Snow Fun

Yesterday started out pretty yucky. We had freezing rain and hail. Lots of fun for driving Katie to school & Anna to work. However, by the time VJ & I made it back home it had changed to snow! By late morning we were able to go out and play in the snow for the very first time.

Katie had been in school all day and because of the weather they had indoor recess so she did not know that it snowed until I picked her up from school. I wish you could have seen her excitement. She went on and on about what fun we were going to have when we got home.

Today it warmed up so we have a nice muddy backyard.

Here are some more pictures from the past few days.

Buying a Car

So this weekend we went and looked at new cars. Buying a car in the US is so much fun, you know that I could not wait to go car shopping here. Luckily Anna did most (all) of the research, with some help from the folks at ExxonMobil.

As we've been driving around Budapest, we have been checking out the different types of cars and discussing their pros and cons. However, this all stopped when I saw the perfect vehicle for us:

Now, I know what your thinking. It's an ugly gray Van. It's also a Mercedes which puts it well above our price range and it's actually listed as a Light Commercial Vehicle. But it has one quality that no other vehicle can match. It's name. Let's zoom in and check it out:

The name of the car is the VITO. Which is, as we all know, the best name EVER. Those of you who have made the mistake of asking me why I don't have a middle name have already heard my feelings on this matter (the short of it is, when your first name is already the BEST name that there is, any middle name can only be a let down).

Now Anna was reluctant to go along with the Mercedes Vito as our first choice for a car for all the reasons I stated above. However, I have a strict policy that anything with my name on it, I must buy it. I should note however that this is the first time that this policy has ever been in danger of being enforced since the people who make mugs and pencils and bicycle license plates, etc. don't recognize the preeminence of my name. (One of the coolest gifts I ever got was a rubber stamper that had my name in a rocket ship. I'm pretty sure my mom had to special order it. If I ever get my scanner working I'll scan in a copy of it as I know you are all dying to see it).

Any way, cooler minds (Anna's) prevailed and we bought a Toyota Corolla hatchback. And when I say bought I really mean ordered as we won't receive it until about March 8th, which is actually quite fast for Europe. The buying process was not that bad as the one car salesman that spoke English was going on vacation the next day and the fact that he was too busy trying to wrap all his work up (& that the new model year is being released over here in March) meant that he was too busy to screw us too much.

We're Moving Again

At first we thought our new house was wonderful. And in most ways it is. It is really big by Budapest standards. The living room is HUGE with tons of room for the kids' toys. The kitchen is cool and our bedrooms are a good size. I like the location (OK it could be a little closer to Katie's school) and the 24 security was an attraction when you don't know the city that well.

However, one big problem has come up. There's this black cat that keeps coming around. No pets are allowed in our complex so I have no idea if it's a stray or what. It seems friendly enough but everyone knows that cats are evil. Black cats especially so. I can't be having the devil's minion coming around the house all the time so our only choice is to move.

Huge living room. On the right of the picture you can see part of the large area where the kids play.

One downside to the house is that there's no separate area for a kitchen table so we have to eat every meal at our dining room table. This has given Anna a little bit of heartburn as she loves her dining room furniture and we have to watch out for Katie-the Ketchup Queen (guess which chair is Katie's...I'll give you a hint...it's the one with the towel draped over it).

Playground Fun

The kids love the playground that's (relatively) near our house. I like it because there's a fence all the way around it so no worries about running into the road. Here's a few pics from last week.

The see-saw is Katie's favorite. She laughs at me when I call it a teetor-totter.