Looking back...

Found some pics in the video camera that I had forgotten!

Shoulder Angel again! Better than Lek's name for her, "Demon child!"

Face off: Spooner and Polyp Kapitan!

Wipe that smug smile off your face, Mr. Polyp!

Take down!

The Goob's egg from our Hungarian egg decorating activity at the church...

Papaya, shwoing us an "owie," no doubt...the story of her life.

More pics of the happy baby...can't resist.

Nagyon aranyos!

 

Really...who needs toys when you have big brothers?

Apparently, we still do.  School and dress up time for the animals!

I felt I needed to document the plague of the ponies...yes.  They are everywhere.  They are underfoot, they are in the corners, they are lurking behind every corner.  They wait until you least expect it and then they jump into your little girls' hands and then the brawl begins!  "She has my pony!" I hear so often, and when I do hear it, it is normally from the child with a pile of no less than twenty hiding behind them or in their skirt!  Nice.  Yes, sharing is a constant topic, and, yes, the ponies are frequently put in "time out," until sharing and love is shown for a while.  Sigh.  It is hard when being particular with things is so much a part of certain children's personalities!

"I have the power!" (name that show :)...yes, I grew up in the 80's.)

Pipalicious, your suspicious, and delicious, and mysteriously nutritious...

"Tiny" miracle?

In my mission statement that I read almost every day, it says that I find joy and rejoice in the golden moments, the drops of awesome, the tiny miracles that make up my life.

As I was reading it this morning, I remembered one of those miracles, that at first was discguised as a frustration.

Before we go home, there are a few places we want to take the kids here in Hungary that are close and accessible.  We are not panicked about seeing everywhere we can, as, first of all, the list would be endless :), and, second of all, that is not the reason we came, so we can go home content with seeing some things locally.

This week we are going to Lake Balaton, a castle near there, then over to Egér (castle), Miskolc (castle), and then an abbey in those mountains from the 13th century.  Q-dawg and I had decided to rent a car, one big enough for all of us, since that will be more direct, easier to transport our camping stuff, and perhaps even less expensive than the buszek and all the transfers.  We signed up and had it all ready to go, when Q-dawg read that you couldn't use your bank card with that company,...it had to be a credit card.  It didn't matter what funds were available,...it just had to be a credit card.  Well, our only credit card was currently in transistion and we were planning on picking it up in the United States after getting home.  Hmmmmm...plan B?

Q-dawg is a quick thinker and looked into local transporation.   The company he looked at didn't have a van, but we could rent two of them, and it would be more than half as expensive!  Woohoo! I don't know if that qualifies as a tiny miracle or a huge one, but I felt like I needed to make a record of it in gratitude. The only down-side is that I will be driving in Hungary (yikes :S!!!!), but I'll just follow Q-dawg, right?

We picked up a couple tents for the trip, since finding a place for all of us to sleep was equally problematic.  We will just throw in our bedding, a bunch of clothes and a few supplies, pick up food at local markets, and hope we stay dry enough to be able to enjoy things :)! 

Castles, here we come!

Dog days

The heat's been dreadful, with lots of humidity for some time.  Today is cooler with a great breeze, so we all slept better.  For now, all the kids (including Spooner and Lek) have migrated to the main room, so it is 9 kids in a room and all pleased as punch to be cooler.

Here are some things we have been doing to beat the heat:

-Lek and Avot continue to duel over chess. Avot read up on some tips online so it has been about 50/50 winning for both.  Here is a game Lek wanted documented:

The opponents:

The game!  Checkmate on brown!

Here are some shots of when Lek was chasing the little girls around taking pictures...

Papaya decided to pick up a little light reading and has chosen "Uncle Tom's Cabin" for her first book

Avot's doing a little house cleaning and took a picture of her periodic chart that she put up to memorize the elements...or at least see how they fit together...nerd. :)

Adventure in the Hills of Hungary and Girls at play

Today, the kids went off on an adventure, enjoying some last times in the beautiful nearby forests in Hungary.  They finished up their chores and basics and then loaded up popcorn, nuts, water, cheese, mushrooms and apples. They headed to the store to pick up kifli and chips on the way, and they were off! 

"When do we need to be back?" asked Lek.

"Before the plane leaves," was his father's answer.  No problem!

My little naturalist!

The valley where the medieval weaponry tournament was held...time to explore!

I love this little hiker!  So amazing!

Made it up!

There were a bunch of pools inside the trees that were were completely black and went down really deep

Another cool beetle from Hungary!  It was huge, about 2 inches!

Meanwhile, Papaya and I did puzzles, went on a walk with Spooner and Daddy, and took a nap.  I think she was bored with me.  When the kids came home six hours later, she went racing up to them, excitedly calling out their names.

