Wednesdays...So Fun ... Alternate Title- That time the Kids Locked Themselves in the Elevator

So in Switzerland, elementary aged students only go to school for a half day on Wednesdays and some of the young ones don't have school at all. After talking to many people about the reasons for this, the best I could come up with was that this is the day that the Cantons have set out for kids to take lessons, or participate in sports activities. Pretty smart! My neighbor told me that when he was a child they went to school on Saturday morning to make up for the lost time on Wednesdays!

During our half days this year I've been trying to set up play dates. Early on, I ran into some minor cultural differences when scheduling these play dates. The conversations would go something like this-
 Me- Hey can  so-and-so  come for a play date on Wednesday after school? (School ends at 11:30)
Them- Yes!  so-and-so  would love that, how about at 5pm?
Me- What? Um, 5pm is a little late for us.
Them- Okay four o'clock then.
Me- Um, um... I'll have to get back to you....

Talk about cultural differences.. Anyway I've finally figured out the solution to my problem, The Lunch Date! Genius, I don't know why it took me a year to figure that out...

Anyway, yesterday we had one such lunch date and all was going well until we decided to take the kids to the park for a run around.

My little apartment dwellers have become increasingly independent lately when it comes to operating our building's lift. Yesterday with their little friend cheering them on they managed to trap themselves in our elevator during the 0.5 seconds that it took me to lock our door.  Talk about a nightmare... Thankfully my friend ran down to ask the concierge to unlock the elevator and the kids were out in less then five minutes. Phew!

I have to say that being trapped in an elevator really brings out people's true personalities. Quinn was super happy and excited during the ordeal (surprisingly), while Anna, after trying to free herself by sticking her fingers through the small crack between the elevator doors, sat down and had a good cry.

Fortunately no one was harmed during ordeal and everyone now understands the new rule of no kids alone in the elevator. Wednesdays, so fun!

*Looks like these two are plotting their next elevator adventure...

Dino Zoo!

I'm all for kids activities, and that's good because that is mostly all we do during this season of life, but a kid's activity that mixes a nice walk in some French woods and ends with a visit to a cheese shop is high on my list.

A few weeks ago we paid a visit to The Dino Zoo. This special place is situated in eastern France where at one point dinosaur bones were excavated. The drive from Lausanne was an easy scenic hour and when we stepped out of the car in the middle of nowhere France the kids were ecstatic to see the giant dinosaurs and the adults were happy for a mellow day in the woods.

Raaawrrr!!!

The Dino Zoo is huge and after deciding on the best possible route, we set out onto the beautiful wooded trails for some dino hunting.

This place is every dinosaur loving kid's dream come true, complete with life sized dinosaurs in their natural habitat and scary sound effects that really take the visitor back to prehistoric times. After reassuring some of the more timid members of the group that the dino sound effects were just pretend and coming from speakers, everyone really enjoyed themselves!

Here's our friend showing Quinn exactly where those loud noises were coming from.

 The day was beautiful and the green woods were just perfect for exploring. 

I love this picture of the giant T-Rex and tiny Anna and Kevin!

The forested area was lovely, it was so nice to  mix our kid friendly dino looking at lifestyle with a  "hike" for the adults. We stopped for a break and Quinn kindly snapped some pictures for the website. 

Not too bad for the budding photographer! 

Throughout the day everyone picked a favorite dinosaur and Kevin was lucky enough to be pictured with his pick. I think he really liked these dinosaurs because of their red "mohawks".

I'm pretty sure he was looking up more information about those dinosaurs on his phone...

The kids loved this giant brontosaurus and had a great time running through its legs and trying to hang from its tail!

We ended our visit by watching a 4D dinosaur movie where we were sprayed with water and blasted by air. Quinn thought it was pretty cool and Anna huddled in Kevin's lap for the duration. Good times.

The highlight of the day for Kevin and I was stopping at a local store for honey and the regional specialty Mont d'Or (cheese) read about it here. It's all sorts of delicious! We baked ours up a few days after we got home and relived all the great memories of our day at the Dino Zoo.