Sunday, February 24, 2008

Ski Vacation

What we would call "Mid-Winter Recess" in the States is called "Ski Break" in Europe. So that's what we decided to do. We just got back from our Ski Vacation in the Austrian Alps (just south of Salzburg). We stayed in a small village called St. Veit and skied at Alpendorf. We had a FANTASTIC (albeit exhausting) time.

Anna is the only one of us who had ever skied before. And her experience was limited to exactly 3 times, the most recent of which was over 12 years ago.

Our inexperience was OK, since our trip included 5 days (4 hours per day) of ski lessons for everyone. We dropped the kids off each morning at 10:00am and picked them back up at 3:00pm. The ski school even supervised them over their lunch break.

Katie and VJ both had a great time. VJ never left the enclosed Kindergarten area since he never quite learned to stop. He still had a great time, skiing, sledding and playing with the other little kids.


Katie shocked us by how well she did. We were able to see her on Monday & early Tuesday and she was not doing that great. She had trouble standing (& staying) up and couldn't get up without help after she fell. So imagine our surprise on Thursday when we stopped for lunch at a restaurant at the top of the mountain and looked over and saw Katie and her class! They had already skied down the mountain twice that morning and had taken the chair lift back up for another go after lunch.


Anna and I both enjoyed ourselves. We started in the beginner's class Monday morning. After lunch our instructor told us we would be moving up to the next level class as we were doing so well. Monday afternoon was spent with just Anna, myself and one other woman with the instructor. We made some easy runs and really benefited from the extra attention the small class size allowed. And apparently we did well enough that the next morning we were told that we were moving up to the Intermediate Level class. Our instructor was a guy named Johann who really pushed us over the next 3 days. I learned so much and really skied so much better than I ever imagined I would.



However, all this fun came at a price. By Thursday afternoon we were past tired and heading toward exhaustion. We decided to take Friday off from class and just follow the kids around. This ensured that we wouldn't get hurt because we were too tired and also let us see the kids in their races. 'What races?', you ask. Well on Friday morning each class ran a time trial and at the end of the day the school had an awards presentation. Every kid was recognized and received a medal for participating. VJ placed 3rd for his class!


While Katie didn't place in the top 3 (although if you talk to her know that she somehow decided she came in 2nd), she still did awesome! She ran the entire course without falling once and was smiling and enjoying herself the whole way!


Lots of videos to check out:

Katie's Time Trial


VJ's Time Trial


Katie skiing down the mountain. Look for the little girl in pink (5th in line).


VJ Skiing


Ski School wasn't just about Skiing.


The tour company that organized the trip held events each evening. We only made it to 2 of them. The welcome party on Monday night had a limbo contest for the kids & teenagers. Katie and VJ both had fun dancing around. VJ was definitely the youngest kid, but had a great time dancing around and bugging all the little girls.

On Tuesday we stayed in so we could rest up to go and see the fireworks on Wednesday evening. They also had a curling event for the kids which Katie and VJ participated in. Although VJ turned up shy for some reason but was fine as long as Big Sister Katie went up with him for his turn.


On Thursday and Friday we enjoyed going to bed at 8:30pm and falling asleep as fast as possible.

This was definitely one of the best vacations we've ever had.

There's a ton more pictures and videos on our Kodak Gallery Homepage.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Busy Day

A while ago, much to my dismay, Anna got the High Score on Snood (the most evilly addictive game EVER). After much hard work and effort on my part, I am happy to report that the natural order of things has been restored.

Monday, February 11, 2008

International Week

International Week at Katie's school started today. The week focuses on the various cultures, customs, etc. from all the countries represented by the students at AISB.

The kickoff was the parade today. The kids and teachers marched into the gym under their country's flag à la the Olympics. They were encouraged to wear outfits representative of their country; either traditional outfits or their country's colors. I was very impressed at the level of participation and really enjoyed the morning.

Monica Lehner, Katie's 1st Grade Teacher, was the lone representative of Austria.

That's Katie's friend Anya with the "Russia" sign.

Katie and her classmate Annie.

Lots from the Good Ol' USA.

I got pictures of every country EXCEPT Belgium (just missed him) and Pakistan (came out too blurry, even by my crappy photography standards). They are on our Kodak Gallery Homepage and definitely worth checking out.

One funny thing I wanted to share. Each country has their own table (located in the halls all over the school) with items/artifacts that are supposedly representative of that country's culture, history, etc. The USA table is right outside Katie's classroom and she was looking it over when I arrived to pick her up today. Someone had brought in a bag of Oreo's for our table, so Katie had this question:

Katie: "Are Oreo's a traditional food of America, Daddy?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that. I mean, they're not exactly as All-American as Apple Pie, but I know I had way more Oreo's growing up than Apple Pies (I had the 13 cavities -no exaggeration- from post-freshman year to prove it)!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Misc

I laughed at today's For Better or For Worse Comic Strip. Specifically this part:

That is SO not how things work in our house. In our house I would say something like "Hey! Work it out amongst yourselves or I will take. It. Away."

