Canal living

With two long months until we would all be together in Kyiv and a long weekend in August when I would have a few days off Ukrainian, Randy and I decided to use our miles and meet in Amsterdam for a weekend without kids.  The last time we were in Amsterdam was in 2008 and it was really nice to be back. We stayed at a beautiful hotel on a canal, the Pulitzer ,which had this amazing view and flowers everywhere. 

I arrived early Friday and had a few hours before Randy arrived to have lunch, sit at a coffee shop and read and shop a bit.

Then I took a nap, because look at this comfy room and red eye flight and all.  

Randy arrived right in time to take me out to Cecconis for a drink.  Randy and I got married in London at City Hall two weeks before our wedding in Greece and we celebrated with brunch at Cecconis with our friends after so it was sweet to be back after all those years.

Here is a throwback from that day. how is it is almost 10 years ago!
Then we had a yummy dinner at new tasting menu restaurant. The food was amazing and we were able to stop and take pictures on the way back to the hotel. 
The next day we walked around and explored Amsterdam until it was time for another yummy dinner. 

The sheer bliss of having this beautiful big window open up to the canal and be able to enjoy it wide open with no worries of children being near it. 

No kids means we can stop whenever we want for a selfie

The next day we woke up early and took a train to Leiden, a small town Randy lived in for a summer in law school when was working at the Hague.  We had gone there back in 2008 and it was just as cute this time.  There was a farmers market and we picked up some yummy fruits, veggies and cheese and headed out for a boat trip.   If we lived here I would buy flowers every week!
Now when Randy told me he had a boat rented in my mind this meant someone would be driving the boat….but that someone was actually me.  I was of course nervous about crashing into some Dutch person and worried about it the entire time.  I have been on boats my whole life with my dad and I couldn’t begin to tell you where this nervousness came from…but in the end we survived 🙂
Can you tell I’m nervous…
After our boat trip, we decided we both deserved a canal break. 


We headed back to Amsterdam to freshen up for another awesome dinner at a super nice restaurant. 

The next day we had some time before our flight and were able to walk around a whole museum, pretty heavenly.

Followed by a long lazy lunch, who are we- museum and a long lunch  🙂 

some stroopwaffles…

and a walk and some cuddles on the canal before we left for our respective houses.

After that I had to say goodbye to Randy but I was lucky enough to go back to these three faces and celebrate the first day of Kindergarten for Malcolm and second grade for Adam!

Thank you Grandma and Ate Maria for watching my babies and giving me just the short break and the time I needed before I headed into my last month of  non stop Ukrainian studying, packing, consultations and saying goodbyes to friends and family before heading out to our Kyiv!

The boys had a great first day of school! I can’t believe I have a second grader and a kindergartner.  I am so proud of these two for a great first day.  We celebrated after the first day with some ice-cream. I was so proud of these two. 

New York State of Mind

After an awesome weekend in New York it was time for us to head back to DC for more Ukrainian. But then this happened….
The Grandmas asked if the kids (and our nanny Maria) could stay in New York for two weeks. With Randy in Kyiv and my studying Ukrainian nonstop this seemed like an amazing option.  I am not sure if the grandma’s agree but I still think it was a pretty great idea. I had all the time in the world to study and the kids got to spend loads of time with family. 
I even got to study in pretty places over the weekends. 
I also got to go on long runs and sleep in on the weekends! 

The kids meanwhile were hardly missing me and had an amazing time.  Having all our family in New York is amazing.  The grandmas were both able to spend time with the kids and get breaks at times and the Jordans got to see them on the weekends.  It was two weeks full of fun and they hardly even missed me 🙂 
Playground fun

“

Rainy day library time

Yummy pancakes breakfast

Beach by Grandma’s house

New backpack for Adam for second grade 
Lunch and playtime at the Jordans

Exploring Brooklyn

Fishing trips with Uncle Ari and Grandpa Terry

And a trip to the Statue of Liberty for the boys with Grandma Gertch and Uncle Ari

Pool time

NYC Fire Department

Gardening

Meanwhile back in DC. More long runs.

Yoga

More pretty runs

Dinner out with a friend

Basketball

Nailing boards at grandmas

Another fishing trip

And then they were back and I was so happy they were back! Two months and counting until we leave for Kiev and are with Randy.

