The Clements Family Life: 2007

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Our New Years Ski Destination

I found a better map to show Lake Bohinj where we are heading to tomorrow. Should be about a 6 hour drive. Thankfully we have a dvd player in the car to keep the kids entertained. We'll be there for 6 days.

Taking a Break

Only back on the 5th of January so no postings until we are back.

Happy New Year! Bring on 2008! I know it will be a great one!

Skiing Tomorrow

Instead of packing, I am procrastinating. Playing Wii with Terence and posting stuff on our blog. Tomorrow we are going skiing at a new resort. We are trying Slovenia in an area called Lake Bohinj. A Slovakian mom at school says it's incredible. Our next door neighbor told me that this is where her kids learned to ski. Seems to get good reviews so should be fun. We are going with another family (also 3 kids) so it should be lots of fun for the adults and the kids.

This first photo is the entire area. The red dot is where we are staying.

A photo of the lake

This is one of the ski resorts (Vogel)

Sleeping Beauty

What is it about a sleeping baby? Ali fell asleep in the car the other day and when I carried her in and laid her on the sofa she remained sleeping. She looks so peaceful. I love it.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Boxing Day Dinner

For our dinner on the 26th we decided to get King Crab Leg's from our friend Rob's restaurant Ocean. Part of his restaurant is a seafood deli where I get all my fish (and we eat a lot of it). From Seabass and Monkfish to Cod and Salmon, we love it all. The kids eat every kind of fish and even Ali has been enjoying Salmon since she was about 7 months old.

Last night was our first King Crab Leg experience in Hungary. They were not fresh but frozen but I was okay with that. We usually eat them at the beach when we are in South Carolina and we all love dipping them in the melted butter. The crab was a big hit last night. Even Ali loved it. Poor Curt had the job of cracking them open for everyone.

This photo of Ali makes me laugh. This is the look she makes whenever I ask her to 'smile' for the camera. It's like she has her mouth and eyes mixed up.

Another Gift from Santa

Here's Terence with his new present from Santa. He got 2 presents from Santa - a Nintendo DS and this cool Hovercraft thingy. He took it out in the snow on Christmas day while we all watched from inside.

Thanks to Sue's suggestion he tried it on the trampoline where it worked really well!

Wii - Thanks to Santa

Someone was good this year! Santa brought Wii for the entire family! He also brought Monopoly but I don't think any of you would be interested in a video of us playing Monopoly! We have, however, played Monopoly just as many times as we have played Wii. Terence is amazing at Monopoly and beat Curt and I (legitimately) twice! Mia's still a little too young and just wants to 'buy' everything. Hopefully this won't be a longterm problem (like mom) and she'll learn to also save up her money and invest wisely.

Back to the subject matter I started with... Wii. One of the games that we all had fun playing yesterday was Boxing. We all Boxed on Boxing Day... haha. Did you know I was clever? I did work out extra hard yesterday after a huge feast on Christmas Day but I must admit that I think my back muscles hurt from boxing on Wii and not from my work out. Ridiculous!

Thought you would all get a huge kick out Mia kicking some booty! She was the fastest to take down her opponent. If you want to know why, click on this below video. Please ignore her bedhead!

Christmas Morning

Terence woke up first on Tuesday, Dec 25th. He got up at about 8am even though he was tired. I made him wait for his sisters before he started opening presents. I love this photo of him yawning and trying to wait patiently. He always squats like this and it reminds Curt and I of how the Chinese squat.

Present opening time

A few more from X-mas Eve

Girly Girls.

Think this one of Ali in dress up shoes is so funny. Look at how she points her toes!

In this video, Mia was just pouting about Keira getting some cool lipsticks until she found out that she too got lipsticks!

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Best Wishes

Merry Christmas

Kellemes Karacsonyt

Joyeux Noel

from our family to yours

Monday, December 24, 2007

We Beat Santa Home (just after 10pm)

Love these 2 photos.

Curt's laugh is great on the left. Right, Uncle Peter and Curt dancing with Mia and Ali.

Opening presents!

Some of the girls: Sarah, Kerry and me.

Every year we go to the McGann's for x-mas eve. We've done it for at least.... 7 or 8 years. Maybe less because we may have went to the Hagmann's B.C. (before children) on x-mas eve. Cannot remember.

