Rumeli Hisar Revisited

After a couple of attempts to visit the Rumeli Hisar Castle Ramparts we finally made it! This adventure did happen a few weeks ago, but still worth the blog....slowly catching up.

The whole thing is so amazing and incredible. It is huge, with TONS of exploring for little boys to run and pretend like crazy! It is lacking some serious guard rails though, so really the fun might be dampened by some very protective parents! It was built in the 1400's and makes you feel like you have stepped back in time. SO COOL.

That was one hefty steel/wooden door. I'm sure it kept it's fair share of unwanted visitors out.

A quick view of some non-child friendly stairs and walls...but oh so much fun! Also, the WC sign, just incase you were curious where it was.

Up on top, amazing view of the Bosphorous!

Family pic on top of one of the big round towers. You can see the water in the background. Almost smiles from everyone!

Mommy and the boys being "very, very careful" along this top walkway.

Porter demonstrating how he would throw hot oil onto the bad guys! He though this was so cool.

Porter again...this time running down the line of cannons-pretending to light each one!

He was born in the wrong century, I tell you. He would have been great in medieval times!

Such skills.

Visitors welcome! We are ready and waiting, so come on in...

HHE-aka Hooray, Hooray Everything's here!

Although it has taken me a few weeks to catch up and get back on the ball, we did finally get all of our stuff!!

The movers were friendly and efficient and we were thrilled to be reunited with our belongings. Since we had originally packed up most of this stuff before our training in DC, we had been without it since the middle of December ('09). Moving with the help of actual movers is fantastic, I am now a huge fan of not moving myself...however there are always a few things that end up making you wonder. Like below, this box isn't even labeled with a real word! hmm, wonder what's in it?

So we concluded that it most resembled either the word "toods" or "touds". Neither of which makes any sense. We then thought that they were either going for the word "foods" perhaps, or "tools". Turns out it was actually tools and some other odds and ends, so they were pretty close! It gave us a great laugh though, that is for sure.

Just a sample of what our house looked like...

Now this was my favorite surprise of the day. We moved out right before Christmas last year, and we actually decided to do Christmas at our house early so they could take some of the big stuff (tree, decorations, etc.). This was candy that was from the stockings that had been in a bowl for munching. Before we finished it I guess the movers got to it first! It was so fun to see those tasty Christmas treats, and the best part...chocolate doesn't really go bad:) The boys chowed down immediately!

What my kitchen looked like after they unpacked the boxes.

The boys were in HEAVEN, as they literally dumped this box over and immediately started playing with their much missed toys!

This was the only actual casualty of the move, there were holiday decorations in here, luckily they were fine. The bin however was essentially crushed! I still don't know what happened, no other box was really squished or anything at all!?

the aftermath, was this scene in our entryway about 10 more times! we are so happy to have our things back, and happy to have it truly feel like "home" again.

A good day in any Foreign Service Household. Welcome home us.

The smells of Fall

In an effort to accurately record our experiences here I will indulge you in one short quick thought. So, our apartment is huge and beautiful and we love it. We love Istanbul. We have gotten SO lucky, truly. However, as fabulous as this city is....it is an OLD and BIG city. That being said, I think no matter how nice the place they build on top of it is, I think there might always kind of be issues with some stinky pipes. This is just my best guess anyway, I'm not sure exactly what causes it, but our bathrooms kind of stink (and it gets much worse when it is rainy outside). So, in an effort to mask the stink we have started putting my grapefruit spice candle thing in the bathroom. Now, we just have a nice aroma of grapefruit- spice- sewer. Ahhhh....the smells of fall! I sure wish everyone could be here to smell it with us:) I am on a new hunt to find a better solution to the problem, if anyone has any suggestions, please send them our way!

Who's up for a latenight game of curbside checkers?

As I stated earlier, I have multiple blogs that I need to catch up and will do shortly...however, I thought I might tide you all over with this one. We have been carless for a while here as many of you know, and in fact Noah will be driving our car home today!!! But in the meantime we have become pros at using the "taksi" services around town. Another tidbit about Turkey (they also LOVE Backgammon/Checkers here and do make tons of different beautiful boards that you can buy at the Grand Bazaar, etc.) They play everywhere, and these guys let the boys play with theirs that was set up at the taksi stand while we were waiting.

