The way I see it

Tonsils update

2012-02-15T16:33:00.005+01:00

So I think we're on the mend now! Keenan is back to normal and Van is finally starting to eat something more than a handful of peanut butter cheerios and little bits of fruit sauces. Both boys have also been playing lots and wanting to run around outside. This past week we've created a few bad habits that I now need to undo... boo. Getting Van to take a nap or go to sleep has been an extreme challenge; he wants to only sleep on me and wakes up the second I even think about putting him in his crib. Sigh... I do so hate sleep training, totally stresses me out :(

On a positive note, the kids have been LOVING playing with their Montana cousins again. We've been trying to get them together as much as possible and put on a little Valentine's party for them yesterday. Afterwards Keenan said "I didn't know Valentine's day was a party, I really like that!" Van got into the red M&M and had red dye all over his face, he sort of looked like a little vampire.

Slightly gross story that I somehow forgot to put in the last post. Both of the boys had IV's in during the surgery and received quite a bit of fluid both during and after surgery. Once i got the boys back to my parents house Keenan immediately crawled on the couch and fell asleep while Van fell asleep on me. Van woke up and was sitting on my lap watching TV when all the sudden I felt something really warm on my lap... and then is quickly spread between my legs and soaked into the seat of my pants. In fact in felt like I peed my own pants, when I stood up it looked like I peed my pants only I know I didn't! Van's diaper had a major leak!! GROSS!

Van must have had tons of fluid, his diapers kept filling and springing leaks faster than I could change him!

In case you were wondering...

2012-02-12T00:30:00.001+01:00

having 2 kids get their tonsils and adenoids out at the same time is not fun! There just wasn't enough of me to go around yesterday (on Tuesday... it's taken me awhile to complete this posting.

So I'm skipping a few entries until later since I'm a bit behind so stay tuned for pics from Disney Land, Pacific Beach, Vegas, and the rest of our California visit.

While we were in California we took Van to the Dr's because his snot was really foul smelling and he seems to have a never ending cold plus he snores extremely loud with occasional sleep apnea. YIKES! We suspected mild allergies, maybe to dogs. The Dr confirmed the allergy suspicion but also thought due to the snoring and sleep apnea that his tonsils needed to come out. I made an appointment with an ENT doctor in Billings since while Eric does training for work the boys and I will be hanging out there again. The ENT confirmed that Van's tonsils needed to come up as sleep apnea in children is totally unacceptable, even only once a night. After a casual mention of both kids snoring and having sleep apnea they were both signed up for surgery... the next day! Yikes!

Since they couldn't eat or drink before their surgeries I kept them up late so I could just throw them in the car at 7:30 in hopes of them not whining or crying about food and juice. Shockingly, it worked! My Gramma Pat came with us so I could have an extra set of hands. I'm so glad she did because there just wasn't enough of me to go around. Van went first then Keenan. The oral versed knocked him out fairly quickly and he just went to sleep, Keenan on the other hand was playing games on the tablet when it finally kicked in and he just looked drunk! I had about 20 minutes to cuddle with Van until Keenan came out. He of course needed me too. Everytime Van fell asleep I handed him off to Gramma Pat. When he woke up it was back on half of my lap with Keenan.

It was completely heart breaking, they both kept crying and Keenan kept asking why the back of his mouth hurt so bad when I had told him the Dr would give him medicine so it wouldn't hurt. Keenan's little voice was all scratchy, small and sounded so mournful, I felt terrible! Keenan perked up a lot quicker then Van, he had lots of popsicles and sherbet while at the surgery center. His Aunty Christy works at the place we were but unfortunately she wasn't there as she was stuck on jury duty. It did make him feel better that the nurses taking care of him were Aunty Christy's friends!

We had to stay until 2 or 3 in the afternoon because Van just didn't want to take a drink. That's all he needed to do, just take a drink of anything! For the next few days Van only wanted to be held by me while Keenan was fairly content watching cartoons. Keenan seems fine and has been playing with his cousins but it has taken Van a bit longer. The poor little dude just doesn't want to eat much still but at least he's drinking juice and gatorade.

Hopefully all is on the mend and the worst of it is behind us! I'm so sad that I forgot my camera so I wasn't able to get of pictures of them in their little hospitals gowns.

Mission Beach

2012-01-15T21:33:00.000+01:00

The weather in San Diego has mostly in the high 60's low 70's... beautiful! We spent the afternoon down on Mission beach, it felt so good to have the warmth of the sun. The water was cold so we didn't put the boys in their swimsuits but we should have since they got wet anyways.

We walked along the board walk...

dug our toes in the sand...

we watched the waves...

posed for a picture of two...

squealed with glee when the cold water got our feet...

played in the sand...

threw sand at everybody and everything...

buried Keenan in the sand...

hit him in the face with a shovel... (sigh... little brothers)

posed for a few more pictures, ate frozen yogurt...

we called it a day.

Visiting Grampa

2012-01-15T21:31:00.000+01:00

Grampa Ed has been in a nursing home for about 3 years. Unfortunately his Alzheimer's in advanced and he doesn't talk or seem to recognize anybody anymore, it's really quite sad. Keenan was really good and kept trying to give Grampa high 5's while Van was much more interested in a lady with a bunch of balloons on her wheelchair.

Do you think Gramma will notice??

2012-01-14T21:45:00.002+01:00

When we turned our backs the boys looked something like this... (only this picture is a different day)

All the sudden it seemed way too quiet... They had been busy...

It had been a new box of tissues...

Tissues do NOT fit back into the box once taken out. Do you think Gramma will notice that something is amiss?

For the record, Gramma noticed immediately! :)

Denver Children's Museum

2012-01-14T21:39:00.001+01:00

Back when we were in Denver... we visited the Denver Children's Museum with our friend Casey and his two little boys. The kids all had a ton of fun! Immediately they found the "grocery store" Keenan wanted to run the cash register while Van helped bag, then they both wanted to spend lots of time being the shoppers.

The grocery store also had a "pizza cafe" in it, Van was most interested in getting me lots of drinks.

Next up: The Bubble Room! This room was a ton of fun, even for me and Eric! Below the bubbles came from the ceiling apparatus and were filled with a thick, white vapor, Van loved this!

Trying to be surrounded in a giant bubble.

making little bubbles with dad

Van and Davis waiting for the BIG bubble

Keenan making the BIG bubble

A BIG bubble

Keenan and Davis popping bubbles

Next up: Eric and Keenan headed into the build it room while Van wandered into the art room. His masterpiece.

Making his masterpiece.

Veterinarian room. Van being the receptionist.

Checking out the animal cages.

Dr. Keenan checking on the x-rays. Davis came up to Keenan and told him he was a nurse, Keenan replied "Well, I'M the DOCTOR!"

Van and Colin

Oops, I guess Van thought Colin needed treating too.

The puppy must be feeling better...

Rocket Room. Eric helped Keenan build a nice rocket.

Then spent time learning how to launch it and even make it through some of the hoops!

Afterward we met up with Mark, Shannon and baby Chase at the Bull and Bush pub. I added this picture but I thought the logo was funny.

Keenan got bored and made his own concoction of mayo, mustard and ketchup then proceeded to drink a bit with a straw. GROSS!

While in Denver Eric got to play poker with the guys while I went to a movie with a friend and I also was able to have a ladies lunch without the kids! What a treat!

While in Denver we stayed at my friend's house while her and her family went on a cruise. It was nice to have the space and a place to stay. One night Keenan was looking around and asked "Hey, why aren't there pictures of us up in this house?" I reminded him that it wasn't our house. "Oh" he says "Well, I want a house just like this one!" I asked him what he liked about it, I'm expecting him to mention liking how the house is or something like that. He surprised me by saying "Because, this house comes with a Wii!" He was totally addicted to playing the Wii sports!

Forgot to do something...

2012-01-07T16:26:00.001+01:00

Out of the blue a few days ago Keenan asks me when we were moving back to Slovenia. I took a deep breath and reminded him that we were not, but moving to Africa instead. Keenan's little face looked so sad as he told me he forgot to do something. He proceeded to tell me that we forgot to get in our car and drive over to Sara's and Lara's houses (his two special girls) and drop off lots of hugs and kisses... I think my heart broke a little bit for the little guy... He then got all worried that he might never see them again and that he didn't give them enough hugs and kisses while he was there...

What am I supposed to say to that? I don't know if we'll ever go back or if he will ever see his girls again...
I did the only thing I could, I gave him a big hug.

Denver/Butterfly Pavilion

2012-01-07T16:11:00.001+01:00

We spent New Years with our friends in Denver, not sure where my camera was, but there were a lot of kids running around. Definitely NOT the New Year's we've had in the past but now we all have kids...

It's been nice catching up with our Denver friends and their families. We've done a little shopping and what seems like a lot of eating but it's been fun. We met up with some friends and took all our boys (4 between our two families) to the Butterfly Pavilion. It was a hit!

Keenan didn't quite want to hold the spider but he did touch the spider's leg and was quite proud of that!

"Ewwww!" Checking out more spiders.

For some reason Van was fascinated by the cockroaches...

Keenan and Davis checking out the Sea Stars

Even got a butterfly or two to land on him.

Butterfly laying eggs.

We were even in time for the "releasing of the new butterflies", a first for me!