Anyway, every year, we race home to beat Santa. We leave when nasa.gov or Google Earth says Santa is in Eastern Hungary and we race home all claiming (me the most) having seen him on the rooftops between the McGann's and our home. It is so funny. Now the kids are all locked (not really 'locked' but doors are closed and they are too afraid to open them) in their bedrooms, fast asleep while the elves are fast at work....

Terence watching Liam play his new game. And, Mia posing!

The Tats

Sunday, December 23, 2007

In Front of the Tree in PJs

This is my final blog entry today!! I am almost caught up. Still have to add a few parties and fun things but will try and catch up over the next week. This last post includes photos from this evening - after bath, in front of the tree, in clean pajamas. They are so excited about Christmas.

Just a funny side note, Mia is such a brown noser. First, the password on northpole.com that she selected is 'iloveusanta'. Too funny. She told us that this is what she wanted her password to be - she still cannot spell like that! Then, tonight while she was in the bath alone and I was in the next room getting Ali's pajamas on I heard her singing a made up song that went something like this, 'I love you Santa. I love you even more than my mommy....' And, on and on. We had just had a serious talk about how Santa and his elves can see and hear everything. So, she figured it was her last chance to get the 99 items on her list from Santa tomorrow night. Not really 99 but it seemed close including a new bed, sparkly clothes, dollhouse, skateboard, etc. I cannot even remember half the things as she just named as many things as she could think of... Always entertaining us!

This Week's School Christmas Parties

Last week was a very busy week of Christmas parties at Ali's nursery school and Mia's school. Terence's class is too old now for the Christmas show but they've been already practicing for a couple of months for a spring performance. Maybe Curt will have to make it to that one!

I took Mia and Terence with me to Ali's school party / performance. Her little class didn't have much participation other than sitting up on stage with the rest of the group singing Christmas carols. Hence the only stage photo (from the side) is not so great.

Ali loves her teacher and babysitter, Brigi, who she affectionately calls 'BIGI!'

Mia loved catching up with all her friends and looking at all the presents - one for each student and one for each student's parents.

Here's Ali bringing me the present that she made me. A beautiful clay candle holder in the shape of a Christmas wreath (I think she may have had a little help from Bigi)

Every girl at the school got one of these dolls. Ali loves dolls and she was happy to give her a hug right away.

2 nights later on the 20th of Dec was Mia's Christmas party. Since Terence was in school (performance started at 1:45pm), I took Ali with me.

All the kids from the Petite Section through the Grande Section (Mia's in Moyenne) were instructed to wear red and / or white. When the curtains opened all the parents gasped at how adorable they all looked. My photos didn't do it justice!

Mia is in the 3rd row about 5 or 6 from the left side of the stage. The kids sang several songs in French and then finished with 2 Christmas songs in Hungarian.

Le Pere Noel made a special surprise visit.

Rather than handing out a present to each child, Santa handed out presents to the classes. Mia's class got 3 presents and her teacher, Claudia, chose Mia to go up and get one of the three presents. Mia was so excited. However, later she told me that she wasn't able to keep the present but had to keep it in the classroom.

After the performances and present distribution, we had a party in Mia's section of the school. All the moms brought cakes, cookies, drinks, etc. for the kids and they all loaded up on sugar. Ali loved running around to all the little tables and helping herself.

Terence's Drawings

Once in a while Terence really gets into the mood to draw. Yesterday he drew these two pictures - very intently. He described the first as a castle with a king and queen and no children yet. There's a dinasaur on the top right trying to break in and a bad guy throwing snow balls at the king (hanging out his window). There's a king's bed and a queen's bed on the 3rd level. Christmas tree with all the presents on the ground floor. Stuff in the attic - as Terence pointed out and the big circles around the top and side of the castle are snowflakes. He said he wanted big round snowflakes. Who was I to argue... As he explained all of this he also pointed out there is a lot happening in this picture because if you look in the top left corner you'll see a strom coming. In front of the storm is... the man of the hour: SANTA CLAUS. He wasn't happy with his reindeer's antlers but I think they look great. What entertainment! Curt and I are definitely not creative at drawing so we are always easily impressed.

After he drew the above drawing he quickly drew the one below. He told us that it's him and dad skiing. I love the addition of the parachute. We leave next weekend to a new resort (new to us) in Slovenia. Should be fun!

