BACK TO SCHOOL

Yes, I know it is November. However, it is still the fall- meaning it is still ok to be documenting Back to School 2011!

We started with some awesome new jammies to help the boys get a good night sleep.

Notice Ronan's nice mop? He HATES getting his hair cut so we decided to wait a week or two on that till he was used to school. We didn't want him to associate haircuts with school:)

RONAN'S FIRST DAY OF PRE-SCHOOL

This was the best smile we could get out of him, so we'll take it!

He was such a big boy. I can't believe my boy has his own hook and cubby!

He had to hang up his backpack by himself. He was a bit sad when we left, but since then he has been a champ. He leaves happily now on the school bus all by himself! He has done so much better with the transition to school than I thought. We are so proud of you buddy!

PORTER'S FIRST DAY OF GRADE 1

Porter was thrilled to get to go back to school. He had been talking about it for days! He had really missed all of his friends over the summer, and I am so grateful that he gets another year with most of them before we move again. They were all so happy to see him too! Makes a mommy proud that he is a loveable little guy.

I think this year (2011) might go down in history as the year that Porter couldn't seem to look at the camera very well when taking a picture. The "side-glance" is his new trademark. Either way, he was at least willing to pose for a picture with mommy!

His teacher this year is fantastic! We have gotten so lucky so far. She is from Ireland and also has a killer accent! I hope he picks some of it up. She is so great with him as well.

I can't believe my boys are both in school this year!! Aaack! I guess that is what growing up is all about though. I think this should be a great year for all. And I must admit, I'm looking forward to some mommy/baby time in the mornings too:)

Have a great school year boys!

The Perfect End To The Summer

All good things must come to an end, and so it had to be with our whirlwind of a summer. Luckily for us though, we got to send it off in style! What a better end than to have a great visit from one your besties and her fantastic sister?

That's right. Kesli came back and brought Jenny with her!!

They were able to come visit us right before school started back for the boys, and we had a great time. We played some great card games late into the night, I finally learned the secret of how to make the perfect toaster strudel (thank you Jenny, I am forever grateful), and we were able to do some fun things that Kesli didn't get to see/do last time they were here!

We were able to take the Consulate Boat out for a cruise on the Bosphorus which was terrific. As usual, I stole some great pics from Kesli (and Jenny). I loved this one.

We had a great time, the weather was gorgeous and we even got to see dolphins!

(I had heard of them, but never seen them until this day in the Bosphorus)

We left P & R at home for the day since Ronan has been known to toss whatever he can get his hands on into the water. Miles however, was loving his day on the water.

All snuggled up with Aunt Kesli! What's not to love?

Of course we had to do some shopping at the Grand Bazaar

This time we did a little rug shopping, which is a truly Turkish experience all it's own.

We have a "rug guy" who is THE guy to see. Noah and I are in the market for one sometime before we leave if we find just the right one. We really liked this one, the colors especially. The tones of the reds, blues and yellow were my favorite that I've seen. I'm not sure if it is too busy for me though. Opinions?

In any case, it was a fun Turkish experience for Kesli and Jenny I think!

We also went to the Basillica Cistern. It is really hard to get any good pictures here, but look how great these lovely ladies look?

I'm going to be stealing the rest of their shots for a future dedicated post on the Cistern. Way to go for knowing how to use your nice camera girls!

We also finally made it into the Blue Mosque. Last time Kesli, Ryan, and Ryli were here we couldn't go into the building because prayers were going on. It is really beautiful inside.

The famous blue tiles that line the interior -

They were selling these "Sugar Sticks" I'm going to call them- all over the place. It is essentially fruit flavored goo that you can pick your flavors on a stick. Like one of those twirly suckers, but that never really hardens.

Jenny and Kesli were adventurous and enjoyed themselves a tasty snack! I'm a party pooper. I just took a picture:)

We had such a fun time, and were thrilled to get to know Jenny as well. Thanks for the great weekend girls! Miles was sure excited to meet you both as well!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I love having friends who are all around the world! It makes it so much more fun to enjoy these crazy places we live with friends! How lucky we are that we got to be "neighbors" for our first posts!

Of course I was gone…..just my luck!

So, in my never ending attempt to update my blog I had to at least note the visit of our wonderful friends Greg and Whitney from the States!!

Now the kicker is, I MISSED IT! Can you believe it!? Back while I was still on Medevac, right before I was to come home actually- they were able to take advantage of a work opportunity and backpack across Europe, ending their adventure in Istanbul! Now the timing could not be helped, but I was totally bummed that I was in the States while they were in Turkey. What are the odds?

