3!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Here we are with happy hair on turkey day, and Brennan and Grandpa taking the wagon out for a spin.



Picking out a Christmas tree for Grandma and Grandpa. It was cooold!



Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. Brennan enjoys a good game of Candyland these days and Isla has found her thumb.



Our little Bean is 3 years old!!! Here is Brennan learning to play wiffel ball (he really enjoyed the t-ball set from Mommy and Daddy that he received later).



Fun trip to the Museum of Natural History with Grams and Papa.



Our sweet little boy enjoying some cake to celebrate the big day. We love you so much Brennan!

Some Visits

Here are some pictures from a wonderful visit we recently had where Brennan got to introduce Isla to Oma.





Here are Isla and GG meeting for the first time.





GGPa entertaining Brennan and Isla.



Four generations!

Coming to America

We had a nice visit from our friend Erika the other weekend when she came up to hang out and meet Isla. She was kind enough to take some family portraits of us, dogs included. We are quite the circus and really appreciated her help!



Last week the kiddos and I "took a hop" back to the States on a tanker. We traveled space available with some friends of ours and I won't go into the gory details of 8 hours on a refueling plane, but we made it.



Patrick left for Greece the same day and his crew came through the terminal while we were waiting so we got to wave one last goodbye.



Once we mastered our jetlag we started with some visits. Here are Isla meeting Grams and Brennan trying out a new bike. He ended up preferring to walk the bike rather than ride.



A little sibling love.



Patrick sent me some beautiful roses for my 30th birthday!

St. Martin's Day

Isla modeling two of her hats.





Brennan's Kindergarten recently had their St. Martin's Day celebrations. Parents signed up for a day to come after school and "help" their child construct a lantern. The theme was Bob the Builder and you could choose either Bob or Wendy. They were pretty complicated to make and I, I mean Brennan and I, found the project a little challenging. Our Bob turned out pretty well, considering. We met everyone at the school and paraded through town with the lanterns while singing St. Martin's songs. We ended up at the assisted living home and the children sang some songs for everyone gathered there. Later in the week they baked Weckmaenner (bread men) at school and reinacted St. Martin tearing his cloak to share with the poor man.

Trick or Treat

On Halloween we went to the McLallens for a little get together and some trick-or-treating. Brennan was Bob the Builder, Isla was a very cute turtle, and I got into the spirit with some police officer accessories. The hostess provided the apple mouths and ghostly bananas, which I thought were so cute, and yours truly supplied the yummy mummy veggies and dip in the bread casket.



The best part of Halloween night came after all the trick-or-treating when we got to pick Daddy up at the train station after his 2 weeks in Naples, Italy. Brennan had been counting down the days on his "Daddy calendar" and got to add the last sticker. Here is Isla modeling her new Italian hat. Patrick brought Brennan a tambourine, which he promptly broke. We removed the drum head and he just uses the jingles now, which is perhaps for the best.





Patrick's new boots had arrived during his absence and Brennan helped lace them up for their inaugural stroll.



Then he passed out on the couch, most likely due to the fact that he had been up since 3:45 in the morning. That's right, 3:45 AM. We are having some sleeping trouble in this house, consisting of refusal of all naps, trouble settling at night, and nocturnal wakefulness. I'm crossing my fingers that napping will be all the rage again in the Hudock household very soon.

Bob der Baumeister

Isla relaxing.



Giggling together.



Brennan's Kindergarten celebrated Halloween on Friday and he went as Bob the Builder, aka Bob der Baumeister. The kids shared an unhealthy breakfast, (I supplied cupcakes and was once again obliged to explain frosting to a German) and had their faces painted.



Brennan and Saskia



Playtime on the floor. Rocky does a great job of staying just off of Isla's blanket.



Brennan creating a masterpiece. Later he painted his whole forearm red. Artists can be so temperamental.



Finally enjoying the swing a little bit... as long as it isn't actually swinging.

Jack-O Lantern

Last week we went to pick our pumpkins out. There is a nice little pumpkin patch right over the border in the Netherlands and we made a quick trip one evening. We didn't get to pick our own, but we had fun picking out one pumpkin per family member and one to carve.



Even though this is Brennan's 3rd Halloween it was his first pumpkin carving experience. I think it's safe to say that he enjoyed himself and he was a big help collecting the seeds to roast.



Finished product.

School Pictures

Brennan's first school pictures are in! They were taken the first week of school and Brennan was still adjusting. I think the new environment, formal photo shoot setting and a bunch of people directing him all in German contributed to his uncertain expression. I can't believe my little Bean is getting so big!





Brennan's class, teachers and principal. The kids are grouped by age, so he is in the 3 year old row at the bottom. The little girl to the left of him is his best friend, Saskia. They are so cute together and very wild. So much for beginning of the year shyness!

Delft, NL

After Haarlem we drove the rest of the way to Delft. I have been wanting to visit Delft ever since moving to Europe and it's one of those things that gets moved from weekend to weekend on our calendar. Well, we finally made it and Delft was everything I had dreamed of and more! The gorgeous fall weather may have contributed, but it really is a beautiful city. Our hotel was on a cute little square surrounded by restaurants. Sleeping 4 to a room actually worked out surprisingly well.



On Sunday we walked around the old section of town, beginning with the main market square. Here are some photos of the town hall, new church, and the house where Johannes Vermeer was born.



Here we are on a bridge over what is possibly the oldest city canal in the Netherlands. The old church is in the background and it's tower has quite the tilt. The red plush clog slippers belong to a Dutch tourist who I stalked in an attempt to photograph his footwear because I thought it was so funny.



Here are the leaning tower of the old church and a windmill that supposedly sails every Saturday. It looks like it's currently under construction so I'm glad that we didn't hurry to Delft from Haarlem just to see it on Saturday! Patrick patronized the fish stand pictured below, est. 1432! Hopefully the fish were fresh but we wouldn't know since we could not for the life of us identify what fried and breaded meat he had ordered. The more he tried to figure it out the less he was able to enjoy the food, until finally Patrick "The Finisher" Hudock actually threw out food. Amazing. We took a canal cruise to keep Brennan happy and learned, among other things, that about 400 bikes per year end up in the canals. The tour guide blamed this on drunk college students.



After our boat tour we grabbed some snacks from a bakery and ate lunch on a picnic bench back at our home square. Isla decided to wake up at that point and we took some photos of her transition from sleepy to smiley.



After dinner we strolled back to the main square for some ice cream before watching some Dutch tv and going to bed. On Monday we drove Patrick to his beachside hotel in den Haag and I hopped out of the car long enough for us to get a picture in front of the North Sea. The 2.5 hour drive home could have been worse and Brennan actually fell asleep for about a half hour, which is a miracle these days. Overall it was a great trip and I'm so happy to have such nice memories of Delft.