Thanksgiving Saturday dinner

Well, this was our third one since we moved to Sopron. This time we didn't have AS many people come, due to the fact that some friends we'd invited couldn't make it. Still there were 13 children running about. The interesting thing was that the ages of the kids were older than before. Three four-year-olds, and all the others were older. I suppose not only ours, but our friends' children are getting bigger, too. So the atmosphere was quite different, instead of boys chasing girls it was girls teasing the boys, and trying to impress them.

The funny story about the evening was, that of course the children did not really want to eat dinner (Patrick only had stolen brownies and other pastries), just picked at the food so they'd have more time to play. As the last guests were leaving I heard this big scream form the kids' room. I honestly thought there's bones broken, and when I ran in to see what's happening, Patrick's saying his tummy hurts because he's hungry. And a few minutes later Kevin starts crying (but I mean really crying with tears) he's hungry, too. So Kimo and I just looked at each other, thinking we haven't had a more fully packed table in a year, and our kids are screaming for hunger. ;)

Big bad Hungarian language

Ah, the beauty of it...

the first part of this sentence is pedestrian,
the second part walks ALL OVER YOU!

Eközben a piaci szolgáltatások hozzáadott értékét enyhén csökkenő dinamika jellemezte, ami összhangban áll a fiskális egyensúlyjavító intézkedések következtében mérséklődő reáljövedelmek belföldi keresletet visszafogó hatásával.

WHOAH baaby!

Halloween in Pictures

Saint Elizabeth Day

I know in protestant churches saints aren't honoured, but to my heart Saint Elizabeth is very close. For one thing she is Bella's patron saint, for another we went to church on Easter Sunday when Kimo proposed to me to the St Elizabeth Church in Budapest and she's alo the parton saint of families and health-care workers. She was born 800 years ago today. Here's her life story that Kimo translated recently.

Saint Elisabeth of Hungary was born on November 19, 1207 (feast day: November 17) in Sárospatak (according to other sources in Óbuda or Bratislava). Her father was King Andrew II of Hungary and her mother was Gertrude of Merania. Elisabeth was the third of five children, and her older brother later became King Bela IV of Hungary. She was betrothed to the eldest son of Hermann I, landgrave of Thurginia, and thus she moved first to Eisenach and then to the Wartburg castle. Her fiancé died in 1216, and Hermann’s second son, Louis, became heir to his father’s title and was married to Elisabeth in 1221. Their marriage was a happy one, as the young couple truly loved each other, which was rare for the arranged marriages of that day and age. They had three children: Hermann, Sofia and Gertrude (venerated as Blessed, November 13). Her manners were unusual for the medieval court, as she did not enjoy dancing, preferring horse riding instead. Nor was she willing to learn the tippy-toe walk required of noble ladies of the time; but her most shocking behaviour was her willingness to openly express her emotions. She was “most generous to the poor, always full of goodness and divine love”. During a famine in 1225, for example, she emptied the stores of the Wartburg, distributing all of the food to those in need. Her husband, Louis, left on a crusade in 1227 and never returned. Following the death of Louis, Elisabeth joined the Third Order of St. Francis. She took vows of poverty and dedicated the rest of her life to religion. She initially served in Eisenach and then built a Franciscan hospital in Marburg. She died on November 16, 1231, at the age of 24, and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX four years later. A church dedicated to her was built over her grave in Marburg (1236-1283). King Bela IV of Hungary had a church dedicated to her built in Kápolna.

Her's some more reading as well:

http://www.catholicforum.com/saints/sainte01.htm

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05389a.htm

Pumpkin carving session-- part two

Pumpkin carving session

Mr Patrick's Birthday

It isn't easy turning 7 on Halloween. The boy ended up having three birthday celebrations, three different cakes and crowds of people. On the 31st, I cooked a big lunch, my mum baked a cake, and we sang to him just the family. The happiest he was of course about the cheapest present, the transformer car. He also got a watch, and is super interested in telling the time now. He's almost got it, too. That afternoon we had the trick-or-treating march. Kimo had planned it out exactly ahead of time, so we were able to do the rounds and pick up more children (and parents driving) on the way. In the end we had 16 children marching around with a bunch of crazy grown ups in costumes (Kimo had a huge pumpkin balloon lit up on his head, I was a witch like last year), and as we had to walk near the cemetery where traffick was blocked by all the people visiting their graves for All Saint's Day, lots of cars honked at us in cheer and people were wavig to the kids. You see it's quite unusual here to dress up for Halloween since it is the Day of the Dead that is celebrated then. So after getting real frozen in the cold wind, we came to our house and sang again, and we had another cake.
Then on Sunday the 4th Patrick had his birthday party proper, where he'd invited his classmates. Only four boys showed up, but the house sure was filled with them. Bella being the only girl enjoyed being chased around, then we had a baloon throwing contest, and a brownie cake that I made. At the end when everyone left, the poor boy started crying, I think he was just overwhelmed by all the action.
But now he's officially SEVEN and can tie his shoelaces and almost tell the time. Not to mention his excellent reading skills, and his efforts in writing. I am a proud mother(but I know I've said that before).

Kids

First Snow, First Snowman

On the way to football practice for Adam and Kevin

We walked around the lake out near where they have their football (soccer) practice last week to kill a few minutes before training got started.

Kevin's swimming course

Sorry about the long silence, I'll try and slowly recover the times missed out on. Here's Kevin's three week swimming course which was in October. Every weekday we had to take him to kindergarten at 7am, a minibus (or two in fact) took the kids to the pool, and they were back at school for breakfast around 9. Kevin is not as much a water frog as Bella is, but this course was at least good to give him some security also in the big pool. He enjoyed it but getting him up early was quite a challenge. I am very proud of him, and we were lucky he didn't get ill only on the last day, we went from the pool to the doctor's.