A Great First Week

Today was the end of the first week of school. The girls both did great adjusting to their new school schedules. We were a little concerned about Ali's adjustment to school but she did great. Today was the first day that I went to school with her in the morning. I was afraid that she would through a fit when I left her classroom but I was pleasantly surprised. After she took her jacket and shoes off (here people don't were shoes inside just slippers and that rule even goes for school) Ali immediately went to the table with the play-dough and sat down to play. I walked over and gave her a kiss and said bye. She said bye but didn't even look at me since she was too busy with her play-dough. It was nice to see that she is happy to be there without me, even if it means my baby is growing up. Jason and I have also adjusted to our new routine. We didn't miss any running days this week which is great. When schedules change it is hard to stick to our run routines. I have managed to have my Czech lesson at night, go shopping with a friend, attend a PTA meeting and clean the apartment. It is amazing what can be done in a couple hours without children around.
Jason and I were suppose to go to a dinner at a friend's flat tonight but we decided after our busy week that we just needed some alone time. We decided to go to our Italian restaurant. Again, I must say, this restaurant is fantastic. They always make us feel so welcome. There were a couple of things that stood out to us tonight. When we walked in the waitress (not his daughter but the other one) was going to bring us to a table at the back. The owner immediately stood up and asked us if we wanted to go back there or if we wanted the table at the front. We, of course, took the table at the front. It has taken us some time to build up to a table at the front. The tables are generally set with paper napkins but the owner came over and took our paper napkins and gave us real clothe napkins. Since our table is usually reserved for us (since the owner usually takes my reservation and knows who I am) we don't normally see the paper napkins. The other nice things that happened tonight was I was just able to order what I wanted which wasn't on the menu. Last week they had a huge trays of porcini mushrooms in the refrigerator case. I have been thinking about them all week. When we sat down today I looked over and they weren't there. I immediately turned to the owner and asked him where they were. He told me not to worry that they had more and I could have some. Phew, what a relief. My next dilemma was that they weren't on the menu so I didn't know what to ask for. The waitress came over to take our order and in my best Czech I asked her what they made with the porcini. She basically said whatever and offered some suggestions so I made my choice and sat back. I have never just ordered something that wasn't on the menu. It was fun. In between our appetizer and our meal the owner brought us over some chunks of cheese. This, of course, is not charged. It is just something that the owner gave us. The cheese was a excellent. At the end of our meal he again gave us free limoncello. It isn't that the extra things are free that makes this restaurant so nice but rather that he makes us feel like part of the family. It was the perfect dinner to finish off a busy week.