Happy Holidays from the Bieter Family

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Here are the Bieter's at their best performance seen on JibJab yet: The Snowball Fight!

Coretta's First Play Opening Night

Nick and I went to opening night for the play Aladdin and the Magical Lamp on Friday to see Coretta perform. She did a great job, although being up from 7 am until 11 pm, makes for a long day. She was in almost every scene dancing and singing. She had two costume changes. The first she wore silky pajamas and the other a yellow tutu for the ballerina scene. I hope all goes well tomorrow. She has two shows and will be at the theatre from 1 pm until 11 pm. Keep up the great performances Coretta. Your Mom and Dad are very proud of you.

Below is a picture collage of pictures I took during the production.

Thanksgiving in the Swiss Alps

Being an ex-pat is always hard around the holidays, especially when you live in a country that doesn't celebrate that particular day. That is what it is like living in Switzerland. Nick went to work for a half day today, Coretta and Geno had school. No four day weekend as a family spending time with extended family and friends. This year we were able to find a reasonably priced turkey (8.4 pounds for 49 dollars) which was a bargain from last years 100 dollar turkeys.

We celebrated around 5:00 pm. Everything about the day was going as planned, until we tried to turn our stove top on to make the potatoes. Nick turned to me and said that the stove top wasn't working. When I went over and tried it, he was right. Just two red dashes. No power. I quickly went to read the manual, which stated that either a fuse was blown or you need to call customer service. Nick went and switched the fuse. We tried again. Nothing. At this point, I am laughing. We have a friend coming over for dinner, and our turkey is ready, but no way to cook the potatoes or heat the corn. First thing we thought of was to call one of our neighbors and ask to borrow their stove. No one was around, so we quickly moved to plan B. Plan B was to put the potatoes and water into the stove, crank the heat, and hope they will boil. As we are thinking up this master plan, our dinner guest arrives and had a good laugh at our expense. Finally realizing that it may take all night for the potatoes to boil, we made a consecutive decision to cut the turkey and go ahead with the rest of the food. We had turkey, homemade wheat bread, corn, stuffing, and apple pie. Although we couldn't make the potatoes or gravy, it still turned out well. Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family that are celebrating this season around the world. We love and miss you.

Coretta´s first Play: Aladdin and the Magic Lamp

The rehearsals are slowly coming to an end. Coretta has one more rehearsal before the opening night on Friday November 27th at 8 pm. The other shows are Saturday November 28th at 3 pm and 8 pm, and December 5 at 3 pm and 8 pm. Nick and I are attending and are looking forward to seeing the hard work put forth by all of the people that were part of this play. You can see some photos from their rehearsals by clicking on the official site English Theate of Zug and click on the upper left corner on pictures of rehearsals.

Coretta´s Unit on Mountain Gorillas

Coretta has been working on an Endangered Species Unit Titled Then and Now for a few months in school. The objectives of this project were to choose an endangered species that interests you, research information about your topic, create a visual (poster, booklet, paper) and create a diorama of their natural habitat.

Coretta chose to research mountain gorillas. Since 1963, there are only 200 mountain gorillas left and did you know that they share 98 percent of the same genetic make up as humans?

Coretta´s research and information was thorough and concise and she did a great job presenting it to us at school today. The pictures on his post are from our time at her school today which include a picture with Mom and Dad, her diorama, and poster. A job well done Coretta!

Homemade Carrot Cake

I decided to try my hand at making a carrot cake from scratch with cream cheese frosting, and the picture shows the results. It was, to my surprise, very delicious.

Coretta Sprains her Wrist

Coretta was out playing with her friends on Friday night, and when she came back in, she was holding her wrist. She wasn´t crying, but when I looked at her wrist it was swollen in one spot and her face was white as a ghost. I was worried that she may go in shock, like Nick did when he sprained his, and decided it would be best if she went to the Cantonal Hospital and have the ER Doctors take a look at it. Nick drove her and they didn´t get home until 10 am. Her hand was wrapped in he color of her choice, and was given pain medication, and gel that needs to be applied morning and night.

