Ski holiday

The school holidays are over and boy did I have fun! First of all we went on a ski holiday, me and Mama and Dada and my Zio came too. We went to a place called Flims in Switzerland, about 2 and a half hours in the car from our house. There was lots of snow when we got there, but every day of our holiday it was beautiful and warm and sunny, so it kept melting. We stayed at a special kids' hotel, that had a kids' buffet for dinner and kids' movies every night and lots of places for kids to play.

It had very nice views of the mountains too, as you can see here.

I tried out ski school while we were there. Here I am all ready to go.

And here I am in my class. I didn't like it so much. I could do what they told me to do alright, the problem is, I didn't want to! My favourite part was when we all got to have a hot drink and a biscuit. I didn't go back after the first day.

I did keep going up the mountain though. I would go in the gondola with Mama and we would meet Dada and Zio so that Mama could snowboard with one of them for a little bit. Sometimes I mucked around on my skis, but I told everyone that snowboarding was more fun. They liked it when I said that. I have to wait until I am 5 until I can try boarding. Hey, did you know at the top of the gondola it was 15 degrees?!?

Here I am just chilling out with my Zio.

OK, so maybe I didn't like skiing so much, but I really did like apres-ski! There was a cool bar at the bottom of the mountain, with big pink beanbags in the snow. What more could two girls want?!? Me and Mama stayed there for hours at a time, drinking hot chocolates and coffee.

I guess I am a bit of crazy snow bunny after all.

The real Fastnacht

Last week was the real Fastnacht celebrations in Basel. We got up at 3 o'clock in the morning to see the Morgestreich parade on Monday. They turn all the lights out at 4am, then the Fastnacht music starts and people walk through the town with amazing painted lanterns and masks. I loved getting up and catching the tram into town in the middle of the night. And I loved all the noise and scary-looking costumes.

On Tuesday it was the kids' day, all the kids get dressed up and throw confetti. Parades go past with people in fancy costumes playing music. Special clown sort of people (called Waggis) throw out lollies and toys from their wagons.

Here I am scoring something yummy!

Actually the celebrations have special meanings. There are different kinds of traditional costumes that are for different kinds of characters. The lanterns are all decorated to make a kind of joke that the people who live here understand. It might be about teasing the government or a famous person, or talking about something that has happened recently. They make up special poems about it too and hand them out during the parades. Mama and Dada and I don't understand much of it, but it was lots of fun to watch anyway. I can't wait until next Fastnacht and keep asking Mama if they really do have one every year.

Fastnacht princesses

You can see me dancing with my friend Princess Emilie here. In the background is the traditional Fastnacht music, played with piccolos and drums.

My new climbing frame and slide

A very special delivery came for me last week. A slide and then all these tubes and panels that we joined together to make a cool thing that I can climb and play on. I helped Mama put it all together. (We bought it with money that I got for Christmas from my great Granny and great Granddad and my Granddad and Granny Bob - so thank you all you guys!) Of course I love playing on it and am already trying lots of crazy tricks.

The night we put it together I was so excited about my new plaything that I wanted to sleep in it. So I did.