Graduations

Everyone had some sort of graduation this year: Adrienn had a Suzuki violin graduation for finishing Book 3:

and Ilona and Basti graduated from daycare - the first of many graduations to come (we hope)...they graduated early, no doubt because of their extraordinary giftedness in the art of cutting-and-pasting (well, the cutting part, in Basti's case) and also because they will be exchange students in Budapest next year and will miss the chance to graduate with their cohorts.
Basti making his way down the line-up of teachers, shaking more hands than he ever has in his entire life. He is already eyeing the present he will receive with the diploma.

Wasn't too interested in the diploma, but loves his new I Spy book.

Miss Ilona arrives in a grand procession.

Photo of Ilo when she started the daycare.

Spring choir concert

Performing "The Moon"

And now for some post-concert fun in the playground!
Climbing comes easily for 3 little monkeys....
Adrienn always manages to find a way to entertain herself. She had great fun digging a pit in the sand and jumping into it (so she also trained for her long jump event at the track and field meet, which took place the following day).

Life as a street performer

All 3 munchkins performed at last week's spring violin recital. Basti did a violin hold demonstration while their girls performed some recent favorite pieces.



Basti practicing his rest position and bow. Everything should go well as long as he keeps his shirt clean (which he didn't, but that is a whole other story...)

After the recital we celebrated our musicians by having dinner out on the town. On the way home we encountered a young and good-natured accordion player who was performing on a corner of Bloor street. We struck up a conversation with him and a few minutes later the girls had their violins out and were playing with him. Adrienn did an encore performance of her recital piece - the Dvorak Humoresque. Our accordionist caught on rather quickly and was able to accompany her remarkably well for not being familiar with the piece at all.

Ilo, not to be outdone by her sister, gave a spirited performance as well. Our accordionist tried to keep up...

The girls were so excited after getting a taste of real public performance (and making so much money) that they were quite beside themselves for hours afterwards...

Easter Weekend in Algonquin

Yes, this was a long time ago, but we had so much fun on this trip that I'm going to post my photos anyway. We stayed at our favorite cottage on Oxtongue Lake, and despite an inauspicious beginning (we were locked out of the house) all turned out well: we went on some beautiful hikes, sat around a bonfire by the lake, shared a splendid Easter dinner, were visited by the Easter Bunny, and - most of all - enjoyed the wonderful companionship of friends.

Day 1: the collecting of souvenirs from the forest begins.



The girls seem to have inherited papa's ability to fall sleep anywhere, anytime, and in any position.


Day 2: Mama and papa were on breakfast duty and were too busy to dress Basti, so our ever-resourceful son went roaming around the house in search of some socks to put on. He settled on Ryan's (post-morning-run) socks...never mind that they were 20 sizes too big. Properly attired, he came to the kitchen to help make the pancakes.

The Easter Bunny found us all the way in Algonquin.

Ilo on the prowl for those chocolate-filled easter eggs.


Basti was a happy camper with his bag full of eggs.

He was even happier when his cheeks were stuffed with chocolate. We eventually had to hide the eggs again...

Easter morning outing to a nearby waterfall. Adrienn and Julia decided to climb up the hard way.

Ilona was (uncharacteristically) much more cautious.

The girls decided to put on a play and worked on it all morning. It was something about a chick being born, but it was never staged because nobody wanted to be the egg (or something like this). Also because they got distracted by something even more fun: leg-writing.

Julia seemed ready to go along.

Corinne having second thoughts?




Meanwhile the rest of us enjoyed lots of photo opportunities by the river.


Basti and Ilo recharging on mama and papa.

Basti with his "come and tickle me" look.

Corinne and Basti racing back to the car.

Ahh...the moment we were all waiting for... Carroll and Ryan carving up the magnificent turkey they had prepared.

Happy birthday Benjamin!

Holiday in NY

Some belated photos of our very memorable Christmas holiday and vacation in New York.

Our three munchkins looking so grown up...

We left on Dec. 26 for our 8-day holiday.
First stop: Bovina, chez Vera, Cristina and Kiki. Maisie was clearly a big hit with all the kids.
It was a somewhat snowless first morning, so we had to abandon the sleds.


Basti still enthusiastic about walking.

Ilo dusting off after some muddy play by the lake.



After all that hard work we came home to feast on Uncle Kiki's delicious stuffed cabbage.

After a couple of days we moved to our own little rented cottage in Phoenicia. Fortunately, Vera and her parents came to see us the very next day, so we didn't have to say goodbye right away.

By that time we had also gotten lots of snow. Poor Adrienn - it's not easy being the eldest...

Thankfully there were lots of hills and mountains all around, so there were plenty of opportunities for downhill sledding as well.

On the way to NYC we stopped by Bard College to visit the Gehry-designed Performing Arts Centre.

Once we arrived in NYC we had just a few hours to prepare for the New Year's celebration. The girls (and Basti too) were busy cutting streamers and making origami balls to decorate the apartment.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

First day of sightseeing. One of the first places we visited was the Columbia campus. Evidently the most exciting thing about this campus was the ramp in front of the main library, which the kids ran down about 50 times before being dragged away by their parents who were eager to see the rest of the city.
Since we had only managed to leave the house by around 1:30 pm or so, it didn't take long for night to arrive. The kids were dazzled by the lights everywhere.

Adri and Hama in Times Square.