Blame it on the vacuum

Senior year in high school, my mom restarted working as a flight attendant......which meant free flights for us.  Thus, my Scottsdale to Santa Clara trips to college were via America West Airlines.  Combine that with a frugal and ballsy mom and you end up with a vacuum cleaner rolling down the jetway to go to school. 

Where is this all going?  

Fast forward 20+ years (yikes, that many!?), and take a look at our growing stock of suitcases.....

Yes 9 checked bags filled with "USA essentials" returned Kiev with us....(and ALL of them made it!)

What could possibly be so essential??  Check out our cellar......

I say it's the mint M&Ms (you MUST try them), fake sugar (only funny pellets here) & hair dye (once you know your $9 color, you stick to it).  Logan says its the brownie mix.

The boys put the Legos high up (available here - but ~2.5x the price) 

As well as books (not many in English here) - and Nerf gun war supplies...

(Nerf here - but expensive & not the latest - like these very cool laser tag guns the Drakes introduced us to!)

Zoe is probably our most addicted to Kraft Mac n Cheese....but we also hauled half a suitcase full of party favors for her future class holiday party...

And the entire duffel of 4th of July decor was definitely mission critical given its impossible to buy here & the USA table barely passed as festive at last years school International night....

 (thanks Mom!)

Yes we transport silly amounts of stuff via plane overseas....

.....and yes, we have been "those people" shifting stuff from bag to bag at the departures counter to get below weight maximums.....

BUT we can also make sprinkle cupcakes, box brownies and peanut butter apples year round - all thanks to my mom's good influence!

Happy travels and here's to the cheap thrill of checking in a suitcase full of odd items & snowman sippy cups.

Screwing up our kids

One of our objectives moving overseas was to "expand our kids' horizons".  A side benefit has been the excuse to spend the summer in the States catching up with friends, family & our 'Americanism'.  But after essentially 7 weeks of indulgence, I'm starting to think we may have created a false sense of reality....

This summer we've hit 8 cities including trips to watersides, 2 amusement parks, 3 beaches & several lakes..... 

Wisconsin Dells is like Vegas for families - super fun, tons of show & activities - but sensory overload and you feel slightly ill after...

Rides, beaches, swimming & hiking in California....

(

Shooting stuff, fishing & cards in Wisconsin...

Water fun, games & mostly friendly competitions in Minnesota...

We've eaten out approximately 49 times and visited at least that many friends and family members...

We've indulged in many of our "American favorites"....

(Been to Chipotle at least 8 times)

Ice cream for dinner even seems reasonable after a year of DQ abstinence...

We've adopted the European "screw it" bed time. Kids up till 10 and sleeping past 9.....

At the tail end of it all, I now ponder.......how the hell will we ever again convince the kids that park district camp + a week vacation is a summer to be excited about?

Here's to summer and a special toast to all the friends and family who helped warp our kids with abundant hospitality & most excellent fun!

Reminders of Home

Last week while in Chicago we had the joy of the Ukrainian consulate (one of only 3 in the whole US!) for a "visa run"...... Not surprisingly we were reminded of Kiev there.....

No one at the window for a good 10 minutes upon arrival

Which - mind you - was carefully planned to coordinate with the whopping 14.5 hours a week they operate....

Not that the kids really minded the wait (thanks Apple!)

Honestly, how DID our parents survive without these?!

  

That said, I was REALLY reminded of home when we saw this girl's moving day outfit...

Yes - cheeks out for moving day with mom!  

BUT things started to look a little less Ukrainian while at the DMV renewing my license....

Note the poster......no bribing the testing officials?!  What fun is that?

And, the week before, things looked completely American while driving in California........lanes closed for construction with not a construction worker in site.....

While I'm pro-days off and all, traffic caused by empty construction sites makes one long for the union free, 24x7 "wild east" approach applied in Ukraine.

But the final confirmation that we were not in Kiev came today after a stop for ice cream.....

YES - that cone is DRIPPING!!!!!....

...a sharp contrast to the concerningly, non-melting cones one gets in Kiev.  I have NO idea what they make them out of - but am pretty sure it's best not to know!

Here's to good times in summer - and hoping you are enjoying traffic free roads and drippy cones wherever you are!