Happy Birthday Bryce

Our little Brycie Boy turned three on September 13th. Our friends and their two boys joined us for a pizza party. The sounds of cars, planes and trains, with the occasional royal decree mixed in, filled our new home. It was a good thing Bryce had on his airplane costume, because as soon as the birthday finished he thrust himself forward, as if in fight, and blew them out! It was priceless, and luckily, captured on photo.

Mommy had fun with this one!

"Happy birthday dear Brycie!"

Ready for take off!

Strike a Pose

Love these two!

Bryce LOVES his school

Ok, so it is not the best picture, but you can get the idea. This is Bryce's daycare or "Kindergarten" as it is called in Bulgaria. It is adjacent to complex, and so close in fact, that we can see it from his bedroom window. Bryce rides his balance bike or scooter there each morning. Jim shadows him on skateboard and Amelia weaves in and out on her scooter. Every time we pass by Bryce exclaims, "There's my school!" We are so thankful that he is happy and well cared for and will soon be speaking more Bulgarian than the rest of us! He gets to go swimming each week, they take walks through the area, play outside together and do lots of group activities. He couldn't be happier.

Amelia is enjoying her days at the "big school" with mommy and daddy, although we rarely cross paths. She was initially pretty nervous, which somehow surprised us. I guess we figured she was always so easy going and didn't realize that this transition would be a bit tough for her, too. Now that we have noticed the signs, we are doing what we can to help her adjust to a new home, school, friends, life, etc. She rides the bus after school most days and joins Bryce for a brief time until we finish and come to pick them up. It is a relief to have this option because having Amelia hang out in our classroom each day after school just didn't make sense. Hopefully she will also benefit from the language exposure, too.

So Many New Experiences...

We are certainly having no shortage of new experiences these days. Around every corner is something new to discover. We are so happy to be here in Bulgaria, where life is healthy and just what we were looking for. Just a five minute drive and we can be on a hiking trail; it's easy when you live at the base of a mountain. The food is incredible and our living situation couldn't be better. Here are a few photos from some of our recent new things...

Jim is pitching in and helping with the cooking from time to time...

Roasted Toasted Ciabatta from the Moosewood Collective cookbook...yum!

Amelia started a ballet after school activity

"I loved it! I want to go again!"

Bryce is our little hiker....rocks, sticks and dirt...what's not to love?

Wearing long pants or sleeves, while playing soccer after dinner. 

It cooled down yesterday and the locals say that fall will come quickly. 

(Our apartment is half of the middle floor on the righthand side)

And for me? Well, I am doing all of the driving as our car is a manual. We will have to share a photo soon. It is funny to go from rarely driving during the last ten years to driving everyday. I think we are both surprised how well I am finding my way, but just in case we got a GPS this past weekend. Watch this space to see where it takes us!

Amelia's First Ballet Lesson

Amelia had her first ballet lesson today. She loved every minute of it! It was so lovely to watch her beaming as she tried to follow along with the teacher. In this clip she is trying to move with "scissor legs."