Laughter

I love that we all know how to laugh and have fun in our home. Don't get me wrong, we have our fair share of sibling rivalry and there are many times when we need to choose our battles wisely but more often than not we act silly and laugh. Today was a perfect example. Ali walked into the bathroom while I was blowdrying my hair and yelled, "I'm a pirate!" I turned to look at her and I just had to laugh as she stood there with her eye patch on, her hand on her hip and her leg bent. My little pirate with attitude. Once I started laughing so did Ali and she lost the whole pirate with attitude look. Luckily she was able to pull it together for a picture.

Sickness

Sickness has found our house during this school vacation. We started with Sofia's headache on the last day of school which moved into a fever. Ali followed suit with a fever on Sunday. By Tuesday we seemed to be in the clear. We were wrong becuase on Saturday Ali had another fever with a sore throat. Saturday brought vomiting from both children. Strangely, Sofia seemed completely unphased with the vomiting and seemed fine on Sunday albeit slightly tired. Ali's sore throat and fever continued. Jason also started with a cold over the weekend as well. On Monday I brought Ali to the doctor in fear of strep. Of course she had strep so we started antibiotics. While at the lekarna (pharmacy) I also picked up some antibacterial hand sanitizer. I have been on a sanitizer frenzy since...no sharing germs! I don't want to get sick and I want the rest of my household to feel better! The girls seem to be doing much better now that Ali is on antibiotics. The amazing thing so far is that Sofia hasn't gotten an ear infection. I think this may be the first cold that hasn't resulted in an ear infection! I'm hoping for a sickess-free remainder to school vacation.

Merry Christmas!

Surprisingly the girls slept in a little bit on Christmas morning. Sofia didn't come into our room until 7:20! I know that doesn't seem late to a lot of people but we consider that "sleeping in" for our kids. She was so excited and wanted to go downstairs immediately. She asked if she could wake Ali up so we could all go down. We convinced her to just stay with us for a little bit until Ali woke up which didn't take long. Once Ali was up we all headed downstairs to see what Santa had brought. The girls were so excited to see all the presents and after going through their stockings started to tear open all their presents. This is the first year that they have reallt just ripped through all the presents. Last year they would open a present and want to play with it but this year they wanted to see what everything was first. It was fun to watch them as they opened their gifts and see the joy on their faces. After all the gifts were open then they were ready for some food so I got out the holiday sweet bread that I had made. I knew they weren't going to come sit at the table for a real breakfast so at least this got something in their bellies. They ate the bread and played with their toys until abou eleven when we had a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, and homefries. The rest of the day was very lazy. The girls played with their toys, Jason had about 5 cups of espresso/cappucino/coffee since I got him a nespresso machine for Christmas, and I just relaxed. It was a great Christmas!

Christmas Eve

The day before Christmas we hung out and played at home during the day. I made my yearly holiday sweet bread and Sofia helped me roll it out and braid it this year. She was excited to help me make the bread since she remembered helping to make it last year. Jason made our dinner a little early and stuck it outside once it was done so that we could go to our friends house for a little while. My friend, Beanie, had invited us over to her house for drinks and hors devours with friends. It was nice to be with our friends on Christmas Eve.While it is nice to have family time it is also nice to celebrate Christmas with other people. I have always celebrated Christmas Eve with extended family. For those of you who know my mom's family, Christmas Eve is a large gathering with lots of laughter and singing. It was nice to keep the tradition of celebrating with extended family even if it is a different family that isn't blood related.

Snow

The temperature finally dropped here and with it the rain changed over to snow. We had about 3 days of snow that amounted to about one inch. It was beautiful to watch the snow as I backed cookies. Since it has remained cold the snow has stayed around and yesterday the girls went out and made a snowman with Jason. Since the temperature had warmed up a little bit yesterday the snowman is not the cleanest since the snow had turned a bit slushy and wasn't that deep to begin with the snowman has a little dirt in him. The girls didn't seem to care that is wasn't the purest snow and had a blast making the snowman.

Strasbourg, France

On Saturday morning we got up and ready to go to Strasbourg. Sofia's headache was still not gone though and she complained that it only hurt on one side and when she shook her head. We were a bit concerned that maybe it had something to do with the tubes that had been put in her ear. We also didn't want to get to France only to have it get worse so instead of heading to Strasbourg we headed to the ear doctor. After waiting we were able to see the doctor and we were happy to hear that her ears were fine and her sinuses weren't showing signs of being clogged. It appeared she just had a cold. It was amazing that she could have a cold without an ear infection! After getting the all clear that there wasn't something majorly wrong we dosed her up with motrin and headed to Strasbourg. Of course the doctor had said to stay home and rest but we decided the fresh air of France would be a good rest! Once she had the motrin she was fine and happy that we were continueing on to France. The ride was very snowy for the first 3 hours but the remaining two and a half hours the ride was fine. We arrived without any problems to our hotel. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant which was surprisingly good and since it was a Holiday Inn the kids ate free. The girls were both exhausted though and we all headed up to bed.

In the morning we went to breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast was buffet style which is always nice with the kids. If they don't like something they can just have something else. Yes, it is incredibly wasteful but as a parent it is much easier! After breakfast we bundled up and headed outside. We knew it would be cold so we brought the kids snow pants but we just didn't realize how cold it was going to be. Unfortnulatey for us Strasbourg was having an unusual cold snap and the temperatures were about -13 celsius (about 8 degrees fahrenheit)!!! Who knows what it was with the windchill but it was down right freezing!! We had to buy new boots for Sofia and my feet were so cold I had trouble walking. After a stop for hot chocolate and a stop for crepes we decided to head back to the hotel to warm up and regroup. We bundled the kids even more with tights, pants, turtlenecks, hooded sweatshirts (with the hoods up), hats, jackets with hoods up, kneck warmers, scarfs, snowboots, snowpants and gloves and we put vaseline on their faces. I changed my socks so my feet would stay warmer and I changed my scarf to my giant thick scarf. I put my hood up on my long down coat and wrapped my scarf around my neck and face . Jason put on an extra layer as well and we were ready to brave the cold again. It was more enjoyable this time around. We were able to take a little more time to look at all the stalls and stop for waffles and hot wine/ hot apple cider. Since it was now dark we also had the chance to see the city lit up with Christmas lights. We found and bought a nativity that we really liked and then had to go in for dinner to warm up. Since we had just had waffles and pretzels we didn't need a lot for dinner so we stopped for crepes. While in France I find it completely acceptable to have crepes for breakfast, snack, lunch or dinner! The kids love this as it is such a treat. Little do they know that I enjoy it as much as they do!! On Sunday we headed out again, of course well bundled, to check out a couple other markets before we headed home. It was a fun weekend but I think we need to go back to Strasbourg again when the temperture is a bit warmer. I think it is probably a cute city but since it was so cold we couldn't lazily look around as we strolled to sightsee. Luckily it is a easy drive to get there so who knows maybe we will find outselves there again soon.

