Going to the Ballet

A few of us took our daughters to see Cinderella at the ballet in Geneva. The girls all put on their favourite pink numbers and were very excited. Here is Bella with Bibi outside. Turned out to be a contemporary interpretation of Cinderella. The ugly sisters were far from ugly. We didn't see a tutu (or a pair of ballet pumps) for the whole production. The fairy godmother was represented by 5 men sporting just a pair of tight white underpants with wings on their bums and pair of fluffy boots. In what should've been the wedding scene, Cinderella emerged topless from under the bedsheets and the prince rolled out from underneath looking a little tired. What can I say, it took some explaining. Anyway we've decided next time it'll be Disney Princesses on ice...much safer.

Bella School Photo - Reception Class

Halloween weekend

Back in Switzerland we had a long halloween weekend. It started with Trunk or Treat in the school car park on Friday night. Essentially the kids all dressed up went round lots of cars that all had boots (trunks) full of scary decorations and sweets being handed out by adults also in fancy dress. You can imagine I needed that first glass of wine more than ever by the time the real weekend started. On Saturday we went to the English School halloween fair, where I manned a stall with Rachel selling off our unwanted toys. Unwanted by us, not by the kids. It felt more like we were running a creche than a stall, and after 3 hours I think my net profit was 25 CHF and we gave the rest of the toys to charity. So maybe won't be doing that again, we can give it straight to charity and cut out the middle bit. Sunday we had another (halloween) birthday party for Sebby, for the local friends, so our halloween outfits got lots of wear. Malc and Sebby had his and mini-his pirate outfits for their birthdays. I picked mine up on Saturday at the local co-op. I'd left it a bit late as all the Christmas stuff was out, but I got a lovely (?) crushed velvet red devil number for a bargain 10 CHF. The first and last bargain I'll probably see in Switzerland. Bella wore the same witches outfit as last year (another co-op number), which was running a little short in the hem line. but a pair of funky tights and all was well.

Half term fun

During half term we went off for a little jaunt. We started by flying to Manchester, where after a couple of days we left the kids with mum and Alistair, with granny and grandad close by, and we headed off to London for Jo & Chris's wedding. Had a fab weekend and wedding was v. cool. (Photos later..when I get some). Then we headed back to Manchester and flew with the kids to Cyprus. We stayed at the Almyra, which is a kid friendly design hotel. Amazingly it lived up to it's promise, being extremely child friendly, with everything you could need to be a pampered child, and adult. Huge double sun beds for lounging on by day in shaded areas, next to the sea and a kid-depth pool. Bella even had a child size bath robe and slippers in her room (?!) We had a fabulous week with temperatures in the upper 20s. Highly recommend this one. Then we flew back on a very late flight (what was I thinking?) Actually once we worked out how to actually get on the plane with 2 sleeping kids, a stroller and 3 bags, they slept most of the way back. We landed at 3am UK time Sunday morning. The next day we had a super birthday party for Sebby (2) and Malc (40) at his mum's house, which was great, before heading off back to Geneva late afternoon. Well we certainly packed it in.