Christmas Market in Strassbourg

Last weekend we went to Strassbourg to visit the Christmas market. I thought it was quite interesting. But I didn't expect so many people. The only other place I have seen so many people all over a city is at the Fete des Vendanges in Neuchatel.

A lot of the houses were nicely decorated.
A huge gingerbread man hung from this house.

Christmans decorations everywhere.

There were stand all around the center of the city.

With decorations and things to eat everywhere.

An outdoor ice rink to skate on.

It was quite chilly but no snow. Good thing we brought warm clothes. The trees to buy however, were all decorated with artificial snow.

We did a tour around Strassbourg in a horse and buggy.

Inside the buggy there were covers for everyone to put on so they wouldn't be cold.

All lit up at night

"V" for Victory

Brandon had another swimming competition yesterday - Neuchatel swimming club again La Chaux de Fonds. There were 26 kids in his group. The competition was done over 4 rounds - 4 lenghts in each round.. Each round was a different stroke to swim. The winning score was the sum of the times done for all of the rounds. Although Brandon was second after the 1st round, that motivated him to swim even faster after and finish the competition fist.

Swimming the back stroke.

After the competition he was dead tired. Can hardly keep those eyes open.

Swimming competition

Brandon had his first competition this week since he joined the "pre-competition" group. It was called Talent Cup. Diving off the starting blocks into the pool. (the picture is a little blurry, but that's only because he took off so fast!
They gave the podium places a flag to take home. When Brandon received his he looked at it kind of strangely as if to say "What am I going to do with this, I'd rather have a medal".

The times of everyone in his group.

His next competition is in 2 weeks. He is very much looking forward to it.

Grandpa start saving, Rio De Janeiro 2016 here we come!

Halloween

As usual, holloween is tolerated in the village but is also organised by the village. It was Friday from 6pm to 8pm (very percise timing, no earlier, no later) so it wouldn't bee too late for the kids and disrupt anyone too late.

Alicia was a mix between a Princess and a witch.

She went trick or treating with cool vampire Brandon.

I'm not sure he waited for her the whole time, but she said she had a good time. Her wand glowed in the dark so that Brandon and the cars could see her.

I had trouble deciding between two paterns that I found. So, I did both.

This is my cobra.

He is my hunted village.

This is the front of our house.

Since holloween was on Friday, I spent all weekend cutting up the pumpkins and making pumpkin soup, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin brownies.

Fete d'automne and picking out the pumpkins

Last weekend was the Fete d'automne in our village. Here is Brandon beside his teacher (the teacher almost looks like one of the kids).
Brandon is almost the tallest in the school.



A video of them singing.

There was also a Rumage Sale. We sold lots of Brandon's and Alicia's old toys. The only problem was that the table was too small for all of the toys we had to sell.

It was actually supposed to be Brandon selling. But I think he only stayed beside me 15 min. He was too busy with his social life.

We also went go and pick out the perfect pumpkin for the pumpkin carving contest.

Not too far from here there is a farm which sells pumpkins. I usually go there when the ones in my garden don't grow big enough.

They decorate the outside and the inside of the farm in the Holloween spirit.

There were lots of pumpkins to choose from. I couldn't decide so I picked 2.

Keeping the kids busy while it is raining out

It was cold and rainy out this morning. Alicia kept occupied by playing Hervé's new IPad.

I had to get Brandon to let off some steam. So, I had him do 40 minutes of cross trainer.

He calls himself "Muscle D'or". I told him it would help him get great muscles that he would need to win his next swimming competition.

Aventure Park

A new tree climbing park opened up this year in Chaumont. We went to go try it out. There were several different courses to do based on your age.

Brandon and I loved it. Hervé thought it was too physical for him. Alicia, although could only do a very special kids designed for kids 4-7, where they are completly secure the whole way, found it too scary. Brandon climbing from one suspended log to the next.
A lot of the course was about 5 meters up in the air or higher.

Hervé and Brandon climbing from one level to the next.

Me, before I jumped on the bee hive looking thing to swing to the next tree.

The only frustrating part was when we had slow pokes in front of us that didn't know how to climb trees or were scared. It had a tendancy to create trafic jams. One course took us an hour and a half to do instead of 30 minutes because we had a family of slow pokes in front of us. Here we are waiting on a platform for our turn.

Walking across a thin metal rope.

Swinging from one tree to the next.

Alicia had a lot more fun playing at the playground which was beside Adventure Park. None of that swinging from one tree to another for her.

Thank you Grandma...

For showing Brandon such a good time. He says he would do it again anytime with Dear Old Granny (wonder if she says the same thing?).

Although I had been a bit worried about Brandon behaving and getting bored doing so many km a day, Brandon had a great time on the cycle trip Grandma took him on.

He had lots of stories to tell when we picked him up and all the adults said he was very well behaved (in fact I think almost every single one of them came to me individually to say what a sweet boy Brandon was - that's almost too many for me to believe ! He must have been quite a handfull)

Here is a selection of pictures I got from Brandon's camera. Course I have no idea where any of them are.
One night he got out a deck of cards a couple from Alaska had given us and showed us all the card tricks he had learned.

Doesn't he look so well behaved. Both of them in their matching cycle shirts.

Ah, this pictures looks more like reality...

I think this was at the top of a tower. Was he scared Grandma was going to push him over?

looks like a long way down and up for that matter, I bet it took a bit of coxing or at least a bet of some kind to get him up there...

Brandon signed the guest book, half in french and half in english.

Food looks good. Nice weather, cute town.

Grandma took him out wine tasting. Guess he was impressed by all the bottles.

The whole gang on the last night.

Brandon put on a show telling a story on the last night. Here he is posing with the author of the story.