Together again and Christmas Eve

2012-01-07T15:58:00.001+01:00

Keenan was so excited to see his Dad again and kept asking when he was coming. My reply was "right before Christmas". We wanted to keep it a surprise since the last time we eagerly awaited his arrival the darn Icelandic Volcano happened and kept messing up his flights... My plan was to not tell Keenan where we were going, just show up at the airport and see Eric. Unfortunately.... his flight from Denver kept getting delayed to the point that Keenan just had to go to bed and couldn't come along. Bummer but the good news was Eric DID arrive on the day he was supposed to!

We did some last minute Christmas shopping, tried to get the boys to pose with Santa (Van did NOT cooperate!) then enjoyed a crazy Christmas Eve with my parents, siblings and our 8 kids.

The day Eric arrived I let my younger cousin, who is in cosmetology school, dye my hair. It took Eric a while to notice me at the airport as he was looking for a blond lady with a kid. :)

Yup, we forced the kids to once again line up and take a group photo. Keenan flashing the "love" sign.

Writing Santa a note and leaving carrots for the reindeer.

Yeah, we might have left Santa a beer as well...

Trying out new toys with Grampa.

I foresee finding a lot of nerf bullets all over my house in the future...

Couldn't just get one nerf gun...

I guess I wasn't into getting too many pictures this year as this is all I got on Christmas day... none of Eric nor me... :( but we did have a nice Christmas!

Rock houses

2012-01-04T22:01:00.001+01:00

After the kids were over the cookie decorating they all headed up the hill behind my parents house. Growing up we spent a lot of time on the hill. There are two rock formations that served as "houses" and I can remember thinking the one was so BIG and I was so proud when I was finally able to climb up it myself.

Keenan sitting on top of the big "house".

The "big house". Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the other one. The kids had a lot of fun playing while my sister and I reminisced.

Van playing with Gramma.

Christmas cookies

2012-01-04T22:00:00.000+01:00

Thankfully the day my mom chose to have all of her grandkids over to decorate cookies it was super nice since the decorating was in the garage and the kids decorated for about 5 minutes then took off to play. (run on sentence??) Keenan was most interested in seeing just how many sprinkles and candies each cookie could handle.

Van just picking the candies off the cookies.

cookies in various stages...

Keenan liked the red-hots best

dipping the cookie into the frosting seemed easier.

Clint and Scarlett

We had approximately 10 seconds to snap as many pictures as possible before the starting screaming or running away.

8 kids ages 1 to 6. My parents griped about needed grandkids about 7 years ago...

Ipad power

2012-01-04T18:14:00.002+01:00

Keenan quickly discovered he LOVED the Ipad when my mom showed him all the kid apps she had downloaded... lots of games, puzzles and stories. Van, it took him awhile but now he LOVES it too. Anytime he sees the Ipad or something that resembles it, he smiles and wants to touch it.

Here Carter and Keenan were trying to share the Ipad and van wanted in on the action. Soon afterwards it got taken away because sharing is just too hard sometimes.

Dry sledding and snow biking

2012-01-04T18:11:00.000+01:00

A bit behind. I guess I was just busy in December. The boys and I tried to get together as much as possible with my siblings and their kids. Keenan loved being around his cousins, he jumped right into the action while Van was a little more cautious.

Here the kids found the sled's in Gramma and Grampa's shop and WANTED to sled NOW. So they tried sledding down the dry hill when that didn't work they convinced Aunty Jami to pull them.

Hard to believe that this is the next day. It snowed, Keenan tried the sled once but it just stuck to the snow so he brought out the bike and liked that much better. A little backwards but it worked and he had fun!

It takes a village...

2011-12-15T04:30:00.000+01:00

They say it takes a village to raise a child... the same could be said about flying solo with two young kids.

The days preceeding our flight back to states I had several people question my sanity on my decision to fly solo with both boys on a journey that would take about 24 hours door to door. Mostly my answer was simple "other people will help". Yes, that is right I was betting on other passengers to help kick my carry-on down the isle if need be or help me with a car seat. After all fellow flyers have never let me down before, I've flown solo with Keenan quite a few times (once extremely pregnant) and graciously accepted help from strangers even when I could have struggled and got the job done.

I wasn't let down in the least.  Immediately at the Ljubljana airport I ran into parents of a girl in Keenan's class and they insisted on helping me get to my gate. Picture this Van in his carseat which is attatched to my rolling carry-on, Keenan on his trunkie (it's kid luggage which they can pull or ride on with someone else pulling them), me pulling Keenan, pushing Van, and with a large overstuffed backpack on. If anything else we amused a whole lot of other travellers. I caught quite a few people look at us then smile or laugh. Does that mean we were a funny sight or that they were extremely relieved that it wasn't them in my shoes??  We breezed through the Frankfurt airport in this manner to catch our flight to Denver.

The flight from Frankfurt to Denver is 10 hours... 10 hours of fun fun fun! As usual, even though I called the airlines to make sure our seats were together, they weren't! I might have gotten a little pissed and emotional because while we boarded first with the other people who need more time, we had to wait until everyone boarded before we could switch our seats around. The whole time Keenan is yelling "I want to sit with you!" Finally get all settled together in the center isle, Keenan on the isle seat, then me, then Van in his carseat then a very nice German man. I immediately gave the man a chocolate bar and told him "Thanks for your patience and understanding of my situation". He laughed... I told him he might not laugh after 10 hours of this and warned him that Van has a habit of throwing his food and toys... a lot. He ended up being a really good sport about the whole thing even after all the food and toy throwing...

Van slept about an hour in the beginning of the flight and after that mostly wanted to run up and down the isles. The flight attendants from Luftansa were amazing, every so often they would pull out a big box of toys and give the boys something new.  Van back asleep 15 minutes before we landed. In true Keenan fashion, he didn't sleep a wink on the flight but fell asleep while we were taxiing to the gate. I waited to deboard until last since I had a long lay-over... that and I had two sleeping kids. Now what? Airport people came to the rescue. They loaded us up in a cart and drove us as far as they could, then loaded Keenan up in a wheelchair with some of the carry-on. They then helped me get all my luggage since i had to recheck it and go through customs. Then they took me to the front of all the lines (customs, security...) and brought us to our gate.

Keenan never once blinked an eye open. Van on the other hand woke right up and was HYPER HYPER HYPER. All he wanted to do was run and laugh. This is definitely where the village came in... by the time we boarded the plane to Billings pretty much everyone waiting ended up helping somehow. I had help entertaining Van and keeping him corraled in, one lady entertained him with her ipad for a while. Then when it was time to board I had people helping with my carry-on, the carseat, sleeping Keenan... everything! On the flight we all sacked out... I was exhausted, afterall it was in the middle of night for Slovenia time. Another couple, who happened to be from my church growing up, carried Van off the flight and down to where my parents were in the Billings airport. Their kids who were greeting them at the airport, were about 8 and 10 saw them carrying a baby were a bit worried; "You brought a baby back?!!" one yelled to which the other one yelled "Tell me it's fake!!" Kinda funny...

I definitely appreciated all the help that I received every step of our journey back to the states!

When we were getting ready to land in Denver I told Keenan we were in America. He replied with "Hey, I'm an American kid... that's pretty cool"

Finally about 10pm Mountain time I was ready to crash in bed... Keenan was just waking up. I told him he had to go downstairs and ask Gramma to put a movie on. Jet lag with two kids was definitely a challenge. I'm pretty sure they were ganging up on me, when one was sleeping the other was awake. It took a good week for both of them to get switched around.

Last few days and a flashback

2011-11-29T13:13:00.001+01:00

I've spent the last few days packing our bags and organizing the rest of stuff into piles; airfreight (stuff that gets to us quickly), HHE (the rest of our stuff that could take a few months)... I don't think I can add one single thing to our bags, I packed them as full as they will go and as heavy as the airlines will allow. I think I finally feel calm about all of that. Now I'm trying to say my good-byes to friends and neighbors. Keenan will have his going away party and his last day of school tomorrow.

I called the airline yesterday to request child menu's for the boys and make sure our seats are TOGETHER as so many times they have split us up even though our online reservations said otherwise. The guy assured me that they always try to have families together. I asked if there was a way to flag the boys as little children so that their seats can not be moved... the guy must have rolled his eyes then moved the seating around just to mess with me anyways. I checked a few hours later and online and noticed that our seats that were together were now in fact NOT! Nice... Thankfully I was able to move them around myself so hopefully our seats remain together.

I've been trying to use up my change at the stores which means I'm spending a ridiculous amount of time counting out the smallest denominations of coins. That's right I'm trying to use up all the 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 cent pieces as possible. Today as I was counting out 3 euros worth of change I had a flash back to college when I used to take care of Phebe. She had a huge red coin purse and insisted on me using exact change and as much of the coins as possible where ever we went. I'm always amazed at what reminds me of her... often just the little things sometimes just saying Keenan's name.

neighborhood going away party

2011-11-24T12:09:00.001+01:00

I'm still in shock that our time here is almost over. Just one week left for the boys and I before we embark on a few months of being homeless traveling from state to state staying with family members. We will be the guests who NEVER leave! Seriously!

Last weekend my friend Lia organized a little neighborhood going away party for us. The same crew we played with outside everyday during the summer and celebrated kids' birthdays and invited to our smores parties. Our neighbors here have been wonderful and really made us feel at home and part of the community. I will miss them so much! (I'm getting all sentimental and teary eyed just thinking about all this) They have truly made our stay in Slovenia an amazing experience.

Unfortunately once all the kids showed up (about 12 all in all) there was a lot of commotion and noise and we stopped taking pictures.

Here's Max and Keenan:

Who me?

Uh-oh somebody noticed the cinnamon rolls and they look excited.

Just a little taste...

