The Big Presentation

At Porter's school they do different Units throughout the year and have a big project at the end of each one. They recently completed a unit on Celebrations, and were all to put together a big presentation on a holiday of their choice. The kids covered just about everything, Halloween, Easter, Day of the Dead (Mexican), Birthday, Christmas, Sacrifice Holiday (Turkish), Chinese New Year, and Porter chose Valentine's Day. They made posters describing the 7 different elements of Celebrations as it pertained to their holiday. They learned all about it and practiced a little speech and their public speaking skills. They practiced fielding questions about their holiday and then they were ready for action. On the big day all the parents and multiple other classes were invited to come to their "Celebration Gallery" and hear them present.

Porter's Poster

Extra knick-knacks that he brought to display. They were encouraged to bring special food and or decorations. They had their whole rec room set up with everyone's little stations. It was really cute and well done.

Porter did a Fantastic job! We were so proud of him!

He wasn't shy at all and jumped right in. He answered everyone's questions and honestly I think just loved all of the attention! He really worked the crowd. It was fun to watch him "being the expert".

If you'll notice he is also wearing his "handsome shirt", as he called it. They were supposed to dress in colors or outfits that went with their holiday, so this pink polo was perfect. He thought he looked SO good and professional for his presentation. It was hilarious!

Great job buddy! I'm sure this will just be the first of many great presentations you will give!

Icky Ice Cream Cone

In school recently Porter's class was working on the letter "I". For one of the activities they were to create an "icky ice cream cone". Porter of course loves anything to do with coloring, cutting, creating, etc. When he brought it home he was very excited to explain it to me. The first scoop's flavor is banana, strawberry and orange with "water flavor drops" on it. (because water makes ice cream kind of yucky) Second scoop is orange ice cream with pepperoni. Top scoop is my favorite. The kind that makes you wonder "where does he come up with this stuff?" The top scoop is Water flavored with HAIR! icky for sure! nicely done buddy. one of your best!

V-day 2011

So, I love Valentine's day. And yes, even though it is a highly commercialized holiday, etc etc. I love that there is a day set aside to shower the people you love with love and attention. I'm big on the "cards" part of it, and we make homemade cards for each other. We have a fun tradition in our family to have a Valentine's Day breakfast with pink heart shaped pancakes, and bacon etc. We also give the boys a little present and this year I also left a trail of Hershey Kisses for them to follow! It was a huge hit as usual with the littles! (However, this was the first year I had a school-aged child. Definitely had to get up much earlier than previous years to pull it off!) Definitely one of my favorite traditions!

Porter can barely stand the build-up

The bacon and pancake hearts-although I didn't put as much food coloring in this year so they aren't as pink as I was thinking. Next year we'll go for hot pink!

Porter especially loved getting all his cards this year. "Wow mom, I got THREE cards!" (one from Mommy,Daddy and Ronan). It was the first year he could start to read what they said on his own. He was very happy.

He was also thrilled to help Daddy read the one he made for him!

Did you know that Ronan L.O.V.E.S. pancakes?!

The present wasn't half bad either!

Yes, we really have matching shirts that he is such a good sport to wear every year! (I had them made just for fun when we were first married, and now it is a tradition.) I have the best husband ever!! Love you babe!

Seriously...How can you go wrong with a Valentine's Day that ends like this?

Gorgeous flowers and Macaroons (So YUMMY, and beautiful)! (although the lighter pink ones were actually Rose flavored, not strawberry as we were hoping; we'll stay clear of those in the future)

I love all of my Valentines!!

This one takes the cake!

Our last name is tricky. I'll give you that. Unless you are fluent in French, most people always require it to be repeated at least one time. Most of the time, especially over the phone we have resorted to spelling it out slowly. You would be surprised though, even spelling it out slowly how many times it gets entered incorrectly. Most of the time we get a good laugh, and it is just slightly off. We recently signed up for a new service in which Noah gave him his name, over the phone like usual and spelled it out very specifically. The person he was dealing with did speak English, so I don't know how much of an excuse the language barrier can be. In any case, what they have officially entered takes the cake. They have managed to royally change both his first name and last. This is what they put:

NOVA BANABIBU

Pretty awesome huh! We now have a great nickname to use. (And remember, this is even with him spelling it out for them.)

things to remember

This is just a quick post to write down some things that I've been meaning to for a long time. Both of my boys have come up with some great words that they think are correct. I just want to make sure we remember these for later. Porter has two classics. He hears us discuss both the Consulate and use the word Consular in daily conversation. Naturally it would be confusing, so since pretty early on in our stay here he uses the word "Consulurt" to describe where Daddy works. I haven't had the heart to tell him otherwise. I mean seriously, how can you not smile when your little boy says "are we going to the Consulurt?". Secondly for Porter has been an issue in the types of money we have used lately. Ever since we went to France a few months ago he apparently can not seem to get it straight in his head. The Turkish form of money is called Lira. When in France he heard us talking about using Euros. Thus the newly formed "Liro". He knows we use dollars in the USA, but as far as he is concerned...you can use "Liros" anywhere else in the world and be fine! Love it.

