Konnos Beach

It isn't quite warm enough to enjoy the beach yet, but that doesn't mean we can't go there and take a nice walk.  Konnos is one of my favorite beaches.  It is set in a cove with pretty views all around.  There is a nice path leading to a small sea cave that we took once last year and decided to go to again this past weekend.  Once we made it to the cave we climbed down some rocks to the shoreline.  No sand at this spot, only rock.  The kids loved climbing on the rocks, searching for fossils, and throwing rocks into the water.

The beach is empty

This way to the sea cave

The entrance of the cave

Alex discovered some shell fossils

Nap time

We made it back to the car before sunset

The New Year

Happy New Year!  We had a lovely holiday season.  Sofia and Alex each participated in a Christmas program at school.  They were cute as can be and did a super job.  Sofia's class sang several Christmas songs in English and one really long song in Greek.  She knew all the words for the songs and sang them to us regularly at home, and by that I mean she sang them all of the time.  Alex's class was part of the program with the rest of the school.  They sang one song in English and one in Spanish.  Not sure why they chose Spanish but it was a catchy tune and he had a dance part for the song as well.  He was front and center of the stage and did everything as he was supposed to.
This year the kids wanted to set up the Christmas tree in their bedroom.  We agreed since they were so excited about it.  They made almost all of the ornaments for it and decorated it themselves.  On Christmas Eve they went to bed around their usual time.  By about 10:00 p.m. they were both awake.  Sofia had a disappointed look on her face and said, "Mommy, we didn't get any presents."  I  told her, "Sweetie, you just went to bed not long ago.  You didn't give Santa a chance to come yet."  That's the problem with a tree in the room.  The kids know when Santa has come.  She managed to sleep most of the night, but Alex fell asleep around midnight and then woke up again at 5:00 a.m.  I convinced him to stay in bed until a bit after 6:00.  Santa was good to them and they spent the morning playing with their new toys.  We had Christmas lunch with the family.  Everything was yummy.  We are lucky to have so many good cooks in our family.
We rang in the new year with another family gathering and more good food.  They have a traditional almond cake, vasilopita, for new year's eve.  A coin is baked inside the cake and whoever receives the piece with the coin will have a lucky year.  Marissa was the one with the lucky coin this year.  I'm expecting big things for my baby in 2014.
Speaking of Marissa, she is growing quickly.  Her favorite new activity is splashing in the bathtub.  She gets her mommy pretty wet.  She can sit up by herself now and has started to do some babbling.  She has a lot to say but it loses its cuteness at 2:00 in the morning.  That girl will "talk" sometimes for an hour during the night.  How do you make a baby stop talking?
The weather has been very mild this winter and we try to get outside as much as we can.  This past weekend we went to the Athalassa Park for a walk.  I know the paths there fairly well since I like to run there.  I chose a loop that is quiet with lots to see along the way.  When I run that loop I do it in about twenty minutes.  At the end of my pregnancy it took me forty five minutes to walk it.  With three kids and a husband, we finished in an hour and forty five minutes.  Well, we did have fun and it was some good exercise for the kids as there are some big hills along the way.
As we start the new year we are reminded how blessed we are.  We added an awesome baby to our family in 2013 and are looking forward to watching her and her siblings change and grow in 2014.  May you all have good health and happiness this year.

She is one happy baby

Aren't they cool?

The proud big brother

She can eat her feet.  That is talent.

Fun things to do with your baby....make her look nerdy.

Cuteness

Sitting like a big girl

Beginning our walk at the Athalassa Park

Off the beaten path

Marissa had fun on the walk, too.

Sofia doing tree pose on a tree stump

What have we been up to?

