Milestones

This week on Monday Balázs turned 21! It's hard to believe that he has been with us almost 7 years!

He recently started talking about moving out on his own - which seems fine and good from a rational perspective, but I was surprised at how sad the thought of not having him in our home made me.

Nate has been doing Tae Kwon Do for the past few years. It's been good for him, and he has done well at it. A few weeks ago Nate took the test to get his green belt and today he found out that he passed and he received his belt.

 

Graduations

Last week we had two graduations in our family: Nate graduated from Kindergarten and Balazs graduated in High School.

We are very proud of both of them, but especially of Balázs because of how far he has come sine he first came to live with us. High school wasn't easy, especially since he had to study in a foreign language, but he did it, and he finished well. His last semester was probably his best in all his years of schooling so far.

One week from today Balázs will start his new job at LEI companies in Denver, in an electrician apprenticeship program.

Here is a video of Nate's kindergarten graduation and some pictures of Balázs' high school graduation.

 

Receiving an acknowledgement for his community service:

 

Felicia's First Ballet Performance

Felicia has been going to a Russian ballet school here in Longmont for the past several months. She's in a class with other kids her age - the youngest group in the school.

This past Sunday the school put on a performance of Swan Lake, and Felicia's class got to have a part in it. She was very hesitant to get on stage, but once she did, she had a lot of fun.

 

Day Trip to Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison

 

Big Day for Nate

Yesterday was a day Nate has been waiting for, for a long time. About 2 years ago I took Nate skiing for the first time, to Bánkút in Hungary. At the time I went snowboarding, and Nate really wanted to snowboard, but I told him he had to wait until he was 6. He never forgot those words - and yesterday I took my 6 year old to Eldora for an all-day snowboarding lesson.

He did really quite well; I think part of it was that he was motivated. He told me his goal is to get good enough to go riding with me :) I look forward to that day!

Here's a video of him learning to ride:

Exactly 1 hour after his snowboarding lesson ended, his Tae Kwon Do class started back here in Longmont. A few weeks ago Nate tested for a yellow belt; we weren't sure if he would get it since he didn't know some of the forms perfectly, but his teacher awarded it to him because net never gave up during the test. Some of the other kids he tested with didn't get a belt - so we were impressed with Nate's perseverance and determination. It's little wins like this which motivate you to keep going and work harder.

Here's the video of Nate receiving his yellow belt:

 

Funny things Felicia says

Today playing with her dolls:

"I have 6 babies. This one has been crying for a long time... for 5 months!"

"Some of my babies are all grown up now. Yeah, they're 15! But they aren't super old, because they don't have old skin."

Me: "Felicia, how old do you think I am?" Felicia: "You're not super old. You're not 15 yet; that's super old, and when you get old, you get old people skin."

Later on: Felicia: "Can you stay home with the babies? I need to go out to the store to do some shopping." (Gets dressed to go to the store...in a bath robe). "I'll have my phone with me, but it's set to pretend, so you can call me if something happens to the babies while I'm away."

Merry Christmas - Boldog Karácsonyt!

We had a great Christmas this year. The Christmas Eve service at White Fields was packed, we ate töltött káposzta forint dinner, which is a Hungarian tradition for Szenteste. Ocean cooked the stuffed cabbage for us, and it turned out great; one of the best we've all had, even compared to in Hungary. The nice thing about Hungarian food is that it is designed to be made from scratch, so you can theoretically make it anywhere.

On Christmas Day my parents came over and we had a big meal, opened presents and played and assembled things together. After they left some friends came over to play a board game to close the night. All around a great Christmas. Hope yours was great too!