If it is still causing her pain and difficulty, we have been encouraged to take her into her pediatrician on Monday. Apparently in small children the X-ray does not necessarily show small fractures, so we will see. She is a trooper.

Geno´s Christmas Program

Today was the Christkindl Market for the Beehive International School. Since they will be moving to a new location on December 12th, what better than to have the Christkindl Market at the new location. The new school is located in Lindencham and was previously used by two kindergarten classes. It has two spacious rooms, a nice playground, as well as a place downstairs that has a lot of space for teacher planning and storage.

The Christkindl Market took place from 2 pm until 4 pm. The students immediately noticed the playground. They now have six swings, a wooden train, and a rope jungle gym in front of the school as well as all of the other equipment the Beehive International School already has at it´s current location.

When all the parents and students arrived, parents were able to look at all of the books at the Book Fair on display. If you purchased anything from the fair, they would automatically give a certain percentage to the school to buy even more books for their current library. The teachers also posted their wish lists for the classroom and seemed well received by the parents.

Soon after, it was ready for all of the children to put on their costumes and get ready for the program. All the children had a green velvet coverall and a red velvet hat to represent Santa´s little helpers, and one student was dressed in a beautiful red velvet dress with white trim, and she represented Santa. Once into costume, the children walked into the room set up for the performance singing their first song which was the Fire Truck, after Ms. Richarz announced the afternoon events. Although this song was not so Christmas orientated, the students have been learning about fire, candles, and matches, so it fits in with their thematic unit. Her is a youtube video of the song:



The next song was one entitled I am Special. Which the children sang and also had certain movements to. The next song, was This Little Light of Mine where the older students held real lit candles and the younger ones held cardboard replicas of a candle. They also learned and performed a song called Oh Light that they learned in English and German.







The last song of the performance was Feliz Navidad where the students wore their paper hearts around their necks and would have been a moving performance if you ignored Geno and his sidekick causing mischief. Look at the video below:



Afterwards, the teachers were presented with a gift and then we all proceeded to the next room for refreshments, conversation, and snacks.

The students clearly have spent a lot of time preparing for their performance and it was definitely a job well done. Thank you to the teachers for all of their hard work in putting this event together. It was greatly appreciated by the parents and students equally.

Grandma Lucca's Cinnamon Rolls

One of my fondest memories growing up, was visiting Grandma Lucca's house and waking up to the smell of fresh cinnamon or caramel rolls from the oven. I finally decided that it was time for me to try and make these myself using her recipe. They turned out pretty good I think. Check out the picture above. Thank you Grandma Lucca!

Geno Playing at School

 

Geno Having Fun at School

A Day in the Life of Geno

Geno is doing well in school. He is just shy of three years old now, and is talking up a storm. His favorite things to do are playing with his trains, toy cars, leggos, and watch the British children's television station CBeebies.

He is also s BIG fan of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and thinks his big sis is the best thing in the whole wide world. He loves to go for a walk to the playground and ride his bike in the neighborhood.

He also has a thing for anything football which includes wearing any of his football jerseys every day. We are using football interchangeably here since he likes European football (soccer) and American football.

Some of his favorite things to eat are chicken nuggets, potato fries (as he calls them), apples, carrots, and peanut butter toast. He loves popcorn and will pretty much do anything I ask if he is given this reward. He loves apple juice, but will still drink milk and water if I convince him that there is nothing else.

He still loves to be read to, but has a few favorites which are Dr. Seuss and The Humor Man which is about an ice cream man in the neighborhood. He calls him the Hama Man."

His favorite sayings are as follows:

• "No way Mommie!"
• "I need apple juice please."
• "Peanut butter toast please."
• "Share the toy cars" which he needs to remind himself of when he is at school.
  
• Love you always Mommie."
• "Geno is mad."
  
• Cari (Coretta), you go to school?"
• "Cari, you want to play?"
• "Geno is happy"
• "Poo is happy" which means he does not have any poop in his diaper.
• "Go away Charlie" when Charlie tries to grab his food out of his hands.
• "Mommie, you are a mother." Which is what he tells me when I do not look happy. Apparently mothers are always happy.
• "Time to bed."
• Daddy is a mean old bear." Still my favorite which he said to his Dad when we were in Europa Park and Geno woke us up in he middle of the night.
• "I need more Cari" (Coretta) which he said today when she was gone at school.
  

