Where we are.

Well. As you can see we hardly ever post here on this blog anymore. I don't even know if there's any traffic here.

Anyway. Want to keep up with us? Go to our respective facebook pages:

Chuck
Alex

Alice Caroline O'Brien

Clearly in possession of a great sense of drama and timing, Alice chose to arrive 5 weeks early during parents', Pat and Sophie O'Brien's, vacation on the Isle of Wight!

Charlotte

Here are some pictures of our small pre-raphaelite, hopefully better adjusted than Lizzie S...

Epidavros - more pictures

Nafplio and Epidavros

In April, Patrick and I went on my Greek school's trip to Nafplio and Epidavros. We all had a great time and the weather was perfect. Patrick was particularly pleased to see the fortresses at Nafplio, including the Bourtzi which he associates with "Fort Boyard" - a reality TV show here filmed on an island fortress off the French coast which looks very similar. We all met at the Panepistimio metro station entrance outside the Panepistimio building just off Syntagma at 8am. So an early start for us. Then we all piled - eventually - into our buses ("Pullman" as they call them here).

First off, we made for Epidavros. We had a tour of the archaeological site, including explanation of the Aesclipion and it's a associated buildings, and the theatre and museum. After that, we all went to lunch at a taverna nearby.

After a leisurely meal, we were driven to Nafplio starting at the top in the largest and highest of the Venetian forts. We ended our day with strolls around the picturesque town below. Patrick and I took the opportunity to have some ice cream.

Patrick's Birthday Party

Patrick turned 6 on April 28th! Since Patrick and I went on my class trip to Nafplio and Epidavros on April 27th, we postponed his party until the following Saturday, May 5th. That Saturday, we had a lovely party for him in the garden of the American School of Classical Studies.

We were blessed with perfect weather along with the beautiful colours and scents of the flowers.




Irini Manega enthusiastically and capably entertained the children with a variety of games and an assortment of props.






In addition to the lovely flora - and interesting fauna, including large tortoises - the garden also boasts a small play park with swings, a roundabout, climbing frame and the like and the kids made good use of these too.








The Batman Cake was perfect for Patrick, with some children trying to take a sneak taste before we were even done with candle-lighting.

In their defense, we did have a difficult job getting the candles to stay alight in the breezy conditions thus we can forgive their impatience due to the unexpectedly long process.



Almost as soon as we arrived to prepare that morning, Charlotte took of her shoes and rapidly became somewhat "grungy". However, she did make some attempt to maintain some degree of cleanliness, if in somewhat unorthodox ways.








While the children played and ran around, parents and friends relaxed and soaked up the springtime sun.











After the party, it took surprisingly little time to clear up.


Left with large amounts of chocolately, yummy cake, we decided we couldn't get it home and sacrificed it to the skip-inhabiting party gods.






Patrick and I took great handfuls of cake into our mouths.
This seemed like the absolute best way to eat birthday cake!

Facebook

If there are still people coming to visit this blog, they will have noticed that there has not been much activity lately. This is mostly because Alex and I have moved much of the kind of thing we were doing here to our Facebook accounts. So come on over there and join us. You will have to make yourself a profile, but that's not hard to do and it's a lot of fun, Alex's profile is here and Chuck's is here. So Walter, Nina, Dad, anyone else looking at this? Come on and join us at facebook.