To all my fellow Little Trekker parents, I have a bit of an inside tip that I want to share with you. You might want to be stocking up on some decent waterproofs for the coming Summer - it's going to be a wet one.

Sofie (age 7) is fascinated by everything to do with Ancient Egypt at the moment. Her biggest wish is to visit Egypt, however for obvious reasons, it isn't our number one choice for a family holiday right now.

I was quite convinced that the ski season was over for our family. But guess what? The snow came back with a vengeance, and we couldn't resist for another family ski day.

The ski season is rapidly drawing to a close in our corner of the world (sob). There is still plenty of snow about - it just isn't very fun to ski on it. So my goal this year is to find other ways to enjoy the snow, without skis on our feet.

The girls (who are currently on their 2 week half term holiday) wanted to visit the 'duck pond' yesterday. The duck pond is more commonly known as Lake Zurich, but to my girls will always be the place where we go to feed ducks.

After reading about making 'Sid the Snake' on the Little Trekkers website, we decided to have a go at making our own.

Today we decided to take advantage of all the fresh snow, and not go skiing! That's right - we do sometimes do things other than ski.

Today we went to our first Fasnacht parade of the season. Fasnacht is a huge carnival event across parts of Germany and Switzerland, but in my limited experience the Swiss celebrations are quite unique.

Yesterday no one in our family was in a ski lesson, so we set off to our local resort to enjoy a relaxed ski with friends.

We are fortunate enough to live within walking distance of a couple of good sledding hills. One is very close, and the children often go there after school with their friends.

Both girls have been in a group ski lesson for the past four Saturdays, and the culmination of their course came today with the celebratory ski race.

I thought it might be helpful (for those Little Trekkers who are lucky enough to be heading off to the snow this season) to share a few tips on making sure your kids have a great time in ski school.

It can be difficult being parents to young children who have more years skiing experience than you do. But (even if I do say so myself), each year DH and I get slightly better at wrangling two small, manic skiers on the slopes. Our secret weapon this season was actually skiing without the kids a few times, before hitting the slopes as a family.

For the last couple of years, one of our family traditions has been to make a Yule Log, which we then burn to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

This weekend Sofie wanted us to come to the school playground, so she could show us the special project that her class has been working on. She also wanted to write about it for Little Trekkers. So I would like to introduce 'The Biggest Snowball in Switzerland', by Sofie (age 7).

Now that Autumn is well and truly here, we are spending a lot of time in the woods. It is such a wonderful time of year to head out on a walk, followed by fire making and sausage grilling.

A few weeks ago the girls had a couple of random days off school, and a 4 day weekend was too good an opportunity to miss. The girls were adamant they wanted to go camping, but not many sites are still open this late in the year, plus the weather can be a bit wet!

Today we decided to hike. The weather here is gorgeous here right now, and this will be out last mountain hike of the year. Tomorrow the mountains close until the ski season starts.

We hike a lot with the kids, and it is important to me that we make sure it is fun and interesting so that they will always be excited to go along on an adventure.

Farming in Switzerland is, for the most part, still done on a fairly small scale. Farms tend to be run by several generations of one family, who use traditional (often labour intensive) methods.

Only in Switzerland would you find a major event scheduled early on a Sunday morning that is only accessible by a reasonably long hike. By reasonably long I mean over an hour, and uphill ALL the way - officially our toughest hike to date.

In Switzerland children walk to school. They walk to school every single day, regardless of the weather, and they do it without an adult.

OK, I will admit that the Olympics and pumpkins may not be an obvious combination....Unless you live in Switzerland, and happen to visit a large pumpkin farm that is.

We recently visited Wingham Wildlife Park in Kent, and we all agreed it was a great day out. The park is home to an eclectic mix of animals, and apparently the owner is well known for accepting all manner of animals who have no where else to go.

When we were in England over the Summer, there were a few days when we inevitably needed something to do indoors. One of the places we visited was Walmer Castle on the South Kent coast.

On our recent trip to England we spent a couple of days in Canterbury - a place which is well worth a visit with children. One of our best 'discoveries' was a small Roman Museum, which I am ashamed to admit we only popped into to escape the rain! It turned out to be brilliant.

Yesterday (1st August) was Switzerland's 721st birthday. Swiss National Day is a very big deal here, and the whole country celebrates with various parties, bonfires, and fireworks. And I don't know how they manage it, but every year the weather on the 1st August is hot and sunny.

One of the places we visited on our recent UK trip was the rather wonderful Willesborough windmill in Kent. http://www.willesboroughwindmill.co.uk/

Now that Summer is here, we spend a lot of afternoons at our local lake. One of our favourite activities at the lake is making boats, which is super simple and quick to do, yet can provide a whole afternoons worth of entertainment.

