinkles of various kinds and some arty weaving of patterns later, we had a VERY decorated cake.... and a very chuffed Amber. I think this is what we will do every year from now on.

Sazza, (the Apprentice) got to help - how pleased are we..?
The big day arrived, and with it, the stampede downstairs to discover the Pressies. It must be mentioned here that the last few days have been card-making days. Amber and Sarah have some Israeli friends, Gali and Shir, who share the same birthday week. Gali's (5) being the same day as Amber's and Shir's (2) the next week. So, the girls were given 2 cards each to make and the choice of who to make their cards for - Sarah chose Amber and Shir; and Amber chose Amber and Gali (in that order).

Anyway, I digress, the stampede for pressies...

It has been tradition in the Wood household until now, that both girls get presents on birthdays, but the birthday girl gets the bigger pile. I am not sure for how much longer this tradition will hold... Amber's stash of pressies (the purple card on the top is from Amber :-)...:

And Sarah's stash: Amber is now the proud owner of a new watch Teacher Hanka lent the girls her harmonica probably a year ago, and they have loved it so much that they now both have one of their own. After pressies, the girls got themselves dressed (spot the trend setting fasionista) and we headed for school.

Today was a big day at the school as we had planned a party for Gali, Shir and Amber, and although it is not the Czech tradition to celebrate birthdays with much ado, they made an exception for us and broke some rules.

This is Gali (say Gaalee), with his sister Shir (Sheer) behind him and his mom, Bell, behind Shir. Gali and Shir are their best playmates at school and they often wish out loud that they could keep Shir. Fortunately Gali speaks English. He arrived at the school a year ago, and could not speak a word of English - he is now pretty much fluent. Shir has been known to answer with her limited vocabulary of "first words" in Czech, Hebrew, and English.

The classroom was especially decorated for the day, with the class helping to make decorations in the days leading up to the party. Catching up with Bell: Sarah has no problem fitting in with her friends and is sitting down to read a princess book here with Anichka and Shir: Some of the kids cuddled up with Teacher Hanka for a story: The (second) best part of the party - the EATS! Afterwards, it was time to burn off some of the sugar high with some exercise. Gali's mom does the exercise classes at the school and leads them in a very vigorous bout of exercises around the small classroom. One minute frogs, next minute Elephants...Hanka arranged a piñata for the party... Amber, who got the first shot, blindfolded, nearly hit Gali while trying to hit the piñata.

After the boys got hold of the stick it did not last very long until it was down and ransacked.

This was followed by some party games of musical pillows and pass the parcel (which ended in tears for those sorely missing out on pillows or parcels) and then CAKE TIME!

Amber was spoilt with some more presents from friends and teachers and she stole away to a quite corner to unwrap and investigate her presents.

Not long after, Colin & I packed up to leave - This evening we are leaving for a 4 day trip to Austria!