Merry Christmas

Just a few recent pictures from our family to yours. Wishing you all the best this holiday season.

Santa is Coming Tomorrow Night

The kids are SOOO excited. This year we wrote a letter and we also sent him an email at www.northpole.com. Check it out!

Going to try these this week

These cookies look really good. We love oatmeal and we love peanuts so seems like a good combination for our family. We'll let you know what we think.

Sledding in Budapest

Had a great time sledding last weekend. Terence has been waiting almost 2 years to use his race car sled that Ali brought him when she was born. Last year we had just a few snow flurries. This year we had enough to cover the ground a couple of times. Sledding (across the street) has been great. All three of our dogs love the snow. Blue, our border collie, loved chasing the kids down the hill. He ran up and down herding us all up the entire morning. The photo above is a perfect photo of him chasing after Terence.

Terence calls this his Formula 1 sled

Ali's first experience sledding. She was trying to take it all in.

Mia (our fashion queen)

Both girls expected to be pulled. They are both princesses!

Terence tried but they were a bit too heavy for him.

Half way between our home and the sledding hill.

I love these eyelashes!

They were pretending to sleep in the snow. After a couple of hours they were beat!

All the dogs. Blue, Greta and Kiraly

More videos

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QUOTES OF THE DAY:

Today, July 1 2010 while driving through McD's drive through Terence and I got to talking about what a job at McD's would be like. I told him that my brother worked there and that was one of his first jobs. I explained how he was in charge of the french fries and used to come home with lots of grease burns. T told me that if he ever worked at McD's he wouldn't be able to work on the Big Mac assemblies as they would all end up disappearing. The Big Mac is his favorite!! He's not a french fry kind of guy, just a burger boy!

June 10, 2010. Ali has been a bit curious about dying lately. Fortunately, she doesn't remember anyone close to us that has died but she hears Mia and T sometimes talking about it. The other day, she came up to me very sad and said, "Mama, I don't want you to die." I told her that I don't want to die either and this is why I have to exercise and take care of myself so that I can stay alive and healthy longer. She nodded in agreement and then, while playing with my pink wallet on the table, she followed up with, "Mama, if you DO die, can I please have your wallet?" Glad she jumped back so quickly...

Today, May 24 2010, is a public holiday (Pentecost). Ali woke up - only at 9am - and since she had no idea of the time I reminded her that there was no school today. She smiled and said, "Yeah! I'm going to stay in my pjs ALL day". Later she asked me about the cat's birthday. I told her I did not know. She then asked me when Blue, our border collie's bday is. I told her it was in August. She smiled and said, "Let's have a birthday party for him. What kind of cake do you think we should make for his party?" We decided to make him a dog food cake! However, she is now trying to figure out if it is better to give him a cake with or without candles...

This Saturday morning (April 17, 2010) I am at home with Ali while Curt is doing the dance and football taxi service. My main responsibility is to work on our US visit travel schedule (flights, rental cars, hotels, etc.) It always takes a lot of coordination but it's all worth it as we love our summer returns to the US. Anyhow, I was telling Ali what I was doing and she asked me to remind her who we were going to see again. The main people I mentioned were Nana, Papa, Aunt Sally and Uncle Mike as these are the first people we will visit. I asked her what we should take to Nana for her birthday present. She thought for a second. Then, her eyes grew wide as she thought of a great idea. Her animated answer (she always uses lots of hand motions when talking - is that from me?) was, 'A nice hat, a scarf and if you have a dress that you out grow then we can take it for her!'. Funny little monkey... Don't worry Nana, I won't be bringing you any hand-me-downs! x o x o

Yesterday (Feb 24, 2010), while Ali went to visit her old nursery school, I took Terence and Mia for lunch before picking up T's new passport at the US embassy. There is this little cafe that I really love and they have great wraps, onion rings (I have a weakness for good onion rings), burgers, salads, smoothies, coffees, etc. Terence decided on a plain burger with onion rings and Mia decided on a bacon cheeseburger with onion rings. I got a smoothie and hoped for some bites of both of theirs... When the burgers arrived, they both lifted off the top bun and frowned. T grunted, "I asked for a plain burger. Not a burger with this sauce!" The sauce was sort of a 1000 island dressing type of tangy sauce. Mia pouted about this matter, too. I immediately got upset with them and told them not to judge it until they tried it. Then, I followed with, "you both need to become more adaptable." After a second of silence, Mia told me she was going to tell dad. I asked her to clarify and she told me that she was going to tell dad what I had said. Again, I asked her to clarify as I hadn't said anything rude or even a bad word (I sometimes have trouble with the latter). She then told me very angrily, "I'm going to tell dad that you want us to be adopted!" Adapted ... Adopted ... Pretty close!

