Birthday Weekend

I had a very special birthday weekend. We stayed the night at the Hilton in the Castle District. Upon checking in, we were told to go to the executive lounge which was a real treat. After unpacking, we headed out to walk around the cobblestone streets loaded with tourists.
There is a labyrinth with a network of cellars to explore. It was a strange arrangement. In the evenings, you can go through with only a lantern, but I wasn't interested in any part of that.
We had dinner at Pampas, an Argentinian steakhouse.
And at breakfast the following morning, I was treated to beautiful gifts, champagne and a leisurely breakfast. It was a superb way to spend a birthday weekend.

Softball in Moscow

Connor traveled to Moscow to compete in the CEESA softball tournament. His team came in first place and Connor was chosen as one of 10 in the competition to be named as an 'all star.' He had an amazing time.

Dance Performance

For the past year Maddie has been taking dance classes at Dance Craze Academy. She has been learning tap, jazz and some ballet. On Sunday she had her big performance and we loved it!

Költözési Kiárusitás

All week long, we have been gathering and pricing items to sell in our garage sale. Garage sales aren't typically done in Hungary, so I knew we needed to do some advertising to attract shoppers. Earlier in the week we posted flyers at the bus stops and put a few in neighboring mailboxes.
Well our first customer showed up on Thursday night, just wanting to see what we were selling. Even though everything was stacked in the garage - she rummaged through and bought 6000huf worth.
The garage sale started at 4pm on Friday and shoppers were ready to go. We had large crowds gathering around and browsing and buying. We sold a good portion of our things that day.
On Saturday morning they showed up again, perhaps it was because Rob and Brad went down to the farmer's market and posted more flyers. The sale went on until about 4pm, with virtually everything sold. It was such a success.

The best part was that we met so many of our neighbors and they all thought this was a wonderful concept. It was priceless to see some of the little boys get excited about Connor's old Star Wars figures and army men. Stuart was able to sell off his air soft gun as well.

One dear man came and asked Rob if he had any men's shoes for sale. We didn't, but Rob ran inside and came out with his tennis shoes. Then the man asked for a baseball cap and Rob found one of those for him too.

Antique Shopping

There isn't a lot that we have bought in Hungary, but we did want some pieces to connect us to the country that we will have spent six years living in. On Saturday we headed out to the town of Vac to stop by an antique warehouse. We found a few special items to bring back.

A grain shovel
A butter churn

Hungarian wells

Our new, yet old, house in Port Orchard has a well in the back. As it stands, it's not very attractive, but it does have water in it. So I have a vision of building a traditional Hungarian well. I thought that building up the walls and adding a roof, wouldn't be too difficult, but to make it complete, I'd need the turn cranks.

We walked through neighborhoods looking for these turn cranks and were able to find 2-3 loose ones laying in lots. We had a translated note saying that we were interested in the cranks, but no one wanted to part with them.
However, after a visit to an antique warehouse out in Vac, we found our turn cranks. We ended up buying two, one for each side (like I'd seen on some wells).

This summer, my goal is to build one of these!

Ingredient Mix-Ups

For a recent dinner at friends I made this strawberry tart, with whipped cream, fresh strawberries and a sweet pastry underneath. I have to say that it was delicious.

Being inspired to use strawberries, I bought more and decided to make a dessert one night with meringue, strawberries and cream. I didn't have any powdered sugar, but I did have one of these packets below.

Now, clearly, by looking at the picture on the packet, it looks like some form of powdered sugar right?!?! So I added it to the whipped cream and combined it with the meringue and strawberries.

Well unfortunately, this dessert was inedible. The powdered sugar had a slight sweetness to it, but it also had salt. I don't quite understand why this would be sprinkled on a cake as it shows in the picture. It was horrible.