A little while later, I looked up from where I was studying to see Papaya and Hava on the bed with Spooner laying contentedly next to them, as I listened to the following bits and pieces of "their" conversation:

"Do you speak English?" Hava asked.

"Suh!" ("Sure!") replied Papaya.  This is an important first question for Hava with her friends here in Hungary.  (Most of them say, "nem," but we have had lots of fun with them nonetheless!)

"I'm the biggest queen and the princess," said Hava, "And (Spooner) is the big baby."

No complaints from him.  I think he missed them, too.  He was just lying there, playing with whichever of the toys the girls sent his direction.

Papaya went along with whatever Hava said, thoroughly enjoying her Hava and Hava's new-found talent for sharing her fifty million ponies with her. :)

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa from Norway part I

We all tried to keep busy doing our own things, to keep our mind off the excitement of waiting!!

We love our Grandma!

Q-dawg and I got some good Dad time in the meanwhile while Lek is...what? :)

The kids didn't bother with lining up to tell Grandma everything they could...they mobbed her :).

Papaya sleeping on my lap...these two little girls were worn out with the excitement of waiting for and then seeing Grandma and Grandpa!

Q-dawg with sleeping Hava on his lap

First moments with Grandma! :)  So happy!  He even fell asleep on her the first night together...so sweet!

Chugger-dude is ready to go!!!

On Castle Hill, heading down into the cave system under Budapest!

Innocent enough looking doorfront, and yes, Lek is that much taller than Avot.

Two of my favorite people! :)

I think Grandpa carried that stroller up and down more steps in one day than I have my entire time here in Hungary...what a wonderful dad!

"Grandpa, I think we should just leave Papaya here.  I'm beat" says Lek.  "Not without my sister!!!" declares Spooner.

Ready for the next leg...

See, Lek...it's not so bad.  :)

Apparently, they used this system as a secret defense hide-out, a dungeon and torture chamber, a place to keep storage items, and a hospital during wars.  So cool!

Thanks, Goob :)

They had a bunch of dummies dressed up as actors in scenes of one of Verdi's operas, and had the music from it playing while we were down there.  It was probably better this way so it wasn't so quiet and eerie.

They didn't have lights everywhere, so we kept flashing our cameras down random openings to see how far they went back.

Make a wish...throw a penny!

Chugger-dude with a tunnel leading up behind his head...

And this is what was behind it!

This is an example of some of the stone work that was made and mined here, another use of this cave system.  Most of the stonework on the buildings of Budapest was made here, the signs and placards said.

They had lots of cool doors that we couldn't go into

And then this gentleman locked up behind a grate.

This is looking up another hole leading up

This is the part where the signs on the wall tell about the 10 year imprisonment in Budapest, some of it being tortured and kept in these caves, while his love stayed at home and eventually killed herself because he was not there.  It was then that he developed his "lovely" revenge policies of impaling people, earning the title of "Vlad the Impaler."

We found this bird cage torturing device in the end of one of the passageways.  I can only imagine how terrible it would have been to be down here, all alone in the dark!

Everyone wanted a turn...I knew if I left out any pictures here, someone would be sad.

These were in the same area, to set the mood, no doubt.

Even Grandpa and Grandpa wanted a turn

 

I loved this shot of Grandma's!

This one too :).

Yes, we have a flair for the dramatic.  Chugger-dude set up his own shot of this one, and kept checking to make sure I got the right effect.  I don't know what this kid has been reading or watching (or actually, I do) so I am not sure where he gets this from...oh, yeah.  His dad. :)

When Q-dawg gets his blog post up on Norway, you'll understand the foot shot.

Hava with another door (fortunately we found the important door not too long after...the one to the "Toilett"

Love that Hava!  I prefer these kind of pretty poses, personally :)

Here is Grandpa finding a resonance frequency of one of the rooms

Like with the bird cage, everyone wanted a turn on this!

My kids act so natural on a throne :)

The only way mom stays sane sometimes: restrict the 2 year old to the stroller! :)

She doesn't seem to be suffering too greatly :)

Surprisingly, it took some convincing to get these two shots :)

Which way, which way...

Apparently, Liliputian found the portal to a different dimension, and Chugger-dude is trying to figure out how to get there himself.

Just in case we could read it later :)

Don't let this fool you.  We got this shot because it was so adorable, and so unusual :)

I love grandpas!

On our way to the wedding...via the metro!

One of the many streets of Budapest...very typical, if a bunch of different old buildings can be "typical"

The one across the street from our busz stop

Grandma is so good at finding the cool things to take pics of!

One last look before we are off to the wedding!