More Extra-Curricular Activities

Today from 4-5pm (after school) Emilia will be at the U14 (grades 6, 7 and 8) swim squad try outs. Last year she made the team for the Elementary (Primary) school and we were so excited for her. This year she is trying out again. Then, on Wednesday, she will try out for the U14 Girls Volleyball team. Keep your fingers crossed! 

Here is a short clip of her trying out last year. She is so strong!

Update on Ali

It has been a very, very long time since I have spent any time on this blog. It is for no reason other than the fact that I have almost no free time. Work is very challenging and rewarding at the moment and if I am not working, I am trying to spend any spare minute I get with our children. Additionally, we have a few new computers so until I feel comfortable with them - they are all imacs - and get any free time on them (as the kids often like to get on and play) you just have to be patient.

This year I scored on mother's days. Back in Budapest, I was applicable for the American, British and Hungarian mother's days. Now, in the UAE, I have been given recognition on the UAE mother's day as well as the French mother's day so I am not at all complaining... Actually, I'm a bit embarrassed and hope Curt get's in a father's day soon even though America seems to be the only place where they may recognize this non-international holiday.

On Sunday (a school day in the UAE), I - and all the other school children's mothers - was invited to school for a little mother's day celebration with the kindergarten. I was so happy to visit and spend time with Ali's classroom. I took a 1/2 day off of work and skipped down knowing it would be great as she has been hinting about the event and practicing her songs for weeks. She is finally settled in nicely into school and finally getting a grasp on the language. It has taken her much longer than Terence and Mia but suddenly it has all CLICKED! I'm so pleased and relieved...

The little show was lovely. Ali's teacher, Anne, and the teacher's assistant, Benedicte, are both wonderful. We couldn't have been luckier with teachers for Ali. They are both gentle, sweet and nurturing. The perfect combination for a scared little kindergartener!

Unfortunately in all my excitement, I got the on / off record button reversed and didn't manage to get the entire show like I had hoped. I did manage to get a short clip which is below. However, first, I put up my 'interview' with Ali from yesterday evening. She is sooo cute!

Now a short clip from her class. Look at how anxious she is while waiting for the signal to hand over my gift. She is watching her teacher and waiting for her to say something about it. I was lucky to be front row on one of her classroom's tiny little chairs... It was a proud moment...

Kids' School Carnaval

On Tuesday, the kids only had a short day as their morning consisted of a Carnaval celebration and all parents were invited to come and watch. It was a gorgeous day and we all filled up their outdoor football field while they paraded around in big circles in full costume, music and style. The theme seemed to be eras in time and our three represented: African tribe (T), Caesar (Mia), and Flowers (Ali). Ok - Ali's was probably a take off of hippies... I didn't think about it until now as I was overwhelmed by how cute she and her entire class looked.

Also, all the costumes were made by the students in school. No stress on the mom's who cannot sew or are creative. It was fantastic!

The two above photos were of Terence - look how much taller he is then all his classmates. He gets mistaken for being older ALL the time.

My Mia, a very happy Caesar! With, by the way, a new hair style that she chose and is slightly struggling with as she wanted lots of layers, bangs, etc. She can no longer pull it back and she is starting to have regrets but I am biting my tongue and not at all doing the 'I told you so' as I am in full support of her decisions and know she will probably remember this experience for a very long time.

Mr. Tribesman

Gorgeous little flower - matched with a boy who was more like a tree / bush.

Listening to Ali's class sing. She actually seemed to know all the words!

Below is Ali with one of her sweet little classmate / friends and me in Mia's classroom.

Enjoy all the videos from the day below.

T sailing videos

Finally - the 2 videos showing Terence sailing! He's so sweet as he is so excited to be learning sailing and told me that he cannot wait until he can sail a large boat and sail our entire family all over the sea! I too look forward to that time...

In the meantime, it looks like he'll be stuck with this much smaller sail boat while he learns.

