Out of Touch

I'll be out of touch until Sunday night or Monday morning (more realistically) as I'll be in Brighton, England (on the sea coast) with some girlfriends for the weekend. Ali will be at the babysitters for the weekend but Curt will be looking after T and Mia until I return Sunday evening.

I'm very excited as a big group of us are renting a house and flying in / driving in from all over. It's in celebration of my friend, Kim's 40th, but more like a reunion with old friends.

xoxo

The Budapest Amusement Park

As many of you have heard, the weather in Budapest has been absolutely fabulous. In the 60s, sunny and just perfect. It's strange to have this warm of weather in November but we are NOT complaining. Last year at the time we had our first snow fall. Instead, the flowers in the garden are growing and we are getting lots of wear out of our warmer weather clothes.

In Budapest, we actually have an amusement park over near City Park and next to the zoo. Terence has been there before with friends and his Uncle Robert but never with all of us as a family. He's been asking us to take him for months. Finally, we had a weekend when it was possible. I looked up their open hours on Saturday, Nov 1st and discovered that Nov 2nd was their last day before they closed for the winter. So, we HAD to go! And, it was good that we did. The park was very empty and we got to go on all the rides with minimal and sometimes no waits. It was perfect and the kids were thrilled.

Here are our Sunday, Vidampark (the name of the amusement park in Hungarian) photos:

At the entrance waiting for Curt to park the car. Parking around there is a nightmare as there is only street parking and no parking lots or garages.

This was one of the first rides we went on. Terence went on it once and, even though he didn't admit it, I think he thought it was a bit too scary. Mia, on the otherhand, loved it! She could not get enough of it. You can see her above in the 2nd row with Curt. The ride was fast with lots of hills (no loops) and twists. She ended up riding it about 10 times by the end of the day. The last 6 was with me and we did it back-to-back. We'd get off and race back to the front to catch the very next rollercoaster! With no waiting period. It was great! Every time she rode it she would scream and giggle. It was hilarious.


These next photos are from the little kid area where T and Mia happily rode along with Ali

Lunch break. Langos!! It's like elephant ears (fried dough) in the US but instead of a sweet sugary topping, they put sour cream, cheese or sausages on top (or all three). T chose sour cream and the girls sour cream with cheese but we all agreed that in the future plain is probably the way to go.

Ali loved this stone dog.

From the top of the ferris wheel.

A little kid roller coaster. We all loved it.

T rode alone in the very back.

Someone wore themselves out! Too much excitement for Ali.

Terence's Thoughts on Politics

More Trick-or-Treating Fun

I promised to finish up with the photos from Halloween and our trick-or-treating experience and here they are. The kids had a great time. An American friend organized for the Rozsakert shopping mall to be our trick-or-treating venue for the afternoon. Almost all the shops were handing out candy so the kids ran through the 3 levels and approximately 35 stores to get their bags filled with candy. Here our some snaps of the action and fun.


I thought this one of Terence (above left) was funny. He was in the lingerie shop. The lady gave him extra candy for being so scary. He loved that. Mia (above right) amongst her pals: Leah is the cheerleader and Zalan is Spiderman. Zalan is the boy that is Leah's 'boyfriend' but keeps asking Mia to come over to play. Mia feels funny about this invitation and wants to hang out with Zalan but is afraid that he'll think she wants to be his girlfriend. She doesn't want this as it is her great friend's boyfriend. They are all in Kindergarten! It's incredible!


Mia counting her candy and Ali running to keep up. Ali's Little Mermaid costume kept riding up as it was a bit tight around her legs.


Riding up the escalator and in the Rozsakert Medical Center (location of our family doctors) pushing past the patients to get to the loot!


Mia getting her face painted and then being chatted up by Zalan


I was so happy to get them to eat something other than candy! This was in the cafe where we all went after we finished trick-or-treating. Ali's knickers - she thought it was funny that we could all see them!

Funny Ad

We just came across this promotional sign on one of the museums yesterday. Curt and I had to read and reread it several times as we thought we had misunderstood. Very strange but it explains a lot and summarizes a lot of personalities up here...

Saying Farewell

We decided that we should take flowers over to Margit Neni's home yesterday evening. At the flower shop, we found a nice wreath that we felt was appropriate. The 5 of us (plus the 3 dogs) walked over to place it on her door and wish farewell to our favorite neighbor and good friend, Margit.

When we got there Mia insisted on ringing the bell thinking that Margit Neni would, in fact, come to the door like always. She waited patiently and we had some convincing to do in order for her to understand that she was really in heaven. We shared our favorite stories with each other which made me remember my last meeting with Margit Neni. She had come over for a visit, with flowers, and we chatted for a while. She gave me an unusually long hug and looked extra sad. Maybe she knew.