Since we have been home we have been enjoying the nativity that we bought and put on our mantel as well as the "biscuits" we bought. In the Alsace region they make bredle which we thought was gingerbread but isn't gingerbread at all but rather small cookies or "biscuits" as they call them. We stopped in a shop to buy some and we saw a tin that was very cute. We decided to get the tin since it was only 5 euro. We didn't realize that to fill the small tin it would cost us 26 euro! So we are enjoying our 31 Euro biscuits and laughing about how silly we can be while on vacation.

Parties Parties everywhere!

The last week has been filled with parties! After visiting Santa's Grotto on Friday we headed to the first party of the season. The kids' friend, Lucy, had her 7th birthday party. The party was filled with fun games like pass the parcel and freeze dance. Our friend Laura was also at this party to do the girls hair. The girls were so excited to have their hair done....what better way to celebrate than with a braid or ponytail with red and sparkles sprayed in the hair! The following Wednesday we went to Lucy's brother's party. Clark is in Ali's class and this was his 5th birthday party. This was definitely a boy party with a star wars theme. The kids made light sabers and had sword fights followed by some pin the light saber on Yoda. (Sofia didn't go to Clark's party since it was all "younger" kids and she would rather have a playdate with her friends!) On friday we had the class parties. No longer will I have combined class parties for the girls. Instead I had to head to Ali's building for her class party in the morning and then Sofia's class party in the afternoon. Ali had a lot of fun at her party. The teachers played games with the kids while the moms set up the classroom for the party. Once the room was set up the kids came back in and one of the techers put on a puppet show about a dragon who only ate meat and was convinced to eat fruits and vegetables. I'm not sure how much of the story really made it to the kids since the first thing they reached for were sweets once we let them sit down to eat! In the afternoon I went to Sofia's class party. Sofia did seem a little pale when I saw her so I asked her if she was ok. She said she was fine but after watching her for a little bit I asked her again and she started crying. She told me her head hurt so much. I thought that it may have been caused my the loud dance music that had been on for the kids to dance to in the Jidelna (cafeteria) while the parents set up the room so I gave her some tylenol. Luckily my friend Natalie brought Ali over from the early years school so I just packed Sofia and Ali into the car and headed home. It was a busy week with a lot of parties and happenings. It was time for some quiet time at home.

Christopher Pop-in-kins

My Aunt Carlene mailed Christopher Pop-in-Kins to the girls this year. If you don't know Christopher Pop-in-Kins, he is an elf that visits children before Christmas. He "pops in" every night to homes to see what children are doing. In the morning the kids have to find where Christopher is hiding but when they find him they can't touch him or he loses his magic and will have to go back to the North Pole. The girls have really been having fun searching for Christopher every morning. We started out with easy hiding places but have been getting more difficult since the girls are becoming very good at finding him. Ali brought the book that comes with Christopher into school last week to tell her class about him. I think this will definitley make it ito the yearly tradition.

Our Christmas Tree

Life has been crazy but before Jason went to work on Saturday we set out to get our christmas tree. There is a garden shop close to our house and since we knew they had trees we headed there. We could have walked to get the tree but since we then had to get the tree home we decided to drive. Christmas trees here are not as symetrical as they are in the states. Your average Christmas tree here has many barren areas and are just randomly shaped as trees are. We were, of course, on the hunt for the perfect tree. I didn't want a tree with bare spots or funky shapes. The pickings were slim but we did find the perfect tree. As Jason commented once we had it in the stand, "It looks like an American tree!". Amazingly it was also of the cheapest variety and only cost about $20USD. I guess the Czech standard of beauty is different for Christmas trees. I'm glad beauty is in the eye of the beholder and our beauty is cheap!

We put the tree in the stand and left it there overnight to let the branches fall before decorating. On Sunday we got ready to decorate and realized that for the last two years we have had a very small tree that only required one string of lights. That was not going to cut it this year so we bundle up and headed to Hornbach (like Home Depot/Lowes). We purchased more lights for the tree as well as some new decorations and outdoor lighting. Once we were home the kids couldn't wait to start decorating. We had to keep telling them to wait until the lights were on the tree. Once we started putting the ornaments on the girls had so much fun. We tried to let them decorate the tree as they wanted but sometimes we had to adjust some ornament locations. We didn't think three of the same ornament on one branch was ideal! Now the tree is decorated and Jason put the lights on the shrub outside. We are ready for Christmas!

Santa's Grotto

Every year the girls school is lucky enough to have Santa come visit. A little Santa's grotto is set up in the high school and Santa awaits the children with a little present and a lollipop. This year marks the first year that the girls weren't scared of Santa. Now I'm not saying they ran up to him with joy but they did go up to him and sit on his lap without major cajoling and tears. Sofia couldn't think of anything she wanted for Christmas and Ali, with some prompting, said she wanted a barbie doll. This year we also brought the girls friend Bella along with us since her mom (my friend, Beanie) was out of town. Bella was also perfectly happy to go in to see Santa so it was an easy year for visiting Santa. After visiting Santa we headed over to the bake sale. The kids ate their lollipops from Santa as well as some cupcakes, chocolate and juice that I let them buy at the bake sale. I prefer the bake sales at the high school since they always sell used books. While the kids were snacking on sweets I was able to get six books for 120Kc ($6.50USD)! They may not be the best books but at least they aren't $15 a book.

Nativity Play

The Nursery and Reception classes had their Nativity performance this morning. This is the first year that the two classes have performed together. They set up a stage and the kids were very excited for the show. Ali was a little difficult to see since she was all the way in the back but she seemed to have fun. She really got into some of the songs and others she stayed true to being a four year old and was often distracted. Strangely enough she would continue singing the words while she was playing with her hands and staring off into space. Here is a video of the welcome song. Ali is in the back row. If you can't find her at the beginning you will notice her at the end waving to us.

