A Christmas poem

Oh Christmas tree

Well Christmas is well and truly in full swing. Many many renditions of ‘Deck the Halls’ by Ilona and/or Bluet (but mainly Ilona) have been performed. The kids celebrated Christmas German style at their Herman School last Saturday, and last Sunday we headed out and bought ourselves a native Christmas Tree, then decorated it. Here it is:

Football!

First visitors

we just had our first visitors to our Connecticut house - Nana and Wayne flew in for the weekend. In this time we managed to visit Putnam Park, a site from the civil war, the Mark Twain library (whiuch Ilona was excited to join now she is 5 years old) and (briefly, it was cold) Mark Twain's Stormfield estate, build our first indoor fire, eat some delicious food, and the kids even still went to their German class.

Kids on Swings

Sadly it is now a little cold to be outside without the incentive of snow

Ilona’s 5th Birthday

So this week it was Ilona’s fifth birthday, for which she was very excited (of course). On her actually birthday she had to go to school, where they wished her happy birthday over the tannoy and gave her this crown to wear. She also took cookies. When she got home she found her birthday bike in the basement after a short treasure hunt, and on Thursday she went to bounce with Emily, Bluet and her friends and trampolines til late, followed by more pizza (she also had pizza for her birthday dinner at home. Lucky she likes pizza)

And below is the last picture of a 4 year old ilona:

Wilder Walking

Finally, in the last 2 weeks, Wilder is walking, and walking fast. Here is an early video from his walking progress, more to come.

News no pictures

Hello, and welcome. First an update - I've been using Flickr for all the photos in the blog but they are about to limit free users to 1000 photos, and delete any extras - as I have over 4000 there right now, I need to find an alternative for the blog. Hopefully coming soon. I will also convert all the previous entries to a PDF book for download, so nothing is lost. I've already done the first 2 months of 2011!

In the meantime, Ilona has for some reason started to speak with a Southern US accent, despite never, as far as I know, having encountered someone who talks like that. It is real Southern Belle 'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers' stuff. You may recall she returned from York at the beginning of the year speaking like a northerner, ('Carry me like a baby'), so she seems to have a knack for accents. But as for the Southern one, as I have no idea where she hears it (the only TV they watch is Octonauts, which is British), I can only conclude morphic resonance must be true.

First Race

Yesterday morning we all left the house early (for a Sunday) and headed out to the 2018 Weston Reservoir Run. Emily ran the 5K, while Bluet and Ilona both ran the kids fun run, once around the track and they'd completed their first race. Wilder did not run as he needs to learn to walk first (he is getting close, a couple of steps at a time).

School Photos 2018

Here are Bluet and Ilona's school photos for 2018:

Wilder talking and showing his tongue

Delivery girls

We are almost every day getting deliveries of household essentials like lawnmowers, shown here. When this arrived Bluet and Ilona decided they needed to move the box from just outside the garage, where the postman left it, to just outside the front door. This they managed despite the immense weight. Unfortunately, the postman had a better idea of where I wanted it than Bluet and Ilona, and we had to move it back.

They also enjoyed the novelty of watching a lawnmower being filled with petrol and started up, then they went off and played in the garden while I cut the grass

Woods near where we live

Redding is full of nature trails, and some are even within walking distance of the house. Of course, the kids did not want to go, but once they got there they loved it

Wilder loves to play in the dirt wherever he can find it, which is everywhere

A new career in a new town

I think that the thing that made the biggest impression on Bluet and Ilona about New York was those street artists who draw (almost good) pictures of tourists (that look a bit like the subject) in Central Park. When we got back they took turns of posing for and being drawn by each other. Here is Bluet's picture of Ilona, I will update with Ilona's picture of Bluet if/when I find it






While drawing they had a discussion of future careers. Ilona says she wants to be an artist while Bluet wants to be a scientist as she thinks that is more fun, for some reason

New York

This weekend we took Bluet and Ilona for an overnight trip to New York. First stop, the Upper East Side, where we ate lunch then took a walk to the apartment we used to live in on 79th Street.



Onwards, to Rainbow Hardware, where we used to buy our DIY supplies (they also stock more or less everything else you could think of for your home), where we also took a look at paint colours for our new house.

We then walked further downtown to the hospital where Bluet was born, then took a taxi down to our hotel near Grand Central. After dumping our bags, we headed up to Central Park via Bloomingdales, where Ilona got a new pair of shoes



And then Central Park, the kids favourite, where they ate ice cream and climbed big rocks.




There was time to visit Whole Foods Market for refreshments



And then for dinner, then bed





Sunday we headed downtown to get the best view (land based) of Bluet's current obsession, the Statue of Liberty




Then the train home