Author: heidi

One more recital for the year everyone! With a little help from my home studio students, and great participation from the students I teach at The Lexington School, the recital was a success. We had a Disney/movie themed recital, and Cristian did a good job smuggling the Disney castle into the invite.

Many thanks go out again to the staff at Gist, parents whose encouragement is worth a million lessons, diligent students who learned pieces beyond their regular scope, a fun program template on a blog called Piano Escapades, and a very nice piano. Here’s the order of performance. Also, for those who don’t know, this was Merayla’s first piano recital, and she played beautifully. I am so proud of her.

Cristian did his best to catch everyone introducing their piece and playing at the piano, so feel free to download any pictures you would like to. The group pictures are a little out of focus so if anyone has a better one, please email me, and I’ll add it to this post for everyone else. Thanks again and see you next year. Pictures follow:

This April we finally got to fly out for General Conference with Cristian! He goes to Utah every six months to work with the Romanian team to interpret for the semi-annual conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since this is a worldwide broadcast, it’s a pretty special experience for Cristian to be able to translate for the members of the church in his country. It is also fun that he gets a place to stay and some fun meals while he is there, but he is always saying how he wishes we were there to enjoy it with him. So this time, we saved up for plane tickets and I had a week off of teaching from TLS so the kids and I went along. Here are some of our adventures.

Oliver was so excited about going on an airplane. It was his first time, and he could have stayed for the day at the airport just looking at the planes coming and going and talking about it. Meraya even let him carry Prince Ursul on his back on the way to the terminal.

We spent the first couple of days in Salt Lake City by ourselves and took the kids around Temple Square. The blossoms on the trees were swirling in the wind, and the fountains were a great hit. We also learned some things about the architecture of the Salt Lake Temple and told the kids that we had got married there. Here’s a picture of my pioneer children (taken at home but it just seems to fit here so well.)

Bird was very interested in the temple. In fact, the next day while we were sitting on the grass by the east reflecting pool and listening to the conference talks, he took off at a run, down to the pool, around the sidewalk, and up to the temple gate. When I finally caught up with him, I said, “Bird, where are you going?” And he said, “To the temple to get married!” I told him he had to get a little bit bigger first, learn to use the potty, and maybe go on a mission before then. But it was just adorable. He is so serious and focused sometimes. It’s really cute. Here he is with his best friend, Merayla, at the temple.

Maddy, Dacian, and Lavinia drove down from Washington to meet up with us, and the kids had a great time playing together. Bunica and Bunicu joined the party as well, and everyone enjoyed a session at the conference. I was happy to see that the kids really liked to hang out with each other, and Maddy and I got to spend a little time together as well. Here’s a shot of the Icleanu cousins on Temple Sqaure.

We celebrated Dacian’s birthday at Famous Dave’s Restaurant (good BBQ), and Consuela made an excellent Greek cake with strawberries. We all had a great time together.

Though our hotel ended a night sooner than we had expected, this gave us a great reason to visit my college friends, Jen and Jess. Their family is great, and I can’t believe we haven’t seen each other for so long. (Yes, my hair looks terrible, but Jen looks great so we’ll keep this one.)

After the conference ended, we got to stay a week with my sister Christina in West Haven. The Icleanus stayed one night as well, which made it all a great fun party for the kids. The girls couldn’t resist dressing up as ballerinas (in swimsuits) and doing tricks on the mattresses.

The next day we got Char and Savannah, who drove up from Las Vegas. Then my parents and Kevin came with Danielle and Lance on the weekend. It was like a mini family reunion because we got to see all of my family and all of Cristian’s family!

To add to the fun, my Mom prepared an Easter egg hunt (one for kids and one for adults) at Aunt Elaine’s house. Again, this was a new and fun experience for Oliver, and Merayla fell in love with the two teddy bears on the swing in the Easter basket that Grandma had made for her.

The occasion of everyone getting to together was best captured when Merayla took my phone, climbed the stairs to the second floor of Elaine’s house, and got us all from above. Though it’s a little blurry, it pretty much sums up what we do: get together and talk.

And Oliver bonded with Gracey, the dog.

The vacation was great! We got to join lots of celebrations, eat lots of good food, and see lots of people that we love. Hopefully we will be able to make another trip sometime soon.

The fun-filled adventure at our house included 14 kids, the making of robot antennae headbands, techno dancing robot-style, a treasure hunt, tape the button on the live robot, and the eating of robot shortcake.

Pictures available at:

Mom and Dad were able to fly out for Christmas, and we had a great time together. As a surprise Christmas present from all the kids, we treated them to a night out at a mansion/castle bed-and-breakfast in Versailles, Kentucky. It’s called The Castle Post after the guy who owns it. Check it out:

We took tons of pictures, so you can have the picture tour by clicking on the slideshow below. We got to hang out and play pool at the castle the next day after we picked up Kevin from the airport. I think everyone had a fun time, and I decided this would be an awesome place to stage a Clue Party. You’ve got a library, a ballroom, a dining room, a billiard room, a creepy empty hallway in the back, a kitchen that you’re not supposed to go into, etc. There is also a “hot tub on the roof” that’s not open in the winter, a workout room, and tennis courts. It’s great fun. The place doesn’t seem to be managed very well, which means it could be a ton better, but we had a very good time. Here it is:

We also had lots of good times together at home, eating, playing, and going to movies since my parents got to stay for a week and Kevin for a few days. We have a Christmas tradition of acting out the Nativity on Christmas Eve, and the kids were so excited about everything that I will include a few more pictures of the events:

Because we actually looked like we were ready to go to church one Sunday. (This does not happen very often.)