Needless to say, I don't get called on to referee that often.


*******

We say Grace every night before dinner. Nothing fancy, just the standard "Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts..." etc. But you have to really watch VJ. If he thinks we are not paying attention he'll just sit there until we're done, hands clasped but mouth not moving. When that happens we make him say it over all by himself (we're mean like that).

A week or so ago when Anna was in Brussels, VJ chose not to participate in saying Grace. So when Katie & I finished I told him:

Me: "VJ, since you didn't participate, you have to do it by yourself. So go ahead, say Grace."
VJ: without missing a beat "Grace."

Oh my God, I almost bust out laughing. It was all I could do to keep a straight face.

I'm pretty sure it was a legitimate misunderstanding of the instructions I gave him and that he was not intentionally mocking me. If I recall correctly from my experience with Katie, the intentional mocking doesn't start until around age 5.

*******
The Waffles Incident

So I've gotten better at cooking. I'm still not terrific, but hey, it's been a year and no one has starved yet. But this weekend I did have some problems.

During the week we eat cold cereal for breakfast. But on the weekend we cook real breakfast food. The 2 days/weekend, 2 kids in the house situation works out well since VJ always wants scrambled eggs and Katie always wants waffles. The problem is that Anna cooked eggs on Saturday and then left for Thailand Saturday evening, leaving me to make waffles on Sunday. Which I've only done one time before. With Anna's supervision. And I didn'twrite down the recipe.

That's right, I said recipe. There is no box of pancake/waffle mix over here. It's make it from scratch time. I remember thinking the first time that it was a pretty easy recipe. I liked it because it had a lot of "2's" in it:
2 cups of flour
2 eggs
2 cups of milk
2 packages of Sütópor (that's Hungarian for Baking Powder. Or may be Baking Soda. I don't really know which but it's the orange packet in the cabinet and not the green one in the fridge.)
?? cups of oil

Now I remembered that it was not 2 cups of oil and that it was less. But I wasn't sure how much less. So I went with 1 cup.

As I poured it in, I knew it was wrong. Way too much. When I told Anna the story later she said "So you had to start all over, right?" Of course not, but for two good reasons. I didn't really have enough flour to start all over and even if I did, I still didn't know how much oil to use other than "less that 1 cup".

I considered just chucking it and making eggs/french toast but having already promised Katie waffles I decided to persevere and hope for the best. I added whatever flour was left (a little over a cup) and added another cup of milk and an egg and another package of Baking Whatever Powder. I now had enough batter to make Waffles for my whole extended family but whatever.

To top it all off, I was still thinking about the ingredients and not paying attention to which scooper I was using when I poured the first round of batter on to the Waffle Maker and poured WAY too much and got to watch it spew out all over the counter once I closed the damn thing's lid.

All-in-all not one of my prouder culinary moments. The waffles came out..."OK" I would say. They were some what crunchier than normal and I could taste the "extra" oil. VJ ate as much as he ever does (which is to say not much) while wondering out loud why we couldn't have eggs instead. Katie said that they were good and was happy which was the point of the exercise so we're going to mark this one down as a win.

I'd like to close with this observation: This all could have been avoided if Anna had made waffles on Saturday LIKE I SPECIFICALLY ASKED HER TO BECAUSE I KNEW THIS SHIT WOULD HAPPEN. I'm just saying.

BTW, I'm told it's supposed to be 1/3 cup of oil.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Farsang Party

VJ's school had a Farsang Party on Friday. What's Farsang you say? Well, I only know the bare basics but essentially it's a Hungarian Celebration that takes place just before Lent to "scare away Winter." Think Hungarian Mardi Gras. In effect the kids dress up like it's like Halloween but without the candy.

The school did a pretty good job of making the party fun. The kids had Farsang Books and we had to go around the school and find various teachers (dressed as a Clown, Cow, Pig, etc.) and get them to stamp their book. There was also games to play and they got stamps in the books for playing. Best of all, at least from VJ's perspective, was that they had Donuts!

Having fun on the Conga Line!

Carlos and VJ take a Donut break.

The Rabbit was hiding in the business office but we finally found her and got her stamp!

VJ had fun doing the mini-obstacle course.


To top VJ's day off, Carlos's mom picked him up after school and he went to their house to play and have dinner. The best part: they have an indoor swimming pool! He wasn't really excited to see me when I picked him up at 7:00pm.

You can see all the pictures on our Kodak Gallery Homepage.