He is definitely coming into his own unique personality every day. He loves life to the fullest. He is independent, strong willed, opinionated, funny, and not afraid to show his emotions. For instance if he is mad, he will stomp off into the corner of the house, cross his arms, and stick his bottom lip out so far, it almost touches the ground. All of this just far enough away to make sure we are seeing him.

Most of all, he is just my special boy who I love with all of my heart. Here is a link to the web blog that I have created for Geno's preschool: Beehive International Preschool

Coretta and Green Day

Coretta is off to Zurich for her first rock concert: Green Day. We bought the tickets months ago when we saw that they were playing in Switzerland. Coretta, Nick, Ron, and Seamus all left at 5:30 to catch the bus and train into Zurich for the concert at 8 pm. Considering Nick's first concert was REO Speedwagon and mine was Warrant, her first experience may be better.

Coretta's 4th Grade School Picture

Coretta at our Halloween Party

Here are a few shots of Coretta with her brother, and best friends Melanie and Gabriel who slept over that night. She is going to her first concert on Sunday with her Dad. They are going to see Green Day in Zurich. Coretta is very excited. More information and pictures to follow soon!

My Little Geno Boy

My little Geno boy woke up from his nap today burning up. When I grabbed the thermometer, his temperature shot up to 103 and was still climbing, but Geno couldn't handle the thermometer in his armpit any longer. I gave him a bath, put on his favorite cartoon, and gave him some Tylenol/ibuprofen. Luckily his fever did come down. Hopefully he'll be okay by tomorrow.

His latest thing is to grab his pillow, blanket, and his "guy" (the teddy bear blanket he has slept with since he was born, given to him from Auntie Bridge). It is so cute so see him all snuggled up on the couch. Even when he is sick, he is smiling.

Bieter's 2nd Annual Halloween Costume Party 2009

The day has now come and passed, the famous Bieter Halloween Party. In attendance were 90 devils, witches, vampires, vampiresses, fairies, cats, Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland characters, monks, cardinals, old ladies, and goblins just to name a few.

 

There was plenty of food, beer, and wine to go around. In fact, we still have several bottles of wine and candy left over. I created mummy hot dogs as part of my appetizer selection and they were an instant hit. We had deviled egg eyeballs, caramel apples, creepy witch and carrot fingers, maggot jello, as well as candy, carrot cake, cupcakes, assorted cakes, bacon wraps, finger sandwiches, vegetables, chips, apple cider, and soda.

The children enjoyed pumpkin bowling and bobbing for apples which were both an instant success last year. Each child was greeted at the downstairs entrance by Coretta and her two friends Melanie and Gabriel, and presented with a trick or treat bag filled with goodies. As the night progressed, the kids watched the Addams Family and one of the Simpsons Halloween specials.

Towards the end of the night, we had our awards ceremony. There were both kid and adult categories ranging from, most original, most scary, cutest, best, tackiest, most creative, best female adult, and best male adult. This years contest proved to be more difficult than last year, because the costumes were even better.

The winner of best female adult costume went to Ronnie Burkert for her old lady costume. The winner of best male costume went to Bob Willey for his tavern frau Heidi costume. Tackiest costume went to Daisy and Bruno Surace for their plug and outlet costume. Most original adult costume went again to Bob Willey. The scariest adult costume went to Tim and Perry who scared the hell out of adults and children alike.

The scariest costume in the kid category went to Melanie Hoffman for her Medieval vampire costume. The cutest costume went to Gianna Surace for her Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz Costume. Most original went to Ezra Boley for his Bubble Wrap costume. Most creative went to Luke Hove for his devil costume.

Each winner was presented with a trophy. The adults received gold skeleton trophies, and the children received monster trophies (created by me) with candy and a Halloween certificate.

Definitely was a success. Looking forward to next years event!