2 years, 24 months, 730 days

We had Miral’s birthday party early before Randy left, but we still wanted to celebrate her real birthday.  First up, early morning presents. Randy and I got Miral a dollhouse, or as Randy likes to tell me, I bought myself a dollhouse and let Miral play with it.  It was always my dream to have a big dollhouse, so he’s not far off.  I even bought wallpaper and wooden floors to fix it up (spoiler alert….9 months later they are still in my closet, even quarantined at home I can’t find the time to do this). Adam and Malcolm picked out a paw patrol Chase cruiser for Miral, because Miral looooves Paw Patrol.

I wasn’t sure if Miral would be too young, but she loved this dollhouse from the second she saw it. At first she put all her paw patrol figurines in there but then I bought her a mouse family and she now calls it her mouse house. We had a yummy waffle breakfast.  Grandma Gertch was with us to celebrate and we all went to Ted’s Bulletin for lunch. Miral was way past her naptime at this time, so she slept through lunch but the rest of us had a yummy birthday celebration.  Then it was home for some ice-cream cake.  Miral made us relight and sing Happy Birthday 25 times.  She kept blowing out the candles early to make sure she beat her brothers to it.  With a smile like that who can say no.  Happy birthday my sweet baby girl!

  

   

 

 

 

And then there were 2

After Randy left we decided to head back up to NY to see friends and family again and to celebrate Laurel’s second birthday. Such a treat that we were able to celebrate with Laurel! There was an awesome party in the Jordan’s backyard with music, bubbles, barbecue and the biggest treat of all….water balloons!! I can’t believe Laurel is two. I can’t wait to see these two run the world, or at least get into some trouble on our vacations in Greece in their teenage years. Can’t you just sense the independence and strong determination 🙂

The next day we were able to squeeze in a visit with our friends from Manila.  Jackie, Devon and Natalia were in NY so we met them at Prospect Park Zoo.  I’ll never get tired of saying how amazing it is that you can not see people for a year and when you finally meet up, it’s like no time has passed.  I hope if my kids learn anything in this lifestyle, it is that you can have great friends all over the world. 

Boy, do I miss this Brooklyn raised, Manila living, loving, funny generous person. It did my soul good to have a few hours with her.  She was one of my first friends in Manila. We both had one year olds and grew as people and moms together over the five years I was in Manila.

We grew from two kids to five over our time in Manila!

And the Jordans came to meet us!

After the zoo we headed to Brooklyn Crab for some yummy food and games.

Boy, do I LOVE lobster rolls. 

Brooklyn, you are pretty awesome! 

And then she was two!!

We wanted to have Miral’s birthday party before Randy left so we moved it up a few weeks.  There was an awesome nature center near us in Virginia so we had Miral’s party there.  They had animals and fun fossils and exhibits. We invited all our friends, old and new and ordered pizza and a Milk bar cake that was delicious.  It was the best the US had to offer and a great last celebration in the US.

The day started like all birthdays, with me forcing a photo shoot with unwilling participants…

Some became even more unwilling as this went on…
But once we got to the party and there were balloons all was forgiven

Thankfully Adam loves party planning as much as me and helped me set up!

Miral was just there for the juice!

Still clutching that juice…

Then the animals came out! What a great place, they have all these animals and let the kids pet them. 

Miral was still more interested in her juice. 

Then we all headed out for a nature walk where the birthday girl got to go “up a head”.

Then back inside for a delicious milkbar cake!

Then it was home to open presents all of which Miral loved!

Especially the glowworm!

We had to say goodbye to Randy after the party, but he gave the kids special presents, Adam got a journal to write about all the fun things he wants to do in Kyiv, Malcolm got a special puffy and Miral got a book. Two months and counting until we’re together again!

 

Virginia to NY and back again

Right before Randy left for Kyiv in early August we managed to get in one more trip to New York all together. It has been so nice being close to family this year and being able to spend time with them!
But first, of course- Pizza from Joe and Pats! 

And bagels! Nothing better than a New York Bagel, baked that morning with loads of cream cheese -right Miral?

Then it was over to Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj to cuddle this little one and to play with Laurel!

I mean have you ever- look at those chubby cheeks!! 
Not much makes me as happy as when these little ones are together and actually smile for a photo!

I love seeing these two together so much! Next up, these two both turn two, celebrations coming up!

This was Randy’s last time to New York. He had to head to Ukraine earlier than us to start work and I still needed two more months of class to learn how to speak Ukrainian (spoiler,  I still don’t know how to speak Ukrainian).  Since we were going to be apart for the next two months, Randy and I decided to sneak in a weekend away to a winery in Virginia, called Veritas.  This places was so beautiful, rolling hills and vineyards all around. Beautiful old farm house and amazing meals in a glass house out back in the vineyards.

