Last week was super busy with children's activities and at the end of it i was left wondering how people with more than two kids manage!
The week schedule went like this :
Monday: We had a playdate for S after school, I was to pick up her friend and bring her home and her mom would pick her up after a couple of hours. Of course this has to be the day my car got a flat tire and there was no stepney in the back. So i had to call emergency services and they came and changed the tyre. In between all this excitement i was getting late to pick up S so i had to take a cab, and from the school the mom whose child i was bringing home for the playdate gave me and A a lift back to A's school where i had parked my car while waiting for the emergency services guys. And what of S and her friend you may ask. I requested another mom whose daughter I had invited for a playdate (alongwith the mom who is a good friend) to take the three kids to my place while i went to A's school and figured out what was happening to my car. Luckily the emergency services guys had been there while i was at S school and the car was ready for me to drive home but they had left a message that this was a temporary tyre to be replaced asap. The mom picked up her daughter from our house at 7 pm and i quickly fed the girls their dinner and collapsed in bed
Tuesday: In the morning I took the car to the Renault showroom and they said they would put the winter tyres on since i had brought the car in, but it would take the whole day and i could pick up the car in the evening. So A and i left the car there and went to a friend's place (who has a daughter A's age). In the afternoon we had to take a bus and train and walk 1/2 km to pick up S from school and the whole process took 2 hours (what usually takes 45 mins!). Then in the evening we had to again take the tram and bus to reach the showroom and pick up the car and we were finally home at 7!
Wednesday : We had a coffee morning with the Indian moms in S school (finally some activity for me!) but i had to leave early to pick up A from school. After S school pick up she had her swimming class, then we rushed back home and the hubby was home early to look after S while I took A to her school for turnip carving and celebration of the Raebli festival. The below post talks about this festival-that one was a much larger celebration over the weekend -
http://newinzurich.com/2012/11/06/rabechilbi-and-rabeliechtli-umzug-in-richterswil-saturday-10th-november/ carving and Raebli festival.
The one near A's school was a local celebration where children and parents walked in a procession with handcarved turnips with candles inside. We were invited to the school at 5 pm to carve the turnip to be in time for the procession starting at 6:30 pm. But given S swimming lesson and tons of traffic on the way home i reached only at 5:45 and that gave me very less time to do this complex turnip carving which i had never done before. Basically you have to cut off the head of the turnip, scoop out the inside and make it nearly hollow, carve out designs on the outside, then cut holes on the top so you can out thin ropes through it which the child can use to hold the lantern (the turnip with the candle inside). Well my turnip was not so well hollowed out, and consequently the skin was too thick to carve out any great decorations and the the whole lantern was too heavy for A to hold so I had to carry it instead. So it did not look anything like the beautiful lanterns you can see in the blogpost above! And to top if off A was really tired after sitting through S swimming class, then doing the pumpkin carving with me and she made me carry her for half the procession. I finally gave up halfway because i could not carry her, a heavy turnip and a big diaper bag! Still it was fun and I wanted to do some activity for A and with her. The other day i went to do cooking at S school and she told A about it and A got very upset and insisted that i come and cook in her school. Which of course i cannot do as it is a creche and not a school. So now i can talk about this and tell her when she and i carved turnips together and walked in a procession. By the time we got home it was 7:30 and we were both exhausted!
Thursday : S had her ice skating lesson after school on Thursday, and after that there was a lantern walk in the woods at her school!!! It was 'optional' being after school hours but of course they had hyped it up so much in school and all her friend were going and she had been making her lantern in german class that we had to go. The ice skating class is close to her school so the plan was i would be back in school after the ice skating class at 5:30 and the hubby would come there to pick up A so I could go with S for her lantern walk. The school had warned that since we were going into the woods it wouldn't be easy with a stroller. But there was bad traffic that day and the hubby reached the school only at 6 pm by which time i was nearly 1/2 way done with the walk. In the end it wasn't so bad since I took the stroller for A and the track wasn't that terrible. But both girls were freezing by the end of the walk, it was quite cold and we were all pretty tired when we got home. But the walk was a nice experience for S, she lit the lantern she had made in school and carried it the whole way. in the woods the teacher lit a bonfire and the children sang German songs and ate bread (which they had baked in school, was most yucky!) and had fun. On the way back the candle inside our lantern went off so S had to use her torchlight.
