Sweet 16

Dia had a Happy Birthday a few days after Halloween!

She's the big 1-6 these days.

Breakfast time with Dia and Leo (another exchange student from Germany who was staying at my house that weekend.)

Our tradition is to put 16 soda cans on the lawn tied to balloons.

Unfortunately, on a cold day in November they don't last long.  By the time we got home from church and Dia saw them, only a few were still floating. 

With Leo's help, we created a delicious German cheesecake with cherries and Nutella!

And chocolate cupcakes for the ones that don't care about delicious food.

Happy birthday! 

Lots of family to join us

Yes, Dia was sitting in the high chair...

Opening presents!

Sofie luvs

Then Mei got jealous and needed luvs too

I loved her reaction to this present.  "Where did you find this?!"

It's full score sheet music to the best of Sum41, Dia's obsession :)

Guess it's not something you typically find in a Hungarian mall.

Yup, the big 1-6

Initiating Dia into the horrible birthday song tradition

Before Another Holiday Passes Me By...

Halloween started with the annual extended family party.

It's the only one I'll actually dress up for :)

Here we have the Crazy Cat Lady, Minnie Mouse, a darling Pumpkin, and Derek.

Lots of food, noise, and candy.

Next picture worthy occasion was the carving of the pumpkins.

Meili loved scraping the goo out.

Sofie did not.

Meili was very helpful...

(not sure who was in charge of hair...)

The proud girlies and their pumpkins.

Dia and her friend Vicki from Hungary.

Dressed up for school

Sofie looks extremely scary...

Next occasion on Halloween day was Derek's work party.

By then, Mei was tired of the pumpkin, so I put her in the Halloween tutu.

Derek's party was an outdoor carnival.  

Balloon animals!

Then of course trick-or-treating with cousins.

Enjoying the loot

Meili was DELIGHTED!

Sofie had preschool on Halloween so they had a little costume party as well.

She's the darling Minnie on the far right.

Harvest Party

Although most of the time it's a stressful job, I got to enjoy throwing a party for all my cute CCI exchange students.  (and some of another coordinator's as well)

We ate lots of food.  It was a soup and bread potluck.  With donuts of course.

I was thrilled to see that all the students sat together at one table.

This table has students from China, Vietnam, Brazil, Spain, Hungary, Norway, and the Czech Republic. 

I couldn't get any of the exchange students to join in, so I had to step it up...

I won!  And I got a donut out of it :)

Lots of food.

Lots of folks.

Making myself look like an idiot worked!

I convinced these four exchange students to represent!

(china, spain, vietnam, and brazil)

Mr. Conservative Mathlete was the funniest thing I've ever seen!  

He stood there all formal and had his arms crossed the whole time.

He totally won!

He was so completely out of his element and it made my whole night.

Photo Dump: This Fall Thus Far

Seriously.

Too much stuff is going on.  Good stuff, but too much.

One of the exchange students that I coordinate came down for the weekend, so I took her and Dia up to Salt Lake City to enjoy some authentic German food. (she's German and has been having real bread withdrawals...)

Me and the ladies on Trax

Dia laughing at me 'cuz why would I ever take a picture of something that she does multiple times a day at home.  Silly American.

Dia took a million pictures.  (a few of me and the girls, wish I had her SD card right now.)

Mei and Sofie loved it!

The Christus at the visitor's center.  It's so beautiful and the girls were in awe.

Leo and Dia dorking it up on Trax.  I REALLY wish I had a copy of the one I photo bombed. 

6 year anniversary!!!

We woke up to breakfast that Dia made for us.  How sweet!

Over UEA we took Sofie and Meili to the zoo.

My little nestlings. 

They were loving the underwater stuff!

I've never seen a child LOVE mac and cheese as much as Meili did at the zoo's restaurant.  Seriously.

Mei's first carnival ride.

Sofie's favorite was the giraffe so we had to get a picture.

Derek and I got to go overnight for our anniversary.

We stayed in "Juliet's Tower."  So romantic!

Actually it was pretty cool!  

It was a bed and breakfast with all you eat pastries all night, soda, hot chocolate, popcorn.  

I did not come home skinny.

We stopped at the Chinese market in Sandy, where I picked up some ingredients to make this beauty!

It was the perfect freezing day for a hot bowl of noodles.

Cookie time!

Yes, I strategically timed this during Meili's nap.

If you look at the cookie third from the left, top row, you'll see what my current mood was.

My view of the neighbor's tree.

This is almost worth the cold weather that's coming!

I can see the this tree from my bedroom window and it's so gorgeous!

The light reflects onto my wall and turns it orange, it's so cool!

My itty bitty burning bush.

And now....everything has already fallen and died.