During our ski trip to Schladming, Ali and I often spent some time together in the afternoon (after her morning ski school) drinking hot chocolate at the top in one of the restaurants. One afternoon she made a funny observation. Actually, she made 2 observations that went like this: "Ma!" she began. After I responded "yes", she asked me, "why are there some teenagers working here?" Before I had time to answer, she asked me another question. "And, why are there so many teenagers kissing?!" I looked around and there were 2 young couples nearby kissing... on the mouth! She was very interested. I answered to her that many teenagers worked when they were on break from school and regarding the teenagers that are kissing, they must love each other. She took this in and thought for a while. I told her that I'd like it if she also worked when she became a teenager and asked her what she thinks she'd like to do. The response has had us giggling for a few days. With little hesitation, she answered that she wanted to be a penguin when she was a teenager. I asked her where she would work as a teenager and who would pay her money. She thought for only a second and then answered, "the Four Seasons Hotel. They will pay me and I'll work there." I bit my tongue and asked her what she would do in the Four Seasons dressed as a penguin. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "Ma! I would swim!" She said this with a slight roll of her eyes like I was born yesterday. What else would a penguin in the Four Seasons be doing???

Just yesterday (Sept 18, 2009) I heard Ali saying to Mia, "drink me". I had to turn around and see what they were talking about. Mia was holding Ali's cup while she sipped out of it. Ali must have thought 'drink me' was the way to ask to be fed (?) a drink. We do say 'feed me' but what do we say if it's a drink item and not a food item?

The other day (early June 2009) the girls were taking a bath together and Mia blurted out "Oh Man" about something. Ali thought she was referring to her as a 'man' and shouted back at Mia, "Me not a MAN, me a LADY!" For obvious reasons I have never called her a 'lady' but she's somehow picked the word up. Loved how she defended herself as being a lady...

Yesterday, March 31st 2009, Terence, Ali and I were sitting at the table and talking. Terence made a joke about going to jail. After Ali laughed, I asked her if she knew what 'jail' was. She answered 'yes'. So, I asked her if jail was a place for good guys or bad guys. She correctly answered 'bad guys'. Then, I asked her, "How does Brigi call 'jail'"? I know this is correct but this is the way Ali would understand me asking how would she say 'jail' in Hungarian. Brigi, by the way, is her Hungarian nursery school teacher who she has a very close relationship with. Her answer to my question, "How does Brigi call jail?" was "with a telephone".... Very clever she is...

This afternoon (Jan 28, 2009) Ali pulled out a DVD and asked, 'we watch this when dada come home?' I looked at it and said, 'Ali, that's not a good one for you. It's a little scary.' (it was Men in Black II). She had recognized it and was ready with her quick reply: 'Don't worry (pronounced woowwee) Mama. Me cover my one eye with a pillow (piwwow).'

On Ali's birthday (Jan 24, 2009) while we were driving to Aquaworld, I turned around and offered the kids a stick of gum. I guess normally I / we say a 'piece' of gum. Curt then followed up with a joke asking if any of them wanted a 'stick of dynamite'. The girls were a bit confused but T, without missing a beat, said 'we can't buy dynamite, only people like miners can buy sticks of dynamite.' This is something he got out of one of his books that he loves to read. I believe it's the Richard Scarry What do People do All Day book that he has practically memorized and still goes to bed reading it and examining all the detailed pictures every night.

This morning (Jan 27, 2009) when we were hunting for Ali's shoes for school she looked outside and said, 'Mama, it's raining'. I turned to look out the window she was looking out and replied, 'Ali, I don't see rain'. She then followed up with something in Hungarian that I didn't understand. When I asked her to repeat it she looked at me, switched back to English and said 'It starts snowing after Halloween'. Not sure what this meant, why she said it, how she even remembered what Halloween was as that was ages ago in her little lifetime. Very sweet.

