Hello, 2015!

We rang in the New Year as a family in Marseille, France.  There were no big fireworks to count down the New Year but we enjoyed the pretty views from the Old Port underneath a clear, blue sky. 

A New Year means staying organised with a new planner!  My Limited Edition Starbucks Coffee 2015 Planner came last month, complete with a personalised name bookmark & metallic pin bookmark.  Love the embroidered cover with the Starbucks Siren holding a hot coffee mug!

A New Year also means new resolutions!  Belle missed school today but we managed to make a New Year's resolution craft (writing activity from The Starr Spangled Planner).  How cute are the eyes and necklace that she drew?!?

And finally, our littlest one turned 45 months old today.  In three more months, he'll be turning 4!

Samiclaus Tag (St. Nicholas Day) ~ Swiss-style!

December 6th is a traditional day for St. Nicholas to visit in many parts of Europe.  In the German-speaking regions of Switzerland like Basel, St. Nicholas is known as Samiclaus.  This Swiss Santa does not bring presents on Christmas Day but instead, give edible treats in a burlap sack consisting of clementine oranges, unshelled peanuts, chocolates and gingerbread-like cookies (lebkuchen).  

(Source: SRF)

It is a tradition among Swiss children to leave their polished shoes/boots out on the night of December 5th, and wake up the next day to find their shoes/boots filled with little treats (if you have been nice) or twigs (if you have been naughty!).  My 5-year old son said: "Samiclaus only gives presents to Swiss children and I am not Swiss!"  Because of this, my kids didn't leave their boots out on December 5th.  ;)

  Samiclaus is accompanied by his black-faced, black-robed assistant called Schmutzli.  I was told that if the kids have been naughty, Schmutzli will take them away to the Black Forest to be whipped with twigs and to peel carrots for the donkeys for the entire year!  In Switzerland, you can actually hire Samiclaus & Schmutzli to visit your house.  However, the waitlist is long and often, you have to book half a year in advance!

Samiclaus and Schmutzli
(Source: Confessions of a Part-time Working Mom)

Last year when Keefe was in Preschool 2, Samiclaus visited their class.  He read from his golden book to check whether the kids had been nice or naughty during the previous year.  Each kid was given a grattimaa/grittibanz, the Swiss version of the gingerbread man which originated from Basel in the 16th century.

 Swiss families usually bake and eat grattimaa/grittibanz on December 6th.  My kids love them so we decided to make these little bread men on St. Nicholas Day.  The kids enjoyed playing with the dough and Keefe decided that his grattimaa should be shaped as Santa Claus!

Kai saw Saint Nicolas when we were in Saint Louis, France on the morning of December 6th.  Saint Nicolas gave him a small bag of treat consisting of mannala (the French version of the grattimaa) and a chocolate fashioned like Saint Nicolas.

Our day ended with a parade of Santas driving their festively decorated Harley Davidson motorbikes in Marktplatz.  This is an annual event in Basel and is very popular - I wonder why we didn't watch it last year!

(Source: Yahoo)

(Source: Flickr)

Mommy School ~ Pp is for Pumpkin

For the past weeks, we’ve been to the pumpkin festivals in Bottmingen (Switzerland) and Masevaux (France).  Our favourite was the one in Masevaux because of the beautifully decorated pumpkins.  We saw characters from Frozen, Despicable Me, The Three Little Pigs, M&M’s – all made out of pumpkins!

28.9.2014 ~ Pumpkin Festival in Mathis-Hof, Bottmingen

19.10.2014 ~ Pumpkin Festival in Masevaux 

The visits tied in nicely with our letter Pp theme, which we did last week.

Pumpkin craft

Math activities (from 1+1+1=1 and Our Little Monkeys)

Alphabet activities (from 1+1+1=1 and Our Little Monkeys)

Mommy School ~ Hh is for Horse

We kept things simple for our horse theme, mainly because I was too busy!

We made a horse craft.

We did a letter find activity and practiced our counting.

We were in France last week and Kai got to ride a horse in a merry-go-round, and also fed a horse some berries!

Mommy School ~ Gg is for Goat

~Kai is 37 months, 3 weeks old~

We did the goat theme for a couple of days with hands-on activities and no worksheets!  

We read The Three Billy Goats Gruff last Monday and I created a scene for Kai to retell the story.  Kai's favourite part was when the biggest Billy Goat Gruff bravely charged at the Troll with his horns and tossed him into the river.

We made a goat craft and a grass craft after we read the story.

We went to visit a local farm near the international school last Tuesday.  Kai saw three billy goats Gruff and wanted to feed them grass!

We went to Lyon in France to spend the long weekend.  On our way, we stopped by a farm in Sagy where we saw lots of farm animals.  Kai loved feeding grass to the many goats that live on the farm.

We went to a huge French park yesterday and Kai saw a bridge.  Here he was checking out if the Troll was under the bridge! 

Les Marchés de Noël de Colmar

On the first day of Christmas,

we visited the charming village of Colmar,

where the facades of the houses were all decked out in red, gold, white and lovely decors.  (Surely they must hire professional designers for this!)

The kids had fun riding the merry-go-round (ladder truck) in Grand Rue and the "galloping" mechanical horse in La Petite Venise.

 We skipped dinner as we had a 3pm lunch at the popular Brasserie Schwendi Bier und Winstub.  We had Alsatian pizza (tarte flambee), chicken pie with salad (supposedly a house specialty!), rosti (grated potatoes served in a hot skillet with sliced roasted pork and hollandaise sauce) and a junior place consisting of pork sausage and fries for the boys.  My cappuccino came with a huge whopping of whipped cream which the boys devoured, thinking it was ice cream!

Hooray for a fun-filled day!  See you next year, Colmar!