1. First of all, I love it that he calls himself Birt, with a very serious accent on the “t.” He also says Oliver; it’s a run-on word kind of like “Ol-a-er.”
2. Yes.
   Birt answers questions very seriously. He considers the question, he decides if he agrees or not, and he states very clearly and solemnly, “Yes.”
3. Ah, Eat. Food.
   This is interchangeable with “Ah, eat brefuss.” Breakfast can be asked for at any time of the day.
4. Birds. In. Dryer.
   This is our wake-up call. He comes in every morning, slams our bedroom door behind him, and says, “Birds. In. Dryer.” Yes, there are usually real birds in the dryer’s ventilation in the mornings. Oliver gets really excited about it.
5. Luving you. So much.
   This is adorable, and he just started doing it last week in church. He dove onto my lap, put his arms around my neck and said, “Luving you. So much.” Now he likes to do it to Merayla and Daddy too, whenever we are sitting somewhere for a long time.
6. Guess what?
   I’m not sure where he learned this, but he actually cups his hands around your ear and whispers it. When you say, “What?”, he says it again. I think he’s trying to play a game.
7. Rice. Christmas. Tree.
   Somehow this got confused with Rice Krispy Treat. I think…
8. Open shop; closeitup.
   This means open it up and close it up, but they go together. Always.
9. Yeahhhh!
   Whenever we say someone is coming or we are going somewhere, he likes to shout this, especially at breakfast when we are talking about the day.
10. Meesh-eesh
    I had to ask Merayla for the translation of this one. It means “move.”
11. Come Lay-la
    And if she doesn’t come right then, he keeps saying it until she does. Another one that goes along with this is, “Watch out, Lay-la!”
12. Go. Wimming dit.
    Translation: I want to go swimming. Anytime. Any season. We must have good memories from the summer.
13. Pocc-u-kook
    This means popsicle. And he loves them!
14. Look. Me.
    When Oliver says this, he puts his hands together above his head, and then dives at the floor while turning in a somersault-ish cartwheel.
15. Look. Me. (at the table)
    When he says, “Look. Me” at the table, he wads his hands into fists, puts on this crazy grin with huge eyes and acts like he is madly driving a truck. Guess you’ll need a video to catch the full moment, but it’s pretty funny.
16. I. Robot.
    With a cardboard box on one arm.
17. Vvvvvvvvvvv.
    This is vrooming (driving). Lots of things vroom: cars, trains, vacumn attachments, food…
18. Foo-goo-dot..
    I didn’t know what this meant—though he and Layla say it all the time to each other—until Oliver finally explained it to me the other day: “Foo-goo-dot orange” is “Want orange.” Translation: I want whatever follows the word foo-goo-dot. Haha! No idea the word roots on this one!
19. Have any socks.
    This means he does not have any socks, which really means that he’s taken them off and they are right beside him on the floor.
20. Eek-up, Mommy.
    Wake up, Mommy. Self-explanatory.
21. Picy Coo-Bus.
    This means Spicy School Bus, and it refers to hot sauce, of all kinds. Oliver says it pretty much anytime we eat something spicy, or when Cristian is having hot sauce on something mild, which is pretty much every time we’re not having something spicy. So, normal language at our table = Picy Coo-Bus.

 

New Additions (2013)

1. Restday = yesterday, or any other day in the past
2. Chalk Lick = chocolate
3. Chull-ee! = a running game where Merayla and Oliver chase each other in a circle through the loop of our room, the laundry room, and the hall
4. Let’s go to the Obama = I’m not sure what this means. They chant it and laugh hilariously.

Photographer: C.J. Cruz: cj@photosbycj.com 
Photo-editing: Constantin Icleanu

Thank you for doing such a great job!

Charlyn, Christina, and baby Savannah got to come for a long weekend, and it was tons of fun. We did some extreme hairstyles, hiked the Natural Bridge with our babies, celebrated Bird’s birthday, and stayed up late into the night playing the princess matching game. For real. It was great. I miss them already.

At the party, Bird loved the cream puffs and the candles and played really well with his little friend Violet. Everyone got a name tag with the way Oliver says their name (as shown in the pictures). My favorite was that Char and Christy both got to be “Char,” but I didn’t get a pictures of it. Oliver was cute and has grown up so much lately. Next post to contain all the fun phrases that he is saying now. Two-years-old is such a fun age. He is full of so much love.

Chop, chop. I’ve been called Tinker Bell, Julie Andrews, and Beib so far. I totally like it. Tressa Rowe did a great job, if anyone’s looking for a stylist. Christy and Char got in on the fun as well, and we had a great time.