Belgium without kids

Jason and I finally made a trip without the kids. Being so far away from family meant that we couldn't just leave our children at home. When they were younger we didn't feel comfortable leaving them overnight with someone other than family. Now, however, the kids are a bit older and Iva, our babysitter, is wonderful. We asked Iva if she would be willing to watch the kids for the weekend and she agreed. I was very excited and I told the girls who were also very excited. I wasn't sure if they would be excited or if they would break down in tears. I should have known that they would be happy since whenever Iva can't babysit on a Friday night the kids cry becuase she isn't coming! She really has become part of our family. She is so good with the kids and not only did she take care of them over the weekend, she also brought them into town to see Mikulas (St Nicholas). "Mikulas" also left chocolates on the windowsill for the girls. They were excited to tell us how Mikulas came in the night and left candy for them. These are the special things that Iva does that makes her one of a kind. In any event, becuase of flight times I also had to depend on my friends to help me out with the kids as well. My friend Inge was wonderful and picked the kids up from school on Friday and kept them with her until six when she drove them home (since Iva was getting to our house at six) and then she picked them up again on Monday morning and drive them to school. She is amazing since not only did she do this for me without batting an eyelash, she did with it with three boys of her own to take care of! At the end of the day on Monday my friend Kelly took Sofia and my friend Natalie took Ali and kept them until we arrived home and picked them up around 7pm! Thank goodness for great friends!

With all the logistics taken care of, Jason and I headed to the airport for our flight to Brussels. Flying without the kids is a completely different experience. I fell asleep before take-off then woke up read my book and watched part of a tv show on my iphone. Before I could finish watching my show we were landing in Brussels. We got off the plane and went in search of our bus to take to the train station. With kids this can be hectic but without them it just didn't matter how long it took us to figure out where we were going! We found the bus and headed to the train station where once again we didn't know where to go. We figured it out and boarded our train into brussels where we switched to another train bound for Brugge. The transitions were so easy without having to drag the kids around bus stations and train stations etc. This is actually one of the reasons we chose Brugge as a destination without the kids. It just is not that easy (with kids) to get to since it requires a plane and a couple trains. Anyway, we arrived in Brugge and found our B&B which was lovely. The ground floor was an art gallery and the top floor was the owners apartments. The first floor (2nd floor in the States) was where the B&B rooms were. Our room was small but very comfortable and since it was just the two of us the size was perfect. Jason and I did get a laugh when we arrived though and started to walk up the stairs to our room. Being in Czech for three years has rubbed off and we both felt very uncomfortable wearing our shoes inside and walking up the steps which were painted white! I had to make a quick look down to make sure the owner was wearing his shoes before I stepped on the first step. The owners were very friendly and gave us good tips on what to see and where to go for dinner. We had anticipated spending a lot of time sitting in cafes but instead we spent most of our time walking around and seeing how cute everything was in Brugge. We also went on a canal tour which was a great way to see the town. While we didn't spend our time sitting in cafes we did still take a couple breaks to have hot chocolate and to stop in many chocolate shops. On Saturday night we went to the oldest cafe in Brugge which is really a bar. It is also on the narrowest street in Brugge. Anyway we ended up sitting at a table with two british guys, Paul & Charlie, and two Flemish people, Dieter & Angelique. We learned a lot about the difference between the Flemish people and the people from Waloonia (Waloonia is in the South of Belgium). I'm not sure how accurate the information is but we had a lot of fun hanging with this random assortment of people. On Sunday we headed back to Brussels. We did a lot of walking in Brussels as well. We took in a couple of major sites and went to the Christmas markets. We flew back to Prague on Monday afternoon after a fun weekend. We were happy to see the kids and they were happy to see us.

Fun with Cousins

Jason's brother, Graham, arrived on Friday with his wife, Beth, and children, Alex, Justin and Kiera. We haven't seen them since March so it was great to visit with them. The kids are at a really good age and they play so well together. They spent a lot of time running around in the yard as well as making crafts. We all went into town to check out the Christmas markets. We had fun eating our way through old town square...trdlo, palacinky, ham, hot wine, hot chocolate. We also made a trip up to Prague Castle. The kids love going up to the castle but we have been so many times we only go when we have guests. They were a bit dissappointed on our last trip when Grammie and Grandpa were here since their favorite room in the castle had been renovated and made so that they could not dance their way across the "ballroom". This trip with their cousins did not dissappoint though. They were excited to go in the cathedral and show off their favorite stained glass windows. It is fun to see them so excited to share their world with their cousins.

Lars' birthday

On Friday afternoon I brought Sofia to Lars' birthday party. Lars is the little boy that Sofia is "in love" with and is going to marry so this was a party Sofia was not going to miss. Inge, Lars' mom always has great parties. She has crafts for the kids to do and activities to keep them entertained. She lets the other parents sit and have tea or coffee while she and Romke (her husband) make sure the kids all have a blast. This party was no different. The kids had a scavenger hunt in the yard and then played a game throwing a ball at bottles to see how many they could knock down. When that was finished she had the kids inside for a painting craft. After that it was cake and presents. It is amazing how quickly the time went by and the kids all had so much fun.

Thanksgiving

It is hard to believe this is our third Thanksgiving in Prague. As we did the last two years we went to the annual Davis Thanksgiving. The last two years we made a turkey but this year we, instead, made TWO turkeys. Jason did most of the turkey making which was great since it gave me time to get the house cleaned. Anyway, we made our turkeys and then headed over to our friends house. The kids really have a great time playing with their friends. They all sit together and when they are done they are off and running. This year I spent more time in the kitchen helping out so I didn't have as much time to chat with friends but it did make me feel like I was keeping true to my mom's family. My mom and her sisters always do the dishes together so it felt ok to be following in their footstpes. Fortunuately I was able to keep my singing (a required part of doing dishes for my mom and aunts) to myself so people didn't think I was crazy! It was another fun thanksgiving surrounded by our Prague family.