Don’t worry, the kids were in good hands back home with Grandma.

 can you guess the game of choice, no it wasn’t Cee-lo, it was BeyBlades!

July 4- Murica Style

It’s been a long time since we were in the US to celebrate the fourth of July.  The kids and Randy were off for the whole week so they headed down to the Outerbanks.  I had a few days of Ukrainian class that week and planned to meet everyone down there on Wednesday. 
That meant I had a free weekend and I decided to go away with my two good friends- the Carries. Carrie B used to live next to us in DC when I was pregnant with Adam.  We both had babies at the same time and became good friends.  Carrie A and I met in a new mommy Mindfulness class and it was true friends over baby poop and throw up. The three of us have stayed friends over 9 years despite living at various times in DC, Belgium, Manila, Dubai and Kyiv.  This was the first time we managed a weekend away together and it was wonderful.  We stayed at the Salamander, a wonderful resort not too far out of DC.  There is something so heart restoring being away with good friends.  I loved every minute of it. Spa, nice dinners, sleeping in, ordering too much room service late at night. I say this on repeat, but one the best things about the foreign service is realizing that you can not see people for years and when you come together it’s as if no time at all passed. 

But there were four peanuts waiting for me on the beach, so after our weekend away I finished up Ukrainian class and headed down to the Outerbanks. Randy and I have wanted to go to the Outerbanks for years and I have to say it didn’t disappoint. We rented a little house by the beach and spent most of our days at the beach,  fishing off the pier, barbecuing dinners at home and eating lunches at Gumbas, this cute little restaurant by the beach.  Beach vacations are definitely my favorite type of vacations and I think I can say the whole Ali family agrees, especially a beautiful, windswept, not crowded one.

For Fourth of July we made a berry flag cake!  I’ve always wanted to make one of these, but berries were few and expensive in Manila.  Everyone was excited to make it and helped out!

We walked down to the beach to watch fireworks and it was all the charming small town wonder I always imagined. 

Summer Days

Thanks to a very nice guy in Staten Island my computer is fixed! Which mean I can finally go back through aaaaaaaalllllll my photos. But since i am WAY behind this will be a quick catch-up. 
Summer started in Virginia and as school stopped we found some fun ways to entertain ourselves.   I was still studying Ukrainian and Randy was working in the DC office for a few weeks before taking time off for the summer before leaving for Kyiv. How did we amuse ourselves you ask?
Pokemon of course

End of school diorama

Sunglasses

Did i mention Pokemon

Sunglasses and sundresses

More sundresses

More sunglasses

Family day at Malcolm’s school

Eating paint at the painting party

Facepaint

Water fountains at parks

Summer haircuts

Missing winter

More water fountains
Five guys with Alex

Icecream
Cute smiles

Tae Kown Do belt tests

More sun dresses
Bey Blades and more sunglasses

Snakes, smores and fire pits

Learning Ukrainian, a move across the globe and computer issues have all led to me being way behind, but new year, new me! I am going to work on quickly catching up and getting to fun photos of our new lives in Ukraine. But first we’ll go back to Shenandoah last memorial day. We decided to spend the long weekend there last spring and it ended up being exactly the time away in nature that we were all craving. We had a fire pit outside that we spent all night around, a river nearby where Adam inadvertently ended up swimming with snakes, lots and lots of smores to eat, a beach and a jacuzzi, a lost tooth, and caverns to explore. 

Kαλό πάσχα

For Easter this year all three kids were able to dye eggs. It all went swimmingly until Miral spilled a cup of yellow dye on the rug. Note to self, 20 months is not old enough to dye eggs on her own despite her convincing arguments for autonomy. Oh well, at least we dyed some fun eggs! 

Pretty Easter tulips on my morning run. The week before Easter was the week I started running early in the mornings before work. Its been four months and I haven’t stopped yet, it’s great. DC is such a pretty place to run and the mornings before everyone wakes up is so calm.

We celebrate Greek Easter, which means it was the week after American Easter this year. The kids woke up for an Easter egg hung and Easter baskets.

Last Easter, Randy was in Pakistan for Easter, so this year we wanted to have an Easter dinner with our friends. We made lamb and salad and lots of sides! Malcolm picked that cardigan all by himself!