Friday : In the morning a class mom came over and we cut out the Diwali craft we are going to do at S school next week,.Again after school another activity for S, she had a birthday party of one of her classmates to attend. The people here i notice in general are quite fussy about only the child invited attending and not the siblings of the invitee (back home of course we would say the more the merrier) and i did not know the mom that well so i could not impose A on her. So after ferrying S to the party i put A in her stroller and wondered what i would do for the next 2 hours in this cold weather - it was too far to drive back home and come back. Luckily the party was in a hotel which had an ice skating rink and playground below. A did not want to go on the polar bears on the ice skating rink but when we went to the playground we found two other of the class moms with their younger ones. So these three played together for quite a while, we had a cup of coffee at the bar (amazing view of the lake, and the ice skating rink all lit up, to be done at leisure one day without kids!) and then it was time to pick up S. S had a great time at the party- there was some clown to entertain them and when we reached up the children had balloon swords and were fighting with each other. By the time we wound up it was 6:30 and we were supposed to be at a friend's place for dinner at 7 pm, But it was next door to the party place and made no sense to drive all the way home and back, so we just went over for dinner. The kids slept early so we could have a nice conversation over wine for a change!
Saturday : We DID NOTHING !!!! Basically recovering from the week of activity
Sunday : We had a Diwali potluck at a friend;s place. That went on from 12:30 pm till 7 pm! But good friends, teen patti and dumb charades. Good fun. And the kids played kids dumb charades too, watched too much TV and played too much I Pad!
The week was just too exhausting. And this is with two kids and me not working. Wonder what will happen when A has her own activities or if i get a job! Anyway Happy Diwali for now, have a great year!
The week schedule went like this :
Monday: We had a playdate for S after school, I was to pick up her friend and bring her home and her mom would pick her up after a couple of hours. Of course this has to be the day my car got a flat tire and there was no stepney in the back. So i had to call emergency services and they came and changed the tyre. In between all this excitement i was getting late to pick up S so i had to take a cab, and from the school the mom whose child i was bringing home for the playdate gave me and A a lift back to A's school where i had parked my car while waiting for the emergency services guys. And what of S and her friend you may ask. I requested another mom whose daughter I had invited for a playdate (alongwith the mom who is a good friend) to take the three kids to my place while i went to A's school and figured out what was happening to my car. Luckily the emergency services guys had been there while i was at S school and the car was ready for me to drive home but they had left a message that this was a temporary tyre to be replaced asap. The mom picked up her daughter from our house at 7 pm and i quickly fed the girls their dinner and collapsed in bed
Tuesday: In the morning I took the car to the Renault showroom and they said they would put the winter tyres on since i had brought the car in, but it would take the whole day and i could pick up the car in the evening. So A and i left the car there and went to a friend's place (who has a daughter A's age). In the afternoon we had to take a bus and train and walk 1/2 km to pick up S from school and the whole process took 2 hours (what usually takes 45 mins!). Then in the evening we had to again take the tram and bus to reach the showroom and pick up the car and we were finally home at 7!
Wednesday : We had a coffee morning with the Indian moms in S school (finally some activity for me!) but i had to leave early to pick up A from school. After S school pick up she had her swimming class, then we rushed back home and the hubby was home early to look after S while I took A to her school for turnip carving and celebration of the Raebli festival. The below post talks about this festival-that one was a much larger celebration over the weekend -
http://newinzurich.com/2012/11/06/rabechilbi-and-rabeliechtli-umzug-in-richterswil-saturday-10th-november/ carving and Raebli festival.
