Thursday, April 16, 2009

Crazy Dancing Ali

This girl keeps us all entertained. Alexandra is now 3 years and 3 months old and she is absolutely a bundle of joy... Okay - she's not always a bundle of joy as she is definitely going through the terrible 3s (think they are harder than the 2s) stage where she will break down and have a horrible temper tantrum. She's testing the waters and trying to say 'no' when it's dinnertime or bedtime or something she may not be in the mood to do... Been there, done that - I know I will win these little battles but it's still exhausting when she tries it. Regardless, she is usually funny and full of love AND she loves to dance - and entertain. While I am fixing dinner in the evenings I love to play music. We all end up dancing... Even T, who is sort of a closet dancer like Curt, joins in on our fun. Ali likes her songs fast (like the one she's dancing to in the video below). If I try to play slower songs, she shouts "Louder!" and "I want to rock!" It's pretty funny.

Captured her in this short video clip a couple of nights ago. It brings tears to my eyes every time I see it. She is so funny. Check out her last move!!! Classic! Have no idea where she got this from... Definitely not from a family member... haha.

FYI - song is Glamorous by Fergie

Monday, April 13, 2009

Happy Easter

We have had an incredibly fun Easter weekend here in Budapest. Instead of Good Friday being a public holiday here, we get the Monday after Easter (today) off. It makes Easter a bigger event as we all get to sleep in and use Monday for resting.

As usual, the Easter bunny came while the kids were still sleeping and hid plastic filled eggs and their baskets all over the garden. Mia was the first to wake up on Easter morning be she wasn't allowed to go hunting until T and Ali also woke up. T was the next to wake up and came running down the stairs with excitement. Not being able to wait any longer, they both went and woke little Ali up (she's still only half awake in this video of them starting out the door on their hunt). PS Excuse my pj, coffee-sipping appearance. I had just woken up...




Even Curt enjoyed the egg hunt....




Checking out all their loot!






Wednesday, April 8, 2009

New Dunebuggy

Here is our latest toy! It was just delivered on Wednesday.


My Garden

No matter where I've lived (whether an apartment with a small balcony or a rental with a small garden) , I have always tried to add my touch with flowers. I love having a garden and thrive on watching my fall bulbs pop up in the spring. Recently the kids have gotten involved but it is still a bit too long of a wait for them. They do love getting their hands dirty in the dirt and helping plant with me. All three of them love watching what pops up and the colors of all the beautiful flowers. We are so proud of our garden and have to always post the snaps of the recent developments.


The crocuses have finished and now it is time for the tulips, daffodils and hyacinths...







The bees love it but thanks to the Bee Movie the kids get what their job is and are no longer as scared. Plus, they love honey and flowers so know the bees have a job to do!

Sprinkler Time

It seriously doesn't feel like spring here. It feels more like summer! With our mid-days reaching up to 25 degrees C which is nearing 80 degrees F! It feels warm, warm, warm. The kids have the fever for being outside non-stop. They have been asking to have the sprinklers on for about 4 or 5 days straight. Today, I finally gave in. They all ran upstairs and got their own swimsuits on in just a few short minutes! I explained to them that the water came out unheated and it would be cold, cold, cold. No problem - they explained to me. They were ready and hot and wanted cold water....

Well, it only lasted for about 15 mins but they loved it and I got a few funny fotos!




Ali can honestly be the toughest of the trio... She reminds me of myself. Third kid and trying to prove herself... She stayed in there the longest and took any dare that came her way. She was a lot of fun to watch but then ended with, "Mommy, can I have a jacket?"





These two took their time and really thought it through...



Tuesday, April 7, 2009

It's Finally Time to Eat Outdoors

Saturday was our first dinner of the year outdoors! It was such a great day / evening and has continued to be wonderfully warm and sunny since. We enjoyed our spaghetti bolognese in the nice warm weather.




And a video of the kids with Curt on the trampoline. Listen to our dog, Blue, whimpering on the side of the trampoline. He hates feeling left out of the fun...



Ready for Easter

On Saturday, we finally got our Easter Tree and other decorations up around the house. We are officially ready for the Easter Bunny.

Curt was away until Saturday evening (on his trip to Macedonia for a conference) and T was at a sleep over but Mia, Ali and their friend Leah were more than happy to help with the egg hanging.





After the tree was finished, they enjoyed a nutritional snack: pretzels, strawberries, marshmallows and lemonade... yum...

Friday, April 3, 2009

Bedtime Reading

The Clements kids love their books. Book time is one of their favorite things. Every night at bedtime they all get to pick out a book that we read to them. However, if they've been naughty and get a warning but if they are naughty 3 times then one of the things that they hate having taken away is - believe it or not - their books. There have been many times when Mia or Terence (or even Ali, however, she's just reaching this stage) were naughty and didn't get to pick out a book or even listen in on someone else's book time. They do not like that at all...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, they all have their favorite books. Dr Seuss is still a family favorite. Recently T and I have been reading the first book of the Harry Potter serious and he loves it! Fortunately I have read them so know the characters, funny words, premise, etc. so I can explain it to him if he has trouble following. Curt, on the otherhand, once read one chapter when I was away and T now requests that if he's doing bedtime reading that they read something else.

