Friday, April 11, 2008
Elodie's Mexican Fieldtrip
Elodie had a great fieldtrip with her preschool yesterday. They learned about food in class on Tuesday and visited Chevy's Mexican restaurant on Thursday. The kids got to tour the kitchen, see chips and salsa being made, and explore the enormous fridges. Then they got to handle tortilla dough and watch tortillas being made for each of them. Next the Chevy's cook served them each with a lunch of a bean burrito and french fries. And finally, all of the kids went home with sombraros. We had about fifteen kids with us, and Chevy's did the whole production at absolutely no cost. Wow! I was really impressed. (We won't tell Madeleine about the tour because she'll be mad that she had to go to boring school instead.)
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Random Pictures
Camille and Madeleine sporting their green at a St. Patrick's Day parade.
Camille at Easter egg hunt. Elodie with her St. Pat's "green."
Camille and Elodie at a local Easter egg hunt.
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March Highlights
No, we haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. I'm just not as good about updating the blog as I should be.
Here are a few of our highlights of late:
-New car: We’ve been renting a minivan since we moved to Oregon, and we finally bought one of our own this past week. We now own a black Honda Odyssey. Russ did all of the research, negotiating, and purchasing. (He enjoys that kind of thing a lot, so more power to him.) I like the van because it has a rearview camera when you back up. The kids like the van because it has a built-in DVD player. They want to watch a movie whenever we get in the van, something we’re going to have to make some rules about. Before we got the van, Camille screamed every time I buckled her into her car seat. Now she climbs in by herself so that she can get the “show” started as soon as possible.
-Spring break: Madeleine and Elodie were both home all week for spring break. It turned into a pretty uneventful week because the weather was horrible. (Insinuation here: the house was a disaster and Mom was going crazy.) Russ took Friday off with the plan that we’d visit the Oregon coast for a couple of days. Snow on the coast (a total rarity) changed our minds, so we opted for some indoor activities closer to home. We took the girls to a very crowded children’s museum on Friday, where they had a great time despite being body-to-body. Friday night, Elodie and Madeleine attended Horton Hears a Who with Russ. And Saturday afternoon, I took the older two to a fun indoor swimming pool with a slide, a huge water feature, and a rope swing. (You should have seen Madeleine climb up that rope swing and then drop to the pool below. I was really impressed and doubt I have the arm strength to do the same.)
Kid Highlights:
-Madeleine has settled into her routine at school. She really likes her teacher and classmates. Waking up at 6:45 is still a struggle, but she often manages to get ready in time for the bus at 7:20. (If not, one of us drives her to school which is less than a mile away.) Madeleine is still drawing all of the time and even made me an enormous 12-panel drawing for St. Patrick’s Day. We also try to go swimming about once a week, which she loves. Despite telling us that “boys play sports,” Madeleine’s agreed to try some tennis lessons this spring.
-Elodie is a total crack-up lately, leading me to believe she may turn into a class clown. She loves to laugh and tease. Elodie has become (or re-become) a huge Nemo fan lately, and she will often quote her favorite (and silliest) lines from the movie. She always tells us who the funniest people are (like her Uncle Steve). Elodie also spends a lot of time playing, especially when Madeleine is home to play with her.
-Camille will be twenty-three months tomorrow. That means this child is almost two-years-old. What? How did that happen?
As an old, wise woman, Camille has a growing vocabulary. Some of her words reflect the fact that she’s a third child: Nemo, Dora, and Barbie are all in her vocabulary. Her fanciest word is “butterfly.” Camille has some interesting behavior, which may also reflect her birth order. Last night, when Elodie was lagging behind, Camille turned around, said “Come on,” and beckoned Elodie with her hand. Later, when Camille spilled her drink at Chucky Cheese, she insisted on helping me wipe it up with the napkins. But she didn’t stop there—she insisted on wiping the glass in front of the prizes as well.
Here are a few of our highlights of late:
-New car: We’ve been renting a minivan since we moved to Oregon, and we finally bought one of our own this past week. We now own a black Honda Odyssey. Russ did all of the research, negotiating, and purchasing. (He enjoys that kind of thing a lot, so more power to him.) I like the van because it has a rearview camera when you back up. The kids like the van because it has a built-in DVD player. They want to watch a movie whenever we get in the van, something we’re going to have to make some rules about. Before we got the van, Camille screamed every time I buckled her into her car seat. Now she climbs in by herself so that she can get the “show” started as soon as possible.
-Spring break: Madeleine and Elodie were both home all week for spring break. It turned into a pretty uneventful week because the weather was horrible. (Insinuation here: the house was a disaster and Mom was going crazy.) Russ took Friday off with the plan that we’d visit the Oregon coast for a couple of days. Snow on the coast (a total rarity) changed our minds, so we opted for some indoor activities closer to home. We took the girls to a very crowded children’s museum on Friday, where they had a great time despite being body-to-body. Friday night, Elodie and Madeleine attended Horton Hears a Who with Russ. And Saturday afternoon, I took the older two to a fun indoor swimming pool with a slide, a huge water feature, and a rope swing. (You should have seen Madeleine climb up that rope swing and then drop to the pool below. I was really impressed and doubt I have the arm strength to do the same.)