Just tall enough to reach all the good stuff.

As usual, Van has food and drink all down his shirt!

Zoya

The big girls working on their friendship bracelets

Talia

Lia and Jacob

I wish we would have gotten pictures of everyone but I'm sure if I look back in my blog I will find pictures of them.

On a side note: I must be crazy... I'm traveling to the States ahead of Eric to spend more time with my family which means that I will be travelling with two kids by myself. It's about 20-24 hours door to door of airports, security lines and being trapped on planes... sounds like fun huh? Maybe you could pray that I can keep my sanity... or better yet that the boys feel like sleeping ALOT! My fear is that as usual Keenan will finally fall asleep during descent of the overseas flight (because he never sleeps on that flight) and Van will be asleep at the same time leaving me to try and figure out how to maneuver two sleeping kids through security, customs and the airport... WISH ME LUCK PLEASE!

I am currently mega stressed trying to figure out how to pack for this trip. I'm allowed 2 bags but do I seriously what to haul around 6 bags (2 for each of us), a stroller, 2 carseats, carry-on and two kids... All I know is that whomever picks us up will need a big vehicle!!

2 weeks left

2011-11-15T12:16:00.001+01:00

That's it! Almost 2 weeks left of being in Ljubljana. Can't believe how fast the time has flown by.

When we first arrived here in January 2010 (almost 2 years ago) as a family of three and will be leaving as four! Van was a little over half baked in my belly and Keenan was 2 1/2 years old when we arrived. So much has changed with both of the boys! (I'm excited NOT to be pregnant during all of the upcoming travels this time that was seriously not fun!)

I'm getting emotional about leaving here, we really like it here. Slovenia is a beautiful country plus we've become good friends with a few of our neighbors and Keenan having so many kids close by to play with. The city is easy to get around, we have our stores we shop at and places we frequent but, such is the life of a global nomad. This is what we signed up for: travel the world and move all of our belongings and family frequently. We apparently love spicing up our lives with extra stress :)

I've been going through our stuff trying to reduce and minimize the baggage. We have boxes in our garage that we never even unpacked from our move here. Plus we have tons of baby stuff we can get rid of. Goodbye crib, goodbye big activity center and goodbye all broken toys that just take up space.

As a mom I worry how the move will be on the boys. Will our next neighborhood be as friendly and easy to meet people. Will the boys have nice areas (with no traffic) to ride their bikes, scooters and just to play? Will there be other kids in our neighborhood? I truly think they'll do fine. We've been prepping Keenan since July.

The adventurous side of me is definitely looking forward to seeing what awaits us and the opportunity to explore a bit of Africa. The nurse within me is excited to finally work again, it looks like I'll be able to work in the health unit there. YAY!! I get to use my brain again!

Time flies... it seems crazy that we're getting ready to embark on our third tour!

2 weeks left in Ljubljana, 2 weeks until this Montana girl can be back in Big Sky country! It's been a little over a year and a half since I've been in America and I need a little dose of home. Plus I can't wait to see my family and friends as well as meet two new members of the family that were born in the last year.

Bubbles! and a few found pics

2011-11-15T12:11:00.001+01:00

Keenan and Van were both enjoying a cool afternoon filled with bubbles. Van likes to pop them with his finger or just run through them while Keenan likes to shoot them with his nerf gun.

Van playing in dog food... a favorite past-time.

Keenan playing in the rain.

Looking suave in his dad's bowtie

Van thinks it's fun to sit on the bottom stair, especially when Keenan's sitting there in time-out. I'm guessing Van put his bears in time-time too...

Nurture v/s nature

2011-11-08T13:08:00.001+01:00

I listen to a lot of old country music, today's country music, some pop, r & b, ect ect all fairly mellow or with a fun dance beat. I have the music on quite a bit and one might think that since the boys are with me mostly that they might like my music. WRONG!!

Keenan loves listening and watching the music videos on youtube.com for quite a while his three favorite songs in order were: 1. I love rock and roll by Joan Jett (not the Brittney Spears version) 2. Only girl in the world by Rhianna... this one was actually kind of funny since he would sing it as " you make me feel like I'm the only one in the world". 3. Whip my hair by Willow Smith not sure where he got that one. I like Joan Jett and I like Rhianna so this list was ok... something you might expect but then he hung out with his dad for a few minutes...

Now Keenan goes around singing " I am smellin' like a rose that somebody gave me.......'cause I'm dead and bloated. dunt duh!" by Stone Temple Pilots and is also requesting Metallica.

Whenever we're in the car if I like a song Keenan says he doesn't like it, if I say I don't like a song (because I just don't feel like listening to Beastie Boys) Keenan says it's his favorite! I thought I would have a few years before we fought over music... I guess I was wrong!

Happy 236th Birthday Marines!

2011-11-06T12:33:00.000+01:00

Last night we got to help the Marines celebrate their 236th birthday with their annual Ball. To me this always feels like prom (only you don't have to sneak the alcohol), maybe because I never have a need to get all fancied up. This is our 4th Ball and I wanted a new dress, I've always borrowed or recycled a dress. Since I was getting a dress Eric finally broke down and bought a tux with matching tie and vest. I must say we looked pretty sharp, all matchy matchy just like prom... :)

Unfortunately I caught some bug the day before and spent most of yesterday in bed, took some meds then rallied for the ball. The tickets were pricey and I didn't want to miss it!

At the beginning of the night a video is always shown commemorating the Marines, there are interviews with both old and young Marines and clips of their heroism. Watching the video always makes me feel thankful and proud for these men and women who sign up to serve and protect us Americans. Marines stand guard at our Embassy, at US embassies all over the world, day and night watching over it.

As usual we brought our camera, told ourselves that we were going to take lots of pictures but then came home with about 5... sigh. I think below is the only picture we got with someone else... grrr... maybe next year we'll take more!!

Hand-me-down car = happy boys!!

2011-10-30T17:49:00.001+01:00

One of our friends gave us this Lightning McQueen car for the boys, her kids had outgrown it. Can we say the boys are HAPPY?!? I believe they are also the new envy of the neighborhood kids. I foresee a few fights about sharing already popping up...

The car is really only meant for 1 kid but they were able to squeeze in. Van LOVED it, and would get angry every time Keenan would stop for something.

The horn has a few buttons that make noises.

His legs are a tad too short but he almost has it by himself.

Batman and Robin

2011-10-29T11:44:00.000+02:00

I volunteered to make cupcakes for the Embassy Halloween party yesterday. I summoned my inner Martha Stuart and this is what I came up with; Oreo spiders and bloody vampire cupcakes. The bloody ones turned out a bit gross to look at... but that was the point!

Keenan insisted on being batman this year so Van got to be Robin. :)

Batman being serious

Once Van figured out that there was candy he didn't want to leave each person. He insisted on picking out his own piece then wouldn't leave. We had a few tantrums...

There was a local news crew doing a piece on "Halloween" as it's not a Slovene holiday. Keenan was interviewed but unfortunately we didn't know until after. Bummer but, we heard he did great telling them all about him being Batman!

I went as a Packer fan, not the cleverest costume, I know...

After trick or treating at the Embassy we ended with a party at the Marine house where there was more candy, cupcakes galore and all the sugar a kid could want. Van promptly fell asleep in the car on the way home and didn't even wake up when I changed his diaper and threw him in bed... ok I gently set him down and covered his sweet sticky face with kisses!

Ljubljana Marathon weekend

2011-10-25T13:17:00.000+02:00

Saturday:
Keenan has been super excited about racing ever since I told him I signed him up for one. For the occasion he wore his batman cape and Lightning McQueen hat. If you can't tell it was cold that day. The kid run was called "Lumpi run" which to me just sounds funny but Lumpi is a brand associated with a grocery store which is a major sponsor. The kids were divided into birth year and gender.

Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of him running during the race he said he didn't get first place but wasn't last either. There were people everywhere and we think Keenan ran along the fence where Eric couldn't see him. Upon finishing he told his dad that he forgot it was a race and forgot to turn on his "super speed"... cute!

Keenan showing off his medal.

Van running around afterwards.

Van having a little tantrum

Showing off his cape

Afterwards we went and ate at the Thai pub, the boys weren't so interested in the food but were in playing with the tuk tuk(??) car.

My race was the next day, I had major pre-race jitters. I know I'm only racing for myself but it's still nerve racking! Unfortunately all major roads around the race were closed so Eric dropped me off as close as he could then I walked the rest of the way. Keenan reminded me to NOT forget it was a race and to make sure I turned on my super speed!

Since the race went right next to our house the boys cheered me on there.

Waiting for me with noise makers.

Van was asleep in Eric's arms so these are the only two pics of me.

HI!

The weather was cold to stand in but perfect for running. I ran faster than I thought I was capable of and ended up taking almost 10 1/2 minutes off my time from Vienna! :) It felt great and I'm so happy with my time (1:49:51), my legs on the other hand are still reminding me of how hard I pushed it. Not sure when the next half marathon is but hopefully I'll get another one or two scheduled for next year!

Kids being kids

2011-10-25T12:56:00.000+02:00

When opportunity presents itself Van likes to take it. For example if he sees his Dad lying on the floor he will bounce on his belly, if he sees Keenan on the floor he will sit on his head...

Van also likes to back up to Sierra and get as close as he can, sometimes sitting on her, and cuddle with her for a little bit. Can't wait until we can get rid of that ugly fence that keeps Van off of the DVD player ect ect and all those fun buttons.

Keenan wanted in on the pictures too!

