The Crab Claw in St Michaels

We had a fantastic night out with Tammy, Craig and their little baby Olivia one night while in Maryland. We went to the restaurant the Crab Claw on the harbor. We decided rather than eating the Blue Crab that we had caught, we would go out to a restaurant to try the real deal.

The Crab Claw restaurant was ideal for our group of 8 as it was casual and the perfect setting for kids. The seating is picnic tables / benches with white paper on top so the kids can color and play without damaging anything. We ordered a combination of oysters to start followed by delicious blue crabs. T loved the friend oysters and even ordered a 2nd portion. I loved the raw!

He also loved the wooden hammers they gave us for opening up our crabs.

We all enjoyed the crab meat but Curt worked extra hard opening them up for the kids.

All three kids liked the crabs but T enjoyed them the most. I think Ali and Mia liked pounding on them more than eating them. Throughout our trip, T and Mia almost always ordered shrimp (here it was fried) off the kids' menu. Ali almost always sticks to chicken fingers! And they all love the pink lemonade that most family restaurants in America offer. Occassionally Mia ordered her favorite, 'bubbly water', and often got funny looks from the waiters. You can take the girl out of Europe but you cannot take the Europe out of the girl...

Side note: Mia's unique as she also loves tomato juice. Ali still sticks to the kid basics with apple or orange juice and T is a bit more adventurous by picking coconut, pineapple, or mango smoothies. However, when it comes to basic juice, he usually orders pineapple.

The crabs were dumped onto our table...

And, one of the highlights of the kids' trip was ... baby Olivia. Tammy and Craig's 1 1/2 year old daughter, Olivia, is the sweetest toddler ever. She never cries and is so happy. The kids adored her and played with her as often as possible

After dinner we walked around St. Michaels and got ice cream. On the way back to our car (parked at the Crab Claw) baby Olivia just giggled and giggled at everything Terence and Mia did (mostly Terence). He pretended to do funny things like fall over and she just giggled away. It was adorable. He was so fragile with her and played so well with her. She just thought he was fantastic. Here are some snaps of the experience. It was so cute that it had all the adults giggling, too.

T let her tackle him. Then it looked like she planted a big smooch on his face. He never lets anyone else do that - especially not in public!

chasing Mia and the 2 of them swinging her.

All the excitement made me happy. Then, Curt and Craig had a seat while the kids used up the last of their energy (thanks to the ice cream).

THANKS CRAIG AND TAMMY (and Olivia) FOR BEING SUCH GREAT HOSTS!!

Crabbing in Maryland

The kids LOVED crabbing in Maryland. Curt and Craig taught them how and they were so into it. They must have pulled up the crab pots 5 times a day to see how many blue crabs they had caught off the pier.

notice Mia smacking a mosquito - there were many.

preparing the pots with chicken bait.

T and Craig's dog, Sophie getting ready to toss one of the pots in

In the end they must have caught about 15 crabs. All were tossed back and instead we went out to eat crabs at a restaurant.

CHS - IHD - Bozman, MD

I'm going to take a step back into summer for a minute as I still have many stories and photos to document...

After we were at the beach on Kiawah Island for 1 month this summer, we flew up to Washington, DC (Dulles airport). From there we rented our car and immediately drove to Craig and Tammy's rental home on the Eastern Shore of MD in a town called Bozman. Bozman is really close to St. Michaels, Maryland. It's a beautiful area that I've never been to before. I did learn how to waterski across the bay in Annapolis but I've never been to the eastern shore. Curt, on the otherhand, grew up in this area and is more familiar with it. He spent many summers at camp across the bay at Camp Letts.

Here is our journey to Craig and Tammy's (and their 1 1/2 yr old baby, Olivia).

The kids are very familiar with the lunar buses that transport people between terminals at Dulles. We've been in them many, many times. They love them. I think the airport is always a fun place for kids.

Below is a photo of what they look like from the outside.


Below is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I didn't realize that it was so big ... and long! It's a four lane, 20-mile long crossing. Impressive. The kid loved it.

And, here is the fab house (below) that we all stayed in. The funny thing is our visit was initially 2 nights. Then, it changed to 3 nights. Before we knew it, we had arrived on Saturday and were only moving on to our next destination on Thursday. It was lovely and the kids loved MD, the bay, the food (lots of crabs), the life, etc. Ironic thing about the 'life' part is that we picked up the board game LIFE for Terence. He loved it and could not play it enough times. We've already been playing Monopoly for a while but thought LIFE would be a fun next game. It was the perfect setting to sit and play a good long board game at least once a day.

