Swiss Vapeur

We went round the lake to the Swiss railway outdoor museum (Swiss Vapeur Parc). It's a huge site, with lots of railway lines, a couple of stations, and miniature trains that go around, minaiature villages and you sit on, getting on and off at the stations. Lots of different trains, a junior trainspotters dream, I even got in to it myself, as you will see I seem to be in all the pictures. There is one train that you actually get inside, but Malcolm didn't fit in to our carriage, not sure I did really.

visitors at Bouchattet

When I went back to work, and Bella went back to school, first mum and Alistair came out to help out, and then Malc's parents Megan and Brian came out to help. The weather was lovely and despite the garden looking like a building site, and having to enter it by a gang plank, we managed to make use of it, and we started to welcome visitors. The strange looking girl next to Bella at the table is Sarah the giant doll, Bella's beloved birthday present (nice).

We also managed to host Sunday lunch, when some garden furniture arrived, slightly ahead of the deck...

Horses and Facepainting - 5th Birthday

We had Bella's official 5th birthday party after the kids went back to school, as during the holidays lots of people were away. With a new house, and no garden to speak of, we decided to choose an alternate venue. So we went to a local horse riding place, where they each had a 30 minute pony treck, face painting (on hands cos it was so hot) and cake. The grown ups coiffed some wine and nibbles. Perfect (apart from the flies..).

The Wacky Races

We started to see posters for the Commugny (our village) Fete and soapbox car racing competition. It was a lovely sunny day so we wandered down to check it out. Well I have to say had we turned up with a car made out of an actual soap box we would've been very embarassed. The cars were quite amazing. It's obvisouly a big thing around here, as I heard lots of people talking about the race from the previous weekend in Versoix. Each car was driven by multiple people over the various races. Now we have to find friends with a car for next year... The cars would set off on a ramp and then go down a mile long hill with a bit of slalom along the way. Impressive, no engines, or pedals, possibly with brakes (? not sure).

Trip to Macclesfield

I took the month of August off, because I could, So had a trip to the UK, not something we do very often with holiday in short supply, however this time we had a week there. The weather was suitably miserble, although I know you all had a pretty good summer. Amongst other things we went to the Just So festival near Leek, a festival specifically for kids. Was great. Malc and I had pie, mash and gravy, and the kids pizza, under a tree in the rain in our rain coats, fantastic.

Bella impressed herself with her plate spinning ability.

We went to the ice cream farm with Nick, Michie and Marisa, where we saw animals, ate ice cream (or a cake in my case) and played on a crazy slide.

We celebrated Bella's birthday, one of many parties. We were actually camping on her birthday, but no photos yet (in Rachel's camera)

We also had a Whitehurst side cousins get together, as Ella was in town. So here we have Marisa, Ella, Seb and Bella, and an attempt to get them all looking at the camera and smiling.

Bouchattet - The Big White (and Brown) House

We bought a house in February. It was built at the end of the 60's, and hadn't been touched since as it had always been rented out. It was a large concrete building, with lots of lovely spaces, and angles, but needed a COMPLETE renovation, our very own Grand Design. So we employed an architect company to manage everything for us, and turn it in to a modernist dream home. We have now completed Phase One, interior and building exterior. This included digging down in the garage/basement to turn it in to livable space, including two rooms, a laundry and a bathroom. Knocking through two bedrooms to make a master suite, and moving the kitchen in to open plan area and turning kitchen in to office. All walls, floors, ceilings, everything replaced, other than the original concrete, which was insulated, and the roof.

We moved in the second week of August. I haven't got lots of great pictures as taking pictures of spaces it turns out is quite difficult. WIll get some more from the architect, but here are some to give a flavour. The next Phase is the exterior grounds, which we hope to get done before the Winter arrives.

Sebby take driving lessons

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Sebby took control of the wheel at Happyland

The Mountains

We were due to move out of the Big Yellow rental House at the end of July and move in to our own newly renovated Swiss White House, down the road in Commugny. However after 5 months of renovation it was still a building site so we delayed the move by a week, leaving the rental but going to the mountain apartment for a week instead.

It was nice to get away. The weather was a little fresh. One day we went to Happyland. Supposedly the largest fun park in Switzerland, which doesn't say much for Switzerland, as we couldn't even see this place, until we were on the doorstep. We were almost the only people there, but it was actually brilliant for the kids, lots of rides with no minimum age limit and no queues.

Friends were also up there for the week so there were some play mates for us all. Lots of walking and cycling down the mountains (chair lifts up the mountains...)