Pumpkin party

2011-10-18T12:32:00.002+02:00

We attended for the the second year one of the local produce farm's annual pumpkin party. We arrived much earlier since last time we missed out on most of the food. They made squash soup and grilled pumpkin, they also had warm spiced wine (yummy). I tried recreating the soup they made and it turned out OK.

Squash soup in progress.

Van wanting to help move the pumpkins

Van reminded us (not so quietly) that it was nap time and he needed one!

Dad and Keenan starting on their pumpkin

hard at work

Van found much delight in the tomato house.

Final product!

We brought home several pumpkins and squashes... I'm afraid I might have gone overboard it feels like we've been eating a LOT of it lately. :)

Kids day at Arboretum..

2011-10-18T12:26:00.001+02:00

I must have missed posting on this as it was in AUGUST! We took the kids up to Arboretum for a fun, sugar filled day all geared towards them. There were lots of things to bounce on, draw on, paint, ride, kick... even a giant colon to walk through (i know, what?? at a kids day??) and of course lots of sugar!

Keenan getting his face painted. Notice anything wrong with the "S" in the second picture??

and the final (fixed) product!

Van and Dad playing in front of a giant polyp filled colon...

makes a nice back drop don't ya think??

Keenan showing his fighting skills

Keenan had to check out the polyps too.

being an artist.

and crinkle nose pose

It's Beer man!

2011-10-07T08:36:00.002+02:00

Can you tell which parent was playing with Van?? Hint: I rarely drink beer.

(Our TV is at the repair shop so in the mean time we have this huge one below) I can't wait until we can take the hideous plastic fence down from around the TV/stereo stuff. Van is very much into pushing all buttons the light up or make noise: see previous post on " Our coffee maker"

Van has decided that it's his job to hold the leash when we take Sierra on our morning walks. He gets very upset when she doesn't go where he wants her to and instead pulls him where she is going

It was a very foggy morning, we couldn't even see to the other side of the lake. Van likes to hightail it to the cafe on the other side of the lake in the mornings, hop into the sandbox then let me carry him home when he is all done.

Keenan the jokester

2011-09-30T12:37:00.000+02:00

Last night as the boys were playing in the bath tub Keenan looks at me with all seriousness and says "Oops, I pooped in the bath tub"
Me: Gross! Are you serious? Time to get out of the tub, ugh gross!
Keenan: uhm, yea... I pooped just now now. ( He actually looks embarrassed)
Me: Ugh!
Keenan: (laughing) Ha ha, I tricked you! I didn't poop in the tub that is gross!

A few minutes later
Keenan: (looking remorseful) Uh oh, I REALLY did just poop in the tub.
Me: WHAT? I hope your kidding again!
Keenan: No really, I did!
Me: Ugh
Keenan: (Laughing) Ha, I just tricked you AGAIN!

GRrrrr, little stinker!

Fall days and young love

2011-09-30T12:31:00.000+02:00

The weather has been amazing although it definitely feels like fall; cool crisp mornings and warm afternoons. We've been trying to take advantage of every last ray of sunshine before the rainy season starts and the gloom of winter sets in.

Keenan has really been enjoying school again and his teachers tell me that his Slovene is really good. Whenever I hear Keenan speaking Slovene it gives me warm fuzzies, not sure exactly why since I usually have NO idea what he is even talking about. I guess I'm just proud of him! He has been insisting on riding his bike to school, I finally gave in. I had to reroute the path we take so that we're not on the main streets as much. Even though we walk and bike on the sidewalks it still stresses me out...all the what if's I guess.

Picking up Keenan in the afternoons now takes 3 times as long due to Van wanting to play in the sandboxes with all the other kids. It feels kind of mean to let him see all the kids playing and not let him, so I gave up. What else do we have to do anyways.

Keenan and his girlfriend Sara are still very much in love. They are constantly holding hands, touching, walking with their arms around each other and kissing. Yes, kissing; on the cheeks and occasionally loud smacking on the lips kisses. I seriously didn't think I would be dealing with this when he was only 4 years old!

Here's the two lovebirds playing out in our neighborhood

Van got a turn too. He wants to be a big boy so bad! Everything that Keenan is doing Van is right behind him wanting to do it too.

Our coffee maker.

2011-09-25T10:09:00.002+02:00

Van loves helping us make coffee... maybe he just likes the buttons.

Super Packer football player

2011-09-17T13:35:00.001+02:00

Keenan likes to pick out his own outfits in the morning. This is what he came downstairs in yesterday morning. He claimed he was a Super Packer football player. Yes, I let him go to school like that. He's cute!

found pictures from our phones

2011-09-11T20:34:00.000+02:00

Foreign pizza can be interesting. Yes, the one below has cut up pieces of hotdog. We were at a birthday party this evening, one side of the pizza had fried egg on while the other had sliced of hardboiled egg. WTF? Tuna pizza is also common, no I will not try that one on purpose.

We found these next to at a club, we went to hear a tribute band.

So I wonder what kind of "funky treats" they serve at the smoking area??

Max and Keenan being Rock Stars

Ugh, grumpy kids in a car. I wanted to show them what they looked like... neither one of them were impressed, in fact Van was probably more grumpy because he wanted to play with my phone.

The oompa loopmas were up in Austria. They were actually doing a fundraiser for a charity... so we paid them a few euros to take their pictures.

Piran, Slovenia

2011-09-11T11:17:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we drove down to the Slovenian coast to a town called Piran. The day was hot, the kids were cranky... the town was pretty as was the coast and water. We decided to have a seafood meal since we were on the coast, the food was OK the kids were rotten! Van just wanted to run around everywhere, Keenan was just ornery. Keenan was a bit bummed that we went to the coast just to look around at the city and not to swim.

Here's a bit of what we saw:

In the main square

wandering through the maze of buildings

the coastline

walking up to church which was situated high up on a cliff, you can see and old castle in the distance

view from the top

Looking down

watching the boats and swimmers

A peek inside the church

bell tower. (me and Van are next to it if you look closely)

We didn't stay long. Thankfully on the drive home both kids fell asleep. Eric and I went out to dinner with our friends (the boys got a babysitter). It was nice to have a nice sit down dinner without the constant interruptions of the kids and the best part, we were celebrating my friends birthday and in Slovenia its custom that the birthday person picks up the tab! Note to self: go somewhere inexpensive on birthday.

Hot Horse

2011-09-09T20:26:00.000+02:00

It has taken me nearly 2 years to try "Hot Horse", a burger/hotdog stand in Tivoli Park. Just like the name implies they are burgers and hotdogs made out of horse. The verdict? Mmeh, it was ok. The burgers were spiced up so they tasted like another flat patty burger they sell here. Keenan ate his hotdog and didn't complain.

Ugh, terrible picture of me holding my horse burger.

Superman golfs...

2011-08-31T11:36:00.000+02:00

Found some pictures on my phone...

This was maybe a few months ago. Eric wanted to go to the driving range and since there's a cafe and a playground the boys and I went too. Keenan insisted on bringing his golf club set too! Keenan practiced on the putting range while I enjoyed a cool beverage and Van napped in the Ergo carrier. It was relaxing... until a few older boys showed up (maybe 8 or 9 years old). They were being jerks to Keenan, taking his golf balls, his clubs, standing in his way so he couldn't put around. I could tell he was getting really frustrated and mad, I resisted intervening as long as I could. When they started throwing his clubs over the fence where the driving range was I lost it. I might have already gone over to tell the boys NO a few times, but when they did that I got mad, chewed them out in a language they probably didn't understand then bitched at their parents who were sitting at the table next to me. Seriously, who lets their kids bully up on a much younger kid right in front of them?? After that the mean boys and their oblivious parents left. Good riddance! Watch out because Mama bear is on the prowl!

Sprinklers!

2011-08-31T11:14:00.000+02:00

I used to love running through the sprinklers growing up so I thought maybe Keenan and Tamar, our neighbor, would enjoy it too. Keenan and Tamar were both shy to actually through the water to start with but not Van he was the first one in and LOVED it.

Contemplating running through the sprinkler.

Love his face here.

Check out Van's face below.

Hot day + sprinklers = happy kids!

Lake Bohinj

2011-08-31T11:10:00.001+02:00

This was maybe a weekend or two ago... We drove up to Lake Bohinj for a little swimming and a change of scenery.

Van content playing in the rocks while Keenan was trying to catch little fishies with a net.

Oh hey, I was there too!

The mighty fisherman!

Eric was there too... somehow he managed to either shy away from the camera or be behind it.

Nap time and a little brotherly love

2011-08-31T11:04:00.001+02:00

Now that Van is always on the go, I truly cherish my snuggle time with him. Even better that I got a nap too!
Funny how naps are such a luxury as a mom...

The boys will play together once in a while. Van is a big kid and rather likes just plopping down on Keenan. I guess he thought this would be a comfy way to watch TV, either way Keenan doesn't seem to mind.

Our weekend

2011-08-15T15:05:00.000+02:00

We started off our 3 day weekend (for a Slovenian holiday) on Friday afternoon with a trip up to the paintball fields. Keenan was pretty bummed when I told him he just wasn't old enough to play paintball with the adults and big kids but Dad saved the day by letting him put on his helmet, coat and shoot his gun a few times anyways.

This paintball field is set up in the mountains with a nice restaurant, sitting area, two minature ponies, a sandbox, giant swing, playhouse, little pond with fish and tadpoles, creepy naked lady statue coming out of the woods... the list goes on. Last time we were there they had a wooden stump, a pile of nails and a hammer for the kids as well. Needless to say the smaller kids were all well entertained. Van was mostly impressed with the two kitties and the water dish for the dogs. Sierra came too, she stayed near the lady cooking on the grill.

