Sunday, April 28, 2019

W28 of Y5

TOPPERS

Jeremy went with the cast of 'Disaster' to Germany this week for the Toppers Awards (think Academy Awards).  They ended up receiving 23 nominations and earned 6 awards, including the most sought after award: Best Musical!  Jeremy was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical. 

The cast was also invited to perform at the ceremony.  They started the whole show with a medley of their songs.  

The kids an I anxiously watched it all from home

I realize my photos of the TV didn't exactly turn out but hopefully you can tell which one is Jeremy






WINNERS!!
They wrote a nice story about Vicenza's success that went out through all of Europe



Honor Roll

Also this week.....  Connor and Aiden made the honor roll again for 3rd quarter!!  

Aiden and his girlfriend, Leilani, both got certificates


Proud of you boys!!

Sunday, April 21, 2019

W27 of Y5


Unexpected!

Every quarter I facilitate an important meeting for the top ranking General in Italy.  Needless to say, it's always very stressful and I'm always nervous... every time!  This week was that meeting and you can imagine my surprise when he opened the meeting by talking about ME and presenting the Superior Civilian Service Award to me. Apparently, this award is kind of a big deal!


This was such an honor!  

Easter 2019

Easter really snuck up on us this year.  In fact, if Whitney hadn't reminded me I may have completely forgotten!

Luckily, the Easter bunny still made it to our house!


Along with some help from Grandma! :)

The Easter Bunny was very practical this year....  chocolate and teeth whitening strips! 




Easter egg hunt

The boys were so excited to find Easter eggs they couldn't be bothered to put on shoes.  Aiden managed to get 1 sock on...




We've learned to keep teenagers motivated during Easter egg hunts by filling the eggs with money! lol!

I attempted to make the Serbian dish, Gibanica, that we had last week.  It was good, but... not quite the same. 
Obligatory family Easter pic!
The boys were commenting that I'm always wearing the same dress in every Easter pic.....

I went throught my blog and realized they were right!  This was the first time this dress showed up on my blog: 2011
Eating outside is a very rare event around here! It's either too hot, too cold, or too many mosquitos!
Today happened to the perfect!  
Happy Easter!!! :)

Sunday, April 14, 2019

W26 of Y5

Spring Break Continued....
My absolute favorite part of our trip was sitting out here for 2-3 hours every morning before anyone else woke up. 
Belgrade, Serbia

We spent a day exploring Serbia's capital city, Belgrade




We were surprised to see so many tennis courts tucked away in the strangest places




We found a nice little Italian restaurant for lunch (not my choice!)



Picking out his newest piece

Back in Novi Sad we enjoyed our back yard so much!  Especially Kayla!



This was a far as they could go.  Too Cold!




I enjoyed the diversity of our neighborhood.  There were so many large, stray dogs though so it was scary going out on runs or walks by myself!


Timisoara, Romania

We wanted to visit Romania while we were so close (about 2 hours away).  
The kids really wanted to go to Transylvania or the capital, Bucharest but they were both at least another 5-7 hours away. 

We had some trouble at the border and wondered if we were going to even get in!
They wanted to see the original title to our van.  We kept telling them that it was at home and we don't keep it in our vehicles in America but they were just so confused about this and have to get every employee working that day in on the discussion!

Finally we got through the border!  We parked next to this market and set off exploring a new country. :)

We went to a traditional Romanian restaurant for lunch.  



Cheese and bread overload! 



These were REAL egg shells!  

Opera House






Novi Sad, Serbia

We spent a day exploring Novi Sad.

We thought it was so funny to see random animals right next to the road all the time in Serbia and Romania.  Horses, cows, goats, chicken, and dogs.  Sometimes the horses had a rope around their neck attached to a stake that was in the ground - sometimes not. 

The Petrovaradin Fortress (nickname: the Gibraltar of the Danube)


The clock hands are backwards (the long hand is the hour and the short hand is the minutes)








There was a small museum at the top where we read about the history of the fortress


We went back to Sremski Karlovci for lunch with Olja's family - this was the highlight of the trip!  Olja was born and raised in this home and her parents have lived in the same home their entire married lives.  They both also grew up in this town and had such interesting stories!



It was fun watching my kids play with Denis.  He is such a cool, little kid!

Whitney enjoying some homemade cherry juice


Olja keeps this picture of the kids at her parent's house.  This is how small they were when she was our au pair. 

A little starter: Gibanica - a traditional Balkan pastry dish.
This was DELICIOUS!!  The kids all asked me to get the recipe. 



This was a special treat from India.  Very sweet and spicy mangos.  An interesting blend of flavors!

Relaxing after dinner


We enjoyed looking at the photo albums of their Indian wedding.  Amazing!



After lunch we took a walk through the neighborhood and couldn't get Jeremy and Olja's dad apart! 
He loves talking about the history of his town and Jeremy loves learning about this stuff!

This was such a cool tree!




Olja's dad said his father helped construct the doors to this church!

Another random horse

More stray dogs!  We had to protect Kayla from these guys.




A group of Serbians welding something together


Such a fun day and a wonderful family!
The kids were thrilled to stop at McDonald's on the way home.  Connor finished this entire lunch in 15 minutes! lol!