The Winners of the Pancake Race at Geno's Preschool

The winners of the pancake in both the preschool and play group are as follows: in preschool, Kaia received second place, and Emma and Robyn tied for first place. In playgroup, second place was awarded to Christopher, and first place was awarded to Geno. To show our appreciation of their first race, these specific students received their own Pancake Award Certificates. Well done students!

The Pancake Race at Geno's Preschool

Each one of the playgroup students took turns racing against each other and at the end of the race, tried to flip their pancake and catch it in the frying pan. The students did a great job and had fun doing it!

Making Marmalad Jam at Geno's Preschool

Today at the Beehive, all students had the chance to make homemade marmalade jam. First, the teachers explained the ingredients such as sugar and oranges, and each student cut up the oranges and placed them in the pan. They then cooked the oranges, added the sugar, and allowed it to cool. They all enjoyed this hands on activity.

The preschool, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten students were able to participate in cooking the oranges and adding the sugar to create the jam. Each student had a chance to help in the making of the jam which was great to see.

Once the marmalade was made, students were able to help pour the mixture into specific jars with their names on them to bring home and enjoy with their family.

A Day in Lucerne, Switzerland

We decided to head to Lucerne, Switzerland for a day of fun. We first took the bus and train into the city of Lucerne. Once there, we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Pacifico, for some good food. Geno had some trouble sitting nicely and his table manners were equally lacking, but we had a nice time. We then made our way to the Transportation Museum where we saw all kinds of modes of transportation such as cars, helicopters, airplanes, paragliding, rocket ships, as well as the planetarium. After trying our luck in the flight simulator and paragliding simulator and looking at the art at the Henri Museum, we then took in a 3D movie at the IMAX entitled African Adventures. Overall, it was a good, but long day.

Coretta the Musician

Coretta, as many of you know, plays both the piano and guitar. Guitar being the newest instrument she has decided to play. She has a thirty minute lesson once a week at school with two other classmates.

She also has a thirty minute individual lesson in piano each week as well and has become quite good. Below is a video of her playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the classical guitar.




Not only is she interested in piano and guitar, but practices her singing every day by playing karaoke on youtube. Here are a couple of her last projects which include Alicia Keyes, No One and Rhianna's Russian Roulette.

Ski Holiday

Since we didn't go anywhere over ski holiday, I tried to make the week meaningful for the kids. We went to the park, the bakery, shopping, sledding, swimming, and probably one of the most memorable: a trip to the Brocki. The brocki is located right next to our apartment and sells used goods that people bring in. Coretta has had her eyes on the big bag of stuffed animals for a while and has been hinting to me, not being one bit subtle about her intentions, that she would like to buy them. I gave she and Geno 2 francs to go and pick out something. A few minutes later, they came home with a huge plastic bag of stuffed animals as well as another huge plastic bag of wooden train tracks. You would have thought that they had won the lottery. She and Geno divided up their stuffed animals and quickly gave them all names. One in particular, Geno felt looked either like Santa Claus or Grandpa Tom. Here is the video of him going through the names of all of his animals.

Trampolino on Valentines Day

This year we decided to do a family Valentine's celebration and went to Trampolino. What is Trampolino you might ask. Well, it is basically a kid friendly atmosphere where they have huge inflatable castles, slides, bumper cars, trampolines, air hockey, jungle gyms, and little boats in water. One might think that this is just for kids, but many adults took part in the fun as well. There was one latex slide that you had to climb up to the top, then climb through a tunnel, and then go down the slide. As many times as Coretta and I tried to master this, we always fell a couple inches short to getting to the top. I think it was a great day and really put the holiday in perspective: spend quality time with your loved ones.

Fasnacht 2010

Today was the annual Fasnacht parade in my village in Hunenberg. I am privileged to have the parade running right outside my apartment which makes it very convenient and easy to get a good seat. Coretta, Geno, and I got there around 2 pm to make sure we would have a good view. When the parade started, it was marching band madness where costumes individuals belted out tunes such as Fame, show tunes from Grease, and Tina Turner classics. Many of the floats threw out candy to the bystanders and also filled you up a cup of coffee or soup while you watched. Many of the masks date back to legends within the village themselves. Geno absolutely loved the music, the candy, and the costumes. By the time we got home, we were all filled with confetti from head to toe. This is the only time that littering is allowed by the Swiss and magically it will be all cleaned up by tomorrow. Later that night, they light a ceremonious pig on fire and watch it burn while the marching bands play in awe of the fire. Eat and drink up, because once Ash Wednesday is upon us, we must fast and give up things we enjoy to eat and drink. Long live Fasnacht!

