Visit to Mainau con't

Miniature train display where several kinds of trains did all sorts of interesting routes.

A wonderful playground with all kinds of different and interesting things for the kids to do.
A great part of the day was taking a cruse on this ship. We did the trip late afternoon. It was so relaxing and fun.
View across the lake with the Swiss Alps in the background.
View of the shoreline from the lake.

Sailing school.
Coffee and cake while cruising along.
A flower garden shaped like the lake with all the ports in designated spots.
Ready to head home after our special day!

Interesting flowers!
This is a tulip...kind of looks like a rose.

Jesse and Sven hard at work!

My sister, who lives next door to the place where Jesse works, took these pictures today and passed them on to me. The little German guy, Sven, who is helping, comes by on afternoons if and when his homework is done. He loves to work with Jesse and Jesse has the patience to work with him!
One Saturday, not long ago, Sven called Jesse and asked him why he was not working...after all the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day to be working!! Jesse had a hard time convincing him that Saturday was his day off and that he was doing things at home!

Chiara's dedication

So thankful for Shawna (I wish she was in a picture or two!) and dear friends who captured these moments for us yesterday when Chiara was dedicated. We really missed being there!

Chatting...
Waiting for the guests to arrive!
Look at all her friends!

Our little village church decorated for Confirmation. They also do this to the outside door for weddings. It is a very nice touch.


Our back yard continues to surprise us with lots of color and beauty! I love spring!

Little Miss 'Betty Crocker'

Celebrating Chiara's 2nd Birthday!

Hard to believe it but Chiara is 2 as of April 14!! Where did those two years go? She is hearing lots about being a 'big' sister which will happen towards the end of May! Can't wait!

Spring again!

I found this tree along the road all by itself.


The rest of the pictures in this post are of some of the beauty in our yard. What a privilege to look out my windows and see new blossoms and hear the birds singing each morning. Today is a beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky!.

Spring?

Our yard came to life during the week we were involved with conference. Maybe it is spring, although yesterday afternoon I got caught in a very surprising snow shower! It came down hard and furious for about 10 minutes! Thankfully, my sister came to my rescue!

Our ICEC conference is over and although we are all tired, we feel that it was a great success. I want to take this opportunity to thank the great work teams that came from USA to help us with this event. I also want to thank the great team of ladies that helped me smoothly navigate the coffee breaks! We could not have done any of this it without you!

We got ready for 350 people. I took care of the coffee breaks so that meant baking 450 chocolate chips cookies, 4 large pans of brownies(180 pieces) and 12 long loaves of sweet breads. We prepared about 260 cups of coffee per break and lots of hot water for tea. We had lots of happy 'takers'. There were a few glitches but all were taken care of with grace and dignity. Below are a few pictures I was able to snatch here and there.

Great meals...
Work team volunteers happily serving drinks!

Lots of fellowship
Eager work team folk waitng for the hot food to come out of the ovens.
Jesse answering questions and representing Awana.
Educational aids represented by different organizations.Our conference ended with a banquet. I knew I would be too busy during the event to take pictures, so here are a few from before.