St Michaels, Maryland

From Aug 10 - 13th we had a wonderful stay with Craig, Tammy and their 2 year old daughter, Olivia (oh, and their dog, Sophie). Like last year they rented a lovely house on the water in Neavitt - just outside of St Michaels, MD. This is a beautiful part of the east coast and a place our kids love due to the crabbing, kayaking, nature, swimming, etc.

Here are a few photos and videos from our recent visit.

Our hosts Craig and Tammy (above) and Olivia below.

Our trio love looking after and entertaining Olivia. Here is T and Mia enjoying looking after her while we walk to dinner through St. Michaels.

And some interesting sightings along the way.

Blue CRAB! It was labor intensive but worth it! T especially got into it this year. He also ordered wings (his newest favorite) and enjoyed my raw oysters. Ali had crab chowder and mozzarella sticks and Mia stuck to chicken fingers. Mia was so tired as she usually is the most willing to try different foods but sometimes the familiar comforts are what's needed.

On our dock

Kayak time.
I went every day with each kid and found it to be a great one-on-one time combined with a good work out. Paddling (usually alone) for over an hour was hard work.

Ali videos while we kayaked. Poor thing was so confused after we had changed cities so many times. She had no idea where we were...

Farm Life

Apologies for being so out of touch but we are having way too much fun at the beach. We have lots of friends down here at the time so very little free time to get on the computer. I finally uploaded several great videos from our visit to Kansas City, KS. We visited a farm called Deanna Rose Farm in Overland Park. The kids had THE best time. It was very, very hot on the day that we went so it was quiet so we got to try many things in a short period of time. I too enjoyed myself. It was a beautiful, clean farm that was set up with so many fun activities for the kids (even fishing). There was lots for each of them to try. Check out the videos below:

T's Gardening Skills

Been slightly out of touch lately. Just a very quick update on my very proud son as we all admire (and beg for nibbles) his freshly grown peas. He planted the seeds about 2 months ago and they are now grown and DEEE-licious!!!

Here are 2 videos. The girls were begging to have some but he wasn't too happy about sharing - especially after he recently discovered them taking some without his permission. So, he made up a game of questions and when they got the answer(s) correct they were rewarded with a pod.

Ali's Olympic Day at School

Every year at the end of the year at French school, they have a special Olympic day for the kids. They are grouped together by classes. So, this year I have 3 Tuesdays where I have to attend as all 3 kids are in different groups. Today, Ali's class, the Petite Section was with the Moyenne Section for their Olympic games. It's such a fun, yet chaotic, morning that the kids really get into... Here are some snaps of our little Ali....

'Number 1' and waiting for the relay race baton

Below she is doing a shot put underhand toss and kicking a ball into a goal.



Below: all the kids liked the trampoline jump. On the below right she is with her little BFF, Molly, and their good friend, Tyler.

Here she is in ACTION

And 2 videos:

The Girls' Dance Recital at School

All year, or at least since about October, Ali was in a young dance group with her grade (3 and 4 year olds) and the class one year above her. Mia was also in a similar dance group with her age group. What I didn't realize was that they shared the same dance instructor and over the last month have been practicing together and combining their routines... I felt so lucky to have 2 little beauties in this year's dance performance at school. Mia and Ali were in the same show and it was great fun! They both were so happy to perform together and both did very well. Here are some photos and videos of their performance on Monday afternoon.

I adore these costumes! We had to pay for them but we keep them. They are just gorgeous!

Ali is in the middle in the above left as well as in the shots below, when they changed costumes.

Love her face in the above right and below left as she looks completely confused and slightly embarrassed. They were all so adorable together that it didn't matter!

These next 2 are my favorite shots of each of them. I got to try out my newest zoom lens which worked out incredible!! Terence was next to me and we were getting really excited about the shots I captured. Mia was a bit more of a challenge to get good snaps of as she was often behind other girls.

If you can't tell, Ali is right in front of Mia in this shot above.

In this next one, Mia and Ali are in the back row next to each other (towards the right of the screen).