Now Ronan. He is a goof. He has not quite reached the phase of combing words, but just calls things differently than their actual name. Not sure why, but one day the closest thing he could come up with to remembering what Play-dough was called was "poody". And there you have it. It's been poody ever since. My favorite though, is his name for cream cheese. He LOVES bagels, and follows in his Mommas footsteps with the cream cheese love. He however, calls it "scream cheese". How can you go wrong with a bagel and scream cheese? It is so good it makes me want to scream with excitement!? It is true though, cream cheese makes EVERYTHING better. I think that might be one of my mottos for life.

Love these boys. Love these moments.

My multi-lingual Porter

At school Porter is having such a great experience and getting to learn so much about many different cultures. They have recently been learning all about Chinese New Year, including some cute songs and even some phrases in Mandarin. Yesterday while pushing him on the swing at the park we had a thoughtful conversation. After him repeating several of these Mandarin phrases to me, he said "Mom, did you know I speak such good Chinese? I also speak French!" (then proceeded to say a few things he knows in French) He was very proud of himself. He continued, "Oh ya, I also speak Spanish!"-(then he counted to ten). "So that means that I speak 4 languages Mom! Chinese, French, English and Spanish!" I laughed and told him that he indeed did speak SOME of four languages:) He thought for a few minutes and then said "Mom, I'm from America though right, so I speak American." I then responded, "yes you are American and you speak great English." Then Porter: "but mom, where was I BORN?" I responded, "Michigan." " Oh right", he said "I forgot...but wait, I don't speak Michigan Mom. Aren't I supposed to speak the language of where I'm born?" "Yes, buddy" I said, but "luckily for you...they speak English in Michigan:)" Porter then summed up the conversation with a big "oh phew!" So there you have it. Crisis averted. Porter now understands why we never taught him to speak "Michigan". I love that kid. What a cutie.

Found Fall, Winter and the End of the Rainbow

Finally, the promised pictures of our recent trip to France...

Warning: picture overload, enter at your own risk!

As mentioned in the title, we found multiple things while we there

Fall in the French Countryside

We love to visit Noah's grandparent's house. It was built by his great-grandfather (so the boy's great-great-grandfather), and is so beautiful. This is the first time we've had the privilege of seeing it in Autumn, and it was just what we had needed! Apparently the leaves did eventually change and fall in the forest around Istanbul, but up until the day we left we had pretty much seen nothing. I just love fall, and all the fabulous colors; so I was thrilled to finally get my fill of them.

A real fall experience including a downpour of apples from the apple tree! That's when you know it is truly time for the harvest season.

The boys also thoroughly enjoyed playing in raking all the leaves! They couldn't get enough.

Porter even helped Meme prune some flowers in the garden. Getting his fill of yard work while he can.

Family

Next we found a whole bunch of family members to spend some fabulous quality time with! We got to see many of Noah's relatives which was so nice. It is especially nice to give the boys every chance they can get to be with their great-grandparents.

A four generation shot

The boys with their Meme (great-grandmother)

Porter and Pepe (great-grandfather)

The boys hanging out with daddy and Cousin Raphael

Porter and Cousin Claire -aka "the only girl in the family"!

(Pepe did have a sister-but Claire is the only girl within the last three generations)

I'm so glad to have some more female influence when we visit, and she is just awesome. The boys just adore her!

We enjoyed getting to relax by a real fire as it started to get chilly outside.

Georges, Michelle, Raphael and us...just relaxing together!

Can I just say again that the boys have the entire family wrapped around their fingers?! They sure get plenty of loves and attention when we visit!

We did miss getting to see a few other family members that were far away, but it was wonderful to see those who where there!

Touristy things

When we go to France one of my favorite things to visit is Pompadour- a gift by Louis XV to his mistress, Madame Pompadour. It is a beautiful Chateau that we just love.

Do you think he is strong enough?

It was also a stop on the route through France of Richard the Lionheart. This was Porter's favorite thing of the trip, being that he has been recently a huge fan of Disney's animated version of Robin Hood. (the one with King Richard -who is a Lion if you'll remember)

Lastly, it is also the home of the French National Stud (hippodrome). There were not any horses out today, but we have seen some other times and the boys love to watch! It is such a pretty area, I love it all.

Ocean Views

For those of you who are wondering where the pictures of the Eiffel Tower are, I'm sorry to disappoint. We have been to Paris multiple times before, and still love to go when we are with others, but this trip we decided to just hit some of our other spots in the lesser-known corners of France. We headed to Nantes to see another of Noah's uncles and his family and did some new exploring in that region. We drove out to the Atlantic coast and stopped in this village (sadly I don't know it's name) to walk around and smell the sea air! It had a beautiful coastline.

It was also full of these little "private" beaches that were surrounded by rocks, but had little staircases leading down to the sand. They were pretty cool, I wouldn't mind spending some more time there in the future! Perhaps, on a warmer day though...

PORNIC

After driving along the coast a bit, we headed to Pornic. Now Pornic is special. Why you ask? Well, for several reasons. First of all, it is right on the coast, and has a beautiful boardwalk that literally takes you out along the water. The town is built right on the little harbor and the shops are so fun. It is great fun to walk around and be right in the midst of the boats. There is also a beautiful Chateau on the water which is pretty great.