Saturday morning we woke up extra early to drive to Portoroz on the Slovenian coast. Eric had a flag football tournament and we wanted to go to the beach. Unfortunately the beach that was next to where the tournament was being held was cement with a drop off into the water. So boys couldn't just play in the shallow part or on the edge in the sand. It was a bit difficult for awhile since Van was over being in his little floatie after about 10 minutes by then Keenan had finally made it into the water and wanted to go out deep. Thankfully the football players had a big gap between games so I had help! I didn't take too many pictures... I guess I figured I had taken enough beachy pictures in Greece...

The boys and I left around 5:30, which I didn't realize it was the time until about 10 minutes into our drive home when Van started screaming and screaming... He was starving. Of course the nearest gas stop seemed to be miles and miles away... I had a babysitter coming at 6:30 so I could go to a ladies night get together, I didn't get home until 7, both boys were GRUMPY, still hungry and just wanted me. I felt a little bad for the babysitter, I did what I could but I had to hop in the shower and go... I guess that's why I pay her... By the way they were both fine a few minutes after I left.

Sunday Eric and Keenan went camping while Van and I went to the flea market. Van discovered that he can open the dishwasher, stand on it and reach stuff on the counter. Our dishwasher is small and doesn't work very well and since we have a major lack of storage we keep snacks in there... well we used to. When all is quiet and I don't know where Van is he's either at the dog dish making a major mess with the water, in the small fridge digging around or now in/on the dishwasher.

Who needs veggies...

2011-07-31T10:57:00.000+02:00

when you can eat ranch dressing by the handful??

This picture doesn't show the best of the mess. Shortly after this he started grabbing by the handful and was not happy with me when I finally took it away.

The rest of Greece... I think

2011-07-31T10:51:00.000+02:00

Trying to get a family picture...

We took this boat for a ride around part of the island with stops for swimming, eating and just looking around. It was an all day thing. I'm on the boat waving.

Keenan contemplating the jump.

looking for fishies with dad

digging in the sand

Mid jump

ICECREAM!

A small fishing town that we stopped at, with old ruins...

The boat ride back...

times 2!

Need to go to AA... after a binge?

More Greece

2011-07-31T10:45:00.000+02:00

I just have so many pictures that I liked from our Greece trip that yes, I'm posting more!

We were in Greece for about 10 days. During that time we soaked up as much sun as we could mostly on the beach, Aqualand, took a boat ride around the island, and did just a touch of sight seeing. I would have liked to do more sight-seeing but mixing the heat with 2 young kids and adding sight-seeing on top of that just didn't jive well. We let Keenan stay up late and watch movies on his i-pod, which he rediscovered "Wall-e" and finds it hilarious, and also let him play on his leapster. Van stayed up late by default since it was hard for him to fall asleep in the same room as everyone else, a strange room at that. Now that we're back his sleeping is terrible :( He only wants to sleep on us. I would like to think that he's just a cuddle bug :)

We've been in Europe for nearly 4 years now, I think some of their ways are rubbing off. In Europe EVERYONE wears bikinis, little bikinis, doesn't matter if your old, young, fit or not you're in a bikini. I think it's nearly impossible to find a modest full swimsuit, takini or even a full coverage bikini. I've always been fairly modest but now even after two babies stretching out my skin and leaving my breast deflated, find myself with more confidence in my body then before. I even bought a few skimpy bikinis that I don't think I would have ever worn before because the bottoms allow for a lot more butt cheek peeping out. When in Rome...

Achilles Palace... maybe it was actually called something else but there's a big statue of Achilles there.

Keenan checking out a few displays.

Van did NOT want to be held, he NEEDED to be down on the ground crawling everywhere. He likes stairs best which is good because we had to climb a few flights. Yes, we let Van run around in just a diaper... it was HOT.

We let Keenan take a few pictures

If you look closely at Keenan's face it is covered in pollen

Darn, I forgot to rotate this one... this is why his face is covered in pollen.

Me and Achilles

This is how Keenan REALLY felt about sight seeing...

Aqualand

2011-07-27T19:36:00.001+02:00

We spent two days at Aqualand. There was a really nice small kid area with slides that only kids could go on and the water was pretty shallow. We stayed close by but let Keenan go crazy. The kid was non-stop in the water, playing from 10 until we pried him away around 6 both days. Each time it took him approximately 4 minutes to fall asleep once he was all buckled in the car.

Keenan hamming it up for the on site photographer

We made him wear a water shirt as this was our third day in full sun and we were all getting a bit pink.

He was a bit scared the first time, after that we couldn't keep him away.

trying to stay a bit covered up while letting Van splash in the pool and below Van was just exhausted!

Rocky beach

2011-07-27T19:35:00.000+02:00

This is the beach across from our hotel. It was rocky but easy to get to and we still had fun.

Christian playing in the rocks

Our little fish.

Van

lovin' on the swing! Don't you just want to smoosh his cheeks and kiss him all over??

Corfu, Greece: Water and Sun

2011-07-26T14:20:00.002+02:00

We stayed at a little family run hotel that was right across the street from the beach

The hotel wasn't incredible kid friendly but the hotel owner tried. He borrowed toys and even a swing from his sister for the kids to play with.

Van LOVED the swing. There was even a little rope tied to the swing so you didn't have to get up to push.

Van was pretty content staying at the waters edge playing in the sand.

We bought Keenan a snorkel... after that we pretty much only saw his backside after that.

Keenan snorkeling.

A little baby butt crack...

Mmmmm, sand

I bought a big floppy sun hat for 4 Euros... I'm pretty sure I wore it the entire time in Greece. I must be getting old... I also always made sure me and the kids were completely slathered in sunblock.

We just thought this cotton candy/ lemonady looking house was interesting...

Getting to Corfu, Greece

2011-07-26T14:20:00.001+02:00

Two weeks ago we set out bright and early for Venice, Italy to board a boat for Corfu, Greece. When we arrived in Italy we found out that our boat that we thought left at 2pm really was leaving at 5 and that we were really on the slow boat which takes 26 hours vs the fast boat which only took 20. Sigh... It all worked out though. The boat had a small play area with lots of kids and a pool which was mostly covered in drunk teenagers but still provided entertainment for Keenan which was good because our cabin consisted of 2 sets of bunk beds which we shared with our friends. Our friends Andre and Sabina have a little boy, Christian, who is a few months older than Van. We FINALLY arrived in Corfu around 9pm and followed our friends to our hotel.

My first 10K!

2011-07-19T06:54:00.000+02:00

My first 10K at Lake Bled was a night run. I wanted to do this run since I found out about it in the spring but I thought we were going to gone on that day so I never registered. Then I discovered we WOULD be around registration was full, I was bummed. On friday Eric and and I donated blood and as soon as I got back home I received a text asking if I wanted to run in place of one of my friends who didn't want to anymore. Uhm, YES!

The run started at 10pm and at registration along with the free t-shirt we got free head lamps. We asked around and everyone we asked said that we didn't need the lights so since they weren't comfy we opted not to wear them. The lack of light was a bit disorienting at times and the route around the lake wasn't lit up too well at times. I started the race off a bit fast but I was feeling good... for a tiny while, I quickly became exhausted and I mean EXHAUSTED! I checked my garmin and to my horror I'd only been running for 10 minutes. How could this be?? I felt TERRIBLE! Several times during the race I wondered why I was running, this was HELL... that's how bad I felt. Thankfully I finally finished and somehow it was at the high end of the time I was shooting for. As I stumbled through the finish line I received my medal for finishing which was a fork with a ribbon around it! What was the fork for, you might ask? For the real prize which was a big piece of cream cake which Lake Bled is known for!
= YUM!

Somehow it didn't occur to me until the next day why I felt so darn bad during the race, I mean come on, I regularly run 4-7 miles a 3 times a week. Oh yeah... I was missing a whole bunch of red blood cells! DUH! So, no more donating blood for me! At least for awhile. There's a few more races coming up including the Ljubljana marathon (I'll do the half) in a few months.

4 Years old!!

2011-07-18T07:05:00.000+02:00

Keenan was completely pumped about his birthday this year, and kept asking when it was. This was the first time EVER that my cake has turned out. I'm was actually pretty excited about the superman cake, so was Keenan. The frosting is a marshmallow fondant which basically translates into playdoh for adults, it rolls out about the same way.

Of course the birthday boy was wearing his superman cape! I cut out lots of superhero masks for the kids to decorate.

Van showing off his crinkle nose pose.

A look at the commotion.

Keenan was SUPER excited to see Sara, his extra special girl, show up. He was so afraid she wouldn't get her invitation, no one was home when we tried to deliver it so we had to tape it to the outside entrance to her apartment.

Me looking serious about something and the little kids lining up for cake.

Tamar, Zoya, Ava and Keenan all wanting me to hurry up and pass out cake!

Our neighbor Talia was exhausted by all the commotion and Eric seemed a good place to take a rest.

Keenan hugging on Sara

Keenan and Sara hamming it up for the camera

Van was pretty quiet during the party... I think he found the cheetos bowl, this picture doesn't really show it but his face was covered in food and filth.

Cheese! Our neighbor Ava

A few extra pictures

2011-07-16T08:53:00.000+02:00

Van wearing Dad's sunglasses. Keenan wanted to eat watermelon, I didn't want the mess in the house and told him he had to go outside. Well, he went outside just not very far. Not sure which is worse, a watermelon mess all over the table or right outside the back door...

