First Week of School

 

They dressed nice for the first day of school as a surprise for me.  My surprise to them?  A hike!  So we went with a less than strenuous local:)

So we started the school year with a hike at a local park.  The nice thing about this area, for the squeamish, is the raised boardwalk!  Contact with nature is limited:)  It is also quite shady here, which is a bonus when it is still in the mid 90's

 There are a few little alligators on site.  This little guy was about 2 feet long.  There are turtles in the water here too, and they seemed less than concerned about the gator!  This guy here was a juvenile, and so active!  The big guys just kinda meandered, while he meant business in his swimming.

 Not the same Alligator!  This is a sibling to the first one, and found a lovely muddy spot 'round the bend.

 Both kids were fascinated, and both wanted out of the heat yet didn't want to miss anything!  We managed to be in the perfect spot when both gators decided to move into the shade. 

Sweet Pea is working on a monarch butterfly project.  There may be a field trip in the works here, we will see.

We are going to concentrate on hands-on engineering projects for Bud Bud


We also started at the Co-op where Sweat Pea is in yearbook and musical theater (they will be doing Newsies this semester) and Bud Bud is doing motorized Legos, Chess, and guitar.  Should be a good year!

Back...?

So I realized that I like this little space.  Looking back, seeing the kids grow, watching our trips.  I think I may try it again.  Or not.  I'm not sure.  I'm going to post at least this time and see where we go from here. I didn't realize how much fun it would be looking back to all those years ago and seeing what we were doing, and how the family was growing.  I want that back.

So, there we are!

And here we go...

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving play at school. We heard about it daily for two weeks:)
Aren't they cute, sitting patiently waiting.
On the boat, to the New World.
Singing a song she forgot as soon as the play was over.
Our sweet Pilgrim! Hats were made my Miss Meghan and Miss Virginia.
She planned her apple pie for a week prior, asking over and over if it was time to make it. Sadly she had to wait till Thanksgiving morning. She seems so broken up by that:)
He adores me, what can I say! Guess it's kinda mutual.
The hams of the family!
Our little family. We may be far from home, but we are thankful to have each other. There's nothing sweeter.
Ah, pilgrim hats made for Girl Scouts. We used dark chocolate to match the cookies, and the girls weren't very excited. Jaina, though, loved them, and that's all I care about!

Thanksgiving was a wonderful, quiet day, and I'm truly blessed by my sweet family.

Alright. An update, long overdue

Alrighty, so we've moved houses. And you thought moving in the states was tough! Try moving in Hungary someday:)

But that's behind us now, we've had a while to adjust to the new house and we are very happy here. I'd show pictures but I've yet to get it to the point were I'd want to post any. I'm not exactly quick at such things! But I'll get on it; I know mom and grandma will want to see it.
So here are a few items of note as of late:
Jaina's toes, painted purple by Miss Liz. We simply HAD to take a picture so Grandma could see her beautiful toes. Whew, one parentaly responsibility taken care of!

And heres the "booth". They were selling pictures they had drawn to the locals. Oh, how excited they were when customers (their word) actually came by! Er, they didn't actually charge anyone anything, but still were estatic that customers had come by for their pictures. I'm not sure what the locals thought of these two American kids yelling at them and then giving them drawings, but we must have made a freind or two that day. One of their customers actually came by to drop off a big bag of the best plums ever. Go kids!
And, no, it isn't your imagination... All they do when they see the camera is squint. Sigh.
And how 'bout growing up too fast, eh?? Do you see this??

She's 5 people! She looks 15, surfing for her favorite bands. And I still laugh that she's learned to use the computer right handed, even though she writes with her left. Guess when you're little you just go with what ever you see around you. She tried it left handed after a few days and went back cause she said it felt weird! Kids:)

And not to be outdone, this one has had his hand at the games as well:

But honestly, they'd both rather play a board game or go outside. Especially this one. The computer's great, for a while, then he's off to ruin a DVD by "fixing" it with his 'justable wrench. Have I said thanks Dad? Uh, yeah. Thanks!

An update. No, really!

Yeah, an update!

*Claps hands excitedly*

The kids have been up to their usual cuteness, it's time to share it. Let's start with Halloween!

Pumpkins:


On the right is Jaina's, drawn by her, cut by Dad. Love the one tooth. Dad calls it the TrailerPark Pumpkin

Brendan's is the one on the left. Drawn by me, with his input. See that little nose there? Yeah, I actually managed to cut it off, it's simply perched in there for the pictures. When I cut it off Brendan looked at me and told me that he was very disappointed, that he really wanted a nose. As we had this sad little conversation the sounds of Spongebob on TV called to him. He told me (seriously) that because he was diappointed he was leaving, and went and watched SB instead. Sigh. After it was done he came back and, apparently, forgave me the evil that was losing the nose.

Grrr... Oh well.

But this, this was too cute:

She found the shoes at Payless when we were in California, and that was that. As of June she was Dorothy. As for Brendan? He went with the Scarecrow thing for a while, but I convinced him that he should think of other costumes. Yeah, well, she worked her magic and you can see the results of her female manipulation!