Again, time has gotten away from me and my blog posts.  Here is an update on what we have been doing.  As my niece Kadi reminds me, she doesn't really care what I write, she just likes to look at the pictures.  At the beginning of October we were able to squeeze in a couple of more days at the beach.  Nissi beach in Agia Napa is beautiful but like spring break for most of the season.  There are still some party goers left at this time of year, but nothing too bad.  The kids like it there because the water stays shallow for a long time, so they can go out pretty far. 
The Cyprus Road Rally also occurred in the month of October.  We watched it just outside of Lefkara in a place where we could see the cars turning a corner.  Alex always enjoys seeing the fast cars, but this year there was a bit longer wait time between the cars so not quite as exciting. 
October 28 is a national holiday in Cyprus, Oxi (No) Day.  Basically it is a day marking the Greeks telling Mussolini in 1940 that they would not allow Italian forces in Greece at the beginning of WWII.  In other words, they said "No!"  How's that for a clever day?  Anyway, the kids of course did not have school that day and had the whole following week off on top of it.  We kept plenty busy.  For the long weekend we went to the village.  On the way there we had a lovely experience with the car.  The clutch went out as we were approaching Pafos.  The car had very little get up and go, especially on the hills.  On one hill we were particularly slow.  Demetris said, if we can just make it up this hill the rest is downhill.  We made it and were able to roll right to our desired destination, McDonald's.  Gotta love Mickey D's.  Gave the kids lunch and let them play at the playspace for a couple of hours until we were able to rent a car and have a tow truck come.  The next day we headed to the Pafos Zoo, the largest in Cyprus. We stayed for five hours and saw everything twice.  Not as big as some of the zoos we are used to, but the kids thought it was great. Amazing how they can keep walking without complaint for that long when they want to. I chickened out of the snake exhibit.  Who needs to see snakes? 
Since Demetris only had that Monday off, I planned some activities with the kids.  We went to the Cyprus Museum of Natural History. It is very small and we were the only ones there.  The kids had wanted to go because of the dinosaur statues.  Most of the museum was displays of animals that had been stuffed.  The dinosaurs were disappointing.  The statues were small and not much to look at. Alex was hoping to see skeletons. This museum is located at the Carlsberg brewery/bottling plant.  The real excitement came after the museum when we were allowed to watch the beer being canned.  Now machines are something that Alex is interested in!
We also did plenty of Halloween crafts during the week and made a worm and dirt dessert.  Halloween is not celebrated by Cypriots, but we were able to get a couple of neighbors to hand out candy to the kids for a small bit of trick or treating.  They only cared that they got candy. Alright, Kadi, here are the pictures.

The best picture I could get of the three of them

Sofia at Nissi beach

Sleeping at the beach after a diaper incident

Me with my littlest angel

Alex

Daddy and his girls

At the rally waiting for the cars

Here comes one

Whoa!  Did you see that?

At the rally

Aren't those black swans pretty?

Nope!  Too close.

Boy's team at the zoo

Daddy and Marissa

Siberian tigers

Pretty giraffe

Not impressed with us

Halloween treats and our "dirt" dessert

Sofia's pumpkin rocks

Alex made pumpkins and ghosts

Time flies

My blog writing has gotten a bit away from me.  I'll blame having a baby for the cause, but the truth is that Marissa is a super baby.  She is happy during the day and in the past week has started sleeping through the night.  She makes everyone melt with her big smiles and is making lots of cute cooing noises. 
The month of September started with Sofia's fourth birthday on the second.  We had a party here at the house for her with family and our neighbor friends.  Sofia cracks us up with all of the funny things she says and her many facial expressions.  She is a character! 
The Limassol Wine Festival was the following weekend and we decided to use that as a chance for a little getaway.  We went last year but didn't really like having to drive home afterwards and Demetris was the designated driver.  We were smarter this year and stayed overnight in a nearby hotel.  The kids are always excited to spend the night at a hotel.  They were happy just to play in the pool there.  Couldn't decide where to have lunch and ended up at TGIFridays of all places.  It tasted pretty good actually, maybe since I don't have many choices in American restaurants here.  The wine festival was enjoyable, pretty much the same as last year.  The next day we went to a cafe I had seen on the internet that sounded good called Chocolate Soup.  With a name like that I figured we couldn't go wrong.  The food was nice, but for Alex the highlight was seeing two red Ferrari's parked out front.  He likes fast cars. 
Alex's big news for the month is that he lost his first tooth.  Luckily, the tooth fairy found him, even in Cyprus.  The other big change for him this month is that he and Sofia started school.  They are going to Highgate Private School.  Sofia has only been one day so far as she had a fever the first two days.  They both settled in nicely and I think they will blossom there. 

Sofia showing some of her presents

At the party

Zac, Alex, Evelina, and Sofia enjoying the cake

Happy birthday to you!

Marissa wearing her party dress

Three cutie pies at the hotel

Marissa's first time at a hotel

Opa!  The wine festival

Marissa's first swim.  Skinny dipping in the hotel pool.

Daddy, Alex, and Sofia with their backpacks at the hotel

Awesome kids

Sofia's first day of school.  Proud to go with her brother.

One less tooth

Alex's first day of school