Ljubljana Zoo

2011-07-16T08:51:00.000+02:00

FINALLY got our passes to the zoo for the summer and took the boys last week. Of course they were both way more interested in the playground than the animals but like most mean parents I made them look at some animals first, then play than lastly get ice cream!

Fun little digger tractor... too bad you had to put 1 Euro in it to play for a few minutes.

My attempt at getting a nice picture of the boys posing...

My little monkey.

Van too

Van liked the sand box best.

Keenan liked climbing up into the tower best... mostly because I couldn't get to him unless I climbed up.

crinkle nose

can we eat icecream yet??

Keenan will smile for the camera once in awhile...

4th of July Party

2011-07-15T20:44:00.000+02:00

Eric and I went to the Ambassador's 4th of July party which is all official and somewhat formal... meaning you need to look nice even though you are eating hotdogs. Eric opted to help out with the grilling while I opted to just have fun and drink some wine :) Last year they tried serving chicken breasts, something that didn't seem so "informal" as hotdogs and burgers but all the Slovenes complained, they wanted burgers!

Unfortunately this is the ONLY picture I took that evening... which is a total bummer because I even bought a new cute dress for the occasion.

Keenan and Dad go camping

2011-07-15T20:41:00.000+02:00

Over the 4th of July weekend Eric took Keenan camping for one night nearby. Since it was only for one night I opted to stay home with Van, I really didn't feel like packing up that much stuff for one night!

There was a roped off swimming area that Keenan was pretty excited about...

until he realized that the water was ice cold!

Van and I went hiking up Smarna Gora with our neighbor who is just arrived in Slovenia about a month ago. I kept raving to her about the yummy donuts you can get up at the top so imagine my surprise and disappointment when there were NO donuts... only on the weekends they said but, they totally redeammed themselves when they offered us fresh blueberry struedel out of the oven. The struedel was delish and totally worth packing up the extra 27 pounds on my back (Van).

Backyard pool time

2011-07-10T16:02:00.000+02:00

It's been HOT! I finally pulled out the blow-up swimming pool, got a little light headed from blowing it up and let the boys splash around. They had a blast!

End of school year party

2011-07-10T15:58:00.000+02:00

Keenan's school had an end of the school year celebration. The kids sang a few songs then we broke into groups and played games. It was pretty cute hearing all Keenan's slovene language skills! He speaks much more Slovene around his classmates and people that he KNOWS can't speak English.

Getting the instructions for a game from one of his teachers, Sabina.

Playing some sort of a tag game.

Keenan telling us how hot and sweaty he is.

More games

YES! Ice cream while the teachers talk to the parents and hand out huge folders of art projects.

We had fun. It was nice to meet more of the parents. Some of the parents told us how their child came home counting to 10, singing "Happy Birthday", or saying other English words and when asked where they learned that they said "Keenan". The Slovene parents were happy with the English their kids were picking up and we're happy with Keenan's Slovene. Putting Keenan into a local pre-school has been a very positive experience, we're glad we did!

AMCHAM Sports picnic

2011-06-24T14:00:00.000+02:00

American Chamber of Commerce put on a sports picnic pitting Americans against Slovenes in several different sports. We didn't compete, we just went for the hotdogs and to let the kids run around a nice park. There was a jumpy castle, playground and an area for kid's activities complete with people to entertain your children!!

Upon arriving the kids were fashioned with patriotic looking paraphernalia, Van's not looking too thrilled about the stars headband.

Van and Dad

Oh, hey... I was there too. Drinking a coke zero... at a picnic...why wasn't I into the beer??

Keenan running an obstacle course

Van getting into the birdee's

Looks like Van has his own obstacle course...

Father's Day

2011-06-20T12:07:00.000+02:00

For Father's Day we took the boys swimming. Keenan loves the water so much it was a fight to get him dressed again to leave.

Then Eric took ~~Keenan~~ Superman bowling.

Time to cuddle

and that was our day!

Blueberries and a little bit of chocolate...

2011-06-14T07:11:00.000+02:00

I took the boys to the open market a few days ago. The strawberries are so sweet and delicious right now, we also found some little blueberries that were a hit. I should take Keenan with me more often to the market because he scored us some free cherries, a few apricots and some extra strawberries. Why? The stand keepers (? is that right?) thought he was so charming (of course) but were mostly impressed that while his Mom couldn't speak Slovene he could! Keenan asked one lady, all in Slovene, if he could try a cherry please. She was impressed and gave us a big handful. The next person gave us three apricots to try along with an extra quarter kilo of strawberries which he threw in only after Keenan started speaking to him. I try to go to the same people to buy my produce so those few people know my lack of language skills.

When we got home I stripped Van down to his diaper and let him go to down on blueberries and strawberries. Oddly enough it was the tiny tiny piece of chocolate that made the biggest mess.

I made Keenan go outside with his bowl of blueberries, thankfully he didn't make much of a mess. He did drop a few which Sierra then walked through and stuck to the bottom of her paws. Thankfully I noticed before Sierra walked on our carpet!

playing TOGETHER!

2011-06-13T10:04:00.000+02:00

Keenan and Van were actually playing TOGETHER yesterday! Woot-woot, now imagine me doing a happy dance! Granted Keenan was stalling because he was supposed to go upstairs to get dressed and brush his teeth but either way I'm excited that were entertaining themselves and no one was crying! .

Van is actually laughing here even though it looks as if he could be crying...

Where's Keenan??

2011-06-12T07:15:00.000+02:00

So yesterday I took Van and our new neighbor to do a little shopping and show her (the neighbor) a different grocery store and home depot like store. I admit we were taking our time. We were just getting everything in the car and Van in his carseat to leave when I got a text from Eric reminding me that he had a football game and he needed to leave NOW and yes he'd tried to call me a few times but I apparently didn't hear it. Ooops, bad wife! As soon as I got home Eric jumped in his car and left but there was NO sign of Keenan. In fact the house was eerily quiet, I started to panic a little bit. Surely Eric would have told me if Keenan was with a neighbor or outside playing. Keenan finally answered one of my worried "KEENAN!" calls with a little giggle and let me know he was upstairs in his room. So I got Van settled in his room since he fell asleep on the ride home then went to go say hi to Keenan only there was no sign of him in his room... or upstairs for that matter. Back to panic mode. Where did I find him? Keenan has been finding great amusement in hiding under his bed and being super quiet so I lifted his bed skirt and this is what I found.

2011-06-11T15:04:00.002+02:00

Keenan's Slovene has been coming along pretty good (so we're told) and its been fun watching him play with the neighborhood kids and listening to him speak a foreign language that neither Eric or I know. When Keenan is upset with Van he will now yell at him in Slovene... what he's saying we're not sure hopefully the other preschoolers aren't teaching him naughty words and he'll also say his name like the Slovenes do instead of Van like we say as in pronouncing it like the vehicle he will say the 'a' like 'aw'. It's kinda funnny. Keenan keeps telling me that I need to learn Slovene, or Sobene as he calls it. Here's our conversation from the other morning.

Keenan: Hvala (thanks)
Me: Prosim (your welcome)
Keenan (with his eyes all big): MOM, you're learning Sobene!! Good job!

He was clearly impressed. I do know a few Slovene words/phrases. I can understand a lot more than I speak since it's so close to Russian... not that I speak a whole lot of that either...

Preschool pictures

2011-06-06T13:16:00.000+02:00

LOVE my Keenan!

This is his preschool picture taken a week or two ago. Looking at this picture makes my heart feel so happy! I love my Keenan and can't believe that he'll be 4 next month! FOUR! Has it seriously been almost 4 years?! 4 years and how many moves...

Swinging

2011-05-30T10:59:00.000+02:00

Van LOVES swings, he usually starts out by laughing constantly for the first 5-10 minutes then he is able to relax and just smile... with a few more giggles thrown in here and there.

He scrunches his nose up a lot when he smiles, I think its so cute! I tried getting a video of him laughing but of course he wouldn't cooperate!

Arboretum

2011-05-27T10:41:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we drove a few miles out of town to visit Arboretum. It's a large horticulture park complete with a pretty awesome playground and random dinosaurs all over the park, although I think the dinosaurs were part of a special exhibit. At any rate the dinosaurs kept Keenan interested to keep walking along to see which dinosaur would be next.

Almost immediately we found the playground, jumpy castles and other money sucking rides.

I let him pick two things to send money on. #1, the jumpy slide

Scariest Goofy and Minnie Mouse ever!

#2 Bungee trampoline

Weeee!

Me looking up at Keenan who is in sheer bliss.

On to the "free" part of the playground

Dad's legs and Van. Eric had the camera mostly so he isn't in any pictures... :(

Always scrunching up that little nose of his.

A few flowers we saw and a wooden dino

Bee hives with the traditional artwork on the front. While Eric was getting this picture I heard a young girl screaming and screaming. Turns out she got a bee stuck in her hair which left a pretty good stinger on her scalp.

I thought those tall flowers looked neat.

Keenan checking out where the dino poo poo's

More of the playground

Add caption

Keenan hitting everything with his walking stick.

All in all it was a fun outing, although next time we will bring a picnic lunch as there wasn't much inside the park to eat other than pastries and icecream. Eric told Keenan on the way into the park to not even ask about the balloons until we left. Keenan of course remembered and on the way out ran over to the balloons to pick his out. We were left with a 6 Euro bill for a gigantic dinosaur balloon that had to be somewhat shoved into the back of the car. Keenan spoiled?? Nah!! :)

Keenan...