Faschnaut Day at Geno's School

Fashnaut was celebrated today at Geno's school. Fashnaut is similar to Mardi Gras or Carnival where Roman Catholics drink and eat whatever they like and dress up in disguise right before Ash Wednesday. After this, they are required to fast and give up the things they like to indulge in, so in essence, they are trying to get it out of their system before the season of Lent begins. At Geno's school, all of the children dressed up in costumes and had a parade. It is common during Fasnaut that each Canton will have their own Fashnaut celebration which includes confetti, many dressed up marching bands, and lots of food and drink. In our canton in Hunenberg, the parade will be on February 16th which will then be followed up with the burning of the pig. Not a real pig, but a fake pig which may symbolize temptation and gluttony during the Lenten season.

Geno's Speech Therapy

Geno has been continuing with his speech therapy sessions one week for two hours, and it is clearly paying off. This time last year, he could hardly speak any words and was at least 11 months behind primarily in fine motor skills and language. At his last update, Geno has shown rapid progress in his development. In many areas he is at or above his age level. The only areas that are behind are his fine motor skills and speech, but only 3 months behind. This is great news and I am very proud of him. With Ms. Zeigler and my help, he has come a long way in a short time. She now believes that he will not need hand therapy as well which is good news. His classmates and teachers at school are now being able to understand him clearly too.

The pictures above are of some of the activities he did this week in therapy. The picture to the left is a self portrait that Geno drew of himself and at the bottom right where the scribbles are is where he wrote Geno Bieter. The other picture in the top right is of Geno practicing making a cross. He responds well to having me or Ms. Zeigler draw one line saying yes, where he draws his line through saying yes. the other drawings around it are him being creative. Lastly, the bottom right is Geno's necklace he made for me. He had to cut both red and black straws and string them together which helps with his fine motor skills. Keep up the good work Geno. Mommy and daddy are very proud of you!!

Happy 68th Birthday Grandpa Tom!!

Coretta and Geno wanted to create a special Happy Birthday video for Grandpa Tom. We miss and love you very much!!

Sunday Snowshoeing in Switzerland

Geno and His Bedtime Friends

It used to be that Geno could be soothed to bed with a drink and his teddy bear blanket given to him from Auntie Bridge named Guy, but lately he needs a much bigger group of bedtime pals. He now must sleep with Guy, Monkey, Charlie and Lola, blue teddy bear, dog (from Auntie Erin), big teddy bear, and Mouse. Hardly enough room for him anymore.

The Day the Magic Died

Yesterday, while Nick and I were sitting around listening to music and talking, the topic of aliens and fairies came up and whether or not they were real. I stated to Coretta that I didn't believe in fairies. She then said, "What about the tooth fairy then? Is she not real?" I completely froze and my face completely gave me away and I had to answer truthfully. With that said, the next questions that followed were "Does that mean Santa and the Easter Bunny are not real too?" I sadly told the truth. Last night was the day that Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny died.

It was at this time, that my sweet, loving daughter started to cry. She said the hardest part was knowing that the reindeer weren't magical and that Santa wasn't eating the cookies she left out for him. Clearly she felt betrayed. She then asked me, "Where did you put all of my teeth then when you put money under my pillow?" Feeling that this may be a trick question, I hesitated, and then told her I threw them away. Then she said, "So that letter from the tooth fairy saying she used them to build her castle was all a lie?" I said yes. She then proceeded to say how awful she felt that kids that were too poor to receive presents, now really didn't receive them. Since there have been many students at school telling her that it wasn't real, I felt it was the appropriate time to let her know the truth instead of being teased by other kids.

I did say however that Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny will still come no matter how old she is. I promised her that. Just because you know the truth now doesn't mean it completely loses it's magic. In fact, I proceeded to tell her that Santa Claus really did live at one time and that legend has it, he was Saint Nicholas who made sure that all children had fruit and presents at Christmas time. I told her Santa still exists in different forms such as food drives, toy drives, and helping out others in their time of need.

The world of make believe is so fantastical, no one really ever wants it to end. I feel so bad, I pulled one of my Mom's tricks when she felt that gnawing "Mom Guilt". I bought her three new sweatshirts. One from Santa, one from the Tooth Fairy, and one from the Easter Bunny.