Now I totally snagged this photo from Whitney, seeing as I wasn't there- but they are just the best and I was so happy they were able to keep Noah company for a little while! Since they did come all the way from America, I decided they must get official credit on the blog, no matter how outdated! They did some fun things while they were here, including going out on the Consulate boat for the day. They cruised the Bosphorus and went up to the Black Sea and went swimming! Now, I will attempt to tell one fun story (third hand) to document the adventure-

If you have ever seen the Bosphorus, or Black Sea in the right conditions there is one thing you can't miss. Jellyfish. Lots of them. Now, as far as I can tell, they aren't huge ones, and we have never heard of anyone having a major problem with them, yet jellyfish are still jellyfish and how are we to know if it is ok to be in the water with them? Well, after they got up to the Black Sea (which is actually much more Turquoise) they noticed that there were tons in the water. They started to re-think their swimming plan. The captain of the boat only speaks limited English, and we think was attempting to tell them-"don't worry, the ones here are NOT dangerous". Instead what he kept saying though was the ones here are "EXTREMELY dangerous"! Ya, that is a big difference in trying to convince someone to go in the water. ha! So I guess, after repeating to them no worries, "extremely dangerous" he even had the 1st Mate jump in to show them it was ok. I guess it worked then, and they all braved the jelly infested waters! Way to go guys, I'm so proud of you all; swimming with the Jellies!

Thanks again for coming to visit you guys, and we hope you had a great time!

My personal packmule

In figuring out all of the logistics for our whole medevac adventure, one of the things on the checklist was figuring out to get someone to fly back with me and the boys. Noah was not going to be able to stay the entire length of our trip after the baby was born; and I knew I couldn't handle three boys all by myself on a plane around the world! As luck would have it, the stars aligned and logistics worked out perfectly for one of our awesome friends from our Michigan days to come back with me!! She was thrilled and so were we! She was so amazing, and I definitely could not have made the journey without her help. She knew exactly what I needed and took charge to help me get things done! Being an experienced traveler herself also with little ones she was perfect for the job and knew what to expect. She unfortunately became kind of my personal pack mule, helping me to tote the traveling menagerie through three different airports! What a superstar!! She was so great with the kids too, which was SO helpful. I will forever be in her debt for doing such an awesome job of helping me come home. Thank you again Marlene! You're the best!

Since she did fly halfway around the world, we thought we better show her a few of the fabulous things here in Istanbul. We had a great time, and after such a long journey it was fun to take a few days off to just enjoy having a visitor to show around our lovely adopted city! Among other things we:

We went to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants on the Bosphorus- you can't beat the view here, and the neighborhood is also a local favorite.

She got to see the world famous Hagia Sophia!

We hit the Grand Bazaar, where we got a classic local "rug shopping" experience. She came away from this particular shop with a beautiful wall hanging for her home, and I was pretty impressed with her bartering skills!

She's a big literature fan, so I decided that we needed to hit up the Pera Palace Hotel for some pastries. The Pera Palace Hotel (a future post still in the works to come) has been frequented by many a famous face over the years, including major literary players Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemingway. Plus, they have a fantastic French Patisserie with incredible Eclairs!

The hotel has been masterfully restored in the last couple of years. Here is Marlene in front of the antique elevator (and she got to take a ride)!

Last on the agenda, was to introduce her to one of my new favorite pastimes-

teaching her to be addicted to shopping for scarves! I think this was a success…

between the two of us we bought 10+ over the period of a few days!

Even though we've been great friends for years, we haven't gotten to see nearly enough of each other after we moved to different parts of the country (and then we moved around the world). It was so nice to have not only the extra help, but also some fun quality girl time with an old friend! Next time we get together we will hopefully get to have time with her little family as well, yay for East Coasters! Thanks again Marlene, you were amazing!

"Plenty of Friends This Year"

As Porter realized, nearing his much anticipated 6th Birthday!

Although I finished up most of the events from our trip to the States in the last post, there was still one last, but certainly not least, event to blog about. It deserved it's own post I thought.

We literally left to come home to Turkey less than 24 hours after his big birthday party, but we made sure to squeeze it in while still at home. Last year his friends had mostly moved away, so we took full advantage of all of his long lost cousins and buddies that were in town this go round.

I went "hands off" this year, (well as hands off as I can be, anyway). I didn't even make homemade invitations this time- gasp. I know. I still think it was a great success though. Since we were technically living in a hotel we opted to do the party off-site. We rented a birthday room at a local bouncy house place where the kids could play to their heart's content! They all had a great time.

Even Miles enjoyed himself I think! Look at our little redhead!

Porter picked a dinosaur theme after much deliberation- it was initially going to be an Australian party. In any case, he loved all the dino decorations and it still fit because we were in the "bug" room. They also enjoyed dino nuggets to eat; and then there was the cake...