Kid Highlights:
-Madeleine has settled into her routine at school. She really likes her teacher and classmates. Waking up at 6:45 is still a struggle, but she often manages to get ready in time for the bus at 7:20. (If not, one of us drives her to school which is less than a mile away.) Madeleine is still drawing all of the time and even made me an enormous 12-panel drawing for St. Patrick’s Day. We also try to go swimming about once a week, which she loves. Despite telling us that “boys play sports,” Madeleine’s agreed to try some tennis lessons this spring.
-Elodie is a total crack-up lately, leading me to believe she may turn into a class clown. She loves to laugh and tease. Elodie has become (or re-become) a huge Nemo fan lately, and she will often quote her favorite (and silliest) lines from the movie. She always tells us who the funniest people are (like her Uncle Steve). Elodie also spends a lot of time playing, especially when Madeleine is home to play with her.
-Camille will be twenty-three months tomorrow. That means this child is almost two-years-old. What? How did that happen?
As an old, wise woman, Camille has a growing vocabulary. Some of her words reflect the fact that she’s a third child: Nemo, Dora, and Barbie are all in her vocabulary. Her fanciest word is “butterfly.” Camille has some interesting behavior, which may also reflect her birth order. Last night, when Elodie was lagging behind, Camille turned around, said “Come on,” and beckoned Elodie with her hand. Later, when Camille spilled her drink at Chucky Cheese, she insisted on helping me wipe it up with the napkins. But she didn’t stop there—she insisted on wiping the glass in front of the prizes as well.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Christening the House
This is the first "christening" gift I discovered after moving into our house in Oregon.
Settling In
We arrived in Oregon three weeks ago. Packing and moving was quite the experience. (We left a whole room of boxes behind in Utah.)
We maxed out our luggage allowance and paid to check an additional piece. That meant we checked 450 pounds of luggage and took one stroller, one booster seat, one car seat, and multiple other random items as carry-on. (I think everyone hated us at the security point as we took FOREVER to get through with all of our items.) Fortunately, all went well once we got on the nearly empty plane. We had two overflowing luggage carts on the Portland end, but things actually went pretty smoothly.
We spent the next week living in total chaos. We had stacks of clothes everywhere as we didn’t have any dressers. We finally resolved that situation, and the house is looking much better. We’re not completely settled in yet--we’re all still sleeping on mattresses on the floor and eating off of a card table. Our shipping container from Switzerland should arrive in about three weeks, and then we’ll get to start the unpacking process again.
We maxed out our luggage allowance and paid to check an additional piece. That meant we checked 450 pounds of luggage and took one stroller, one booster seat, one car seat, and multiple other random items as carry-on. (I think everyone hated us at the security point as we took FOREVER to get through with all of our items.) Fortunately, all went well once we got on the nearly empty plane. We had two overflowing luggage carts on the Portland end, but things actually went pretty smoothly.
We spent the next week living in total chaos. We had stacks of clothes everywhere as we didn’t have any dressers. We finally resolved that situation, and the house is looking much better. We’re not completely settled in yet--we’re all still sleeping on mattresses on the floor and eating off of a card table. Our shipping container from Switzerland should arrive in about three weeks, and then we’ll get to start the unpacking process again.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Moving to Oregon
Sorry I have done such a poor job keeping our blog updated. I hope to change that soon. We’re on our way to all five of us living under the same roof. Hopefully that will bring a return to regular schedules and regular contact with friends and family.
We move to a suburb of Portland, Oregon on Saturday, February 2nd. We will return to our first house (which we’ve been renting out for the past few years). Russ got a new position with Intel, and he is very excited about his new manager and responsibilities. Russ will spend the next two months transitioning between his job in Switzerland and his new job in Hillsboro.
In the meantime, I’m trying to pack up our belongings into eight suitcases as we’ll be flying to Portland. It’s not an easy job to decide what stays and what goes. Russ has been selling our belongings in Geneva and trying to stuff as much as possible into the smallest shipping container. This is not exactly the way we anticipated leaving Switzerland, but I guess you do what you have to do.
Wish us luck! And hopefully you’ll hear a lot more from us in the near future.
We move to a suburb of Portland, Oregon on Saturday, February 2nd. We will return to our first house (which we’ve been renting out for the past few years). Russ got a new position with Intel, and he is very excited about his new manager and responsibilities. Russ will spend the next two months transitioning between his job in Switzerland and his new job in Hillsboro.
In the meantime, I’m trying to pack up our belongings into eight suitcases as we’ll be flying to Portland. It’s not an easy job to decide what stays and what goes. Russ has been selling our belongings in Geneva and trying to stuff as much as possible into the smallest shipping container. This is not exactly the way we anticipated leaving Switzerland, but I guess you do what you have to do.
Wish us luck! And hopefully you’ll hear a lot more from us in the near future.
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