Sleepy vacation

Spring vacation has been sleepy for the girls. It seems like every day they are sleeping in very late. I've been letting them, since they seem to need it. Also, next week is going to be very busy with their grandparents visiting. Once it is noon it's too late to go anywhere big, so R has been working hard to finish some school projects. 

S and I went out together on Thursday. That is the day that most of the consignment shops are open, and she and R need clothes. But we had some bad luck in that department. First we went to a bakery I had heard about (Backbar on Seestrasse). It was awesome and S really loved their raspberry lassi. Then we headed to the first consignment shop, passing this enormous wisteria along the way. When we got to the consignment shop, a once a week sale in the community center, we found only a yoga class. After a long conversation in German and Swiss German we learned that the shop was closed over school vacation. So I will go back in a couple of weeks with the littles. If the weather is good I can walk from Stadelhofen rather than wait for the low entry tram and there is a really nice playground there that they are going to love. Combine that with the awesome bakery and the possibility of checking out the Chinese garden, too, (or the Botanical) and it's a day.

S and I were disappointed about the consignment shop, so we headed to what might be her favorite neighborhood to find the kid's Caritas resale shop. (We saw the Boogg along the way! More on that another time.) Caritas was gone. That was disappointing, too, but at least we were near Brockihaus, not to be confused with Brockiland where we found bare shelves and a terrifying clown that time. We've had very good luck at Brockihaus and this was no exception. S found a very cute Hergiswil glass plate with a desalpe (cow parade) cow on it. A quick internet search showed a retain price of 80CHF and S got it for 12. Even if she found one on ricardo (Swiss ebay) the shipping would have been at least 7, so it was a very good deal. S has already warned me that she is taking it with her when she moves out of the house someday. It is reserved for cookies or cheese. We also found a glass to replace one that L broke and three tops for R, including a triathlon top for running cross-country next year. 

However, there still were terrifying clowns! What is more surprising about the one above? That it costs 25CHF or that someone thinks this clown is going to make someone's birthday happy? 

On the way home from Brockihaus I stopped at Chiang Mai to surprise E and get him some chicken satay. They were sold out, and it wasn't even 4 p.m. That was a difficult conversation in German/Swiss German, too. On the plus side, we stopped at the Middle Eastern grocery and S the Cucumber Kid found some Turkish cukes she was crazy for. Maybe I will try again next satay day and get S some cukes at the same time.

Saturday was kind of a bust, too. The iffy weather combined with the fact that the trains were not running between here and Zurich (adding at least 45 minutes to any trip) were enough for us to punt an outing today. Instead, E volunteered to return our rental skis so we wouldn't have to waste some good day in the future. He also went to the local farmer's market and got the last loaf of fig nut bread! I stayed home with the littles and packed things we won't be using before we leave. I found the stroller cover, which was good, and made a list of things that seem to be missing (Baby's diaper, a Barbapapa teaset spoon, playmobil tricycle wheels, 8 mismatched socks - we'll be lucky to find any of these)