OH THE CAKE!!!

So, since I was going hands off I had my INCREDIBLY talented and amazing friend Lindy make the cake this year!! It turned out so amazing, and better than I could have imagined! Porter L.O.V.E.D. it too, which was the best part. It was exactly to his specifications, chocolate with chocolate buttercream Stegosaurus and SO delicious! Thank you, thank you again Lindy!

The cake alone will make this a birthday he will never forget! (and gave him the best b-day cake he will ever get hands down. sorry buddy. anything after this will be a big disappointment. ha!)

That is one awesome dino!

No 6 year old party would be complete without a few fun presents. He loved all of his awesome gifts, and we especially loved our friends and family who know us and our lifestyle so well. Everything was appropriately sized to put in his backpack for the long trip home! He was also thrilled to get "birthday money" for the very first time, and his first Itunes giftcard! (he got to download some of his very favorite cartoon episodes onto the ipod to watch on the plane. Such a great idea!) Can you tell he is a foreign service kid? Thanks so much to everyone for the thoughtful and fun gifts for him. We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends in our life who came to have fun and support him on his special day!

Also had to do a quick shout out to Target- for providing me with these fantastic "boyish" giftbags! Made my day so much easier, and they are super cool. When you see cute boy stuff you have to snatch it up! Yay, Target!!

Happy Birthday Porter!! I can't believe you are already 6!!!

We love you so much more than you could ever know. We love how your personality absolutely lights up our home, and can't imagine live without you!

Here's to another fantastic year!

Medevac Rewind

In an admission of an Epic Fail I have decided to go ahead and do one massive post to finish up blogging about our summer/Medevac at home. I have managed to do several posts on some of the bigger things we did already- but despite all of my best intentions, I will just keep getting further behind unless I just do what I can and move on. Ahh, such is life with a newborn I guess! I did not want to leave out of my blog book though, the "flavor" of our summer so I will give you the rest of the highlights:

We saw the tulips on the American side of the pond with some favorite pals at Thanksgiving Point!

Ronan was in his "won't look at the camera" mood, but luckily we had his trusty giraffe neck pillow! Doubles as a pillow and a stuffed animal while traveling! Genius.

Tulips are officially my favorite flower, no matter where in the world they are! Thanks for the great day guys!

Then I had a lovely Mother's Day, where Porter (under instructions from Daddy) made sure to pick me out some beautiful flowers and I got the new Taylor Swift CD! (Don't know how long ago it came out, but I was still thrilled:) Porter also drew me a beautiful card. I sure love my boys!

Next came a cake filled Birthday Celebration Weekend for me! I kicked it off by letting the boys stay up way past their bedtime until Daddy was awake (it was officially my birthday morning in Turkey) and we did cake (also courtesy of Porter's choice) and candles via video chat!! It's not the greatest picture, but it captures the whole family anyway! My hubby had also ordered me a terrific surprise of a new sewing machine that came just in time (so of course I could do some sewing while I was there) He knows me so well! I love my man!

The next day (on my actual B-day) I got to go fabric shopping with some of my favorite people in the whole world at one of my favorite quilt shops in the world!! We then had a tasty lunch together and I loved getting to see the girls! (old roomie/best friends kind of thing:) Sadly though, I somehow missed getting any pictures of the day! Aack! Love you guys anyway!

Then my sweet grandparents took us and my sister's family (we had 3 birthdays among us) out to dinner and brought another AMAZING carrot cake! We had a great time seeing the great-grandparents for the boys. Then our marvelous friends made me a incredible Birthday dinner (they are fantastic chefs) the next day, and topped it off with one of my all time favorites- a Red Velvet cake with Cream Cheese frosting!!!!!!!! YUMMMO! Thanks SO much again!

I am such a lucky girl, and felt so loved and taken care of even though we weren't in our normal home and situation. Now, if only I hadn't actually turned another year older it would have been the icing on all that cake!

The kids spent some quality time playing with their cousins, learning new games i.e. twister (the first time any of them had played-it was hilarious), and gorging themselves on everyone else's "new-to-them" toys!

Ronan further developed his love for all things Pirate-leading to the upcoming Pirate Birthday party we will shortly be throwing for him!

I was showered with more flowers from my hubby (these are the post-baby flowers: sorry I forgot to take a picture though for a few days-they were wonderful though before they started to droop!)

We hit Wheeler Farm with T &A where Tim showed me how to use the color thing on my camera! He got even more great shots-and the boys L.O.V.E.D climbing all over the old tractors and seeing the animals.

