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Happy Thanksgiving!

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First Lego League 1st place CHAMPIONS!

1st place CHAMPIONS today, which means that the team did well in all 4 qualifying areas. The judges were extremely impressed with their presentation and their amount of knowledge on the subject. They also commented on their teamwork, their "gracious professionalism" of sharing each others' ideas, their support of other teams and more. This is one well-rounded team! See a video.

Now, off to the Champion tournament in December!

Lego League

On Saturday November 14 Nathan will be participating with his team of 4th and 5th graders in the First Lego League regional competition. The theme this year is "Smart Moves" and the team had to come up with one solution to help movement in their community. His team chose "space" and came up with this presentation:

They will also be judged on their Lego robot and how it performs specified tasks.

He (and Dave, of course) are very excited. Wish them luck!

Trick or Treaters

The Headless Horseman and Dorothy (with Toto) had a fun night of trick or treating with friends. The candy swapping afterwards was big fun, and necessary for Nathan since he how has an orthdontic expander on the top of his palate and can't have hard or chewy candy. It was kind of cruel and unusual punishment to put that in the week before Halloween. But, he took that (along with hardly being able to see in his costume!) like a trooper!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

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Spot

We have a new addition to our family! Spot the beagle came to us this week. She is just the sweetest 3 year old beagle who came from a puppy mill past. She was pregnant when the Hound Rescue got her from the puppy mill - who knows how many litters she has had, but they terminated that pregnancy and got her on the road to a normal life. I have heard terrible things about puppy mills and can't imagine the horrible conditions she probably lived in. She doesn't bark and is super friendly to everyone. She just needs lots of TLC, which we are happy to give her!

The Crazy 5 Weeks

So, we knew that the only way we could work Dave's assignment to Hungary was for the kids and I to come back early. And, as the school schedule ran, it worked out that we had to come back five weeks early. But, five weeks is a LONG time to be apart! I know Dave has been super lonely by himself in Hungary and we (I) are all exhausted here trying to get back into the swing of things.

But, he's coming home tomorrow, September 18. YEA! We are all very much looking forward to being on the same continent.

We'll have to take it easy this weekend, though. Nathan got diagnosed with shingles today. Poor guy! He was complaining that his upper arm hurt, and when I took him to the doctor earlier this week, they thought it was just some bruising. After taking him back today and insisting that something else was wrong with him (and having 2 doctors look at him!), they diagnosed him with shingles. So much for keeping us all healthy while Dave was gone! But, hopefully since he's young and since he's had the chicken pox vaccine, he will recover fairly quickly.

So, please send some well wishes Nathan's way. THANKS!

Scampers the Hamster

We have a new member of the family! Nathan got promised a hamster for his birthday and couldn't WAIT to come home to pick one out. He picked out a dwarf robo hamster - the smallest, fastest type of hamster. Her name is Scampers!

Heading for home

We're all headed to Budapest tonight for one last sightseeing day before the kids and I get on the plane on Friday. We'll also have one last "hurrah" in Philadelphia on the way home - we'll be visiting Kris and Patrick and meeting Maya! We'll be home on Monday August 17th. Dave will chug along in Debrecen until September 18th. It may be a crazy month for all of us!

Scenes of Debrecen

Some pretty churches, some ugly concrete apartment buildings. A neat fruit and vegetable market, lots of graffiti. These are some of our impressions of Debrecen.

Click on the photo below for more photos.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa - part 3

The Leaning Tower of Pisa - part 2

The Leaning Tower of Pisa - part 1

Ahhhh - Tuscany

Our trip to Italy was everything we hoped it would be: beautiful, peaceful and enjoyable. Without really intending to, our entertainment gravitated towards Italian food and wine and tours thereof - it was delicious! We stayed on an olive farm and learned how premium olive oil is made, we toured a vineyard and sampled many types of Chianti that are made in the area, and we took a pizza class. Our location was so beautiful, and it was away from the flock of tourists. We did a lot of relaxing and enjoying the countryside (with the resident cat Bililo on our laps). We took a sunset hike one night and had spectacular views! The kids desperately wanted to visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so we did that too, and got to go up in it. You can really feel it lean as you climb the stairs.

Click on the photo below to see more pictures from our trip.

Off to Italy

We're headed to Tuscany, Italy today to eat pasta, drink wine and enjoy the countryside. Oh, and we may see a museum or cathedral too. The kids are very excited to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We'll catch you up when we return next weekend

Thermal Baths

There are thermal baths all over Hungary, and the Hungarians LOVE to spend time in them. They're not as hot as you would expect - they feel like warm bath rather than a hot tub. And, alongside many of the baths they have added water pools with slides for the kids. Nathan and Kate's absolute favorite place that we've been so far is the thermal baths (The Aquaticum) in Debrecen, and we frequent there once a week.

Check out the water slides in Debrecen under the videos section here.

Yesterday we explored some "Cave Baths" in the town of Miskolc. These baths were literally inside a cave - making for a very unique experience. We didn't take any photos - too hard to protect the camera, but here's the website. Very cool!

Hungarian cuisine

Cock's Testicles anyone? It's true - check out #13 on the menu:

Maybe this is why we don't want to eat out too much? While we're in Debrecen, it's easier and cheaper to eat at "home." Shopping for food has become quite an adventure, though. We had success today at a huge market where all sorts of meats, fruits, and vegetables are sold. The meat market grossed me out - I can manage to buy sliced salami for Dave and the kids at the regular grocery store but much more is rough. I prefer my meat to be packaged nicely with cellophane and refrigerated!

We are loving the fruit and vegetable market, though! We came back today with fresh carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries, corn on the cob, and paprika (not their beloved paprika powder that is red, but sort of a white bell pepper that is excellent on sandwiches). Everything there is local and very fresh.

The kids' main staple (other than ice cream, which they seem to beg off me frequently!) is big, white rolls (that cost about 5 cents and are delicious!) made into a salami sandwich. Easy enough, especially since we have been picnicing a lot.

So....we'll pass on the cock's testicles. Bocci Chocolate anyone?

The Maze

Click here to view this video

Settling in in Debrecen

We've been here 3 weeks now. Some things are becoming familiar, others are becoming increasing frustrating. We all thought it was pretty hard to come home from Vienna to Debrecen. Vienna is such a modern, bustling city with wonderful food, clean streets, cool museums, and everything seems easy. Here in Debrecen it's dirty, there's graffiti everywhere, and things seem harder since few people speak English and there just isn't that much to do (being a tourist and having kids to entertain). So, we had a mellow week: we lived without a refrigerator for a few days (it broke while we were in Vienna), we tried to go see Ice Age 3 but learned it was dubbed in Hungarian, we had a mellow day trip to a National Park, we found peanut butter at a big grocery store and bought it.

No complaints though. We're having some laughs too: After I learned at our Hungarian lesson to say, "I would like one adult ticket and 2 children's tickets" and then attempting to say it at the waterpark, the woman said to me, "Do you speak English?" "Yes!" I said. She then said, "It sounded like you were trying to speak Hungarian!" Haa! Well, so much for my attempt. :)

At the National Park yesterday we bought tickets to what we thought was a horse show, but it turned out to be a horse drawn carriage ride! Oh well - something to do with horses anyway.