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...

Sunset Cruise

Last week we had the pleasure of going out on the Chesapeake Bay on a sunset cruise. We went out with our friends Craig, Tammy and their 1 1/2 year old daughter, Olivia. Our journey was on the oldest skipjack sailboat registered in the US (125 yrs old). It was beautiful and a great evening.

After we got back to shore we snapped a family photo with our Captain Wade and his 9 yr old grandson, Sawyer.

On the left is Craig and Tammy and on the right is Olivia sitting on Mia's lap. Our kids adored Olivia!

More on our enjoyable visit to their house outside of St. Michaels, MD soon!!

A Visit to Ole' Camp Letts

On Thursday, on our return to the Dulles area from Maryland's Eastern shore, we stopped to visit Curt's old camp. Not only did he attend this camp as a camper when he was a kid but he also was a counselor here and was in charge of the sailing camp. We wanted to take the kids to show them. We thought maybe next year they'd (at least Terence and Mia) be ready for an American sleep over camp and this was one option.

The camp was beautiful. Curt shared some fun stories with all of us and even chatted to the new director about the founding family and all of his experiences. Here are a few snaps.

PS Sorry for being so out of touch. We've been without internet (other than on our Blackberries). Additionally, we have just not been spending much time sitting at a computer as we've been too busy with catching up with friends and family.

Fun at the Pool

I have definitely been a slack blogger since being in the US. We are having so much fun and with so many visitors all the time, getting on the computer to blog is not something I have enough time for. Had to post this fun photo from the pool yesterday. We are still on Kiawah Island but the kids needed a break from the beach. It was fine by us! We decided to do shoulders and chicken fights so here I am with our trio, Terence, Mia and Ali and then our great friends Riley and his sister, Keira. They've been with us since Sunday along with our friends Agnes, Dennis and Margaret. Everyone leaves today - boo hoo... And then we head up north on Saturday - double boo hoo.

This photo was taken at the Sandcastle pool on Kiawah Island. The best thing to come out of this day was that I met a very nice lady who heard we lived in Europe. Dottie and I got to talking as she told me her grandchildren (twin 7 yr old boy / girl) also live in Europe. When I found out more, I found out they are in Paris with their American dad and French mom and they spend 4 weeks every summer in Kiawah!!! Bravo. T and Mia will now have good friends to play with, do tennis camp with, etc next year. And, they can all practice their Francais! Dottie was equally excited so we exchanged contact details.

While we've been here Terence and Mia have been working with a French tudor 2 - 3 days per week. This week they had off as Corinne returned to work (she's a French teacher) and we are surrounded by lots and lots of friends. It was very helpful and she was very good and very strict with them. It seems cruel to not let them have fun during the summer but since we don't speak French and they aren't hearing much of it this summer, it is important. They also worked a lot on their reading, writing and math so I was very happy that their brains' power is not fading in the sun!

Gone Fishing

Yesterday Curt went out and purchased some fishing rods as he thought it was time to take the kids fishing. About 2 years ago he took T but a baby alligator kept stealing their bate in one of the lagoons. This time he thought it was time to try the ocean and see if they had better luck.

We thought it was best to wait until a quiet time on the beach so we went for an early dinner and went out afterwards at about 7pm.

I took quite a few snaps for you to look through. It was a perfect evening!

Ali and I were the spectators. I brought out a good book, The Help, so read, took snaps and sipped on my white wine while Curt fished with T and Mia.

Then suddenly Curt screamed my name! T had caught his first fish only 15 mins after we started!!! It was so exciting! The few people on the beach ran over to see the big fish that he pulled out of the ocean... It's a good thing as Curt had trouble pulling the hook out of the fish. We wanted to throw him back as we had already eaten dinner! T was so disappointed. He wanted to take it home and have me cook it. I'll admit I am an adventurous cook but cleaning a freshly caught fish is still something I haven't yet attempted. Nor, do I plan to anytime soon! Around here there are tons of local fisherman selling already cleaned and filleted fish... Next time maybe we'll take T's catch over. Then, I'll cook him up for dinner.

Can anyone tell me what kind of fish this is?

And the video of it all in action! Look how excited T is!

Mia never managed to catch anything but here she patiently waited by her pole.

Then, T caught a 2nd fish. Much smaller but still a thrill. He reeled it in all by himself.

After each fish he went and sat by himself in one of our chairs. I finally asked him what he was thinking about. I asked him if he was sad that we didn't keep the fish to cook up. He answered, "No. Not really." thought a bit longer and then answered, "I'm just thinking about how that fish felt when it was out of the water. He probably feels like I do when I am under water." He's always such a deep thinker...

3 Kids on the Beach

This was taken last week when we were walking down the beach (they are on the dunes here) to get ice cream at the Sanctuary Hotel. It's very, very difficult to get a photo of the 3 of them all posing (ie looking at the camera, eyes open, not making silly faces, etc). So, I have to share it as I like it!