We drove up the canyon to see the mountains better and take in the view where we snagged our very first official family picture including Miles! Yes, we didn't get one in the hospital. I can't believe we forgot!

We got to spend some good time with much of my extended family! It was so great to see them all, and I loved that I got this shot of Miles with Grandma laughing about something! Fun stuff!

We took the kids to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa and the cousins-Porter is showing you how much he enjoyed the Bird Show!

We got to meet two new nieces as well, which I loved!! This pic is of my beautiful SIL and little C! Little E was just as beautiful and looks just like her mommy did (my lil sis)! I sadly didn't get any pics of the two of them together though. bummer.

With these two additions though it is official:

I am the only sibling of 5 who have children so far without a baby girl! I guess I just must be meant for being a mom of boys!!

Miles got to meet some of his Great Grandparents!

(Miles and GGPa-my mom's dad)

Miles and Great Granma (my dad's mom)

*this is where the redhead gene comes from on my side of the family*

We got to see all of my siblings while we were home, including G&A who came in from Cali! It was so nice to spend time as a family, and especially my twin sis and my boys very favorite cousins! They are all close in age and Porter and Jakey especially hit it off this time. They are finally both into the same interests, and they have been asking for each other ever since we left. They were so great to help out while I was without Noah-

and a special thanks to Karin for waking me up after I was crazy jet-lagged and had snuggled the boys to sleep before intending to go to the store.

Without her waking me up and driving me there the Easter Bunny would not have come to my boys this year!! I was O.U.T. We had a great time and am so glad we got to spend so much time together.

We also got to spend some much anticipated, enjoyed, and needed time with

THESE GUYS!!

(Without their help our Medevac would have been MUCH, MUCH harder. Along with my twin sis and her little family, they were our "home". Taking care of us from beginning to end

-literally, with late night and early morning airport duty!! (not to mention 2 early morning and 1 late night going into labor duty!!!) they were total rockstars, and took care of us SO well. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything Art and Steph!) Our boys also are best buds, and as far as they know "cousins", which we love. Love you guys!

and THESE GUYS,

(Oh man, we were excited to see these guys! We just can never get enough! Thanks for planning your trip around us! And, I'm glad we could be together for Little G to try his first taste of ice cream! What a special moment!) Luckily, these guys are East Coasters, soooo guess who will be seeing a lot more of us next year? Woot woot!

and even THESE GUYS!!

(we even hit up our old stomping grounds for some delicious banana splits and cheese fries!)

We were so excited to meet up, and got so lucky that we all happened to be in town together. Noah was originally slated to go home before they came into town, so it was great that he got to stay a little later! Good times, good friends, good food. It doesn't get better than that!

I also got to spend some (but not nearly enough, sob. sob. -newborns will do that I suppose) time with some of my other favorite gals from our old neighborhood! Sadly again, I didn't get any pictures! I think I'm starting to sound like a broken record...

Next time I will try much harder to document everyone. Sorry guys!! Next time I visit hopefully we can squeeze in more girl time!

Lastly, we were able to squeeze in a fantastic family moment right before Daddy left to come back to Istanbul. As luck would have it, CARS 2 opened up just in the nick of time and we were able to go see it together in the theater as a family! For a mamma of 3 little boys, who coincidently also travel the world; this movie is a new all time favorite in our house! The boys were geared up with their new Cars 2 t-shirts, the popcorn was delicious and the best part was that we could all see it together in America! Nothing says summer like viewing the new summer blockbuster in English with no subtitles while on vacation!! Yay, Disney- your timing was perfect! We all LOVED it and will anxiously be awaiting the DVD.

So to review. We came on Medevac instead of staying in Turkey to have the baby. Now that it is all said and done, I am 100% glad we did. We were able to figure out some of the things that were going on with Ronan's hearing and the timing was excellent so we could get him off to a good start this next year, and it helped us make sure we bid on places that would work for him-thus getting Tokyo! Also, (for the most part anyway, there is always an exception or two) everyone who was in charge of helping us get all of our paperwork done in time was excellent at getting it all pushed thru and ready to go. We had all of Miles' passports, visa, medical clearance and paperwork ready to go. Whenever there was a small issue, they were very friendly and helped us get it taken care of. I was kind of worried about all of that aspect, but everything came together nicely. The kids were also able to have a good full summer vacation, and we were able to enjoy good old American health care! (Turkey is great too, but I've heard they like to give you most of your pain medicine in a shot form. No thank you, I'll take it orally please:) In all I was very pleased with the way that his job took care of us for the whole experience, and would recommend it. We did miss Daddy terribly while were separated, but I think the overall experience was definitely worth it for our little family. Thanks for the memories Medevac. You were good to us!