Ear Tube Surgery

Yesterday Sofia had tubes (grommets) put in her ears. We arrived at the hospital at the required time of 7am. Then Sofia and I waited in her room for two and a half hours. As unlikely as it sounds this did have an upside. It made me very frustrated which took my attention off my nervousness! Anyway, after the long wait the nurse came in and gave Sofia some syrup to drink that would halp calm her down. She was doing surprisingly well though. I think having already been through the syrup and gas when she had her adenoids out helped. I wasn't expected much from the syrup since when she had the syrup for her adenoids it didn't seem to do anything. This time was different. They must have given her a high dosage. At first there was no change but within thirty minutes she started to laugh randomly. Then she started saying things like, "you have three eyes" and "I can't lift my head it is glued to the pillow", all of these comments were followed up with pure giggles. I kept trying to get her to just relax and go to sleep but she couldn't stop the giggles. She had me laughing even when I was trying to be serious. This lasted about fifteen minutes and then the nurses came in and wheeled her out of the room. It was very weird to watch her be taken away. Quite a powerless feeling. I just prayed that my baby would come back to me better than ever. They had told me she would be back between thirty minutes to an hour and that I should go get some coffee or something. I made my way to the cafeteria only to find out that it was closed. I then went and waited in the lobby until it was time to head back upstairs. Since it took me so long to find my way through the maze of the hospital I started to rush because I didn't want Sofia to be in her room all alone. I arrived at her toom expecting her to be there but she wasn't. I thought it strange but sat down to wait. As it past the hour mark I started to really worry. I had just given myself another five minutes to wait before I tracked down the nurse to find out if something was wrong when at about an hour and ten minutes after they took her they wheeled her back into her room. She still had her eyes closed which also surprised me. When she had her adenoids out she was in the surgery for twenty-five minutes and was fully awake by one hour. After speaking with many people who had tubes in their kids ears I assumed it would be the same this time. I was wrong. It took about another 45 minutes for Sofia to work her way out of the anesthesia induced crying. If you have watched your children come out of anesthesia you know what I mean...it is a very particular sounding cry. Once she broke free of this then we had a lot of coughing up of mucus and blood which wasn't very pleasant and was quite painful for her since her throat was already so sore. Then she finally went to sleep. She was exhausted. While she slept she had an IV drip of saline (I think) and two doses of antibiotics. The surgeon finally came in to tell us about the surgery. She did speak English but it wasn't great. When she started with, "I have something to tell you.", Jason and I had our hearts in our throats. It isn't as bad as we imagined but it does mean more doctor visits. She told us that she put the tubes in and removed her adenoids again (apparently they had grown back). She also said that when they went in to her left ear the fluid behind her ear drum wasn't really fluid but rather a thick glue that was difficult to get out of her ear. With that removed they also found a cyst called a Cholesteatoma. It is a cyst caused by a long standing retraction pocket of the eardrum into the middle ear. It can be a serious condition that if left untreated can cause deafness and facial parylisis. So, they removed the cyst. Because she had the cyst though she will need to be checked regularly to make sure the cyst does not come back. I'm not sure what regularly means so hopefully it isn't a weekly check. If the tubes are able to work properly and keep her ear drained then hopefully she won't have any new cysts form. This did explain the extended time she spent in the operating room and why is took her all day and night to really be herself again. She is home with me today to rest and I think she will be back at school tomorrow. Her hearing is already much better and will take some time for her to adjust to. She can hear me when I whisper now which is amazing. She also complained about Ali moving around too much last night and waking her up. I can't believe she is hearing the creaking of Ali's bed!

You're It!

The girls have really started to enjoy playing outdoor games with us. We play tag, freeze tag, hide & seek, and chase hide & seek. Jason played with them last week and they all had a really great time. Today we played as a family. The kids are surprisingly fast. I actually had to pick up my pace and not just pretend to run. I remember being a kid and not wanting to be the one that was "it". The girls haven't learned that dislike yet and they both want to be "it" so they can be the one chasing rather than being chased. It is also funny playing hide & seek with Watson around. He obviously doesn't understand the concept and always gives away our (mine and Jason's) hiding places. During chase Watson also likes to play but just ends up blocking our path...maybe he does know what he is doing and he is helping the kids catch us! :)

Heat

We held out as long as possible but today we finally turned the heat on. We realized we needed to give in and turn it on when I was on the phone the other night. I was talking to my friend and she asked me if I was getting a cold. I realized that it was so cold in our house that even with a sweatshirt and blanket on my nose was running! Oh well, we made it to Nov 21st. I think that is the longest we have ever gone. (Granted we did have help from the woodstove.)

Tubes

So today I brought Sofia in to the doctor for her control appointment. She is free from cough, ear pain and runny nose. I assumed, therefore, that it would be a quick check up and we would be out the door. There is, of course, nothing quick about Motol hospital. Parking took me 20 minutes then we waited another 15 to check in and then another hour to see the doctor. My waiting was all for the good though. Sofia saw the doctor and the doctor said she looked good and so she performed the tympanomtry test on her ears. Of course, the test came back with bad results. Sofia lives with constent fluid in her middle ear. Anyway, the test came back so bad that the doctor decided we needed to have the tubes put in sooner than January 5th. She offered me Nov 23rd. I took it since I want to get Sofia hearing better as quick as possible and I want to avoid more ear infections. Accepting this date means I will have a busy few days. Tomorrow I have to bring Sofia in for blood work. Friday we have to go meet with the surgeon who will be doing the surgery and I have to pick up the blood test results. Monday we go in early for the surgery. Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that Sofia will come home from the hospital the same day with a new way of hearing the world.

Boarding up for Winter

Today I got the house boarded up for winter. Well, not our house, but our neighbor's house. Sofia, Ali and I had taken Watson out for a short walk when our neighbor (the one who didn't use to like us) said hello and then said she needed some help. She doesn't speak any English so the conversation was restricted to my limited Czech. I sent the girls back to Mary and I helped her get a number of wooden shutters out of their basement to put on their windows. Hers is a summer cottage so they will be away for the winter and board up all the windows. After getting those out I thought I was done but then she offered coffee, which I didnt feel I should say no to. We sat for a bit and tried, with a struggle through language, which included a few drawings, to talk about why I moved with the family to Prague, what I do here, what we like about the Czech Republic, etc. She also asked me to help watch their house over the winter and call if anything happens to it during any storms.

Only after finishing coffee and concluding that we would now be friends and she would try to learn a few English words while I continued to try to learn Czech, we moved on to putting all the shutters on the windows. She directed where I should go and I put them up. This process was briefly interupted with a discussion of how much she dislikes the trees in our yard that drop pine needles all over her lawn and make it impossible to grow gross and she suggested we cut them down. As we're only renting the house I repeatedly suggested she talk to the owners until she realized I wasn't going to be cutting right away and we went back to finishing the shutters. Once I finished getting the shutters on she was very grateful made a reference to me being like Rambo and we said bye for the winter. I suppose in the Spring I'll be helping take the shutters down.