Here Mia is in the 2nd row (right side of screen) and Ali is in the back row (towards the left). Ali looks completely confused as to what she is supposed to be doing.



This one was super short but cute. Ali starts in the front middle of the screen. You can catch a glimpse of Mia as she walks off stage in the 2nd row. She told me she was put in back most of the time as she is one of the tallest girls in her class. There was one very tall girl in the front but she was older and there helping her mother, the teacher, with the younger kids.

Chores and Talents

Like all of us, our kids have their great days and their not so great days. Trying to get them all doing their chores on a regular basis is an ongoing chore for me. They all do pitch in with feeding the dogs and cat; mopping; vacuuming; dusting; fixing their beds; taking out the garbage; emptying the dishwasher; taking the scraps out to the compost heap; gardening, etc. But some days are better than others. Some days they just don't seem to have any spare time but most days are pretty good...

Ali's latest and greatest is she makes coffee for Curt and I every morning. I am completely serious! She loves doing it and she is very, very good at it! Here are 2 videos demonstrating.







As we all know, making coffee for the parents isn't the most ordinary task for the average 4 year old. Well, here's another one of her talents... smelling corks. She has an amazing nose and we always give her the cork to smell. She has, in fact, been the one to detect a truly off and corked bottle. She's incredible and offers her talents anytime. Actually, whenever she hears a bottle being corked, she usually comes running. She also loves collecting corks - especially champagne corks. She picked up many that she found in restaurants, the street, etc while we were in Meribel, France. She has a collection. Again, she's not your average 4 year old!

Here she is demonstrating her skills (photo taken when she was only 3 1/2). She / we actually discovered this talent when she was just 3 years old in Feb 2009 while skiing in Zell am See. Most of you have probably heard the story so I won't go into it now...

2 More Great Videos - especially the 2nd one!

If you get tired of our videos or photos from France, I totally understand. We just had such an incredible time! One of the best vacations EVER! Skiing was incredible, people were wonderful, the kids were all so great (I think their ages right now are absolutely fantastic and they are all so fun to be around), the weather was nice, our chalet perfect, the food and wine were always amazing.... and sooooo on....

Two people made our trip so much better: Michel and Zuzana. Michel is born and raised in Meribel so his knowledge of the area was so helpful. Zuzana, as I mentioned before, helped each kid learn to ski and she helped Ali tackle the challenge last week in Meribel.

This first video is of Michel handing out candies to the 3 little beggers! You can hear me barking (do I really sound like that?) at the end for the kids to pose for a photo (the one with Zuzana)...



This next one was the highlight as it captured Ali racing Terence and Mia 'to' a pole. She was winning and didn't understand the objective of the finish line. Instead of just reaching the pole or even passing the pole, she went straight into the pole at top speed ('her' top speed). Good thing there was the padding around it as she bounced off but it looked painful!! She literally face planted into the padding! The funniest part is when Curt asks her who won. Her or the pole.... She is a funny little thing!

More Skiing Videos

This is how Ali spent the week learning to ski with her teacher, Zuzana.



The three kids decided to have a race. It was so cute as Terence and Mia kept pretending to fall over so that Ali would be the leader. I love at the beginning listening to her loud laugh. Michel, our ski guide, was with us too. He was incredible and made skiing the 3 valleys so much easier as he is born and raised in Meribel and knows the piste like the back of his hand.

There are a few times Ali skies to Curt, who is holding the camera, so that's what you are seeing when you see the camera get all wobbly. Plus, Curt is video taping her while skiing backwards. He's a multi-talented guy!!



This next video is of Curt and I skiing with T, Mia and Michel.



I took this next video from the top of the Saulire gondola. Every view on every run was more stunning then the last! It was breathtaking!

Here we are after taking the largest cable car (the Saulire Télépherique) in the world up from Courchevel. The Cable Car fits 140 people! I will include pictures soon.

PS Mont Blanc is behind us.