Dance Class Photos

Not much to say. We just got Katie's Dance Class photos back and scanned in and wanted to share them with you. Her actual recital is in the beginning of June.

Spring Break Fun

Staying in Budapest for Spring Break is not all bad. On Wednesday the kids and I had some fun taking a boat ride on the Danube.

They listened to the pre-recorded tour guide for about 10 minutes before deciding it was boooring.

Passing by Parliament and enjoying the open air deck.

View from the back of the boat.

Now we are inside enjoying our fruity cocktail drink.

Nice children who pose as we pass Parliament again.

Goofy Children

On Friday we went to the Railway History Museum with some friends from school.

Climbing on Board

Vito driving the train

Katie and Vito pose nicely for Dad.

The Whole Gang. It took several tries to get everyone mostly looking my way.

We were lucky that they also happened to be having an "Old Time" car exhibition when we visited.

Katie was immediately drawn to this car. You can't really tell from the photo but it looks like someone took a BeDazzler to the hood and made a nice pink flower design.

Vito thought that this jeep looked like Sarge from the movie "Cars".

We also saw "Monsters vs. Aliens" and went to the park to enjoy the awesome Spring weather. What a fun Week!

Easter 2009

Sorry that this post about Easter is a week+ late. That's due in about equal parts to procrastination and then my internet connection being down.

Since we decided not to go to Amsterdam after Anna's accident (or "Hamsterdam" as VJ calls it) the Easter Bunny was able to leave all the goodies out in the garden. Thankfully the weather this Spring has been AWESOME!

Katie and Vito Jr are ready to go outside and look for eggs.

Which are eggs and which are just rocks?

Vito finds an egg by the tree.

Katie was very excited to see the new basket that the Bunny brought to replace the one that got stepped on and broken last year. It even has a pink lining.

Vito shows off his haul.

Counting their loot to make sure that the Bunny was "fair." The Bunny is not stupid and made sure that they each had the same amount.

Not So Good Friday

Anna is always complaining that I don't post enough to the blog. I tell her no one wants to read how the kids went to school, you went to work, I surfed the internet cleaned the house all day. Repeat. Unless something interesting happens, what is there to post? Well unfortunately, something "interesting" happened yesterday.

So Friday started out just like any other day. Anna got up early and went downstairs and did her 40+ minutes on the treadmill. Then she came back up to shower. It was after getting in the shower that things go horribly wrong.

You see, she wasn't alone in the shower. There was a bug in there too. And not just any bug, some sort of mutant killer bumblebee. A HUGE bee, like it's from a hive near a nuclear plant or something. Fleeing ensued.

Mutant bees not withstanding, you really shouldn't run in the bathroom. Her first couple of steps were OK:
1st Step: Bath Mat
2nd Step: Little rug in front of the sink
3rd Step: Bathroom tile...uh oh.

Thump.

She fell pretty hard and hit her head on the corner of wall. I came rushing in and was immediately directed to kill the bastard bug that caused all this. It was not until that was completed that I turned back and we both realized she was bleeding. Profusely. She had a nice sized cut in the back of her head.

Now this all happened just after 7am. A message left at our doctor's office was promptly returned and we were directed to come in right when they opened at 8am (you try REALLY hard not to go to the hospital over here unless it's REALLY necessary). During this hour Anna had to sit holding a towel to her head while I got the kids breakfast (poptarts), snacks for school, dressed, etc. I also made very funny jokes like asking her if she wanted to drive or should I. Luckily for us, another 2nd grader and friend of Katie's lives two doors down from us and her mom took the kids into school so we could go right to the doctor's office.

Anna had to have a few stitches which they did right there in the office. The doctor wanted the cut covered and since they can't use tape 'cause of her hair they wrapped gauze all around her head. The best way to describe her is that she looks like an amnesiac from a soap opera. Good sport that she is agreed to let me take and post a picture.
She rested and took it easy for the rest of Friday but to be on the safe side we decided to cancel our trip to Amsterdam so we'll be home for Easter/Spring Break. Which meant that I was running around Friday getting groceries and more Easter treats (the Bunny brings more stuff when you are home than when you are in a hotel...at least that's what we had told the kids when we expected to be at the Amsterdam Marriott for Easter).

Anna's doing just fine and is actually more worried about her hair. Here it is in her own words:

I am fine, but sadly (or funny depending on your point of view), Vito says I look like an amnesiac patient since they had to put gauze around my head to hold the bandage. Oh, also, my hair is entirely gross. Since it was right after my shower (or at least I had just washed my hair) - my hair was all wet and not remotely untangled to begin with - then add a crazy looking amount of blood and then after that has dried in pretty good - throw some Betadine on top. Picture Medusa, with a bandage around the snakes :)

The bright side of the whole thing is that if we have to stay home for Spring Break at least the weather in Budapest is supposed to be GORGEOUS the whole week...Sunny with highs in the mids 70's!

Captain Frank Salvaggio

Frank from Vulcan

Fooling with my Dad's picture just never stops being funny.

Cooking Class

No not for me. Why would you think that?

Last week the kids were off from school (school conferences) so a friend organized a cooking class for kids at the Intercontinental Hotel. They made bread, "colored" chocolate Easter eggs with frosting, painted real eggs and sculpted treats with marzipan.

The kids had a great time and the best part was that the hotel staff did nearly everything so the parents just had to sit back and enjoy their coffee and treats (although I do want to point out that I had signed them up for this BEFORE I knew that I only had to drive them there and pay).

We had about 17 kids participating.

Paying attention to the chef's instructions.

Not so much paying attention but ready to start.

Rolling the dough for the bread.

Vito needed a little help.

Ready for the oven.

Katie is concentrating on her design.

Vito is reaching for a different color frosting.

Time to paint the eggs. The best thing that can be said about the water color paints they used is that even if it didn't color the eggs that well, it also didn't stain our clothes.

The kids had a great time and we will definitely do this again if the opportunity presents. Thanks to my friend Monica for sharing the pictures with me since the bad Dad forgot his camera at home.