Marriage Plans

Last year Sofia told us she was going to marry a boy in her class. He was pretty quickly replaced by her friend, Lars. We didn't think much about it. Jason and I joked that we approved of Lars since he is a nice boy with a nice family. Well, we didn't think any more about it. A few weeks ago however the girls and I were driving home and Sofia told me again that she was going to marry Lars. I played along and said, "ok but why are you marrying him?". She quickly replied with, "because I love him and we kiss.". I was a little surprised by the kissing aspect so I questioned her on it only to be told, "we only kiss when the teachers aren't looking.". I was floored. I didn't know whether I should crack up with laughter or reprimand her. I decided to just ignore it and tell Jason. We both decided to not say anything since we didn't want to make a big deal out of it since it is harmless. Well, today on the way to school we had the following conversation,
Sofia: "We will move back to America when I'm in high school right?"
Me: "Yes"
Sofia: "Well, then I will get Lars' number today so that when I'm an adult I can call him then I can go to wherever he is and we can get married and then a few days later we can have a baby."

Jason and I did everything we could to not burst out in laughter. My entire body was shaking with laughter. We were both a bit shocked but at least we know she isn't planning to do anything until she is an adult.

Busy busy busy

It has definitely been a busy weekend. I think when I am busy I tend to pile it on and make myself even busier. After a busy day yesterday with the birthday party and fireworks I continued to be busy through today. I could have relaxed this morning but instead I decided to start a fire, make the kids french toast, write some on the blog, and make a loaf of bread for the first time. While making the bread I also made two separate lunches, one for the girls and one for Jason. Jason was sick last night so I made him a basic soup with rice. I knew that wouldn't work for the girls so I made them pasta. After doing that I got myself ready and dressed for church. I had to be there early today since this was one of my weeks to sing (which I really enjoy). After church I rushed out the door and to the grocery store. I needed to buy the ingredients to make sauce tonight so that tomorrow I could whip up two lasagnas. One for our family and one for another family from the kids school whose mother is very sick. Now, the sauce is made and the kids lunches are packed for tomorrow. I only have to put the sauce in the refridgerator and I'm off to bed. I guess what Sofia said is true, "Daddy goes to work, Ali and I go to school, and mommy does all the other stuff. " Well, I filled my weekend with that "other stuff". It may have been busy but it was also filled with fun times!

Birthday party and fireworks

Today I brought Sofia to a birthday party for her friend Anna. I orignially thought I would just drop her off but once inside I started chatting with my friends and we all enjoyed watching the kids play. My friend Suzanne, Anna's mom, is amazing with birthday parties. This party had a horse them and she had everything put together. There was a horse centerpiece on the table along with carrots and celery sticks for the horses to eat. There was a table for coloring in pictures of horses. She had games ready for the kids to play like musical chairs but instead of chairs for the kids to sit in they passed along a pony riding stick and whoever was holding trhe pony when the music stopped was out of the game. She made it fun for the kids to be out since once you were out you got a prize. The grand finale of the party was the horse pinata. The pinata was so nice it was a shame to smash it for the candy. The kids all had so much fun.

After the party, Sofia and I headed home to get Jason and Ali and to change into warm outside clothes since we were off to the school fireworks night. We did not go the last two years to the fireworks since the girls were afraid of the loud noises. This year they were both very excited to go. After running around the play yard with their friends and having hotdogs and drinks the girls went inside the school for a small puppet show. It was a nice chance for them to warm up a bit. After the puppet show we were back outside and ready for the fireworks. They were amazing and VERY loud. I'm glad we didn't go before since I can only imagine the tears that would have happened. This year however Sofia loved it and Ali loved it as well but only if she was on my lap with me covering her ears. As I sat there looking up at the fireworks I had to admit that fireworks are, indeed, very cool. I haven't seen a display of fireworks like that in some time and I have never been that close to fireworks (even when we went to the wedding in Slovakia they weren't that close). It was a fun night.

Riding the bus

The school provided a bus that goes from the early years school to the primary school so that parents don't have to drive to both locations in the morning. All week Sofia insisted on me driving her to school until Friday. On friday we got the the early years school just before the bus was leaving. I decided to give it another try and asked her if she wanted to go on the bus. I also told her that her friend Lucy was on the bus. She decided to give it a try. It went great! She really enjoyed the bus ride. Apparently the teacher on the bus has the children looking for different items outside. On Friday they were looking for runners/joggers and people walking dogs and on Monday Sofia tells us they will be looking for people riding bikes. It is good to know it went well and she enjoyed it.

Ali's thumb

So, day two at the new school building and Ali had her thumb closed in a door. I showed up to pick her up and she had a band aid on her thumb and was crying. I took her home and convinced her to let me take the band aid off so that I could look at it. It was quite swollen and black and blue. She also couldn't move her thumb. I had a feeling it was broken but I hoped it wasn't. We decided to wait until morning and see how her thumb looked. Well, in the morning it still didn't look good so I dropped Sofia off at school and Ali and I headed to the hospital. After three and a half hours we left the hospital with the diagnosis of a hairline fracture and her thumb all bandaged up. We will have to go back to the hospital every week for the next few weeks for them to check her thumb and redo the bandage it.

Ali's new school building

Back in February, the girls school announced that they would be opening a new campus for the early years program. At the time we were not happy about this decision. We didn't want to disrupt Ali's school by moving her to a new building for a year. We liked having Sofia and Ali in the same school. It helped with drop off and pick up but it also gave them comfort to know their sister was just down the hall and that they would see each other at outside playtime. I know they didn't necessarily play together all the time but just the sisterly "hi" in passing was really great for them. There was a lot of discussion and angst but at the end of the day we agreed to move Ali to the new location. Mainly becuase the teachers that Sofia had for Recpetion would be at the new location and we wanted Ali to have those same teachers. The new school year started in September but the new site was not completed so Ali started in the same location as Sofia which I was happy about. The new building is now complete and Ali has transitioned to the new building. She seems to really enjoy it and is happy to go. Sofia had a more difficult time with it since she was sad that she wouldn't see Ali during school. After the first couple of days though Sofia has stopped voicing any sadness over the change. I know she is still feeling it a bit though since she has the option to ride a bus from the new location to her school location with her friends but she is insitent upon me driving her. I think she is trying to claim her attention time. I'm hoping soon she will accept the new situation and things will go back to normal.

