weekend short notes
It rained on and off all weekend. (Not so) short notes:
~ On Saturday we went to Chavannes Center to exchange a gift from Manor that The Bun got for his birthday. It was a big Lego City set, and since he's really not into Lego and it came with a gift receipt we figured that it would be better for him to pick out something more interesting for himself. Gift receipts are so great and I'm very happy with the parent who included it with the gift. In the end The Bun chose a bunch of small things - a thermo-color-change (or whatever you call this) dinosaur, a dinosaur egg with slimy goo (great for tactile Bun), a kitchen science experiment set, and a small bath toy set that he shares with his sister at bath-time. He couldn't decide on any of the big box set sort of toys because he's not into toys per se. He will open them and tinker with them for a bit, but they don't actually get played with.
~ Incidentally, of all the gifts he received for his birthday, The Bun's favourite was from one of his buddies N: a small DIY insect hotel and a magnifying glass, complete with a handy set of tweezers for studying insects. We've constructed the insect hotel and it's on our balcony now, but with the current chilly and rainy weather I don't think we'll be getting any tenants for a while. The magnifying glass is great - The Bun has been picking up all sort of dead bugs from the corners of the apartment (note to self: vacuum tomorrow) and examining them in close detail. Even Bao has caught on with the craze and now has added 'bug' to her vocabulary.
Gelato in Carouge
~ The sun came out for a little while after lunch and so we decided to head to Carouge, one of Geneva's more well-known and well-loved neighbourhoods. It feels like a little bohemian village, with small artisanal shops, restaurants, an indie cinema, and pretty terraced houses lining the narrow streets. I popped into some shops but didn't buy anything until The Bun pulled me into a tiny hole-in-the-wall toy shop where there was a huge shar-pei lying on the carpet opposite a stuffed Alsatian toy that was almost the same size. He found a box of marbles and was looking through them and while I was standing around waiting for him I noticed a little doll with Asian features. She had the same hairstyle as Bao but what really caught my eye was the doll's slightly petulant expression. I don't collect dolls at all or believe that girls should play with dolls (and only dolls) but I felt a strong connection to this particular one. The old shopkeeper was very charmed by the resemblance to Bao and gave us a discount on the doll, and she knew that The Bun wanted some marbles so she let him pick out three shiny ones for free. How nice!
~ On Sunday it rained heavily in the morning and we didn't do much except to go to the main train station to check out the newly-renovated wing with (gasp!) shops that were open on a Sunday. And so this passes for excitement in Geneva on a Sunday. We ended up buying kebabs home for lunch because I felt too lazy to cook.
~ After lunch the sun came out again so instead of our original plan of going to a museum, J and I decided to hit the lakeside promenade instead. The kids scooted down the promenade - well, at least The Bun did; Bao mostly cruised here and there and babbled endlessly about everything she saw. We stopped to check out a (much larger) insect hotel in the park and looked at some of the insect displays (dried snake skins, stick insects in a tank etc) in the nature centre next door, before we finally ended up at the playground in Parc Moynier, right next to the lake. This is a great playground because there's something for every age - swings, a paddling pool, a sandpit, a hide-and-seek kind of labyrinth for the tiny tots, and best of all, a series of canals and locks for the kids to experiment with.
~ We spent at least three hours outdoors scooting and playing so by the time it was dinner the kids were famished. J remembered passing by a little Vietnamese restaurant, La Maison d'Asie, a short drive away from our apartment and it opened at 6pm for dinner so we headed there. Shortly after we arrived a big storm kicked up so we were lucky to get as much outdoor time as we did before the rain came. We shared a beef salad, J had the beef pho and I had bun, which is something like fried pork spring rolls served on dry vermicelli drizzled with a tangy fish sauce. Both were good. Bao rejected my noodles, probably because they were too dry for her liking, but to my surprise sat quietly and ate her way through three sections of the spring rolls. She also ate some of J's noodles with soup; like her brother she is a soup fanatic and will eat anything with soup. It was a very satisfying meal and I know we'll definitely be back. I'm already planning my next meal there.
