Two Full Weeks

Wow, I didn't post there for over two weeks...life has been most full, and Facebook has taken over the place of brief posts.

What's been taking up all my time:

- the last week of school for both kids, with different schedules due to exams and marking days, etc.

- Emily's summer choir concert: they sang a really beautiful medley from Pocahontas, and a challenging piece called the Rhythm of Life (not to be confused with the Circle of Life from another Disney movie).

- Celebrating Father's Day and making homemade ice cream with David's new ice cream machine (yum!). First two flavors we've made: David's choice, banana ice cream with spice cookie pieces; and Emily's concoction, cinnamon vanilla chocolate malt with chocolate chip cookie chunks, chocolate cookie chunks, and chocolate chips. Very popular, all gone in short order.

- a company party to which families were invited

- houseguests: my cousin and her daughter visited, and we played and talked and laughed and cooked and ate and walked and played some more (she actually looked through all my photo albums. The stamina of the woman! I don't think anyone has ever wanted to do that before (or managed)). Fun for me!

- Emily's 5th Grade Graduation Ceremony (for leaving elementary school and moving on to middle school next year)

- Emily's choir sang again at the 8th grade graduation ceremony

- a road trip to Geneva with our cousins, during which we had some good family reconnections and did some touristy stuff, and toured my old high school. Here you see the Jet d'Eau in Geneva, with the Salève mountain behind, and then the lake with sailboats:

- a visit to the Château de Chillon and Montreux on the drive home to Zürich

We found this castle to be most satisfying - we were castled out by the end of our visit.