Fall

Last week we had a small window of opportunity to go out and take in some fall colors (yesterday the wind and rain blew most of the foliage away :( )



Our tree-hugging girls.



Thankfully, after the trees lost their foliage, there was still Hallowe'en to brighten up our spirits.
Ilona carving pumpkins with her classmakes in kindergarten.


Ms. Hicks the teacher getting everyone calmed down after all the excitement over the pumpkins.

For the Hallowe'en parade at school, Ilo was radiant as Tinkerbell.


Basti showed up as a ferocious lion.


Apparently the only person he managed to scare in his costume was himself, and he refused to get back into his scary costume on Hallowe'en night. For going out trick-or-treating he ended up wearing a white bunny costume instead. But this little bunny could not be persuaded to eat any carrots...

Croatian holiday

We took a holiday from our holiday in Budapest, driving 7 1/2 hours to the stunning Dalmatian coast, where everything was blue (sea and sky), white (light, rocks), and brown (our tans!). We spent the first part of our vacation in a farmhouse near Sibenik, about 50 km north of Split.

The entrance to our farmhouse. Not pictured: the chickens, goats and sheep that ran around just outside our gate.

We shared the garden with a family of turtles, to the great delight of Adrienn, who likes nothing better than to catch and photograph little animals.

Practicing was fun with the great acoustics in the big farmhouse. We didn't bring Basti's violin along, so he (and cica-meow) just stood next to Adrienn to give moral support.


Boat excursion on small motorboat, exploring nearby islands from the island of Murter.

Ilo's Condé Nast photo.

Basti smiling after a long nap on the cruise to Kornati islands.


Ilo still napping away...Thank goodness for papa-pillow.


They day we left our kind hosts surprised us with a wonderful fish lunch and plentiful wine (which made it rather hard to leave)


But we did manage to leave in the end and decided to visit Sibenik. We climbed the hill to visit the fortress, and the view was well worth the effort!

(the other side of the view; photo by Adrienn)

In the 0ld square in Sibenik Basti tried to have a conversation with a little Croatian girl who couldn't understand a word he said. He was feeling a bit shy so he brought his big sister along.


One of many, many ice cream stops.



Part II of our trip was at the Makarska riviera, where our local beach turned out to be not only clean and beautiful but also filled with the most spectacular fish we had ever seen in Croatia.


Adri's ready to chase after some fish.

Enjoying the view from our balcony.

Adrienn was happy to spend her birthday by the Adriatic, having been named after it.

And she was thrilled to find, in the bottom of her present bag, two different kinds of Croatian liver pâté (her all-time favorite food).

Halmuni and Harabuji came to visit...

...And we spent a day at Webster's Falls, one of our favorite daytrip destinations.

Bast-Ilo digging around with some make-shift sand toys.


Adrienn was more into creepy-crawly things than dirt, and took good care of her new caterpillar friend, who was provided with free transport and a new apartment decorated with flowers.

Harabuji-style babysitting.

Halmuni was stationed by the river to keep Basti from jumping in. He usually needs at least two or three grown-ups to keep him out of trouble....

Unless he is safely perched on papa's shoulders!

Funny farm

A few weeks ago we visited Bronte Creek Park, which has everything we could hope for in a park - farm animals, barns for animals and for the kids, playground, and hiking trails for mama and papa. Basti enjoyed some beauty sleep during the drive over, so he woke up fresh as a daisy...


The girls love to pose for photos in front of animals (but the animals keep walking away...)


Farmer Adri managed to keep a firm grip on this little piggy...


...Until he ran away and made for the slide.


Basti can spend the whole day picking dandelions.

Is it spring yet?

For the past few years, spring has officially begun with the easter egg hunt at Gretchen's (the girls' violin teacher's) house. Never mind that we're still wearing our parkas....


Searching high and low for those chocolate-filled eggs.



Can't get enough of climbing.


Bast-ilo basking in the sun.


Ilo's GapKids-ad.


Adri found another way down.


Trying out Marie's bike along the trails of Hilton Falls.


Ilo's "Self-portrait with Pines"

Omama!

This video is 2 months old - but I only just managed to figure out how to upload videos (it seems you just have to wait for a long time).

Basti is Two!

Basti turned two last week. He got an early start on his Terrible Twos about 3 weeks ago, but soon got tired of throwing tantrums - especially since he realized that he could get his way just by being cute - and is back, more or less, to his old happy self.


Happy birthday to Basti...


Blowing out the candles was not easy without the proper technique and eventually required the help of one or two sisters.



Sitting on the new soccer ball that he got from Joyce (most of the time he did kick it across the field)


Still prefers to ride Fred Flintstone style.

"Mama - take a picture!" (Mama was more than happy to comply)