After we placed the wreath on her buzzer, Mia shouted up to the sky three times 'Szia Margit Neni' which means good-bye Margit Neni. She was convinced that Margit Neni heard her. She continued in Hungarian chatting to Margit Neni and telling her how much she loved her.

About an hour later, once back at home, our doorbell rang. It was Margit's granddaughter Gabi. Gabi speaks English, lives in Budapest and is 30 years old. She visited us to tell us how much Margit loved all of us and how she had our pictures all over her home. She called us her angels and was happy to have us looking after her and the kids always visiting with her. It was a very nice visit by Gabi. Gabi will call us on Monday to give us the funeral information as we all want to go. By the way, Margit would have been 90 years old on Nov 19th.

A Perfect Fall Day

We had a fab day out yesterday (Saturday). We first went for sushi at a highly recommended Japanese restaurant off the beaten path and packed with Japanese families. It was great!

After, we hit the playgrounds in the city. We went to one that we haven't been to in a wild that is filled with trees. It was beautiful. The kids and Curt had some great hide-n-seek games and spent hours playing and enjoying the warm weather.

On the bottom left is Mia showing what they found. I created a scavenger hunt for them and gave them a list of things to find. They did very well working as a team.

This last photo was taken by T. I thought he did a great job.

Good Bye Margit Neni

For those who have spent time at our home know that Margit Neni (our dear friend across the street) meant a lot to our family. From day 1, she was always sweet and warm to all of us. We helped her with her garden work (ie cutting her grass, pruning her trees, taking her cake, bringing her a x-mas tree every year, etc) and she would cut us flowers from her garden. For the last 2 years, Mia would visit Margit Neni almost every weekend alone. This summer Ali started to join her in the walk over. They would sometimes stay for up to 2 hours just talking with Margit Neni, eating cookies, gardening, etc. It was a wonderful relationship with an 80+ age difference. They adored each other.

We are sad to announce that 2 nights ago Margit Neni died in her home alone. She had a heart attack and was found the next day by her grand daughter. Margit's husband passed away about 3 years ago and I know they are now together again.

This has been a very difficult time for our family and Mia especially is very upset. She's been crying for the last 2 days and is very depressed, confused but understanding at the same time.

Good bye Margit Neni. We love and miss you!




Mia with Margit Neni in 2004. Best Friends Forever.

Happy Halloween

Had a great time at a Halloween party this afternoon with the kids. Here are just a few snaps of them before we left to go to the party. Will add the other photos tomorrow. After flying all night and only about 1 hour of sleep, I am too tired to think any more.

Enjoy these Halloween 2008 photos:

Terence as a 'villain'




And, after their faces got painted at the party.

Back from DC

We are finally back home from our trip to the Employee Relocation Council's 2008 conference in Washington, DC. Flew all night, barely slept but the weather in Budapest is so beautiful and sunny that it is helping us stay awake and moving. So far, we've only seen Terence as he was home from school today. He's in the back playing soccer with Curt right now while we wait for the girls to get home from the Heidi Ovoda nursery school. Then, the 5 of us are off to a Halloween party.

The conference was fantastic. Move One Relocations was well recognized at the conference. We are happy to announce that we won 4 awards this year and the PR was fantastic! 2008 has been an excellent year for us.

Here is the only photo of Curt and I. I took it on a tour that we did with one of our biggest clients. We toured DC at night. It was beautiful. I was happy when we had the opportunity to get out at one of my favorite sites: the Lincoln Memorial. Incredible!

US Bound for a Few Days

Curt and I have a relocation conference in DC next week. We are flying on the BA flight via London's terminal 5 today into Dulles. Depending on the internet connection at the hotel, I may or may not be in touch before Halloween when we are back home. Have a great week everyone. xx

Being 7 - Terence

First of all, I've always made a promise to myself that I would not always report the good news and / or brag too much about our kids. Curt especially keeps us all grounded in this sense. It's not always easy to keep them grounded in the expat la-la land that we live in but we try. I'm pretty strict about teaching them values, manners, respect for others - especially teachers and other parents, awareness and the ability to make sensible decisions (this may be related to spending money or things like how to do their homework). I can ramble on and on about my ideas of parenting but I won't as it's probably not something that any of you want to hear... Nor is it necessary as I have no secrets and we are only trying our best.

