Easter Egg Decorating

I actually have not decorated eggs in the last few years; this year we were having a contest for egg decorating at our home school group, so egg decorating it was! We cannot get the dyes over here, but a friend suggested paint as an alternative and I loved it. I liked it better than the dyes and the eggs came out so much more vibrant. We will prep a little more next year on exactly what we want to do before we start.

Egg decorating has come a long way since I was a child (now I sound old). :) People are making flying Superman's, funny people, and lots of other random things out of their eggs. We did make a good attempt at an angel, a royal egg, a pirate, and Humpty Dumpty, but as I said before, we will prep a bit more with our ideas next year.


** Above are the before pictures


* And now the after:

Audrey won 'best egg' for her age group with her angel egg

Josiah spent a lot of time getting his royal egg right.

Good job for pressing on!

Micah love his pirate egg and so did I.

Max won 'best egg' in his age group for his green egg

Zoe was down for a nap while we were decorating, so did not have any eggs to show.

That did not bother her though, when she saw me taking photos of Max with his eggs

she grabbed someone elses eggs and jump right in front of the camera. My little photo bug!

How Sweet It Is

It was Micah's turn to be junior chef tonight. He was working very hard and quite independently with the spaghetti sauce. He begins to converse with a big smile. Micah says, "I am going to cook every night for my wife when I get married. Oh and she is going to be a Christian too. I am also going to make sure I leave her money every day when I leave and then I am going to buy her a ten bedroom house!" Mom says, "Wow Micah! You said you are going to cook every night right?" He says, "Well, every night that I am not playing Goalie at a match!" He was so excited and sincere. He also added something about giving me lots of money! :)

I wanted to make sure I wrote this all down. It is now in writing. I am trying to sow good seed for my future daughter in-law! :)

Tammy

'The Beginning' and all of our latelies

'The Beginning':

I just learned a few weeks ago what a blog really was! I know, I am behind the times; therefore, I am trying to make this a beginning for us to keep our family and friends up-to-date and possibly let others know about our home school/school journey's. I really do not know what I am doing with this computer stuff; I have been way too into diapers for the past years to keep up with anything other than the 5 blessings I have.......oh and my husband too! :)

Since this is my first blog, I am not quite sure how this will turn out. I know that Murat would like to post some and that Josiah and Micah have already pondered what they would like their blog names to be. Maybe it will be a family blog!

On to our latelies:

Where to even begin? So much has been happening, that it feels like things are constantly changing for us. I have always said that I love change and that I get a bit cranky if I do not have it, but I may have to reconsider those sayings. We'll see!

With our latelies, which I consider an overview of 2007 and what the kids are doing:

The children and I went to America for the holidays last year and had a wonderful time, but,oh, did it go fast. We looked like all of those other crazy foreigners, when we returned January 15th to Istanbul, who packed everything but their kitchen sink. Considering I was a flight attendant before and had to deal with all sorts of people like us, this was quite ironic. The list: 13 pieces of luggage, 3 boxes, 2 backpacks, diaper bag and 5 kids in tote. Hmmm, think I will cut back a bit next time, but not on the children....hee,hee.

When we returned it was to a new city and home. The family walked into 100 boxes and limited bedding; it was cold. Needless to say, quite overwhelming. Istanbul has been a challenging city for our large family. We had only four months here and then we were off for the summer. Four months was not nearly enough time to get acquainted. Oh, also Murat was asked to manage a second hotel which led to a lot of travel time for Daddy.

The summer started with a week long trip to Antalya, Turkey for the kids and I; we would not see Murat for a couple of weeks. We were able to stay in our old homestead (The Talya Hotel). It was so good and emotional for me to see all of our friends at the hotel. We were missing them very much and they will always have a very special place in our heart. All of the 120 employees there were so loving and helpful and became like family for us.

