Blah Blah Blog

So blogging hasn't been my bag lately. I gotta give it up to those single working mothers. B has traveled a ton since school started and I am working ONLY part time, but it's enough to set myself up for disappointment as not everything gets done and the BLOG (among other things) gets put on the back burner. The thing is, I don't regret making the decision to work. I feel like this was the best thing for me, my family, and my life and I have loved my job as a principal. It has been WAY more work than I thought it would be and working through culture/language barriers can make it even dicier, but it has been a definite strengthening experience for me. I mean, who doesn't love organizing a school wide Mommy&Me Day where we get to go to "Hawaii"?? :)

The hard thing is carrying the label as "Working Mom." Doesn't EVERY mom work? I mean I am just pulling a double shift, right? Working double duty? And then the counter-argument would be, what about dads? Yes! What about Dads!?! If you are as lucky as I am to have a husband who is as supportive and helpful around the house as B is, (he even does most of the laundry!! Note: I only messed up a few loads of laundry until I was given a work-release from the laundry) then can't I say that he is a Working Dad? In this case, I would be okay with the term, "Working Mom" if and only if dads can be called, "Working Dads" because that just insinuates that being a Dad or a Mom means that they work too.

Am I being too gender equality pushy? Am I reading into it too much? My husband knows me too well. I can see him reading this and he will be all, "no way" but he will be nodding his head in his mind, I just know it. I love you too sweetie! ;)

Me with my "Working Man" at Disney.
Yet another post that will have to wait for another day... or so.

The Ferry to Denmark

Row, row, row your ferry
gently through the sea
To get to the other side
What a way to ride!

When I think of a Ferry, I think of the one B and I went on to get to my friend's wedding on an island off the coast of Maine. We drove our car on the boat and then we could either chill in our car or watch from the dock. It was cool, but nothing beats this Ferry. There are restaurants, stores, a play area for the kids, a cartoon area playing Tom and Jerry (very language savvy since they don't speak), and, yes folks, there is even a casino.

LOUD and HUGE! That is what I would describe the holding area for all the cars. It's right next to the HUGE motors, so when I read the sign that said, "You must not stay put in your vehicles," I first laughed at the fun English translation, but then thought, Why would anyone WANT to stay down here? It is also ginormous enough to hold three lanes of traffic 30 cars deep. That is a semi parked next to us. 

Logan was not a fan of the wind and he almost threw his shoes overboard. Almost. Dylan's cat-like reflexes caught him just in time. We call him, Shoeless-Lo Chapman. He is often barefoot. 

Dylan also was not a fan of the wind. He yelled, "I don't like the wind! It is blowing the hotness right out of me! I'm cold!" 

The girls, on the other hand, marveled at the new hair styles the wind created for them.  (The tangled aftermath was not so fun.) 

Maleia and Daddy

Haley and Logan
(who kept his eyes closed most of the time because of the wind)

Mommy and Dylan
(who also kept his eyes closed and I was grateful for glasses!)

The blustery couple. Haley can now work the camera. Watch for some good shots coming your way! 

When we got off the Ferry, we were then put on a really cool bridge.
Next stop: Copenhagen!! 

Berlin or Bust!

Chapmans here, checking in from our BIG TRIP this summer to Scandinavia. We decided to stop a night in Berlin to chop up the days a bit before taking a Ferry across to Denmark. Berlin was pretty elaborate. Meaning, everything was BIG or GAUDY or INTENSE. The Holocost Memorial is huge, the fountains and sculptures are super gaudy, and The Wall and people are intense. I have some good friends that are German. I love them. They are also intense... in a good way. Some Germans we met in Berlin were intense in not such a good way. I had to hold my tongue and not call them Nazis. I'm pretty sure that is derogatory there. Maybe even illegal. Like naming your child Hitler is illegal in Germany. True story. I think you can't name your child Satan either...

We arrive to Berlin and two minutes later, this is the first picture I take? Really? And Maleia begged me to take this picture and when I asked the other kids if they wanted to be in the picture they both said, "no way." Maleia is just so awesome she climbed up the statue to take the picture. I'm not even sure it was allowed, so we took it fast. 

We decide to just roam without a plan. This is so unlike me, but it turned out great. We knew we would be back to Berlin because it is so close, but we were surprised to run into so many cool things as we were nonchalantly gallivanting through a city that used to be split in two by a literally huge wall. We read about how people would be shot attempting to go over the wall. But of course, it was just the East Germans being shot at trying to go to West Germany. No one in their right mind would want to migrate to East Germany at that time. 

People would know if you were from the other side of the wall because of the way you spoke. East and West Germans had distinct accents. Crazy!  East Berlin was ruled by Russia and West Berlin was ruled by America, the UK, and France, but mostly America.

If you are knowledgeable about Europe, you will know how YUMMY this place is to eat. Vapiano! We are waiting ever so patiently (I already wrote them an email) to get a Vapiano in the Czech Republic (oh, and wrote a note on their Facebook wall.) What is the hold up!?! We already knew that Berlin had a Vapiano, so we already knew where we were heading for dinner. No Schnitzel for us this time. 

They had these bears scattered around the city. We didn't know why they were there, but the kids thought they were neat enough to take a picture by... but not the giant Spiderman head? 

B teaching the yougins all about map skillz. The summer class is in session. 

The Holocaust Memorial was amazing. There were cement blocks of various shapes and sizes carefully placed in neat rows that took over an entire city block.  

Haley is standing on one of the 2,711 blocks. 

Maleia. sigh. Love her. She is in a posing stage. 

Haley took this as I was walking down one of the waving walkways. I don't know if you can tell, but the walkway is waved which makes pushing a stroller or riding roller blades pretty tricky. We saw many a people roller blading in this labyrinth. Hard core.   