Halloween

Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in the Czech Republic but it seems every year more amd more Czechs are enjoying the fun of Halloween. Finding halloween decorations is getting easier every year and the options for trick or treating are growing. This year our halloween was full. Our first stop was a birthday party for my friends daughter. While it was a birthday party it was still halloween themed and the kids were excited to eat candy corn and play with their friends. We had to leave that party to go to a halloween party at our friends Emily & Radek's house. The girls were excited to go to a halloween party and see there friend Annalee. There was a lot of people at the party and Emily had organized games for the kids to play. After game playing we headed outside for trick or treating. Every child was given a latern to carry along the road. I was a little worried about the laterns since they were paper laterns with real candles inside but the kids seemed to manage them well (only one or two laterns went up in flames!) It was interesting to see this years trick or treating since the group we were with were mainly Czech or of a Czech mix (Czech/American, Czech/Australian etc) family and all the houses we went to were Czech. Unlike in the States, here, the kids had to work for there treats. At every house they had to sing a song. I was happy that our girls actually knew some of the songs and could sing along or as Ali put it, "Skakal Pes, that's too easy!". After trick or treating we headed back to our friends house for more food and fun. The kids all lined up to hit a pinata. The girls were right in there filling up their bags with candy from the pinata. After all the candy had been grabbed the kids played with the confetti that had been inside the pinata. Sofia was the one exception. She was much more interested in her candy. She found a place to sit and just started downing the candy. By the time we noticed she had already had six pieces of candy! Oh well, what is halloween for if not for gorging on candy?? We packed the kids up and headed home without complaint. I think they were just too tired to even complain. We got them ready for bed and all set with the babysitter and then headed out to another party. Jason and I had fun dressed up as a Spanish Lady and Zoro. We had a fun night. I think next year we will not attempt to attend 3 parties in one day though. We are both exhausted today. The kids were tired as well but since they kept getting influxes of sugar they kept going until an early bedtime.

Week with Grammie and Grandpa

This past week has gone by very fast. The girls had a great time with Grammie and Grandpa. It was nice to see them be so comfortable with their grandparents. Since we don't get to see Dan and Diane that often we try to talk about them a lot and remind the girls of things we did with them when we were in America so they won't forget. They didn't seem to forget. They were thrilled with Grammie and Grandpa arrived and had no shyness at all. They enjoyed playing board games, soccer, and dress up with them as well as just chatting away. A lot more fun then playing with plain old mommy and daddy! Since Dan had never been to Prague we took an afternoon and went up to the Prague Castle. We hadn't been there in a while and the kids love to go to the castle. They were slightly dissapointed though that the main floor of Ladislav hall is now blocked off after they did the restoration. On all previous trips to the castle the girls have danced all across the hall. We made due with dancing down the aisle that was roped off for visitors. That was the only site seeing we did on this trip though. Dan and Diane took a day and went into town by themselves to see all the obligatory sites and the girls and I took that day to run all our errands. The only other place we took Jason's parents was our favorite Italian restaurant. It was nice to share it with them and now they will have a visual of where we are on many Friday nights. Other than that this week consisted of staying at home and playing in the yard, walking in the woods, pumpkin carving and eating.

Jason's Parents arrived

After many delays out of the Rome airport, Jason's parents arrived on Friday night. We kept checking the arrival stastus online and since they had been delayed we decided to have dinner before they arrived. Once we sat down at dinner and our appetizer arrived I checked the Prague ariport website for an updated arrival time. To our surprise it said that they would be arriving in fifteen minutes! We quickly asked the server to pack up our dinner to take away and headed to the airport. When we arrived at the airport we checked the arrivals board only to find out that their flight wasn't arriving for another hour and a half! Such is the life of air travel I guess. We got our take away food out of the car and sat at McDonald's to enjoy our dinner. We took it easy yesterday and went for a walk in the woods. It is nice to just enjoy some relaxed time together and the girls have loved having grammie and grampa here. Today we are heading off to Prague Castle and church. It should be a fun filled week ahead!

Bye Sung Soon!

Our friends, Sung Soon, Stuart, Daniel, James, & Matthew are moving to Munich. We are sad to see them go. They are one of our friends that we thought we would be with for the long term here in Prague but Stuart's job has brought them to Munich. James has been in Sofia's class since she started at Riverside. He has taught her about Ben 10 and Star Wars. She comes home from school asking to play star wars and I'm not exactly sure what she expects me to do. I come out with qoutes from Star Wars and she thinks I'm crazy. Sofia will miss James. Sung Soon has been a great friend to me as well. I have had a lot of fun talking with her. She has taught me more about korean culture than I ever thought I would know, including how to make Sushi (really kim bap). She has watched my children while I've gone to the doctor which is so important when you don't have family around. We will miss spending the afternoons in the playground with them in the summer and hanging out in the school playground after drop off and at pick up. Last week we had an all girls night out with Sung Soon. It was a fun night of laughter. Sung Soon chose a korean restaurant which was, of course, fantastic. She ordered all of our food for us and it was amazing. Here is a picture (thanks Shanna!) of all of us from the dinner. I hope that we will stay in touch. After all, Munich isn't that far away!

Harvest Celebration - Round 1

Every year the girls have a harvest festival at school. The school actually holds three harvest celebrations - one in early years, one in lower school, and one in upper school. Last year I only had to attend one harvest celebration since both kids were in early years. This year I should get to attend two celebrations but today I recieved an "F" in parenting and completely forgot to attend Ali's celebration. Luckily Jason was able to stay and watch her and our friend, Charro, took some video of her. Ali seemed happy that Jason was there and she had even asked him if he could come in to school in the morning. She doesn't usually ask for him to come into school but we just assumed she wanted a little more time with him. Apparently she really wanted him to see the performance. Here is one of the videos that Charro took for us. There are two others on youtube if you want to see them.

First fire of the season

We had our first fire of the season in our fireplace today. It may seem a strange thing to be excited about but we had a fireplace for six years before moving to Prague. Both of our parents have fireplaces as well so we are used to having a cozy fire going on a chilly night. When we moved to our apartment in Prague we did not have a fireplace and I cannot say that I missed it. Since I never saw a fireplace I didn't really think of it but now that we have one again we have all been anxiuosly awaiting a cold day to fire it up. The kids are fascinated by the fire. We heard the following once the fire was going. "How did you make it? Did you use a lot of matches? It is so big! It's cold, let's sit in front of it. It's too hot in here. I'm roasting!" We are looking forward to having many fires this year.

Snowflake girl

It is nice to see the kids using their imaginations. Yesterday Sofia came up with a character called Snowflake Girl. She proceeded to make snowflake shoes, necklace and wings so she could fly. It was amazing to watch her figure out how to make it all work the way she wanted. Here is a picture of "Snowflake Girl".

