Halloween with the Swiss Miss

Halloween was pretty low key but we enjoyed
carving pumpkins, getting dressed up to greet some trick-or-treaters and celebrating our friend Bethany's birthday!
Here's our little swiss miss, complete with a mini cow bell . . .

Fashion show before bed

Many apologies for the lack of blogs as of late . . . I've been a bit delinquent. Analise has been walking for a few weeks now and although she is starting to get a mind of her own and not want to walk in the same direction I am going, it is actually super handy having her walk on her own two legs! She really feels like a full fledged toddler and it leaves me wondering where our baby has gone. She goes down the slides at the park with confidence, uses her spoon with greater agility, and "says" lots of animal sounds. Her favorite book at the moment is "Ten Little Finger and Ten Little Toes." (I highly recommend it you mommies - it's darling).
We're having a bit of a fashion show before bed because I found a bag of clothes that I didn't realize I had saved for her - so we were trying on a possible Christmas dress.
In the other pictures we were sorting beans and pasta (also stringing some pasta), watching "Praise Baby" with dad, and practicing our yoga on the kitchen floor - all in a days work.

Yvoire with Dad . . .

Watch out - here she comes!














"The hat's cute mom, but my snacks are in that bag - so get out of my way!"












"Hey, look at the ducks over there"










We happened to be there during their Fall Festival - so we watched the men pressing apples in a huge winepress. The tan-ish mass here are all apples that have been pressed for juice. Yum, yum!





Going back home to Switzerland on the boat

crazy bunny

just another Friday night at the Mueller's . . .

petting the cows

all the pretty tractors . . .











Analise and friend Lea playing on the teeter-totter










just looking around

after the parade we got to see some of the cows close up. Good thing we've been working on the "moos"!

Holy Cows!

This weekend was the annual decent of all the cows from the summer mountain pastures to the winter fields closer to the lake, so to celebrate a number of the small towns hold festivals. We took the train from Nyon up to the town of Saint Cergue to watch the "parade." What a sight! Not to mention the sounds . . . and SMELLS! (it was no use to watch your footing - the roads were pretty well covered).

We really had a good time walking around the town and checking out all the booths as well as watching the cows. I have to admit - probably my favorite part of the day was sitting outside in the sun watching the parade go by dipping into our first fondue of the season. I'm Swiss but this cooler weather has made me look forward to the fondue season again. (can't resist melted cheese)


























This is Analise's friend Lea. Lea's mom just happens to be one of my friends too - how convenient for us!

Animal Sounds

Analise was quite impressed with the canopy of leaves overhead. It was a little windy so they were making lots of sounds and moving around quite a bit. The band aid on her thumb (barely visible to the naked eye - except Grandma's eye) is because she cut it on something - I don't know what. All I experienced was evidence of it as she crawled around the house and I was finding blood ALL over!
These pictures are also from our walk yesterday. So these are the bee hives underneath apple trees in the orchard between the chateau and the lake. (I have to reread that sentence a few times to believe that that's for real!) They sell the honey in the bakery in our village.
And finally, Analise is sharing a few more animals than just the "scary dog growl" that was the standard for all animals.

At the Park

I think October means that Fall is pretty much official. With the mornings starting off cold and crisp and the afternoons warming up with lots of sunshine, it's been the perfect time to be outdoors.










Today we walked down to the park next to the marina.











Analise is really into slides at the moment and points and claps whenever we pass the park.











Please pardon the poor filming - one handed while helping with the slide is not the best way to get a shot . . . but you get the idea.