Our two lazy cats

Brownie batter and Regnum

One of the favourite activities about making brownies is when the children can lick the bowl of the batter. Here's what happens...

Regnum Marianum is a Hungarian religious community sort of like scouts, but instead of the outdoor survival skills, they focus a bit more on spiritual growth. Bella is part of a group of 12 kids her age and they are lead by two university students. Under communism members of the community couldn't meet at a public place, so a tradition developed that each meeting was held at one of the members' home. Now even though there's no danger of us being persecuted for gathering, this tradition lives on, so the children meet each time at someone's house. Last Saturday it was our turn to host them.

More swimming

Swimming

Bella went swimming with her school for four weeks every day and yesterday was her last day. We had fun watching, I hardly recognised her classmates all in swimming gear. She and two other kids were swimming in a different lane, since they knew how to swim already. Most kids have never swam in the deep pool before. She truly is a little duck, her element is definitely water. :)

Saint Nicholas' Day

Our whirl of celebration is at the door. This morning the children got up at five, because last night they put their boots in the window for Saint Nicholas to put his presents in there. He came while they were asleep so Patrick made sure all of them were up by 5:20. This of course made it easier for us to go to Rorate early morning mass at 6:30. From now on, we'll be having shows, performances, galas all the way to Christmas. Kimo had his debut as Santa last night for the synchronised swimming girls at the pool. :)

Early Christmas Party

Also a traditional happening in our family since we came to Sopron, is the Language school company Christmas party. This year we decided to do it early, so all women have the other weekends to get ready for their own family Christmas. What this means is at 10 am cca 15 ladies show up (Kimo usually moves to the back and pretends to be working), and we start cooking lunch together. Our boss thinks up the menu and brings all the food, and everyone's expected to bring some home-made desserts. One year we also had two guys, but male language teachers are hard to find.

A very special event at this party is the "cheesy raffle". What it means is that everyone is supposed to bring a useless horrible object, and then we draw the names from a hat, and you go home with something other than what you brought. Moreover we vote for the MOST terrible object. This year the winner was a pair of hand-made earrings, which our colleague made especially for the occasion. It was a loop with a large feather, a small golden ball, and a soft red angel dangling on it. Truly a winner! This is the event that the children are always so excited about, and they usually offer McDonald's toys, but one time the lollipop-turning machine was what they gave, and it almost won the prize.

Anyway, we had a good time, and had a huge lunch, and by 4 pm, all the dishes were done, too. In the evening, Kimo and I went to a concert, a band called Prakker was palying, they're the Sopron band from the sixties. Good music, dancing, but not nearly enough sleep is what we got...

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. ;)