Haley was actually trying to NOT be captured by the photographer. So we were dodging in and out of the pathways for a bit as I was trying to take a picture of her. We weren't being as solemn as we probably should have been. 

We only lost Logan once. Haley found him in 3.9 seconds, but they were some looooong seconds. I think my heat beat 20 times in those 3.9 seconds. He's a slippery little dude. 

Manly man. 

Haley walking with Logan after finding him. He just kept looking at the tiles on the ground as he walked, not caring if he was with his family or not. 

The Brandenburg Gate, also called The Gateway to Berlin, is the only remaining gate under which visitors to Berlin would have passed in medieval times. This is kind of a lame picture since you can see the screen on which residents of Berlin could see the Euro Cup matches. Pretty cool, but come on. The Euro Cup was over two days ago. 

If you asked my kids what their favorite part about Berlin was, they would say the Berlin Bubble Boys. These guys were pretty charismatic and earned their 1Euro entertaining my kiddos to the max. Just two seconds before this, Dylan was complaining that his feet hurt. But as soon as he got the green light to play with the bubbles, he was running, jumping, and chasing these bubbles every which way. This bought us a good hour of complaint free walking.

Haley at "Checkpoint Charlie." Checkpoint Charlie was the nickname given to the well-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.  

I expected Checkpoint Charlie to be a little more grandiose, but there were just two signs and a guard area. Though, Haley and B were the only ones who actually saw this with their own eyes. The rest of the tired feeted and hungry kiddos were at a bakery enjoying fresh bread, a yummy pastry, and juice with their momma. I could tell B really wanted to see this, so I sacrificed and volunteered to stay with the crew that needed a slight rest...ahem, that fresh bread was really good. I think I might have gotten the better end of that bargain.  

B saw another part of the wall, so Haley took another pic. It still amazes me that it was constructed in 1961. The graffiti part was on the West side of the wall as it was prohibited to write on the wall facing the East side. The wall circumscribed a wide area on the East side that they called "The Death Strip" where guards watched day and night and shot anyone trying to defect. On the West side, there was a pathway with lights and parks that grew all the way to the edge of the colorful, artsy wall. 

Refreshed! We met up after our separation and the kids were ready to go again. . . of course, to another more familiar bakery...

DUNKIN' DONUTS!!!
You have no idea how many times we used this place as leverage... and how many times it worked. The kids were elated to be able to eat one of their favorite desserts, after all, the parents got their favorite dinner. 

Logan was so cute with his foot up eating his doughnut, which, in great babylike fashion, he ended up getting more doughnut on him that in him. Oh, and he's in the "take off all shoes and socks no matter how many times your parents plead with you" stage. It's so much fun when you are traveling. Two random people during the day handed us a shoe that he dropped without us noticing. We finally gave up and let him go shoeless. 

On to the next step of our adventure... the Ferry to Denmark!

Fresh and Clean Kids

Who doesn't love a clean kid? 

Logan is in love with his Elmo slippers and has been seen traipsing around with them and would prefer to wear these to church than his church shoes. I'm sure he could get away with them. 

This one is named, "Mo-mo!" (Elmo) And the other  one is named,  "A mo-mo." (Other Elmo)

The only times he sits still are when he is reading books or sleeping.  He likes to read books by himself rather than having you read to him, but wants you to keep reading while he's reading another book. I don't get it either. 

This girl has lost a tooth, broken an arm, and graduated Kindergarten all within a couple of weeks of each other. The cast does not stop her from her dare devil stunts, mind you. She's giving me a run for my money. 

How can you not want to kiss that cute face? He has learned to count to 100 and can read sight words... and will be going to Kindergarten next year!!! We are all pretty darn excited especially since he had to be tested and observed at preschool and they rarely let those who don't make the cutoff get in. We are thrilled! I keep telling Dylan that he can't go to Kindergarten because I will be lonely and here are his reasons why he is ready for Kindergarten:

Sorry there are no Haley-post-shower pics. She says she is too old for those. What?! Okay, so she has a point. 

Conroys come

A little background about the Conroys. One day I get an email from a friend who puts me in touch with Amy who is moving to Budapest and had a baby around the same time as me. She seems nice and a lot like me. She asks about my preschool and we make plans to have Rowan, the one with the REALLY long tongue in the picture below, come to preschool in the fall when they arrive. The first day at work Amy is talking to someone who is welcoming her to the embassy and she tells him about how Rowan is going to my preschool and the man says, "Oh great. That's my wife!" 

We are sooo glad to meet them and have them be a part of our Budapest experience. Good friends come and go, but lifelong friends will never really leave. They just get stationed temporarily out of sight. 

And since it's only a 4 hour drive from Budapest, we got to see them twice already since we moved here. Lucky us. 

The whole crew. See what I mean about his tongue? Crazy long, huh? 

Charlie is in LOVE with trains, so we had to bring them to the Train Restaurant where trains bring your drinks to your table. The kids were captivated. 

There is an overlook at the restaurant where the kids can go and see all the trains busy at work. The kiddos can even see the servers loading and unloading them.

These two boys are the best of friends! Dylan misses him so. 

The menfolk. The two on the right ran a half marathon this same morning. And they were smiling! 

Crazy, fun boys dancing in the streets of Prague. They were being egged on by some tourists who also took pictures of our fun boys. Kind of weird to take pics of other people's kids, but the boys didn't mind. 

Trying to get the boys to sit still for a picture. 

Almost possible... maybe... 

Getting closer... 

Nope. Not this time. And that tongue is out of control!!! 

They can have fun anywhere, anytime, as long as they are together. 

It's fun that these two can now actually play together instead of just observe each other at a distance. 

We love the Conroys! Come back!!