Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Today we celebrated Matthew's 6th Birthday. He partied at Timbergyms with about 13 friends. Everyone had a great time. There was pizza, cake, a treasure hunt, a moon bounce, magic show, and lots of space to run around and climb. The kids were all so happy to see each other again after the long Christmas break. Matthew's been planning his party for months. He's very outgoing and loves a crowd. He didn't want to leave anyone out.

Wishing everyone a Happy & Healthy 2009!

It's A Wonderful Life

It was a special Christmas in our house. Hope yours was, too!

A Needed Change

We had such a great time on our vacation, it was really hard to leave. Here are Matthew and Thomas enjoying a visit to the outdoor kiddie pool. We were a bunch of water bugs all week.

We took a road trip one day to the Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah. Papa likes to get his history fix and we all enjoyed seeing some of the local attractions. The outlet mall was on route back, too!

We had an unplanned stop on the second leg of our flight home. There was a noticeable smell of something burning inside the plane and a slight smoky haze. The crew made a very quick emergency landing in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Thankfully, we landed safely and everyone did a pretty good job of keeping their cool - especially Thomas, who slept through the whole emergency landing. Matthew thought it was really neat that there were so many firetrucks stationed on the runway, and they followed our plane to the gate! This photo is of a soldier returning from Baghdad, who befriended the boys in the new airport. He gave them each a Kinderegg from Germany. They are chocolate eggs with a toy inside. We send him our good wishes on his wedding this week and will remember him, along with all our troops, this Thanksgiving.

We arrived home about 5 hours later than planned, due to the airplane situation. The boys were troopers through the whole thing, though. Despite a pretty late night for them, they got up and ready for school the next day without a problem. When I picked them up that afternoon, Thomas' teacher said he had had "his best day ever". I guess he really needed to get away. I guess we all did.

Vacation!

Well, we swore we would never fly with them again until they were 21. Never say never. We took off on our first family vacation together last Sunday to spend a week in Hilton Head, SC. Airline travel with Matthew and Thomas still presents some challenges, but the trip was nothing like the nightmarish flight from Kyiv last February. Using our frequent flyer miles and some promotional offers, we ended up flying first class on this trip. They've come a long way...8 months ago, the boys were eating gruel in an orphanage, and now they're flying first class to their timeshare. Ain't America great?!

Believe it or not, vacation seems to be working on the boys as well as us. Pre-K and Kindergarten must be more stressful than the coloring and graham crackers suggest. Their swimming has progressed visibly and they're calming down in restaurant situations and stores.

The week started with Uncle Tim, Joseph and Rosaleen joining us for a couple of days and the cousins got to know each other better and enjoyed their time in the pool. The four kids shared the second bedroom. Thomas, always the early riser, had his roommates up at about 4 a.m. As the week has moved on, we've been able to get him to sleep in to close to his normal 6 a.m. schedule.

We've been to the beach every day, although the ocean is too cold for swimming this time of year. Matthew brings the football along for a game of catch, and Thomas likes to go for a run on the beach.

We eat most of our meals at the condo, but treat ourselves by going out once in a while. Like most kids, the boys like "Old McDonald's" (they think the golden arches were named for the song), but anyplace that serves chicken nuggets, french fries and hot dogs gets the thumbs-up.

Trick or Treat

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

We got together with our neighbors for a pre-Halloween Pumpkin-carving party. From left are Thomas, Matthew, Michael, Tyler, Ashley, Kelly and Connor.

Two little goblins pay our next-door neighbors a visit.

Superman and Tigger hooked up with their friends from our street for the trick-or-treating and the gang made a stop at our house.

Thomas loved being able to wear his costume to school.

Fall Back

There's lots of anticipation around our house, as we get ready for Halloween. Don't worry ... there will be another post coming with pictures, so I'll keep the boys' costumes a secret for now. It's interesting that Chris and I said very little to Matthew and Thomas about this very commercial holiday but, through their vast network of friends and relatives, they are totally up to speed with the whole thing. They're all over it, too.

We've been having a lot of fun this Fall hiking, apple-picking, jumping in the neighbor's pile of leaves. Both boys went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch earlier this month. Matthew and his buddies are under the tent awaiting cider and donuts. I went along as a chaperone ... for Thomas. There were a few other parents who had control of the rest of the kids.

Thomas is sitting on a hay bale in the above picture, with some of his classmates, as his teacher gets ready to take a picture. The field trip was a lot of fun ... the kids even got to ride a school bus!On Columbus Day, Mama and the boys took a road trip to Massachusetts. Here's Matthew and cousin Gregory on the hayride out to the pumpkin patch. Matthew is doing awesome in Kindergarten. His schoolwork is showing great progress and his has a very nice circle of friends. He's even learning Spanish. He is very interested in sports and is excited to be starting soccer this weekend.

Having been back from Ukraine about 8 months now, we are still very much in an adjustment period. The activity level in our house is staggering. Combine that with the fact that it's also really loud all the time. One resident (hint: MATTHEW) talks non-stop. Tonight, the boys were horsing around and Thomas ended up acidentally locking Matthew in their room. I have to admit it was tempting to leave things alone for a while, but he was still talking, anyway.

Back to School!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year ...!" Chris and I now fully appreciate that great Staples ad. We are very happy to say that both boys are now enrolled in St. Brigid's School. They go full-time, 5 days a week. Besides being a wonderful school, it is very convenient to our house and it's so much easier having the two of them in the same place. Matthew transitioned very well into Kindergarten. He was happy to see some of his friends from Pre-K who returned this year. He likes his teacher very much, and has confirmed that Kindergarten is definitely more challenging, academically. Over the Summer, Matthew has developed a real passion for baseball. He has attended one Red Sox game and two New Britain Rock Cats games, and loves getting out to a ballpark. When that's not possible, we play LOTS of baseball in our backyard, or wherever we happen to find ourselves. His catching and hitting have improved tremendously from all the practice, and he's anxious to get on a team in the Spring.


Thomas is in Pre-K 3 at St. Brigid's. His teacher says she has never had a student more enthusiastic about coming into school for the day. Thomas is a morning person and always comes through with a big greeting to start the day. His good spirits don't always last the entire day. The move to the big-boy school has been quite a leap for him and he's handling the transition as best he can. For one thing, it's a shorter nap time at the new school. What's up with that??

Other big news in our family was Thomas 4th birthday, the same week he started Pre-K. He had a great time, especially at his Winnie the Pooh party. You can see him blowing out his candles, with his friends looking on.