Ginger Moulting

I took some fantastic pictures of our Grammostaola Rosea moulting today! I was lucky to be at home to watch and capture it all on film! When we woke up this morning, Urs and I were debating whether or not she was dead - laying on her back was not an encouraging sign - but nature prevailed, as it always does, and she was simply getting ready to shed.

Turning 40

Ok. I did it - and it didn't even hurt a little! Actually, it was quite wonderful! I celebrated my 40th birthday and enjoyed it tremendously! I love the life I have created for myself and I hope to enjoy it for at least another 40 years or more!

On Friday, I had planned to go out to dinner alone with my husband, Urs, but my friends and he had planned that they would all meet us at the restaurant! It was a great surprise and lots of fun. Thank you again to Karen, Melissa, Urs, Sharon, Claudia and Martha!

My First Mini Scrapbook

We just received our new mini scrapbooks and I thought I'd give one a try and send it to my mom for her birthday. It took me about 1-1/2 hours and I think it came out great!
Click here to see all the pages!

Stitching Cards

Melissa and I spent the evening last night making Christmas cards! We tried out a new technique - stitching. I brought my sewing machine to the craft room and after several trial and errors with design, we came up with some winners! I can't wait to start stitching some scrapbook pages now!

Boys!

I had recently mentioned to Tobias that Laura and Claire (Melissa's girls) often made pictures of rainbows, flowers and butterflies but my boys draw skulls, monsters and robots. This is Toby's compromise - a skull with a flower sprouting out of it's top! Boys will be boys!

Herbstmesse

Karen, Roger, Urs and I took the boys to Basel's Herbstmesse (Autumn Fair). It is the oldest and largest fair in Switzerland and this year's fair was the 535th year this has been taking place! Can you imagine? It wasn't long ago when the USA celebrated their Bicentennial - which is only 200 years!

Bread Baking

Our local grocery store offered a free baking course for kids recently. Melissa and I signed up Tobias and Laura for it and we dropped them off for an hour of baking the traditional Swiss "Grattimann" - a sweet bread shaped like a man and sprinkled with sugar. It is only served this time of year and kids love them!

The "Store"

We rented a room for Cards and Candles! It is really exciting for us since we just started the online store 12 months ago and we are doing really well with sales! Here is Melissa trying to figure out how to finish the yellow wall after we ran out of paint! Well, she DID IT! I'll keep you updated on how things are progressing...

Halloween Party 2005

Yesterday, we went to the American Women's Club Halloween Party and it was great fun - especially for the kids. There were crafts and games and lots of little prizes to win! Connor loved fishing for pumpkins and did it about 12 times! He really got quite good at it in the end!

Martha, her mom (pictured below), Diego, Chiara and Finley came too. Raymond showed up with Laura and Claire, Melissa's daughters and Karen brought Connor. Tobias went to a birthday party in Germany and had a great time on his own!

Again, Cards and Candles had a stand at the event!

See more pictures here!

Tie Dying

One day during the recent school vacation, we got together with all our children and spent the day tie-dying T-shirts! It was my first time and I couldn't believe how EASY it was! The kids had great fun and every shirt came out different....lots of fun for all of us!