And, most recently..... T has been reading at bedtime and the girls enjoy it. He reads in French which Mia loves and understands (obviously) and Ali finds entertaining. He first started doing this over New Year's when we were in Austria skiing. He even read to Nana, Papa and Aunt Lisa one of his French books. The coolest thing is that he insists on translating it into English for me... Now, that is really cool!

Last night he wanted to share his library book with all of us at bedtime. Every Tuesday is library day for him and he returns his previous week's books and takes out 2 more. If there is a book he really enjoys he sometimes keeps it longer. FYI - Mia's library day is on Mondays. She's only starting to learn to read but in grand section it's more of an emphasis on letters and sounds and letter combinations. This is to prepare her for C.P. (1st grade) where the going gets tough! Next year for Mia it's not only reading time but writing time. And, in the French school it is writing in script / cursive only!



Curt's Packing Job

I thought this was funny and had to capture the moment. Curt's had 3 business trips (4 countries) in 3 weeks. We are both trying to get out to all our offices this year to give support to the managers, staff, meet the clients, etc. Many of our offices have not had the proper support from HQ so it's time we get in to train and get to know everyone as not all staff get to Budapest HQs.

Anyhow, for those of you that know Curt and I know that we are both quite similar in personality. Neither of us are very good with organization. My friend, Kerry, who is unusually organized and neat comes to our home and cringes when she watches me look for something simple like car keys, my camera, a DVD and have no clue where to begin my search. In our defense, we have never permanently lost anything important! Things have definitely went missing for periods of time but they always turn up... eventually....

I'm obviously getting off topic here as the point of this post is to show Curt's packing technique. Not that mine is drastically different or better but I think it's funny. He sort of spreads everything out in the family room and then packs. It's hard in Hungary as there are no built in closets in most of the homes. We've had a lot of cabinets built but unfortunately our bedroom is so small that a lot of our clothes are not in our bedroom and not even on the same floor as our bedroom. So, we get a good work out on the stairs when looking for a particular clothing item.


You can see one of the balloons left from T's birthday. Erika and Fanny must have blown up about 30 after he went to bed on Saturday night so he'd wake up to a house full of balloons and decorations!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Owl in our Tree

On Wednesday evening Curt was home earlier than usual and got to hang out on the trampoline with the kids before bedtime. Suddenly I heard them all saying "Look!" and "Is that an owl?" and "It's huge!" Then Mia discovered her talent for talking to owls or hooing at them as the one that we saw (we think the mother) replied every time.

Last night the owl returned, however, the kids were pretty sure that it was a smaller owl. Therefore, they assumed that it was the baby. You can see from the video that there are 2 nests in the tree. The kids guessed that the big nest was for the mommy and daddy and the little one belongs to the baby (or babies). He stayed near the nest and replied to the kids' hoos. It was very funny watching them. This video below is from yesterday at about 7:40pm. It's so nice having longer days! It's still rather dark but think it's still viewable.




PS It's great having longer days but much harder to get the kids to bed at a reasonable hour. Who wants to start getting ready for bed when it's not yet dark outside?

PPS Curt is traveling this week. He's in Macedonia for an internal conference. Wish I had went but was too hard to juggle. He's home Saturday evening.

More of T's 8th Birthday

Terence's birthday this year fell on a Sunday. As we went out to visit with Tracy over at the Cooper's home on Saturday night, Erika came to babysit. Since it was a Saturday night she let Terence stay up late as a birthday treat. In addition we lost one hour on Sunday morning due to our day light savings time. He was, therefore, very tired on Sunday morning when he woke up to me and the girls singing to him and blowing horns while he was in bed.

Present opening time!




Saturday night with Erika and Fanny (Erika's daughter), presents and kids champagne!

ps I just noticed where his hand is in this photo. Excuse him...

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

A Weekend Visitor

Our dear friend Tracy came into Budapest for a 2 night visit and we just loved every minute of it. She flew in from Panama City (in Panama!) Saturday afternoon at about 5pm. Kim and I picked her up at the airport, drove her up to our neighborhood and began the celebrations with a big curry dinner on Saturday night at Kim and Jon's home. It was lovely spending the time with her and catching up. We really do miss her and her family so much! They lived in Budapest for about 3 years and they were great friends during that time. Matthew, her hubby, and Curt had great laughs together. George and Daisy, their 2 adorable children, got along so well with our trio. And, of course, I never ran out of things to talk about and laugh about with Tracy. It's not every day that one makes a 'family' friend! Thanks Tracy for making the effort to stop by Budapest on the way to your mom's birthday celebration in England! We loved having you back!


from left to right: Sam, Tracy, Jenny, Fiona, me and Kim


Jon in the kitchen getting the curry feast ready.


Airport pick up.