The one near A's school was a local celebration where children and parents walked in a procession with handcarved turnips with candles inside. We were invited to the school at 5 pm to carve the turnip to be in time for the procession starting at 6:30 pm. But given S swimming lesson and tons of traffic on the way home i reached only at 5:45 and that gave me very less time to do this complex turnip carving which i had never done before. Basically you have to cut off the head of the turnip, scoop out the inside and make it nearly hollow, carve out designs on the outside, then cut holes on the top so you can out thin ropes through it which the child can use to hold the lantern (the turnip with the candle inside). Well my turnip was not so well hollowed out, and consequently the skin was too thick to carve out any great decorations and the the whole lantern was too heavy for A to hold so I had to carry it instead. So it did not look anything like the beautiful lanterns you can see in the blogpost above! And to top if off A was really tired after sitting through S swimming class, then doing the pumpkin carving with me and she made me carry her for half the procession. I finally gave up halfway because i could not carry her, a heavy turnip and a big diaper bag! Still it was fun and I wanted to do some activity for A and with her. The other day i went to do cooking at S school and she told A about it and A got very upset and insisted that i come and cook in her school. Which of course i cannot do as it is a creche and not a school. So now i can talk about this and tell her when she and i carved turnips together and walked in a procession. By the time we got home it was 7:30 and we were both exhausted!
Thursday : S had her ice skating lesson after school on Thursday, and after that there was a lantern walk in the woods at her school!!! It was 'optional' being after school hours but of course they had hyped it up so much in school and all her friend were going and she had been making her lantern in german class that we had to go. The ice skating class is close to her school so the plan was i would be back in school after the ice skating class at 5:30 and the hubby would come there to pick up A so I could go with S for her lantern walk. The school had warned that since we were going into the woods it wouldn't be easy with a stroller. But there was bad traffic that day and the hubby reached the school only at 6 pm by which time i was nearly 1/2 way done with the walk. In the end it wasn't so bad since I took the stroller for A and the track wasn't that terrible. But both girls were freezing by the end of the walk, it was quite cold and we were all pretty tired when we got home. But the walk was a nice experience for S, she lit the lantern she had made in school and carried it the whole way. in the woods the teacher lit a bonfire and the children sang German songs and ate bread (which they had baked in school, was most yucky!) and had fun. On the way back the candle inside our lantern went off so S had to use her torchlight.
Friday : In the morning a class mom came over and we cut out the Diwali craft we are going to do at S school next week,.Again after school another activity for S, she had a birthday party of one of her classmates to attend. The people here i notice in general are quite fussy about only the child invited attending and not the siblings of the invitee (back home of course we would say the more the merrier) and i did not know the mom that well so i could not impose A on her. So after ferrying S to the party i put A in her stroller and wondered what i would do for the next 2 hours in this cold weather - it was too far to drive back home and come back. Luckily the party was in a hotel which had an ice skating rink and playground below. A did not want to go on the polar bears on the ice skating rink but when we went to the playground we found two other of the class moms with their younger ones. So these three played together for quite a while, we had a cup of coffee at the bar (amazing view of the lake, and the ice skating rink all lit up, to be done at leisure one day without kids!) and then it was time to pick up S. S had a great time at the party- there was some clown to entertain them and when we reached up the children had balloon swords and were fighting with each other. By the time we wound up it was 6:30 and we were supposed to be at a friend's place for dinner at 7 pm, But it was next door to the party place and made no sense to drive all the way home and back, so we just went over for dinner. The kids slept early so we could have a nice conversation over wine for a change!
Saturday : We DID NOTHING !!!! Basically recovering from the week of activity
Sunday : We had a Diwali potluck at a friend;s place. That went on from 12:30 pm till 7 pm! But good friends, teen patti and dumb charades. Good fun. And the kids played kids dumb charades too, watched too much TV and played too much I Pad!
The week was just too exhausting. And this is with two kids and me not working. Wonder what will happen when A has her own activities or if i get a job! Anyway Happy Diwali for now, have a great year!