By map, you can see where exactly we were by clicking here.

The Kids' Dune Buggies are HERE

Our kids' dune buggies are here. We had 9 kids, 6 dogs and a ton of adults over on Sunday for a bbq to test them all out. We have 2 adult dune buggies, too. However, only 1 was working on Sunday. It was a perfect day and the field across the street made a fantastic playground for all the dune buggy fun. They all handled them very well and Curt was very strict about the rules.

I'll upload the rest of the bbq photos later but first wanted to include the shots of the kids driving.

The funny part was at about 6pm (party started at 12:30pm) we were all out on the street in front of our house (also the entrance to the field) when 2 bicyclists approached us. As they got closer we realized they were the new director of the French school (with his 4 year old on the back of his bike) and his wife (Mia's substitute teacher for 1 month). They live 2 houses down. They are very, very nice. Speak great English; their 4 year old, Elvire, is in Ali's class; and their 8 year old is in T's class at school. They have 2 bigger kids, too. We enjoyed talking with them and I think we'll become friends. I assume they'll be here for 3 - 4 years while he fills the Director role. Another tid-bit, up the road is another girl in Ali's class and also one of Mia's best friend (about 5 houses away). It's a busy neighborhood which makes it fun for the kids.

Wild Mia who likes to go fast! She's the same on her bike and on skiis!

Mia's good friend from dance class, Zara (7 yrs old). She's at the British School.

Harry Cooper (10) - now at the French school.

Charlie Cooper (8) - in T's class and also in his first year at the French school. He also spent the night on Sat as he and T are best buds.

T trying to patient waiting for Curt to come and start him up.

New Puppy Named George

Our friends, the Coopers, got a new brown lab puppy on Friday. The family surprised their dad, Jon, who was not the least bit thrilled to have a 2nd dog! C'est la vie. We were there for the entire surprise on Friday night and our kids loved playing with little puppy George!

Mia and Molly Cooper (4 1/2)

T and his best buddy, Charlie Cooper (both are 8 years old and born 1 month apart from each other)

Ali, Mia, Harry Cooper (10 yrs old) and Molly with George

Mia didn't want anyone else to hold little George. She adored him!

However, she understands that we will not be getting any more puppies for a long, long time! 3 dogs is enough!

Today's Funny Finds

Ali can entertain herself all day. She plays and talks to herself and is always busy, busy, busy. If she's not trying to clean something, she's taking care of her babies. She's also really into her iTouch and Leapster (small video game unit). It was actually Mia's but she's outgrown it so Ali's inherited it. She was playing with it this morning in our bed. When I went in later, this is what I found. I think she had more fun playing with the game cartridges then playing the actual games on the Leapster. Very funny...

Then there is Terence. He was supposed to be doing his homework this afternoon. I was cooking in the kitchen but then went downstairs to do something. When I returned, this is what I found. He has so much trouble concentrating for long lengths of time and ends up rolling all over the place. He loves sitting upside down and does it often on the couch while watching TV. The strong reflection is off his backpack that is on the floor underneath him.

1st Day of School

I have been absolutely horrible at blogging lately. I apologize and have SOOO much to share with you all. I still haven't even finished filling you all in on our summer holiday. I'll get back to that in the very near future. First I want to share the photos from our first day of school on Wednesday, Sept 2nd. All 3 kids started at the French Lycee - even little Ali who started in the Petite Section (aka pre-pre K).

She was excited to start. Actually, they were all a bit excited and anxious and no one had trouble waking up. I was a bit worried as we had all been suffering from jetlag and sleeping in until 10 - 11am since our return home from the US.

The day started the earliest for Ali and Mia. Ali had to be at the school at 8:30am; Mia had to be there at 9am and T just 10am. So, we left T home with Erika, the nanny, while Curt and I took the girls for the first day. Ali wasn't as difficult as I thought as there were lots of little Hungarian speakers in her class. Mia helped us take her into her classroom, introduced Ali to the teacher and TA (teacher's assistant - same one that was Mia's), and showed her around. Since Ali is so little she has to nap every day at school after lunch for about an hour so we had all her sleeping stuff and a cuddly animal (which they call doo-doos).

We gave Ali lots of cuddles and kisses and took off to get Mia set up. I was surprised it went so easily and not one tear was shed.

Photos at home.