Now all of those make it nice, but what makes it great, is that it is home to my FAVORITE ice cream in the WORLD. No joke. I've tried many, in multiple countries. (Not like the super bowl "World Champions", no offense) I really have looked far and wide, and this stuff is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. It is mostly different sorbets, but they are famous for their strawberry flavor. They have it in soft serve, plain or mixed with others or a delicious vanilla-or in hard form. The possibilities are endless! I've never found anything else remotely like it! I have no idea how they make it so different and amazing compared to other strawberry ice cream, but they do!

When we go in the warmer months we get like 5 ice cream cones before we leave for the day. It was pretty chilly this day (and they don't have indoor seating) but we toughed it out. It was SO worth it. We only got 2 cones each though, and then found out they had insulated containers so we took some with us home about an hour away! YUM!

The boys have been sold on it for sure!

The view while you sit and eat is terrific. Picture perfect!

Other Fun Festivities

While in Nantes we did some other really fun things, including getting some tasty Kebabs at "Istanbul Kebab"! They were impressed with Noah's Turkish, but oddly enough we laughed because the family running it was actually from Izmir, not Istanbul.

The cute cousins-sans Nico. I just thought this picture was great, the boys adore their cousins!

Nantes is also where Jules Verne is from (of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, and of course Back to the Future 3 fame). They have a fantastic museum place there based on some of his type of inventions/machines. They are amazing, and it was really a cool exhibit. Totally worth going if you are ever in Nantes! Now, my camera battery died during this, and for the Nautical museum we also went to (which was great) so these are the only pics I have.

Outside the museum they have this giant elephant...it is incredible! You can take rides on it, and it walks around in a giant loop. It is HUGE and kind of scared the boys though! This picture was taken before it was moving.

The boys and Noah's uncle Michel

They have carousels in tons of malls there, and the boys begged and begged to go. Porter turns out was not such a huge fan (I think he is scarred from the one on the National Mall, which admittedly does go VERY fast). Ronan, on the other hand, could not get enough! He went three times on this one and screamed when we left.

Lastly in our exploring of Brittany they took us to this cool little village that still uses the real thatched roofs! They were amazing!! It is apparently a dying craft, so it was cool to see. This village is one of the only ones left. Apparently a good roof like this will last about 25 years.

New Roof

Old Roof

Sadly, I had some more pictures of the rest of the family that we visited here and from when we went down south near Toulouse that I can not get to load! So sorry, just use your imagination!

Also, while we were there (it was the very end of November) we were able to take the boys to Toys R Us and mail their letters to Santa. Here in Turkey, they did put up lights and have poinsettias, but the whole "Santa" thing is largely missed because they decorate for New Years. I was really happy then, that we were able to still get our fill of more traditional American Christmas fun. The toy stores and malls were all totally decked out, and we enjoyed getting in the holiday spirit.

Although we did get to see Santa at our Consulate party, this is about as close as we could come to getting a picture with Santa at the mall this year! These boys and their picture faces...they will be cracking me up for years to come!

Switzerland

Now lastly, just because I feel the need to document our first official trip to Switzerland I will throw in a few photos. This time we opted to fly into Geneva instead of Paris, being somewhat comparable in driving time to his grandparent's house. I am SO glad we did too. We flew in on a gorgeous sunny day with amazing views of the Alps. We did not spend too much time this trip in Geneva, just in and outs at the airport...but it was gorgeous, and it helped me with my longing for some mountains! (Colorado girl, remember). So though Geneva is quite close to the French border, we were still able to see what we could there and then drive the rest of the way through the French Alps. The colors were out in full force on our drive in and it was SO PRETTY! Of course, I in my genius-did not get any pictures, thinking I'll just get some on our way home. Well, the trip home helped us with one last thing....

We found WINTER in full force!

Now, I have to say we were actually pretty excited about it though; because it helped it feel like the holidays. We happened to leave on Thanksgiving weekend, and it just wouldn't be right without a good snowstorm to drive through! So anyway, for your viewing pleasure here are the only shots of Switzerland that I got! So, needless to say...the storm kind of ruined my plans. It was terrific just the same though, and I am happy to report that renting a car in Switzerland has it's advantages. Our car was equipped with snow tires and chains. We met people who had rented a car in Nice and were slipping and sliding everywhere! Those Swiss know what they are doing! We'll be going back for sure...and I promise much better photos next time of the Alps.

Oh yes, and we found the end of the rainbow! While up in Brittany we saw these two full amazing rainbows. The picture does not do it justice. It was fabulous, and the colors were brighter than any rainbow I have ever seen!

This first photo was from a ways off....

Turns out, when we kept driving the end of the rainbow was literally on the hood of car! It was crazy, and really fun. Truly, it was right there! So we got a laugh-but no pot of gold. Sorry folks, I think that is just a myth. Now we know.

So there you have it- the end of the rainbow, the end of our trip, the end of this post!

If you are still reading this you are amazing! Give yourself a pat on the back!