Funtime at the StrandBad

The weather has been awesome for the last week, sunny the whole day with few clouds. So two days ago I decided to make the best of the weather and take the kids to their first outing of the StrandBad (lakefront beach). It is an artificial beach on the lake with sand and waves. You can go swimming in the lake, and there's a diving platform, slides in the water and other platforms to just laze about. Behind the sandy beach is a long strip of grass where there is a paddling pool for toddlers among all the sunbathing adults.

We first went to a friend's place who stays very close to the Strandbad. She has a 1 year old daughter and had called another friend who has a 21/2 year old daughter. The kids had lunch at home and would you believe it the younger kids ate pasta by themselves and the elder kids were fussy and ate cereal! The Strandbad was a 15 mins walk away and we reached there around 2:30. Since the kids were already fed and rested, we put them in their swimming costumes and gave them their toys and put them in the paddling pool. Where they splashed about happily for the next half in hour. We had a nice picnic on the grass of pizza, fries, spring rolls and baked potato (there is a nice restaurant in the Strandbad from which we ordered). After the kids had had enough of the paddling pool (S started shouting when one kid took one of her toys, and this is after she had played with the toys of almost everyone in the pool) we took them to the playground at the back. S favourite was the bouncy castle and A enjoyed the merry go round.

Then we went onto the beach. At first S refused to come in because the water was dirty! and then it was time for a temper tantrum when I tried to persuade her to some. She kept howling on the sand, and I finally left her and took A in the water and waited for S to calm down. A loved the water and kept running around in the water. She fell a couple of times and got water in her mouth/hair/face etc so I took her and made her sit in the sand in the part where the waves come and go. So she could play in the water but it was not too deep for her to fall in the water. S had calmed down by now, but refused to go on the water slide where the other kids were playing, and instead played in the sand, making heaps of sands (not exactly sand castles and I was feeling too chilled out to help) picking up pebbles and throwing into the water.

It was getting to be 4:30 by then and time for the kids milk. So we went back to our spot on the grass- this time we moved our blanket to a sunny spot as we were all cold from playing in the water instead of sitting in the shade like wilting flowers. A had her milk and S refused to drink the chocolate milk i got from the restaurant so I had chocolate milk and espresso (not a good combo). My friend had packed yummy strawberries and melons and we feasted on them and sat around in the grass while the kids ran around playing with a ball. It was really nice to have a conversation with adults without having to interrupt with S don't do this, A don't do that and there were so many other screaming kids there we didn't have to worry that our kids were making a scene!!

Then S insisted on going back to the playground where the kids played till about 6:30. We ahd to drag them out from there as it was getting late for us to get back home. A was very tired and slept off in the pram as soon as I put her in it. S was also very tired and found it very difficult to walk back the 15 mins to the house- i had taken the small stroller where there's no place for her to sit on the back. So I had to carry her part of the way (and push A's stroller as well, don't ask how I did it). The Strandbad was outside the Zurich city zone and the bus frequency was less so we ended up waiting half an hour for the bus back. A slept throughout and S lay down on the bench. One of the moms was taking the bus back with me and helped me with carrying S and A in her stroller onto the bus but just as I was worried S fell asleep on the bus. This was not a direct bus to our place and we had to change buses halfway and that was quite a struggle with two sleeping children. I had help to get off the bus (my friend was continuing in the bus as her place was further down) but had to struggle to get into the next bus.

I met Pakistani lady in the second bus and we chatted in Urdu/Hindi all the way to my stop. Quite an experience, was the first time I was speaking to a Pakistani. The girls had woken up by now and I was able to get off the bus with no difficulty. We finally reached home at 8 pm after a long day out and we were all exhausted. The hubby is travelling the entire week so I had to wait till the kids were fed, bathed and fell asleep before I finally got to put my feet up.

But it was a lovely day and an amazing time for the kids. Must go often while the weather is good.