But, as they are really cute together, I think it all worked out.

I made her dress from scratch; for him I added the collar, yarn "hay" at the feet and hands, and the patches. And I made his hat! I'll admit, I'm proud of that one! I had planned to have a twine belt and twine in a few other spots, but sadly I manged to grab the twine on our way out but not the sissors! Since we went to a party I figured I wouldn't worry about it, he was cute anyway:)

The community here did a kids party at the Hungarian Military's Community Center, with games and what not. There was even a Girl Scouts preformance (I got pictures of her, but they are on a friends camera. They will be forthcoming.). After all that there was a "Trunk-Or-Treat", which is exactly what it sounds like. About 15-20 people parked in the lot, backwards, and opened the trunks and gave out candy. That way the kids got to sorta trick or treat even in a country where you couldn't go door to door. It was a fun party that included the Boeing Contractors and their families, the American military folks, and a few of the International military families. All in all, a good fun day.

This next bit is especially for The Girl's Grandpa. First is Jaina with her "Dorothy lashes" on. I let her put a bit of makeup on, and boy is she a girly-girl!

And, yet, she a quite the athlete!

This is the Bat, Ball and Tee that my folks sent. We have managed to get out there and get some time in, learning to hit, sorta catch and attempt to throw! Good times!

Brendan finally got tired of trying and became the ball boy.
Go ball boy, go!

He did manged a swing and a miss....

And even manged to hit the thing with his eyes closed. Now THATS talent!

Jaina has a good stance (even if she is backwards:)

She swings...

And into the dirt. Er...

But she keeps trying, and I'm telling you, she's got some natural talent in her. She got good at hitting that ball all on her own. And look at the follow through!

So that has been our excitement as of late. Rob and I have a Rome trip in the middle of the month planned, and we will see how Thanksgiving goes. I have high hopes:) Wish me luck!

Er... Christmas??

Nah, we skipped Christmas this year! Alright, not really, but I want to get Brendan's birthday up and as it's almost the middle of the month I have to do it now. If I keep procrastinating not only will you all not see Christmas but you won't see this birthday either! So I'm going with it.

Ahem. Anyway.....


We took muffins to school; I made sure to put Happy Birthday on the box, in Hungarian, mostly so I didn't have to attempt to say it (I could just point)!

So, the big man is 4!

Er... Wait, a little help from the little Momma (Jaina), and we have...4! Alrighty, now we're cooking with fire!Speaking of cooking, the kids were more then a little pleased that they got to help Mom make waffles! And not only that but Mom made them GREEN! Heaven on a fork, I tell ya!His Hungarian teachers were so sweet to him. They made this butterfly just for him. It has a clothpin glued to the back so it's attached to my kitchen light at the moment. You gotta love this age, it doesn't take much to make them feel like the center of the world.

About midday Jaina decided she wanted in on the photo taking opportunities! So I let her have them camera. These are one's she took:MomMr. BradHer scooter (from Santa!)The carrots waiting to be made into carrot cake (which was really good). And in her defense, my camera has to be double clicked when you have autofocus on, and yeah, that wasn't happening. I figured better out of focus carrots then no pictures at all:)

Not to be outdone, Brendan got into the photo game. I think Jaina has his number though:Cause I needed a picture of Brendan and Mr. Brads feet! I'll save you from the 12 photos he took of Brad's crotch. You're welcome.I have about 10 of these as well. See, when the camera doesn't have the autofocus on it has a tendency to take pictures the entire time the button is held down. For about 20 minutes all I heard was:

clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick.

clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick.

clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick.

Till I took the camera away from him:)

In all the two of them took about 200 photos!

They had a fun day, and really are good friends. As seen by the random picture taken of kids hugging with no Mom in the background saying things like "Hug please. No, hug nice! Um, longer then 2 seconds this time, k? So I can take a picture to send Grandma and Papa". That works everytime! And since that wasn't happening in the background I have now proven that this was, in fact, a totally sweet, nonderived, moment.

Sniff.

This is their friend Troy. He and his mom are good friends and so scored an invitation to come over for minipizzas and dino chicken nuggets! And Fanta! Joy.

Somehow she managed to convince those two to watch Strawberry Shortcake with her. I don't have the finger strength to explain exactly how that happened!Tools from Grandma and Papa! This boy has quite the tool collection growing.Jaina had to intercept every present from her Dad to give Brendan cause, you know, she was helping. Like any good mommy thankyouverymuch.Heh, he looks like a retard, but he was making his wish. I have no idea what a 4 year old with a tenuous grasp of what a wish is would wish for, but um, wish he did!I forgot to tint the cake (was going to make it green) and it wasn't exactly a firetruck cake like Grammy makes, but it was tasty!At the end of the day he was a happy camper. He got a new train movie, a bunch of green stuff (can you tell he likes green??) and a green transformer. Heaven:)

Happy Birthday Buddy!