All Winter long we go to the mountains every weekend to enjoy the snow. Now that Summer is here (and the snow has mostly melted), we have a whole new set of mountains to play in.

On Sunday we set off to hike to the Swiss 'Grand Canyon'. The weather forecast was for rain, but we have wanted to do this hike for a long time, and one thing I have learnt is if you wait for the 'perfect' day, you will never do anything. So we packed the waterproofs and set off.

Last time we were in England the girls' uncle offered to take them fossil hunting. As both girls are very into dinosaurs, they thought this was a marvellous idea.

Yesterday we wanted to go hiking, but it was raining. Raining a lot. This in itself isn't a problem, but the hike we had planned would take a couple of hours, and the end point was a look out tower with views, which would be pretty pointless if the amazing views were shrouded in cloud.

The girls are on holiday this week, and today they wanted to visit 'Flower Island' (or Mainau Island as it is more officially known!). http://www.inselmainau.net/ This place is just fabulous.

Today we decided to have lunch at the lake, and living in Switzerland means there are always plenty of lakes to choose from! We went to the place we normally camp at, although I did have to explain many (many) times that camping isn't open yet, so we would just be staying for the day.

Today was the (much anticipated) Rega open day at Zurich Airport. The girls have been looking forward to this day for weeks. Rega is the Swiss Air Rescue Service (www.rega.ch) who do an amazing job, in sometimes very difficult circumstances. Spending as much time in the mountains as we do, we have seen them at work on more than one occasion.

Despite having done a fair bit of rock climbing myself when i was younger, it just never occurred to me to give it a try with the girls. In my mind I always thought of it as something they could do when they were 'older'.

A couple of weeks ago the girls got roller blades, which have been a huge success. So when we spotted a nearby skate park, it was inevitable that we would end up there eventually.

On Friday both the girls finish school at 11:30am, and today they decided they wanted to spend the afternoon in the woods making a fire and grilling sausages. Of course it rained all morning, so I stocked up on dry wood and packed the waterproofs, but the sun broke through and we ended our week with a glorious afternoon in the woods.

It's a funny time of year in Switzerland. Ski season is pretty much over, but there is a still a lot of snow left on the mountains. The reason we don't ski is because the weather is so warm, the snow gets super slushy and sticky, and is known in our house as 'falling on your bottom snow'. I believe the technical term is 'sulz' or Spring snow.

The girls love watching all the birds that visit our small garden throughout the year. Over Winter we keep a well stocked bird table, as well as making additional treats every now and then.

One of the places that has been on our 'must visit' list for a while is the Sea Life Aquarium in Constance, Germany. It is part of a large chain of aquariums, and they actually have several in the UK.

We spend a lot of time in the snow, and believe it or not it isn't always about skiing. We realised a while back that sometimes the girls don't actually want to ski, and since we want to make sure skiing is fun (because we do it a lot), we always offer alternative activities.

Today we went skiing again, but frankly there are only so many ski photos of my kids that you need to see (!), so instead I thought I would share a few practical tips on skiing with kids. Hopefully others will chime in with their thoughts too.

We all know that it is a busy time of year for Father Christmas right now. But naturally things get a little quieter come December 26th, so this week we discovered what he does in the 'off season'. He drives a tram of course!

After seeing the post on the Little Trekkers website, Sofie and Emily decided they wanted to make some natural tree decorations too. We laid our supplies out on a plate so everyone could smell them first, and then the girls sat down to thread their favourite pieces onto ribbons.

Today marked our first skiing of the 2011/12 season. The snow has been slow to put in an appearance in Switzerland this year, and the girls were very excited to discover the local resort is finally open.

A few weeks ago we participated in our first ever turnip parade. Here in Switzerland (and much of Europe I believe) it is common to carve turnips as opposed to pumpkins.

This afternoon I took the girls to the Hergiswil Glass factory, just outside Lucerne in Switzerland. Despite a glass factory sounding like an odd choice for the under 7's it is a wonderful place for kids and the girls were very excited.

Today the weather was just beautiful, and the girls don't have any regular activities on Wednesday afternoon, so we called some friends and arranged to meet at the local ice rink.

Last week we were having one of 'those' days, when it was clear that we needed to go out. After being relatively sedate for a few days, Emily was bouncing off the walls, but coming up with a safe (yet exhausting) activity for a child with a fractured jaw, is not as easy as it seems. And yes, my 4 year old did manage to fracture her own jaw - let's just say that the bike accident was fairly spectacular.

