year end countdown 2008

10. Holland trip - Ethan's hair gets caught on fire. When we were visiting back in January, the kids were waiting for me while I shopped. When I came back, I immediately smelled something burning. When asked, Joe's sister was like "ummmm. . . . ethan's hair got caught on fire. . . ." ethan was reaching out to grab something and his hair touched the kerosene lamp that was on the table. this picture is of the aftermath.



9. Ethan sleeps through most meals - seriously, I would say he missed about almost all lunch outings on the weekends. He would fall asleep as we near the restaurant and sleeps through the meal - then he would wake up and we'd give him the left over or buy him a bagel. It's nice and quiet meals though.


8. Siu's in nature - Ethan getting dragged as we go into the woods to go berry hunting. It's crazy how one with the nature we are becoming being in Poland. I'm a big fan of manicured landscaping, none of that here, thank you very much. just wild and crazy.


7. Learning Chinese - My lessons are going well!!! I'm so much more motivated and actually study during the week! My teacher and I had a funny conversation about the need of Chinese people to have Chinese food. She herself has been in Poland for 7 years to get her PhD. She was telling me that many Chinese men have come to study here but couldn't last more than 5 months because they couldn't eat Chinese food everyday. Puahhahahah. It reminded me of the time when Joe and I went on the Chinese tour of Italy and they would bus us to Chinese restaurants instead of Italian - we ofcoursed escaped to get local fare.


6. Having visitors - this year, we had visits from Joe's parents and Joe's sister :) It was great to show them the town and enjoy their company.
5. Home Leave - crazy but enjoyable. non-stop shopping (for such essentials like ziploc and cold-eeze - not shopping like bags and shoes. . . . unfortunately) and visiting friends :) here, a picutre of ethan making turtle shell sculpture in Cape May and Makayla's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.



4. Barcelona Trip - LOVE LOVE LOVE Barcelona. Good friends, good food, good art, friendly people - can't get any better than that.




3. Mallorca Trip - this was a year of all things Spain. I loved every minute of it. Here, every house in this town (Valldemossa) had a plaque of St. Catherine who is Mallorca's patron saint. Joe and I went around town to hunt for different kinds of plaques and gave up after finding out that there were too many varieties. (we have about 10 pictures of me/joe posing with different ones - silly, i know - but that's what we do.)



2. Mak swims! Mak performs! - monumental year of growth for Makayla - oh yeah, she is aslo starting to read and does math but that seems to matter more to Joe than me. Different priorities for different parents.


1. Ethan enters school!! - I was tempted to post a video clip of Ethan kicking and screaming while we forced him into the school bus. But I'd rather leave you with this happy picture a minute before the bus arrived.

PICTURE OF THE YEAR

Makayla chillaxing as she surfs the net sucking on candy. We fear the years to come.