The issue with these blogs is that it's hard not to only post the cute photos and the great things the kids do and accomplish. Well, we all know that kids make mistakes, fight with their siblings, get bad grades (maybe not all kids get bad grades), break the rules, etc. We have two rules in our household that we repeat to the kids all the time: Our jobs as parents are to keep them safe and teach them the rules. These rules pretty much apply to everything so they work well and the kids remember them and can apply them easily.

What I am getting at is that I'm going to try not to only brag about our kids in these blog posts but I'm going to combine a bit of the good, bad and ugly. Well, hopefully there is no 'ugly' but there are some not so good things sometimes and I want to remember these just as much as the good.

Recently, Terence was grounded. He was grounded for the first time ever. He's had many time-outs but never a real grounding where he's lost privileges for a set period of time. I can write this to all of you but please, if you decide to bring it up, keep in mind that he is very embarrassed about his mistake and does not want to talk about it (guess he feels guilty which is a good thing).

The grounding was caused by 2 major things that he decided to do in a small time period. The first was writing on the wall. There's a bit more detail to this story. Not only did he just write on the wall. He wrote 'M I A' on the white wall going up the stairs. I didn't see him do this but noticed the red marker one day and automatically assumed it was Mia who did this. She was with me at the time and I started to blame her. She started to cry and say she didn't do it but Mia often denies responsibility as her first reaction so I wasn't sure if she was just lying and trying to stay out of trouble. The thing is Mia has gotten in trouble before for 'graffiti' (as I call it) and she often signs her name (duh) as she loves writing Mia. I told her that if she was telling the truth then I believed her.

When T came home I asked him if he did it. Quite quickly he said 'yes' as his head drooped down and his face filled with embarrassment and shame. It sort of caught me off guard but I'm also always talking about honesty and how they will get in less trouble (in certain situations they get in no trouble) if they are honest with me. It took me a while to think of his punishment for this. It turned out I told him that he would have to pay to get it fixed and I was deducting the money from his account. Since he framed Mia, he'd have to pay her 500HUF from his account to her account. This hurt him more than the 'paying for the repairs'.

The next day when I got home from work, Erika was in near tears about their behavior. She was talking so fast (in Hungarian) that I didn't understand a word she said. I asked T to translate but his translation was in his favor and he left out a lot of vital details about his naughty behavior. To make a long story short, while Erika was preparing a craft for them to do, he grabbed Mia, convinced her to sneak out of the house with him. In their socks, they snuck out to the street and were chasing passing cars. It was about 5pm so there were more than usual, however, it's a side street that isn't too incredibly busy. When she discovered where they were and what they were doing she freaked out and had to go out and drag them back in. Long story short, we were all upset and disappointed with them. I felt bad for Erika as she was repeating to them over and over about how horrible it would be if something happened to them, but if it happened while they were in her care she'd get into lots and lots of trouble.... Terence and Mia were sent to their rooms with no dinner (I think this idea came from the 'Brady Bunch' or something). I didn't know what to do and was so upset with them. Mia went into her room and cried hysterically. Terence was more in shock about everyone's reaction and his unchanged facial expressions bothered me the most. Honestly, I think he was just trying to keep from crying. I went up and had a stern talking with him about this ridiculous stunt he pulled and how it was unacceptable, dangerous, reckless, etc. He shouldn't put his sisters in harms way nor himself. He should also assume that they cannot always perform the same 'stunts' as he can and if one of them tripped or fell or ... well, you know where I went with this conversation.

Anyhow, his grounding was 1 week of no video games. He has 2 - Nintendo DS (a handheld device) and a Playstation (connected to the TV). Our family has a Wii system that is connected to our main family TV. He was grouned off of all of these for a week. And, he counted down the days, hours and minutes. During the week when he is in school, he almost never even touches his video games but it's on the weekends that he sometimes likes to play. I think it was more the idea of not even having it as an option that got to him the most. The week ended on the day Curt came home from Chicago and Terence made sure to get his fill on this day. It was not easy and now I know what it means when a parent says, this is harder for me than it is for you.

Sorry for the long story but I wanted to document this event in his life. I'm sure it's the first of many groundings. However, if I were to predict, I would imagine it will be Mia who breaks the rules most frequently. Just a prediction. I may end up eating my words... I hope...

Since then he has been a great kid. While Curt was away he was a real gentleman and helped me a lot with cooking, cleaning up, looking after his sisters, household chores (he has his own every week but helped me with others), carrying in groceries and bringing in logs and building fires every night.

Here are a few photos of my big boy. He's 7 years old and wearing 10 year old clothes. We call him our giraffe... he's sooo tall!

My beautiful hydrangeas. The one on the right turns this autumn color at this time of year. I love it. In the summer it is more purple.