Mia's newest line (as of this first week in Sept 2008) is "I'm having the worst day ever". She's also been saying, "I feel like an idiot". She tends to say the latter when she's feeling a bit shy or lost for words. The first one is usually after she falls, stubs her toes, gets hurt or drops something. I have no idea where either lines have come from. Very funny to hear a 5 year old talk like this...

Every summer we take our 3 kids back to the US to re-familiarize (I'm sure this isn't a word...) them with their American roots. They were born in Europe and have only lived in Hungary their entire lives. Terence, our 7 year old, knows he's American. However, sometimes when he's asked 'Are you English?' he answers 'yes'. I think I've finally gotten it through to him that just because he speaks English doesn't mean he is English. In America (and several other countries), English is spoken... He now gets it and corrects people if they guess he's English. You may think that they would recognize his American accent but I think this misunderstanding usually happens when he is speaking Hungarian or French.

Mia, on the other hand, thinks we are Hungarian. When we were talking about Hungary beating America for the gold medal in water polo, she shouted out 'Yeah, we won!'. We had to explain that Hungary won and not America and we are American. She answered something about us living in Hungary which makes us Hungarian. Needless to say, she is a work in progress.

Then there is Ali who is only 2 1/2 and is still trying to not mix up English with Hungarian in her speech so she has no idea where she's from but will in time.

Anyhow, going back to our trips to the US. Curt and I like to give them an all-American cultural experience whenever we are in the US which includes baseball games, summer camp, carnivals, dunking machines, donuts, bagels, catching lightning bugs, looking for Cardinals and Blue Jays, spotting alligators in the lakes in Kiawah and this year a rodeo and a demolition derby. In addition to introducing our American favorite pastimes to them, we also have to teach them how to talk about it. For example, when our plane was landing in Kansas City on July 4th 2008 we had a perfectly clear day and could see everything. Terence looked out the plane's window and in his loud voice shouted to me, "Look at that baseball court mom!" I could hear heads turning wondering why the American accented boy who should be in at least his 3rd or 4th year of little league just called it a baseball 'court'. Well, that was at the beginning of our US summer trip... ;-)

Tonight (July 11, 2008) on our way home from the Sedgwick state fair (hee haw), Ali shouted from the back seat, "Mama, home now! Me tired!" It was about 9:30pm so way past her bedtime. I told her that we were on our way home (or at least Nana and Papa's) and would be there soon. I followed up with something about daddy is driving as fast as he can. Then, she shouted, "Dada, faster!" She is so funny and so expressive. It's funny to hear her bark her commands. And, when she is tired, she tells us....

This morning (June 24, 2008) as Mia was changing from her PJs to her school clothes I noticed her PJs had several holes in them. I mentioned it to Mia and suggested that maybe we just toss them in the garbage as it was so torn and damaged (plus small on her) that it wouldn't be easy to repair. Mia nodded her head in agreement but then asked me to do one favor for her. She asked, "Mama, can you please just toss them after I go to school? If I'm not here, I won't see it and then I can't get sad."

One morning while we were near Notre Dame in Paris (May 29, 2008), a group of school kids walked by where we were sitting. I heard T say to Liam, "Don't they sound like the kids at the French school?" Gee, I wonder why? haha

Two nights ago (around March 27, 2008) while Terence was getting ready for bed he said, "Mama, you know what?" He always begins his stories like this. After I asked 'what?' he proceeded by telling me the sweetest thing. He said, "I really like being a kid". I have no idea where this came from or why it occured to him at this point but I think it was really sweet. I know earlier in the evening his stomach was hurting him a bit and I was nurturing and taking care of him. I think maybe that is why he decided that being a kid and having a mom (and dad) take care of him when he needed it was okay!