Family Day

With our lives so busy we decided to take a day out and have a family day. We spent the day at home yesterday and cooked together. Jason's mom sent me a children's cookbook for my birthday which we decided to use. The girls picked out the dessert, strawberry shortbread cookies, and Jason and I chose the dinner, chicken with tzatziki and naan bread. The girls really did a great job listening and helping to make the food. After we enjoyed our dinner and dessert we all sat on the couch and watched Monsters vs Aliens while eating popcorn. It was a fun day/night.

Tubes...grommets

Our lives have been so busy lately and time has flown by. This past week has been filled with school activities, after school activities and doctor appointments. I had to bring Sofia back into her ear doctor for the control visit for her most recent ear infection. Her ear is no longer infected. We have decided, however, to move ahead with having the tubes (or grommets as they are called in Europe) put in her ears. Seven ear infections on the last year is just too many. Unfortunately they don't do that surgery at the hospital where we currently go. Sofia's doctor wrote the referral to the neighboring hospital and told me to take it there and make the appointment for the surgery. Unfortunately, it isn't that easy. I took the piece of paper to the other hospital and checked in and then went up to the ENT (or ORL as it is called here) department where I had to check in again and wait. I waited for quite a while with Sofia but eventually the doctor took us in and asked me a lot of questions and then checked Sofia's ears. We then went to a different room where she tested how well Sofia's ear drums were working. The answer, "not well". I can't say I was shocked. Anyway, this new doctor doesn't know Sofia at all and isn't going to just operate on her so we have to start the process again. The upside is I think this new doctor will be very thorough the downside is Sofia will probably have another ear infection before we can get the tubes done. We go in to the hospital again in a couple weeks so Sofia can go to audiology and have a proper hearing test done. It's unclear but I think after that we might schedule the surgery but this is Czech and I never really know how things will unfold. I will keep you posted.

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday. This one snuck up on me which is a sure sign that I'm old. As the old people say though, I'm young at heart!! Last night we went to a party at my friends house and since we were there after midnight and it officually became my birthday my friends sang me three rounds of "Happy Birthday". It was a lot of fun and unexpected. This morning I got to sleep in and to my surprise I slept until 10:30!! Jason made me eggs and home fries for breakfast and then we headed to the pumpkin farm. The girls and I have been every year but Jason had never been so I thought it would be fun to go as a family. The girls were a bit confused as to why we were going to teh pumpkin farm and not going to school since in their minds the two are linked. After choosing our pumpkins along with some gourds and a lot of squashs for making soup, muffins etc. we headed back home. Jason made me a cake that we had after the girls early dinner and now he is making me Orange chicken which is one of my favorite dishes that he makes. It is labor intensive with a lot of dishes but he is making it for me anyway and doing the dishes! It has been a nice relaxing day. I'm blessed to be able to celebrate my birthday with my friends and family.

*on a separate note I added posts below on our Slovakia trip. They are below the swimming post.

Swimming update

Today was the girls first time swimming as part of the school swim club. They did fantastic! I really couldn't be more proud of them. Sofia is swimming with kids who one and two years older than her and did great. Her coach had them swimming lengths of the pool for an hour. For the most part they swam the legnths holding a kickboard out in front of them or behind their heads if they were swimming on their backs. The last length though the coach sent them out without kickboards. Sofia swam half the length of the pool and then had to grab the lane line for a second. For the second half of the length she kept coming back to the lane line but it is still very impressive to me. I think I would have been grabbing the lane line after swimming as much as she did! Ali also swam the length of the pool with a kickboard but her coach had them swimming shorter distances and jumping into the pool. Ali was originally in a group with a lot of her friends but she was moved up one level and is now swimming with some kids her age and some kids who are a year older. Here are a couple videos I took today.

High Tatras Mountains

We left the hotel and drove the hour and a half to the High Tatras. We found the village where the house was and found the woman with the key as well without any problems. After settling in at the house and having lunch in a local restaurant we decided to go for a short walk down the lane and up into the fields. As we were walking up we noticed a few cows int he fields. We also noticed there was a fence keeping the cows in but that there was a section on the fence that was down and thereore the cows could get out. We didn't think much of it since they were only cows. As we kept walking and were getting near the open section of fencing we noticed that one one of the "cows" was coming towards us and as we walked the "cows" pace increase to a trot. We wuickly called Sofia back to us and realized that this "cow" was not a cow but a bull! We quickly started walking back down the path. As we were walking back and looking over our shoulders the bull stopped and bellowed at us! I couldn't believe it. I was happy that he had stopped advancing on us and we had a good laugh about it when we were no longer near him. Needless to say we didn't walk up that path again. The next morning we headed up into the mountains to Starý Smokovec, the central resort in the High Tatras. We took the funicular railway up to Hrebienok where we got off and hiked to some beautiful waterfalls. The entire hike took us about an hour. Near the end of our hike was a restaurant were we enjoyed lunch looking at the beautiful mountains peaks. After lunch we took the funicular down to the bottom of the mountain and then we drove a couple peaks over to Štrbské Pleso, a beautiful mountain lake. We rented a rowboat and went out on the lake for a little while and then we took a walk around the lake (about 2.5km). It was a full day and we were all tired. We stopped and had pizza for dinner and then headed back to the cottage. It was a wonderful time in the High Tatras mountains. I wish we had more time to explore there since it is such a beautiful place. We headed home the next day and luckily the trip was a much faster seven and a half hour drive.

Wedding in Slovakia

This past weekend we were invited to a wedding in Slovakia, We first thought we wouldn't go but after Jason spoke with his friend we decided we needed to make the trip. It wasn't that we weren't excited to go to the wedding in Slovakia. It was the 8 hour drive to get there with the kids. We asked our babysitter if she could watch them for the weekend but she unfortunately wasn't available. We decided to make the drive anyway. The eight hour drive on a holiday weekend ended up taking us 11 hours. We were all pretty tired and grumpy when we arrived. We hadn't really had dinner and had tried to pass off snacks as dinner but when we got to the hotel at 9pm and got the kids ready for bed Sofia said, "but we didn't have dinner". We convinced her that the snacks were dinner. She was tired enough that she did accept that which was good as there was no where to buy food. The next morning came and the weather was beautiful. We finally got our first look of the Slovakian countryside since the night before it was pitch black when we arrived. It was beautiful. We decided to head to a castle ruin we had seen all lit up on our drive in. The kids had fun exploring the castle and since our kids get up early we were the first ones there. After exploring the castle we headed back to the hotel for lunch and getting dressed for the wedding. The girls were very excited to put on their fancy clothes. I think we were all excited to go to the wedding since none of us knew what to expect from a Slovakian/Russian wedding.