2011-05-20T13:30:00.000+02:00

I was walking Keenan home from school the other day trying to engage him in conversation...

Me: Keenan, what did you do in school today
Keenan: Uhm, I don't know
Me: You don't know? Did you color? Did you play outside....
Keenan: I DON'T KNOW!
Me: Really? Did you read books? Did you play with cars?
Keenan: (grabbing my hand and pulling me to face him) MOM, I know I love you but sometimes you NEED to stop talking!!

I couldn't help it, he looked so soooo serious, with his eyebrows all scrunched together... I busted out laughing.
I often tell him when he's frustrating me "Keenan I love you but you're really frustrating me right now so you need to go play somewhere else".

Superman goes hiking on Šmarna Gora

2011-05-15T08:36:00.002+02:00

Not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to run hills in the morning then go hiking with an extra 26 pounds strapped to my back but that's exactly what I did yesterday. Thankfully Eric got to pack Van back down the mountain after we had our fill of miska (fried cake donuts). Keenan wanted to wear his Superman cape, it received a lot of attention from the other hikers.

Eric found Keenan two hiking sticks to "help" him. The hike took us about an hour to get to the top with a LOT of encouraging for Keenan. Thankfully the way down was much easier and he ran a bit. Of course a few minutes after we left the top which had bathrooms he announced that he needed to go #2. Great timing Keenan... So I know there are signs about picking up your dogs poop but what about your kid's?

FINALLY made it to the top. Keenan ringing the bell.

View from the top.

and our reward, miska. They are very tasty fried cake donuts.

Keenan looking excited about digging in. Everytime he wanted to stop walking we reminded him about the donuts waiting for him at the top. The top of Smarna Gora is a restaurant and a church.

Dad was there too!

Superman relaxing.

Trying to get a picture of all three boys looking. Eric was trying to give me the bottle tops for them to look at. This was the only picture of everyone looking.

Keenan was exhausted when we were all done and fell asleep in the car. Our babysitter then came over so Eric and I could go to a movie. Yay for babysitters! Keenan was pretty excited to see Spela as for some reason it has been awhile since we've used her. I'm thankful that we found yet another good babysitter whom Keenan loves. Van so far doesn't seem to mind when we leave him.

Superman strikes again!

2011-05-14T10:15:00.001+02:00

Keenan has been bugging me about "needing" a superman cape. So being the Super mom that I am, I finally made him one. I spent most of the day getting the fabric and sewing it up for him. He was pretty excited when he saw it and immediately asked to put it on. Keenan then ran at full speed and jumped. He came back to me and said "Mom, you got the wrong cape!" Me: "Why, what's wrong with that one?" Keenan: "This one doesn't fly..." I told him just like Superman he needed to learn how to fly and that it takes a lot of practice. He tried again and asked me if he flew a little bit. "Yes, Keenan you sure did!"

The cape is a little long so we had to tuck it in the back of his pants while on the bike.

Last night Keenan was running around in his Superhero undies and his cape, he then wanted to go out and play some basketball...

checking his Superhero self out in the mirror.

Appropriate attire, yes??

He's starting to get the hang of dribbling.

Keenan and Sara

2011-05-09T20:27:00.000+02:00

This is Sara, she is Keenan main girl. We found out not too long ago that she lives in our neighborhood so today we went over to her house to play.

I love the way Sara is looking at Keenan in this picture... he's trying to look macho.

Keenan claiming his girl.

I thought he was going to kiss her but he didn't.

Van got to come too, he enjoyed the swing. Yes, I know his hat is folded up funny but it's a little big and kept getting in his eyes.

Van laughed and made lots of joyful sounds, I think you can see his excitement in his face.

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T20:11:00.000+02:00

For Mother's Day we went to a nice little restaurant up in the Mountains I even managed to get a picture of me and the boys something that seems to rarely happen. Love LOVE my boys!

Not sure if its the print of my dress, my pose or what but that picture above makes me look like I have a big belly which I do NOT!

Keenan's girls...

2011-05-04T11:25:00.002+02:00

Keenan seems to be quite the ladies man, already at 3 1/2 years old! At his preschool he has his girlfriend Sara and his backup girlfriend Lara. And heaven forbid I mess up and call one of his girls Tara. All the girls in his class have similar sounding names Sara, Lara, Tara (all pronounced the same except the first letter) then there's Nana, Mila and Manca. One day both me and Sara's mom were picking up our kids from school and while we were laughing about their little romance we watched them. Sara ~~told~~ demanded that Keenan pick some flowers, with a goofy grin on his face Keenan was obedient. They held hands and giggled and everytime we said "OK, it's time to go" Sara would hug Keenan then plant a big kiss on his cheek. It was all quite cute.

Another time Keenan told me he gave Sara a flower while they were outside playing. I asked him what her response was, he told me she threw it in the sandbox but then got mad when another little girl tried to claim it as her own saying it was her special flower from him.

Keenan tells me all the time that he picks flowers for Sara and Lara because they are his girls and in return they hug and kiss his cheeks.

One morning while dropping Keenan off at school another little girl named Manca came running over to us yelling Keenan's name. Keenan doesn't even look at her but goes straight for Sara. Poor Manca, she looked so sad and the teacher told me that she'd been waiting for Keenan to arrive. Keenan told me he doesn't like Manca, she is NOT one of his girls. We had a small conversation about being nice to EVERYBODY. The next day I made Keenan say hi to both Manca and another little girl named Nana, they both blushed, giggled then ran away. Is being the foreign kid in preschool a bonus?

While we were in Vienna Keenan told me that he missed Sara because he loves her so soo much. Everytime I say that something is nice or cute Keenan's response is "but Sara is REALLY cute" or "but Sara is REALLY nice."

All I can say is WOW, REALLY?? What's he going to be like as a teenager?

No training wheels!

2011-04-28T08:46:00.000+02:00

Keenan wanted to try out our neighbor's bike, one with no training wheels. Keenan totally rocked it!

The next day Keenan demanded that Dad take off his training wheels. He's doing great and loves "off roading" into the grassy areas.

Sidewalk chalk

2011-04-25T15:31:00.000+02:00

Gramma and Grampa Hammond sent some bright egg shaped side walk chalk to the boys that I brought out a few days ago. The neighborhood kids must have heard "new chalk" and came running, all eager to showcase their talent. One of our neighbors drew a fairly elaborate road for the boys and their cars which was a hugehit. Van happily crawled through it, oblivious to the artwork he was smearing, his butt was covered as well.

I think he was more interested in the camera, he wasn't too happy when I wouldn't let him play with it.

Keenan trying out the new road system and below is our neighbor showing off Keenan's power tools.

Impromptu birthday party

2011-04-25T15:19:00.000+02:00

Eric was traveling back here on Van's birthday and a lot of people were planning on traveling this weekend for Easter so we weren't going to have a party for Van but then on Thursday afternoon all of our neighbors that we would have invited were right outside our door playing. I quickly brought our the cake and the high chair and we sang "Happy Birthday" then the Slovenes and Keenan all sang it in Slovene as well.

The Birthday boy

I seriously need to take some cake decorating classes, that's all I got...

Keenan was more than willing to "help" blow out the candles.

Diggin' in!

The kids all look very sad about getting cake unexectedly.

Jacob

Keenan and Tom

Oskar

Superman!

2011-04-25T15:10:00.001+02:00

Grampa and Gramma Hammond sent Keenan a whole box of Superman stuff: jammies, a shirt, shirt and undies combo and a even a movie! Thank you!! You have made this little boy Super happy! He was so excited about the jammies that he wanted to wear them to school... I'm boring I said no.

For some reason when I'm trying to get Keenan's picture he likes to hop around in circle, wave his arms in the air, bob his head around... all while making weird noises.

We did it!

2011-04-25T14:58:00.000+02:00

Woot Woot! 4 of us ladies (started with 5) have been running since mid-November with a single goal in mind; to run the Vienna half-marathon. Well, we did it! Only 3 of us ended up running as Debbi had to drop out due to an untimely injury but she still came to cheer us on. Unfortunately for me Eric was in the States so I got to bring the kids by myself, which Debbi then graciously watched during the race. In our group we had us four ladies, three husbands and 11 kids!

Michelle, me and Cyndi after the race, they gave medals to everyone... well almost, they ran out so hopefully Michelle and Cyndi will get theirs in the mail.

The younger kids after the 1k coca-cola run. Keenan was bummed because he was too young to sign up.

The morning of the race I met up with Michelle and we packed ourselves into the metro along with the other 30,000 racers. We were supposed to meet up with Cyndi near the start line but we never found her until after the race. Since this was our first race we had to start at the very back, when they finally let us go it was mass chaos. I spent the first 4-5 miles right on a guy's heels as he was more aggressive fighting through the constant wall of people. I tried enjoying the sights as we ran all over Vienna but there was just too many people, I had to watch where I was going. As I was going through the finish line a few people were finishing for the full marathon, crazy! My goal was to finish under 2 hours... I missed my mark by 16 seconds, grrrrr! I guess this means I have to sign up for another one...

I debated whether to drive or take the train and ended up going with the train option. I had envisioned the train to be like a subway where I can just push my stroller right on in with the problems. Well, trains here are not stroller friendly; there were lots of stairs to get to the different platforms and a steep, narrow set of steps to get on the train. All these stairs left me at the mercy of strangers for help with the stroller, our bag and the boys. A really good strategy was to block to exit or entry so no one could go by until I was helped :) There were lots of nice people willing to help and lots of nice people on the trains that even helped to keep the boys entertained!