Mia woke up crying 2 mornings ago. She was actually whimpering. I gently stroked her back and kissed her face while whispering in her ear "Mia, you're dreaming. Wake up. It's okay. I'm here. It's mama and I'm here". I repeated these soothing words over and over until she half opened her eyes and started mumbling. I leaned in to try and hear her better. I asked her what was upsetting her. She then said a bit more clearly, "The Easter Bunny pulled my hair!" Oh no. Poor Mia. "Why did the Easter Bunny pull your hair?". "He came in through the bedroom door and pulled my hair while I was sleeping in bed!" I reassured her that the Easter Bunny would NEVER do such a thing. I explained how gentle and giving good ole EB is. However, this morning (2 days later) she asked me how many 'night-nights' until Easter. I told her it was 2 weeks away (aka about 14 night-nights away). She then looked relieved and then asked me if she could get her hair cut short!!

I've been wanting to add another funny Mia quote that occurred over our New Year's (Dec 2007/Jan 2008) ski holiday. One night when Mia was having trouble falling asleep she crawled in between Curt and I as we were still awake talking. She explained that she couldn't fall asleep so we told her she could stay in our bed until she did. She closed her eyes for a couple of minutes and then started smacking herself in the head with both hands. I asked her what she was doing and she replied that she couldn't get it to stop. Curt and I were confused and asked her to elaborate. She said, 'I can't get the voices in my head to stop'. It was so funny as I immediately knew it was her thinking that was in her head. Curt asked her what the 'voices' were saying and she said it sounded like 'blah, blah, blah, blah, blah'. Curt couldn't resist by saying that he knew the feeling!

Last week (January 10, 2008) Mia came with me to the Indian Embassy in Budapest to pick up Curt's and my passports with Indian visas. She always makes me laugh as she's full of questions but never discreet. One of those kids that have to announce to an entire room that she has to go to the bathroom - even though she's only talking to me. While at the Indian Embassy she looked around at this new environment taking everything in. She had so many questions, "Mommy, what's that for?" or "Why is that over there?" She then noticed two paintings. At about the same time as she noticed them one of the consulates sat down next to her and said 'hi'. She returned the gesture with a shy 'hi' and then turned back to me to ask me who those people are in that painting. I had no clue and didn't want to embarrass myself in front of this Indian embassy employee. So, I asked him if he could answer my daughter's question. He looked at her and said, "That's our president". So then I showed Mia the map of India and told her that was the country we were going to. She returned her attention to the man and the woman in the painting and asked who the woman was assuming it was the man who was the president (reminder - she's still not 5 years old). The nice man had to explain that it was the woman who was the president and the man was the prime minister. Then Mia had to ask why the president had the red dot on her forehead and the prime minister had the pretty blue scarf (turban) on his head. She then saw a statue of Ghandi and asked me who he was. I knew that answer but had trouble explaining in 5 year old language why he was so famous. On and on and on she went... She had all the employees listening and entertained as not only was she interested but she was extremely complimentary. Many kids would say, 'that's weird or strange' but Mia found it all interesting and beautiful. They loved that she thought the turban was pretty, the red dot looked nice on the president and in another very Indian photo the traditionally dressed Indian woman looked so pretty with her gold bangles, henna covered hands, and gold outfit. Phew, I was on the edge of my seat nervous she would say something that might not be so kind. Instead she left them all with a smile on their faces and a very proud mom!

Yesterday (Nov 23, 2007) Terence came up to me and said, "Mom, I know America is one of the newest countries in the world but which is the oldest?" I said, "I'm not really sure but what do you think?" This kid is too much. He replied, "I'm not sure either but I would guess China." Not sure if this is right or wrong but it amazes me that he can even come up with something that is a really good guess. Will google it tonight for sure! If anyone knows, please send me the answer.

Last night (Oct 19, 2007) Terence asked me the loaded question: Do we come back to earth after we die? We spent a long time after the girls went to bed talking about it. I explained how different people believed different things and what I believe is that we do. He then asked me if we'd still come back as a family. I realized he had tears in his eyes with worry that he'd have to be part of another family so I answered 'yes'.

Terence asked me the other day why so many ants were eating our tree. He asked how they got onto our property when we have a fence all around it.

In first grade Terence is working on days of the week and months of the year. I asked him to recite what he's learned in French. After he said the days of the week perfectly I asked if he knew them in English. He couldn't think of them but suddenly I heard Mia's voice without hesitation say, 'Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday... etc'

Ali's word of the day was purple yesterday. Okay, so it didn't really sound like purple but it did sound like 'poopoa'. We were both wearing purple shirts and I pointed it out to her. That's how she repeated it after me.

The Clements Family Life