Last week the girls had a free afternoon (a relative rarity for us these days), and they wanted to collect Autumn leaves and go somewhere they could make a fire. I loved the total randomness of their request, so we threw some bread, sausages, apples and hot drinks into a bag, and went to the woods.

Recently we visited Lenzburg Castle, which is about 30 minutes outside of Zurich. A friend recommended it, and I have to say it was simply amazing!

Autumn is well and truly here in our part of the world, so recently we visited a local farm to admire the pumpkin sculptures. Every year they create a series of sculptures based on a theme, and previous themes have included dinosaurs and fairy tales.

We just got home from our family 'Summer' holiday. To be honest we aren't into really hot holidays, so we go to Portugal in late September every year. The temperatures are always in the high 20's, the attractions are still open (but blissfully uncrowded), the beaches are clean and safe, and it is still warm enough to swim in the sea. Bliss.

Last year the girls and I created our very first Sunflower House in the back garden. We were inspired after reading the beautiful book, 'Sunflower House' by Eve Bunting.

Since being introduced to Geo-caching by a friend (who just happened to have the free app on her iPhone), we have been on many adventures. Geo-caching is a world-wide navigation and treasure hunting game that anyone is welcome to join. People hide stuff (which can range from tiny magnetic cases to large boxes), post the coordinates on a website (www.geocaching.com) and the hunt is on!

We finally went on our first camping trip of the season (if you don't count the practice runs in the back garden). When we arrived it was raining. The weather forecast was for storms, but the girls were excited - racing around, shouting, and jumping in the mud - so I decided to just relax. I was really proud of their willingness to help set up the tent, and their total lack of concern about the 'less than perfect' weather.

We like snow, which is a good thing, because it snows a lot in Switzerland. But it's been a few months since we have seen snow, so today we decided to take a family adventure to find some snow in the middle of Summer.

A month (or so ago) we visited Ravensburger Land in southern Germany. www.spieleland.de Ravensburger Land was great (this was our first visit), and we even managed to meet up with friends there (another first for us). The park itself is quite large, and you need 2 days if you want to see and do everything. We were blessed with great weather and no lines for anything. I am imagining it would be much busier during the main school holidays though.

We just got back from a lovely holiday in England, and I thought I would share one of the fabulous places we visited. We rode the Tenterden steam railway to Bodium Castle in Sussex. Sofie and Emily are 4 and 6 years old, and this trip totally captured their imagination.

During the Summer months we hike a lot as a family, but over the years we have found certain favourite hikes that we visit again and again. And of these our all time favourite is still the Klangweg (noise walk) in Toggenburg.

Last week we decided to go cherry picking at a nearby farm. We went early in the morning and the weather looked rainy, so we were blessed to have the cherry orchard pretty much to ourselves.

Today it was raining. Raining a lot. But because both of the girls have been to forest based play-groups, they tend not to notice small things like pouring rain. Except in a positive way of course. Today they looked out at the rain and announced it to be the perfect weather for snail hunting.

One of the many nice things about Switzerland, is how very 'Swiss' it is. Even after living here for 8 years, I am still amazed by the beauty of it all, and how much the reality looks just like the photos in the travel brochures. The cows really do wear bells and graze in flower filled meadows, and there are lots (and lots) of beautiful lakes.

We just got back from a short trip to Germany, and I wanted to share two of our favourite places to visit in the Stuttgart area. The first is fairly well known, but it is still one of the girls’ favourite places to visit - Legoland!

In Switzerland kids come home from school every day for lunch. A couple of times a week they don't go back afterwards, so the school day is over by 11:30am! This Friday was one of those days, so after a lazy afternoon in the garden we decided to head out for dinner.

Our new Spotty Otter waterproofs arrived today, and Emily was thrilled. Prior to their arrival she was destined to wear a pair of her sister's outgrown pink waterproofs, and Emily doesn't 'do' pink. Emily likes blue, and pronounced the new waterproofs to be perfect.

Spring is well on its way here in Switzerland, so today we set off for our last ski trip of the season. We have skied at our local resort (Flumserberg) almost every weekend since December, but the warmer temperatures mean the snow is getting increasingly slushy and less 'skiable'. The girls have both made major progress this season, and as ever their skiing has improved faster than ours!

We live in Switzerland, just outside of Zurich. We spend a lot of time outdoors all year round. We camp, swim (in the beautiful local lakes), snow ski, sled, hike, make fires in the woods, and play outside in the back garden. We just like being out and about. We travel a lot, but some of our best adventures happen right on our own doorstep.