Flag Halloween costume

[last year's siphonophore costume]

This year, Chase had a very specific idea for his halloween costume. He memorized all 194 country flags and quizzed himself for weeks leading up to Halloween. He then designed a costume with all the flags together on his sweater and each flag individually on his pants. People could point at any flag and he would tell him the country. To make the costume, we put the flags together on PowerPoint and then printed them on fabric by Spoonflower. We then used two-sided iron on paper to iron on the fabric on the paper and then iron them onto the pants. Chase cut out each flag for the pants and arranged them all before ironing them on. I wish I had a picture of the process but I was busy helping Chase with the iron. 

Chase had a lot of fun wearing his costume for his Friday school party, for his school parade, and for trick-or-treating with his friends. 

Latest Family Photos

[Previous family photos: 2021, 2018, 2018, 2016, 2015]

We wanted to update our family photos. We used the same photographer and park as 2 year ago. We so loved how these turned out that we ended up buying the whole gallery. 

Edit: We used these photos for our Christmas card this year. Thankfully, this year I didn't forget the T in Christmas as I did a few years ago. :)

Fall Corn Maze

[Previous corn mazes: 2022, 2021, 2012]

This year, it was Laura and Boris who joined us for our annual corn maze. Once again, we went to Treat Farm and found all 6 obstacles in about 2 hours. We did right hand rule and found the exit before finding the other obstacles and had to go back in, just like we did last year. We had a great time! And are continuing our tradition with Boris and Laura from 2 years and 11 years ago! 

Fire & Ice Festival in Rhode Island

[Previous New England activities: 2022 day trips, fall 2022, summer 2021, winter/spring 2021]

My mom had read about the Fire & Ice festival in Rhode Island and was excited to go so we all joined my parents for a weekend trip to Providence. It was nice to meet up and hang out with Olga there as well. We arrived in time to go to the RISD museum, where Chase found a hippo that is similar to the ones in the Louvre and Met. Once it started getting dark, we saw the lighting of the cauldrons, and walked around the river with the lights and boats. It was a very fun atmosphere! The next day, we went by the Stonington Light House and Palmer House, before stopping to get some baked good at Sift in Mystic on our way home. 

Summer Crafts

[Previous Chase crafts: 3D printing, snow globes, siphonophore Halloween costume, Octopus]

Other than 3D printing which he is still very much into, Chase also had a few other crafts this summer. 

All summer, Chase was obsessed with collecting 4-leaf clovers. He managed to collect quite a number and then dried them in a book for a week each and laminated them together. 

Chase also was very into making a donut pillow. We went to a fabric place to get the colors he wanted and then he used the sewing machine to make a donut. He was going to add some sprinkles to the top so I was waiting to take a picture of that, but he never ended up doing that before using it as a pillow, so I never got a finished picture.

Family Reunion

This summer, Chase had a unique opportunity to have all his grandparents together. Amy and Tony were visiting us and seeing our house for the first time. We took a walk with them in New Haven and at the beach, did an escape room, and played lots of games together. Then we had my parents over for BBQ and had a chance to take pictures together. Chase was so excited to have everyone together. 

 

Europe Summer Trip

[Previous trip to Barcelona: 2017] 

[Previous trips to Paris: 2019, 2015]

[Previous Swiss content: Part I, Part II, Part III, with Olga, Part IV, Lyon, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, and Part VIII; and Activities Nearby I, Activities Nearby II, and Activities Nearby III]

This summer, we wanted to travel to see my family and visit our friends in Switzerland. My family is living in Barcelona so we thought we could see them and then go on to Switzerland and stop in Paris on the way. My grandparents decided to move back to Ukraine in April so we didn't get to see them as planned, but it was still a nice chance to catch up with the rest of the family, especially because my parents and brother came out also. 

In Barcelona, we hung out with them at their house overlooking the city that had a pool for Chase to swim in. We went on a tour of Park Guell. We also walked around the city and then went closer to the water and walked all the way to the beach. One of the nights there was the celebration of St. John's Eve or Midsummer and there were fireworks that we saw very nicely from the house. We went to the science museum with Marko. And, on the last night, we even had a chance to play Space Catan. A very fun time with family and in Barcelona. 

After Barcelona, we flew to Paris. We had a hotel in the south of the 9th arrondisement, walkable to most things we were planning to see. We saw the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. Chase enjoyed the hippo in the former (similar to the one that's in the Met) and van Gogh and Pompon in the latter. We walked around a lot: to the garden of the Tulieries and to Notre Dame and to the Eiffel Tower. Chase was insistent on climbing up the Eiffel Tower, which we did. Overall, we had a great time in the city and were reminded of our time there together about 8 years earlier.

Finally, we made it to Switzerland by train. We stayed with Oksana and Italo in Lausanne, and then stayed with Christine and Yordan above Morges. We had a great time catching up with friends and colleagues. We also spent some time at the lake side both in Lausanne and in Morges. We went to the natural history/science museum with Marko and Sofia. We walked around Morges with Theo and Emil and their parents and then went to see Chase's schools and daycare and our old apartment. I stayed a few days later and had an American 4th of July BBQ. It was so nice to catch up with friends and reminisce about our time in Switzerland. 

Top: Chase at the playground he used to go to; Chase near his first school where he did 1P and 2P; Middle: Chase at his second school where he went 3P; Chase at the chocolate place we used to go to a lot on Sundays; Bottom: Chase on the rock he used to climb on as we used to walk by the post office; Chase overlooking the fence to the daycare in Morges he went to after school and during school breaks.