What was the first thing Keenan did when we got to our room? Check out his Super Hero undies in the mirror.

Thousands of people in the registration hall left most of our kids grumpy, that is until they found the climbing wall!

They even received medals for their efforts... no need to tell them they were left over medals from one of the marathons last year.

After the registration hall we tagged along with the Trosper family down to a palace. Which one? I'd have to look but the Trosper kids kept Keenan entertained and I got to look around at the Easter market and enjoy some Austrian strudel, yum!

A man on a chicken... giving the kids high fives...

Probably the kids favorite part of the Palace, other than the lollipops, tossing our coins into the fountain. Below, Alex and Keenan playing around.

I've never considered myself a runner, in fact it's never been my favorite activity give me a bike any day. Now that I'm in the habit of running I've really been enjoying it. Plus the more toned body is a nice bonus!
I've been busy trying to look up other runs near here, maybe a 10k or two and will probably sign up for Ljubljana's 1/2 marathon in the fall.

Happy Birthday Van!!

2011-04-20T12:43:00.001+02:00

I can't believe that Van is already 1 years old! This past year has flown by! Sooo Eric has been on me lately about getting Van's haircut I kept telling him "not until his birthday".

Well today is that day so true to my word here's Van before

And After:

Peek-a-boo!

I think it makes him look older and just so darn cute!

And here's Van 1 year ago today. Awwwww, can't believe how big my baby has gotten!

Since Eric gets back from the States tomorrow we'll celebrate then. It's a good thing Van can't read a calendar yet :)

Van

2011-04-14T13:46:00.000+02:00

Ohhhh the frustrations of not quite being able to pull ones self up but, he still did manage to get the remote. Like the gate in the background, it slows Van down when he wants to get the TV and the stack of DVD's.

Van and Oskar enjoying the beautiful spring weather.

Wanna share??

They were both quite content picking at the grass and yes, occasionally eating some. Oh the horror, Van doesn't have socks on! My neighbors are often quite concerned at how Van is dressed or not dressed. Right now the Slovenes all most all have jackets on while the Americans are in short sleeves.

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-14T13:40:00.000+02:00

The Embassy had an Easter Egg hunt last weekend complete with the Easter Bunny and something like over 1000 eggs to be found!

I'm a bad Mom, I couldn't find Keenan's Easter basket. Maybe I left it in Montana since that's where we celebrated Easter last... Keenan didn't care, he was super excited that his "Easter Bag" was large enough to accommodate lots and lots of eggs.

Group picture before the choas begins

Hunting...

My attempt to take a picture of Van while still in my arms.

Eating some of the loot.

Not sure why I didn't have somebody get a picture with me and boys...

Big Americans

2011-04-07T11:02:00.001+02:00

Things I've found in the grocery store...

Hmmm, what kind of pizza should we get tonight? I know how about an American pizza with corn on it...

I bought the pizza purely because of the name, blog material you know, and the pizza wasn't very big. Doesn't the world know that Americans SUPERSIZE everything??

Hmmmm... what kind of bread to buy? This one is actually a tough one because as crazy as it sounds nice soft sliced bread is hard to find, and if you do find some "toast bread" the packaging is terrible so you can't retie the bag shut. The "American super sandwich" bread has a normal bread bag, which is why I buy it. Whole wheat bread is even harder to find... sliced that is.

What we saw on our walk today.

2011-04-07T10:51:00.000+02:00

Van can be a little stinker when it comes to sleep. He has always preferred to sleep in a moving stroller so we took a walk this morning around the lake. The weather was beautiful, the air is fragrant with all the blossoms and the birds were singing. Here's what I saw.

I know my picture isn't very good but these blossoms are a pretty pink.

These yellow blooming bushing are everywhere.

These ones were really fragrant, I believe these trees had plums on them last year.

The two swans that live on the lake.

Pretty little flowers that were everywhere next to the trees.

Alligator bench.

Lots and lots of turtles on a small island on the lake.

Playing outside

2011-04-07T10:44:00.000+02:00

Now that the weather is nice I can hardly get Keenan to come inside there's just too much to do outside; riding bikes, playing t-ball, picking flowers...

A lot of times in the afternoon I'll leave our front door open while I make diner and Keenan bikes up and and down our sidewalk (with strict instructions that he has to remain in sight if I pop my head out the door). Although now that Van is more mobile anytime the door is open he heads straight for it. Occasionally the neighborhood kids stop by to see if I have anything good to eat, i.e snacks not available here in Slovenia. I've fed them a few cheese and cracker packets, peanut butter by the spoonful, rice krispie treats, freezer pops... Their favorites by far are the popsicles and rice krispie treats.

Van wanting to dig into the rocks

Keenan being silly. He dressed himself, can you tell?

Heading for the gate.

It's for you Mama!

My bouquet that Keenan picked for me. I must be teaching him something right!

Keenan at school

2011-03-25T18:51:00.000+01:00

Keenan's teacher sent me a bunch of pictures and they were just too cute not to share. She sent them to me because I'm always worried about how Keenan is fitting in since he is the only English speaker. She tells me that his Slovene is improving quite a bit.

Party time! Note the boys in their (manly) tights.

Checking out a birds nest.

Art time. I think its pretty brave of his teachers to let that many 3 and 4 years olds have paint at the same time. I think there are 17 kids in his class and 2 teachers.

The road carpet is a huge hit with the boys.

The parents were invited one night to do arts and crafts with the kids. At this table they were making hats.

Uh oh, getting a little close for preschool!

A visit from Santa Claus

More playing with cars and trucks.

We FINALLY have a crawler!

2011-03-22T14:42:00.005+01:00

I was beginning to think that Van was never going to crawl! I know that once they start crawling it makes everything a whole lot busier but for me crawling hopefully means Van won't gain weight as quickly... Thanks to Van being about 25 pounds my arms are pretty toned (well mostly the left one) but it's killer on my back.

Hopefully one of these will work!

World Ski jumping finals in Planica

2011-03-22T14:38:00.000+01:00

On Sunday we drove to Planica (about an hour away) to watch the World Ski jumping finals. One website that I looked at said that Planica is the world's largest ski jumping hill. We went up with a few other guys from the Embassy who quickly honed in on the fact that I wasn't a big drinker (especially not on Sunday mornings) and could they maybe ride with us. The event started at 10 in the morning and when we arrived plenty of people were already pretty wasted, but yes I was the DD for our group.

For some extremely stupid and idiotic reason they were selling those vuvuzelas (loud annoying noise makers from the World cup). I don't think they would be so bad if people used them instead of cheering at the right moment but there were enough drunk idiots that the vuvuzela sound was constant. Other than it being a little chilly from the occasional breeze the weather was beautiful! Clear and sunny! So we were a little shocked and not so happy when they announced after the first round that the second round was cancelled. They gave no explanation just went right into the awards ceremony.

The crowd

A picture of me to prove I was there!

The ski jump, notice that it goes way way way up.

A ski jumper.

A little entertainment...

Supporting the locals, have to wear a big obnoxious hat!

The guys that took advantage of my non-drinking habits.

Keenan thought the hat was pretty cool.

3 1/2 and already smarter!

2011-03-15T09:53:00.000+01:00

Conversation with Keenan

Keenan : Mama, do you know what "ca ca" means?

Me: Uhm, I think it means poop

Keenan: Oh, your speaking Slovene. Hmmmm, do you know what lulot means?

Me: No, what?

Keenan: ha, it means "pee". Your NOT speaking my language, I'm speaking Slovene and your speaking English!!

Yup, it's official Keenan is way smarter than we are.

Spring, is that you??

2011-03-15T09:45:00.000+01:00

I am soooo ready for Spring! Last week the weather was beautiful, the sun was out and the temperatures were in the 40's and 50's. On Friday I took the kids to a park near the Embassy to play while we waited for Eric to get off work.

The dragon is very symbolic for Ljubljana and everywhere. This is on a post in the park.

Van munching on a biscuit.

Checking out the tunnels.

Not sure if this is meant to be art or a climbing obstacle...

On Saturday we went to McDonalds and did rode on the bumper cars

Pust

2011-03-15T09:37:00.000+01:00

March 8 is Pust in Slovenia, also known as Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Karneval/Fasching, or Carnevale, among others depending on what part of the world you live in. The traditional food served for Pust is “krofi” or fried donuts and yes we tried a few. Pust is basically Halloween for Slovenian kids. About a month ago the stores started putting up their "pust" displays with all the costumes and what not and I'm pretty sure they were remnants from Halloween... as there were a few pumpkin costumes. So Keenan and Van got to use their Halloween costumes again. Thankfully I usually buy costumes too large and theirs still fit, although Keenan wanted to reuse his pirate one from last year (it was a bit small but worked).

The day of Pust Keenan got to wear his costume to school, he dressed himself, unknowingly to me he put his regular clothes on top of his pajamas so that when I picked him that afternoon he was wearing only his pajamas. He also has a major thing about superman lately and has to wear his 2 superman shirts as often as possible. I'm currently looking for new superman shirts for him (hint hint Gramma's... just in case you see one or two). All the kids in his class looked so cute dressed up... I'm guessing a couple of the little boys have older sisters and got to reuse their costumes as there was a cute little lady bug and a flower.

Keenan is on the bottom left fighting over a rope or something.

Notice the nice Superman shirt on underneath.

Arrrrrr!

After school we put to a Pust party put on by SILA (Slovenian International Ladies Association

Van immediately ditched his bat hat.