Above and below are of Ali in her new classroom. Her teacher's name is Isabelle and the TA is Erzsebet (like Elizabeth).

Since Mia is now in the 1st grade (CP in French system) she has to enter into the big school because she is now a big girl!! We walked her over and she quickly reunited with her posse! These girls are all very, very good friends. Almost all of them are 1/2 hungarian (mom's side) and 1/2 french (dad's side). So, they converse in... Hungarian. Very funny as they are at the French school but that is what they feel most comfortable speaking in.

from l - r: Rebeka, Anais, Eszter (peaking over), Flore, Dora, Lea, Mia, Sophie, Laura, Olivia

Mia in her new classroom. Her teacher's name is Marie-Pierre and Mia is familiar with her as she was assigned to Marie- Pierre last year for a project that she worked on. I'm very happy with her having Marie-Pierre. However, she is currently away until the end of the month due to a death in her family. In the meantime, the new school director's wife is substituting.

Below is Mia showing me her loose tooth. Her top front tooth has been wiggling forever! She actually lost it that evening but more on that in another post soon.

Then, it was Terence's turn. He knew in advance who is teacher was and also that he'd be in the same class as his two best buddies (thanks to some insider information at the school). Charlie and Tom have just been enrolled at the French school (with each of their 2 siblings) after only being at the British school. They are both British and neither speak any French yet.

Below is T with Charlie and Tom. And, on the below right photo is the 3 of them waiting to be introduced to their new teacher, Jean Luc. T is very excited to have a male teacher. And, Jean Luc is super cool! So, things look good.




Once their names were called by the director they had to go stand in front of their teacher. They were called alphabetically and Terence was first, Charlie Cooper was 2nd and Tom Doherty was 3rd.

Below is T's new classroom. I had a long talk with him the day before advicing him that the best way to get on his new teacher's good side is to sit in the front row. Normally he goes straight to the back row (trying to hide probably). So, he took my advice to heart and went up to the front (he's in the front right putting his pencil case in his desk). The cool thing was that Charlie and Tom followed him. Currently Jean Luc has kept them all together but I think this coming week they will be assigned new seats. PS The new school director's daughter is in their class too... I introduced myself to the director and apologized in advance ;-)


And the end of the day (photo below) at 3pm. Ali came running out in a flood of tears. She only started to cry when she saw me. I asked her what was wrong. When she finally calmed herself down she told me in between sobs, "Me hungry!" She was also tired as a little girl named, Emily (French and our next door neighbor), cried all through nap time.

Home at Last

We have finally returned back to Budapest after our very long, wonderful US trip. We returned on Wednesday on a direct flight from JFK. The kids are all really great flying now so it was pretty easy. We all had our own TVs connected to our chairs to select movies from and even control with pause, fast forward, rewind, etc. They also have their iTouches but it was fun for them to watch some new stuff. Our flight left at 8pm and as many of you know, after the dinner service, the lights all go off for people to sleep. It was about 11:30pm NY time when I finally managed to get them all to sleep. Curt wasn't able to sleep much on the flight due to his allergies. I managed to get about 2 or 3 hours of sleep so that helped us with the jetlag a little bit more.

We landed 1 1/2 hrs early at 10am! We must have had major tailwinds helping us out!

The kids are slowly getting over jetlag. So far it's been late nights up and lots of sleeping in for them. I'm trying to get them on track before it's back to school on Wednesday, Sept 2nd... Wish me luck.

More photos and videos from our trip coming soon.

Friends at the Beach

My dear, dear friend Kerry drove up to Kiawah Island from Tampa, FL to visit with us for 4 nights. We all had a great time. The kids so enjoyed each other's company. Here's a snap of 2 of her 3 plus our trio on one of the boardwalks...

Lollipop, Lollipop....

For those of you that know Ali and Mia know they both have a sweet tooth. Much more than anyone else in our family. Mia's tooth is the sweetest but Ali is a close 2nd.

In the beautiful Sanctuary Hotel on Kiawah Island, there is a great ice cream shop called Beaches and Cream. We often walked up the beach for some as it was only a 15 min walk from where we were staying. For days the girls eyed these giant lollipops until one day I just gave in. They made great props for some snaps but the girls barely made a dent in them as they were so gigantic... and messy!

WARNING ... this is what you will look like afterwards. Not only was it in her hair but the salt in the air seemed to cling to her. It took about 2 days of bathing before she resumed to her normal cuteness...