While I was in Antalya, I drove the two bigger children to camp in Olympos. I was a bit nervous, because, well, I do not like leaving my babes and it was Audrey's first year to attend. We had so many of our friends to look out after them and we had the hotel family close by in case there was an emergency. Everything went well and the kids were delivered to me 2 weeks later......in one piece! Oh, and they had a wonderful time.

Next, we were off on a 5 hour drive to Bodrum, Turkey with three children in tote. That was such a strange feeling to not have five children for two weeks. Some of you may laugh, but three children were sooo easy! We stayed a few nights in the hotel and then moved into our villa which was so beautiful and had a travel magazine view. However, the greeting we received was not so kind. Not only was there no warm welcome from our neighbors, but it was again a new place to figure out. Where to eat, go , do, and where were all the children to play with? Culture shock set in again and Murat would not be there for another week or so.

Things were looking bleak for the summer and an early return was considered, but things did make a turn around. First, Murat finally arrived and about two weeks later had some more stability in his schedule. Second, we were blessed with an incredible young woman to help us. Third, the children began to arrive!!! Fourth, we discovered a few family friendly hang outs. Lastly, we were on occasion, asked to come to the hotel by guests who wanted to see us and wanted to play with the children. What a relief that was. I also met quite a few wonderful and interesting people over the summer. Most of you will laugh at this: Murat called me one day and said that I had to come to the hotel and meet an American woman from Dallas who was with her family and Turkish husband. He said she wanted to talk. I went, met her, and the first thing she said to me was, "I have not spoken English to anybody for two weeks and I love to talk! I am so happy to get to meet you". Match made in Heaven!! WE talked for hours over her few days visit. I missed her after she left; I was so happy to accommodate her need. :)

Since things turned out well in Bodrum, we decided to stay until September; we then returned to Istanbul. I learned a lot about leaving a house to sit for three months. We had no air conditioning and all of the shades were down. Perfect breeding ground.....for everything! There were spiders and silver fish everywhere. I was officially finished when there were silverfish in my bed, a spider under my pillow and one on top of Murats. I suffered for one night at home, packed up luggage again and off to the hotel while our house was being fumigated. When we returned home, again, it was better but I still had a creepy feeling while I was in the shower. Then I felt a spider on my shoulder!! He would not get off. I left the bathroom with scratches all over me.

No bugs now, or at least not anymore than a normal household. We have now officially been back in Istanbul for six months and I am just now getting things settled in. Josiah has been in soccer for a few months now and is doing wonderful. He also started guitar last month and seems to be enjoying it. Audrey has been in piano lessons for four months and started gymnastics last week. She practices well for piano and is all smiles for gymnastics. Now that the weather is better, we will get her back into horse back riding. Micah, still loves to play with his toys, and is looking forward to starting soccer when he is seven, horse back riding lessons, and playing the violin come September. He also has learned to read and seems to take more interest than anyone else in math. Max, is learning to read and doing incredible. It is so effortless with him. He and Zoe buddy around quite a bit, but Max has started to try and hang with the big guys lately. He says he wants to play basketball in the future. Zoe has made some friends here in our site. Her friends, brothers, sister, and her babies are her main interests right now. She never took a pacifier when she was a baby, but found one in Audrey's baby box recently. She would not set it down and it became quite problematic. The good news is that we lost it the other day at Josiah' practice. We did have to listen to her scream for a day and half, though, but it is now finished. Murat is doing really well. His job is going great and he his happy with the direction things are going. He had taken up tennis, but cannot fit it in lately. He really is good at it and loves to play! Hopefully he can play some more in the future. I spend most of my time doing mommy stuff and figuring out our home school plan. I am trying to practice the piano along with Audrey and that is going pretty well. We'll see.

Even though we are finally settling in, we are now looking around at different areas to move into next year. I am hoping that will be our last move until the Big One! Please pray we find and make the right choice.

I hope my first blog finds everyone doing wonderfully! I also hope that this blog will help everyone to keep up with our family and us with you!

Many Blessings,

Tammy and the rest of us