Birthday Party

We celebrated Ethan and Sienna’s birthdays the day before my mom left.  Gary led the kids in a number of games, etc. 

Ring Around the Rosie (Sienna loves this!)  

Simon Says

Dancing and jumping around to a song and freezing when the music stops.

Thanking God for lunch (home-made pepperoni pizza and BBQ chicken pizza)

Glad to find an easy gender-neutral birthday cake to make (and thankful that I can get by doing it once a year…at least for now).  Ethan didn’t want the icing because of it being so sweet (he did the same last year on his birthday).  This was Sienna’s first time to ever try chocolate.  After trying the cake, she didn’t want it.  So, once again I was a very happy Mom! 

We sang Happy Birthday to Siennaand then to Ethan

My mom made these Elmo cut-outs to put on the birthday hats.

More games… Memory

I’m thankful for these four years God has given us with Ethan and the two years with Sienna!

Time with Grandma

Mom has gotten into knitting, so while she was here she made a scarf for Ethan and Sienna (as well as me). Ethan “helping” Grandma with his scarf 

There is a season in Hungary that is before Lent (starts on January 6th and ends on Ash Wednesday) called Farsang.  It’s called Carnival in many Western European countries and Mardi Gras in the  States.  Around the end of the time period the children dress up, etc.  So, many of the stores have costumes.  Ethan saw this Spiderman outfit while we were in one store and really wanted it (more than toys he had seen), so Mom got it for him as a birthday present.  He has no idea who Spiderman is other than he has underwear with superheroes on it and has learned all of their names.

Sienna wasn’t sure what to think of the mask.

Last day hug with Grandma

Ethan’s 1st Time to Ice Skate

We were excited to be able to take Ethan ice skating while my mom was here.  She went with us and stayed with Sienna in a warm area.  We went to a small, indoor rink that we’ve never been to before.  It was weird trying to find it because it’s located inside an old warehouse. 

Ethan needed to hold onto us the whole time, but he did well and even caught on somewhat to how he should move his feet.

Ethan didn’t want to stop skating or take a break until I mentioned that it was almost 6:00.  Ethan looked at Gary, and said, “It’s almost 6:00!”  A few minutes later when it was 6:00, Ethan said he was ready to go home.  It was very interesting because he hadn’t wanted to take a break or anything, but he knows that 6:00 is the time we eat dinner, so he did not want to continue when it was “dinnertime”.  We went into the room where Mom and Sienna were and told Ethan that we would just skate around the rink one more time, the two of us, while Grandma helped him take his ice skates off.  He didn’t like that at all and wanted to go back around the rink with us.

Finger Painting with Grandma

Mom did finger painting with the kids one morning while she was here.  Sienna is probably still a bit too young for it since she puts everything in her mouth, but thankfully the paint is non-toxic!

 Don’t think I like this stuff on my hands!

Somehow Ethan managed to only get paint on one hand for a long time. But that finally changed and we got some handprints.

Bring on the paint! 

Now I’m getting more into this and liking it!

Hairstyles by Grandma

When I was a little girl my mom braided my hair and fixed it a different way every day for school.  I know how to braid but don’t know how to French braid, so while Mom was here I asked her to do Sienna’s hair.  I wasn’t sure how Sienna would do with sitting/standing still, but she did pretty well, especially if she had a book to look at or something to distract her.

Mom started out doing a simple braid on the side just to keep her hair out of her face.  She also made several barrettes including the one in the above picture.

I thought this was pretty simple and very cute, but I still can’t do it (even though it’s just a regular braid on each side).  I’ll need to keep practicing.

  Doing one French braid down the middle didn’t work as well since Sienna’s hair is so fine and still isn’t quite long enough for that.  It also has a number of cow licks that made it difficult to braid.

But it certainly looked good when Mom first did it (before it started falling down). 

Doing a French braid on each side and then down the back worked really well.  Maybe one of these days I will be able to do that.

Playing in the Snow

We had a good bit of snow while Gary was away teaching in January.

My mom came over to visit in January and brought this hat for Sienna.  I think she liked having a hat similar to Ethan's.

She is moving around a little better in her snow pants that are too big, but still has a difficult time getting up from the ground.  She wasn’t too happy in this picture.  

Ethan was such the helper!