Above is Ronan taking a break to say "hey mom, look a doggie!"-laying on the ground behind Porter (me saying, "oh yay! a big stray German Sheppard!")

Such skill, I tell you what!

We thought the half board might be easier to play on for them, but anyway you swing it, they had a great time not playing by the rules! And this is why we moved our family around the world:) To give the kids great experiences like these! Love it.

Robo-Ronan's Birthday

The day has finally arrived, my baby is now 3! Aacck! In any case, we celebrated with a great little Robot party and enjoyed a fabulous little boy. Ronan loves robots, and has been talking about a robot party for months. It is also appropriate being that one of his common nicknames is indeed "Robo". Now, being that I am still to discover a great place here to find great silver balloon bouquets and other "robot" looking items my initial vision had to be slightly altered. I just went with other fun bright colors, which are always good and did what we could. Being that we also received our second boat shipment two days before I think it was all terrific! (Oddly enough, for Porter's 5th birthday we packed out exactly 2 days after his party. So having my house filled with boxes within two days of a party seems to be my new status quo!)

I got my sewing machine back just in time, and finally made one of those fabric banners that I've been seeing! SO cute, and fun to make. I just made basic boyish colors so I can use it for many other times as well.

This was one of the best I could get of the birthday boy! And it says more like "seriously mom? just let me go play!" He has been so funny with smiling lately for pictures, we'll see how his photoshoot goes!

The cake. I went more utilitarian robot this year instead of lots of knobs and dials. ( Special thanks to Courtney for her lettering work) It turned out really fun though and everyone loved it!

Robot Snacks

The kids colored some terrific looking Robot pictures

And young and old enjoyed some fabulous company! We were so thrilled to have everyone who came. It really makes living away so much easier when you have great people here with you.

Little miss L even put on her darling party dress!!

Just after Ronan blew out his candle -ALL BY HIMSELF! It was so fun to see him figure it out like such a big boy!

He was not let down in the present department either. Everyone was so sweet, (thank you again!) He got some awesome cards and some awesome books and toys! PERFECT for our little guy.

And last but not least, his "big" gift from mommy and daddy was his Calliou scooter! What a happy boy, and we actually have a lot of good room for riding in the house! (well at least until he learns to go fast)

Happy birthday Robo, we love you so much and are blessed beyond words that you are part of our family!

"I'm just little"

So, after a flurry of very blogworthy events I am here making a short sweet post of one of those moments to remember in life. I promise to update shortly with all the other items that make up our craziness, but for now this will have to do while I catch my breath!

Over the last few months Porter finds himself getting frustrated with Ronan when he might not do or say something i.e. color, ride a bike, play with a toy the way Porter thinks he should. Porter doesn't quite realize that Ronan hasn't obtained the same skill set yet. An example, the other day Porter was literally freaking out because Ronan wasn't coloring a picture in the lines. He wanted me to stop him from messing up the picture. I then told Porter "honey, you just worry about yourself and stop worrying about Ronan, he can color however he wants." To which, Porter responded, " Yes, mom, I AM WORRIED! I am very worried about Ronan's picture, he just colors so crazy!" I laughed, and he was confused as to why I thought that was so funny. With constant situations like these, I have found myself using the phrase "he's just little" to Porter quite often lately to help him be more calm about Ronan's abilities. Well, now it came back to me today in full force! They were fighting about which DVD they wanted to watch this morning, it was Porter's turn to pick and Ronan was NOT happy. He was throwing a fit, and when I picked him up and said "Ronan, we don't act like this, it's Porter's turn and that is that." Ronan then put on his best puppy eyes and baby face that I have ever seen and says to me "but mommy, I'm just little!" then snuggled up on my shoulder...I might have created a monster...one who can use cuteness as a terrible weapon to get what he wants/or at least get himself out of being put in time out! I love my boys so much! Yes buddy, you are just little; and I'm hoping you stay that way forever:)