Sareajvo

One day we drove to Bosnia-Herz....

the big 1-0

Billie is in double digits now. Which has been shocking me for months...how can that little ball of patient, thoughtful baby be turning 10? She has a retainer, she is creative, inventive, happy all the time...unless she's stomping off with a snotty remark. She returns 4 minutes later eager and giddy with a new idea that she just has to share...can't remember to stay angry or cranky because as soon as she's alone with her thoughts...she comes up with a plan, a project, a game, an idea and she's happy again.

weekend at the park

This weekend we went to the park. The sun and shedding our heavy coats feels wonderful after winter in Bulgaria.

little Sloane

Sloane used to look like this, now she can read (a little) and write (a lot) and make her bed, get her own breakfast, help Cort, remind us to pray before we eat and lead a game for all her friends. Five is a REALLY old kid.

Traditional OZ

These costumes will always be my favorite, I'm in a blog-frenzy and came across them- too darling to pass up.

I'm Otay

One day Cort may have broken his nose. We didn't have any official x-rays or anything, but I'm pretty sure it was broken, but then he was fine.

these are the days

Once a really detailed and thoughtful building, just left to rot away...it looks sad, but a little lovely, and like it's full of stories...maybe ghost stories.  I love the way the bare trees look on the foggy days too.
A day walking in Sofia.

This is walking around Bulgaria. Bulgaria is weird. There's lots of lovely things if you look for them, but you have to look for them. It's ugly/beauty. That's my favorite kind of beauty, at the moment. There's graffiti on EVERYTHING, I'm going to start taking more pictures. Now that I can use un-mittened hands outdoors again.

Boylie Girl

It's nice to have girls AND boys in the house- Jackson knows how to knit and cross stitch. Cort can go between high heels and tiaras to clones and iron man. Billie can skateboard, climb trees and read horror stories. Sloane can do cloaks and daggers just as well as teeny tiny polly pocket neighborhoods. Sloane and Cort are still the ultimate pair of friends. They do EVERYTHING together and have equally as inventive and consistant games as their older set. Sometimes they play 'Sisters' which involves lots of princess outfits and Cort takes on this weeny, high voice and floats around saying things like "I a dirl." And other times he uses his mean and angry voice to say things like "Dihv me dat water boddle wite now or I will tut off your head!"
This week he went to a St. Patricks Day party wearing a sparkly unicorn outfit with pink accents, it's ingenious really, because everyone then thought it was cute when he said "My horn is pointy and it can TILL you!"

Go Daddy Go!

Today Bill is running a big race, so big that it take TWO DAYS to finish. He's in Budapest and he talked a few of the guys in his office to joining him (they agreed to do ONE day). That's fun. The kids and I had lots of b-day parties and playdates this weekend and today we'll make a poster to decorate the front door.

My girl Billie

When Billie was nine she had braces, she got a concussion one day, she learned to cross-stitch, she read Harry Potter, had her own room for the first time (with a second bed, and frequent siblings having 'sleepovers'), moved to Bulgaria, made new friends, starting out emailing.  I can see that Billie is at a bridge, she's not really even on the bridge yet because she still likes to participate in musical chairs, have her face painted, wear silly clothes, she doesn't know what's 'cool' and what's not, she likes to write poems and dance and playclubhouse with all her younger siblings.  She never EVER picks up her room but she makes excellent tacos or pizza pockets for dinner sometimes.

Mummers

We're still here. Our internet NEVER EVER works! We have had wonderful visits with family and adventures and knitting, sledding, reading, learning Bulgarski, and yesterday we went to the Kukeri festival in Plodnik. With crazy cowbell dancers and frightening animal masks. It was super cold and we had to bribe the kids with lollies and balloons in an attempt to stop the endless rounds of 'my toes hurt'.

Snow day

It's snowing here in Bulgaria. So, we threw our new skis in the van and went to a ski resort. It sounded like a good idea at the time...

In reality it's pretty much hell, with some fun bits thrown in.
Having our dear friends with us makes it all just something we can laugh about but that laughter leads to coughing.

It sounds so fun when you talk about skiing. I was picturing fireplaces in the lodge, kids who are mature and experienced now; who would be able to operate all their own equipment, but honestly- they can't even put on their own boots. Oh heck, I can't put my own boots on either. I will never ever do this again...for at least 2 years.
But then I find myself out there with the sun, the snow and the Chalga music and for a minute I think "this is fun." It's like the cold mountain air plays a trick on your brain and makes all the work since 6:30am a fuzzy blur. How did I get here? Well, it's sunny and snowy and I can buy generic powdered hot chocolate for $7 while the waitress can barely endure our presence- what's not to love?

castle, sweet castle

Just in case you forgot how big our house was...here's another picture. The top bit is the part we call the 'tower' there are two arched windows centered on each of the 10 ft walls, amazing views from all sides since we're halfway up the mountain; snowy mountain top if you look to the left and city lights if you look to the right. Mostly we just stand in the 5 story spiral staircase and yell out "Where are you? Can you hear me?" to one another.

Snow

We drove to the top of the mountain the other day- there's snow up there. I think we'll have to get serious snow boots this winter- brr!