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.

Fastnacht parade

Yesterday was a very exciting day, because we celebrated Fastnacht at our Kinderhaus. Fastnacht is a special carnival that they have every year in Basel. It is actually not until the week after next, but because we will be on holidays then, the Kinderhaus had a special parade yesterday. We all got dressed up and walked around the streets together. I wanted to be a princess (of course!) and you can see me here waiting at the tram stop on our way to the parade.

Keeping up

Sometimes it was hard for a pretty princess to keep up with the parade! Here I am running to catch up.

Watch the parade

You can see the parade here if you want to. At the front are the kids from the local kindergarten, they made their own costumes. And then the kids from my Kinderhaus are at the back. It is traditional to have leaders at the front playing special instruments.

Outside my Kinderhaus

Here we are outside our Kinderhaus trying to get together for a group photo. You might be able to see just the tip of my hat poking out at the back!

Confetti

After the parade we had the best fun throwing confetti. I especially liked throwing it all over Mama and getting it in her hair.

Emilia came to stay

I had a very good weekend this weekend because Emilia, my friend from Bonn, and her Mama Birgit came to stay. Emilia slept over for 3 nights and we had the best time playing together. It was fun to share everything with a friend. Here we are having breakfast together.

Puppenhaus museum

I took Emilia to the Puppenhaus (that means dollhouse) museum that they have here in Basel. It has 4 floors of dolls and teddies, and at the moment there is even a special Barbie display where you can see Barbie fashions from a long time ago. They have special classes there where you can make your own Barbie dress. Maybe I can do that one day when I get bigger. I had fun looking at all the tiny toys and making up stories about them.

Shopping together

After the doll museum we went to my favourite place for lunch (where there is a big climbing area and balls) and then took a stroll around the streets of Basel, checking out kids' shops and stuff. I bought a bright green funky dress for summer, that I am sure you will see a lot of when it gets warmer. Emilia bought some ballet shoes.

Tree climbing

After our day in town we stopped in the park on the way home to have a run around. There are some good trees for climbing and hiding in our park.

Penguins at the zoo

Today my Kinderhaus went to visit the penguins at the zoo. I brought my own soft little penguin with me, he was a surprise present from my Granddad and Granny Bob. The penguins at the zoo looked exactly the same as mine. We watched them stretch out their wings and dive into the water. One was sleeping with his head tucked down and another one even scratched his head with his foot! After I saw that of course I had to check if I could do it too. I could.

Marching penguins

After we saw the penguins inside we waited outside for them to do their daily march. They walked right in front of me! I held up my little penguin to see. I am glad he didn't want to march off with the others.

More ice skating

It was a big day today. After the zoo we went ice skating again with my friend Emilie. I can push the polar bear around on my own now. Here we are having a little chat on the ice.

Sledding

Today we had even more Winter fun. The snow is starting to melt so we went out early to the park to see if we could find a little slope to slide my sled on.

Here I am in action

You can see me going down a little slope here. After this I found an even better slope where I could go much faster, and I liked that even more!

Hot chocolate

Afterwards Dada and I had a hot chocolate in the sunshine and snow. It was a pretty good morning.

Watch me ice skate!

Today I went ice skating for the first time. At first I didn't like it at all, but then I watched for a while and tried again. With a bit of help from my little polar bear friend and my Mama, I learned how to get around. By the end I loved it, and I told Mama I wanted to go ice skating every day.