~ On Saturday we went to Chavannes Center to exchange a gift from Manor that The Bun got for his birthday. It was a big Lego City set, and since he's really not into Lego and it came with a gift receipt we figured that it would be better for him to pick out something more interesting for himself. Gift receipts are so great and I'm very happy with the parent who included it with the gift. In the end The Bun chose a bunch of small things - a thermo-color-change (or whatever you call this) dinosaur, a dinosaur egg with slimy goo (great for tactile Bun), a kitchen science experiment set, and a small bath toy set that he shares with his sister at bath-time. He couldn't decide on any of the big box set sort of toys because he's not into toys per se. He will open them and tinker with them for a bit, but they don't actually get played with.
~ Incidentally, of all the gifts he received for his birthday, The Bun's favourite was from one of his buddies N: a small DIY insect hotel and a magnifying glass, complete with a handy set of tweezers for studying insects. We've constructed the insect hotel and it's on our balcony now, but with the current chilly and rainy weather I don't think we'll be getting any tenants for a while. The magnifying glass is great - The Bun has been picking up all sort of dead bugs from the corners of the apartment (note to self: vacuum tomorrow) and examining them in close detail. Even Bao has caught on with the craze and now has added 'bug' to her vocabulary.
Gelato in Carouge
~ The sun came out for a little while after lunch and so we decided to head to Carouge, one of Geneva's more well-known and well-loved neighbourhoods. It feels like a little bohemian village, with small artisanal shops, restaurants, an indie cinema, and pretty terraced houses lining the narrow streets. I popped into some shops but didn't buy anything until The Bun pulled me into a tiny hole-in-the-wall toy shop where there was a huge shar-pei lying on the carpet opposite a stuffed Alsatian toy that was almost the same size. He found a box of marbles and was looking through them and while I was standing around waiting for him I noticed a little doll with Asian features. She had the same hairstyle as Bao but what really caught my eye was the doll's slightly petulant expression. I don't collect dolls at all or believe that girls should play with dolls (and only dolls) but I felt a strong connection to this particular one. The old shopkeeper was very charmed by the resemblance to Bao and gave us a discount on the doll, and she knew that The Bun wanted some marbles so she let him pick out three shiny ones for free. How nice!
~ On Sunday it rained heavily in the morning and we didn't do much except to go to the main train station to check out the newly-renovated wing with (gasp!) shops that were open on a Sunday. And so this passes for excitement in Geneva on a Sunday. We ended up buying kebabs home for lunch because I felt too lazy to cook.
~ After lunch the sun came out again so instead of our original plan of going to a museum, J and I decided to hit the lakeside promenade instead. The kids scooted down the promenade - well, at least The Bun did; Bao mostly cruised here and there and babbled endlessly about everything she saw. We stopped to check out a (much larger) insect hotel in the park and looked at some of the insect displays (dried snake skins, stick insects in a tank etc) in the nature centre next door, before we finally ended up at the playground in Parc Moynier, right next to the lake. This is a great playground because there's something for every age - swings, a paddling pool, a sandpit, a hide-and-seek kind of labyrinth for the tiny tots, and best of all, a series of canals and locks for the kids to experiment with.
~ We spent at least three hours outdoors scooting and playing so by the time it was dinner the kids were famished. J remembered passing by a little Vietnamese restaurant, La Maison d'Asie, a short drive away from our apartment and it opened at 6pm for dinner so we headed there. Shortly after we arrived a big storm kicked up so we were lucky to get as much outdoor time as we did before the rain came. We shared a beef salad, J had the beef pho and I had bun, which is something like fried pork spring rolls served on dry vermicelli drizzled with a tangy fish sauce. Both were good. Bao rejected my noodles, probably because they were too dry for her liking, but to my surprise sat quietly and ate her way through three sections of the spring rolls. She also ate some of J's noodles with soup; like her brother she is a soup fanatic and will eat anything with soup. It was a very satisfying meal and I know we'll definitely be back. I'm already planning my next meal there.