The first bus pick up:
A bus picked up everyone staying at our hotel. We were all a little perplexed as to why the bus was picking up so early since it picked up at 1:30 and the wedding wasn't until 3pm and the church was only a 10 minute drive away. To our surprise the bus took us to Elena's (the bride) parent's home. At their home there garden was set up with tables and a buffet of breads, sausages, and pork meat as well as a bar for beer and wine. There were also four men dressed in traditional slovakian garb playing music. The setting was stunning. Everyone there was given a flower to attach to their suit/dress and Sofia and Ali were given baskets with rose petals in them.

Going to the church:
After about 45 minutes we got back on the bus and made the 3 minute drive to the church. It was interesting to see everyone who lived in the village standing at the fences and waving as we went by. It really felt like a village event. The ceremony took place at an Orthodox church. We all got out of the bus and others from their cars and we lined up to enter the church. We filed into the church and some people sat down and some people stood in the center aisle behind the bride and groom. We chose to sit. The church was very nice and occupied some our the kids time but the service was about an hour long and in Slovakian. I was happy that the kids behaved so well. Ali was exhausted and ended up falling asleep on my lap resting her head on the pew in front of us. All went well until she started snoring. Luckily it wasn't very loud and the people around us just thought it was cute. One of the interesting thing to me about the ceremony is that for most of the ceremony the people standing behind the bride/groom would hold a crown over the bride and grooms heads. I don't know what the significance of this is though since noone seemed to know other than it was tradition. At the end of the service we went and stood by the door so that as Ilya and Elena came out of the church the girls could throw the flower petals at them. Ali had just woken up and didn't want to do any throwing but Sofia really seemed to enjoy it. It was so nice of them to include the children in their wedding. Once this part was over we got back on the bus to head back to the hotel for the reception. To my surprise (again), shots of vodka were the celebration toast. I haven't had a shot of vodka since college and it was still just as painful. The girls were fascinated by this process. They asked if it tasted good to which I replied, "no!". Then they asked, "can we smell your breath?" I figured it wouldn't hurt so I let them smell and they both thought it smelled gross. Let's hope they remember that when they get to high school and college.

Arrival at hotel:
We arrived at the hotel to champagned and snacks on the terrace. I had to laugh since we hadn't even reached the reception yet and we already had a shot of vodka and a glass of champagne. Once everyone had arrived and had their champagne we went up to the reception. The amount of food was astounding. The dinner started off with an appetizer then soup then the main course and dessert. At this point I assumed the food was done. I couldn't believe it when a couple hours later another main course was brought out which was followed by dessert. Jason tells me that a couple hours later a third maincourse was served as well followed by dessert. The dancing started after the first main course was finished. The girls had a blast dancing the night away. They made friends with another little girl, Iga. The three of them had so much fun. They were dancing near the wedding cakes though which made me a little nervous and I did stand guard over the cakes for quite a while. They never did have any close calls with the cake though which made me happy. Part way into the dancing Sofia ran over to me and told me there was going to be fireworks. I was surprised but then when everyone was heading outside we followed suit. Sure enough there was fireworks. They weren't just your average backyard fireworks either. This was a full-fledged fireworks show. The kids really enjoyed it and so did we. What a nice way to celebrate a marriage! After the fireworks we went bck in for more dancing. Ali lasted until about 9pm but then needed to go to bed. I took her up stairs and then Jason brought Sofia up around 10pm. Jason went back to the party since we knew that these parties lasted a long time. There was a lot of drinking vodka and hruskovice (pear brandy) and Jason came in at 6am (he disputes this time and believes it was 4:30am - see previous coment on drinking). Jason may make an addendum to this post for the things that happened at the wedding between 9pm and 6am.

The next morning:
We got up and packed up our things and had breakfast. Elena's parents had graciuosly offered us the use of their country house in the High Tatra mountains. We originally were going to stay there for one night but Elena's mom convinced us to stay for two nights. I'm so glad we did.

Gymnastics, Swimming & Czech lessons

These are the girls after school activiites. It makes for busy weeks with something after school on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday but the kids really enjoy it. Last year Sofia and Ali were in different gymnastics classes. Sofia's class being more serious. Ali wasn't interested in the serious gymnastics and prefered to just run around randomly. This year I was going to have Ali skip gymnastics since she seemed so tired after being at school all day with no nap. However, I brought her with me to Sofia's gymnastics class (becuase I have no other option) and she wanted to give it a try again. She loved it! She is a little monkey and loves to hold herself up on the bars and I think there was only one other girl who could stay up as long as Ali. On Thursdays the girls have Czech lessons. Sofia has been taking lessons for about a year and a half so she is in the more advanced class. This means that I have some good one on one time with the girls since Ali has czech from 3:30-4:30 and Sofia from 4:30-6:00. Today is the first day of swim club. I'm hoping the girls love it. I want them to be swimming year round so that they become really strong swimmers. A lot of their friends will be swimming with them so I expect they will have a lot of fun. I will post some pictures tonight after swimming

Czech countryside

Today was a beautiful day so I headed out on my bike to explore some of the area around were we live. The Czech countryside is beautiful. I am looking forward to biking in spring when the rape flower is in bloom and in summer when the sumflowers are blooming. Now all the fields have been cut and some have already had the dirt turned over but it is still stunning. It is so hard to believe when I am biking that I am so close to the city. Here are a few pictures from my ride today.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 12th wedding anniversary! It is hard to believe that 12 years have past. We have moved four times, owned (and sold) two different homes, gotten a dog, had two children and moved to the Czech Republic. Through all the changes we have remembered to compromise, be understanding, forgiving and loving. I am blessed to have Jason as my husband and best friend. We went out on Friday night to celebrate and we had a wonderful dinner alone. Today we celebrated by being together as a family. We went for our first family bike ride. The kids did great riding their bikes. We capped off our bike ride with a stop at the nearby restaurant for a snack before heading back home. Once we got home we hopped in the pool. Well, all of us except Ali. We couldn't convince her that the 65 F (18C) pool water was warm enough. We did have a great day today. I'm looking forward to the next 12 years. I'm sure they will go even faster than the first twelve but no matter how fast they go we will always take the time to enjoy each other, our family and the world around us.

Running and Biking

Well, I took a full three weeks off of running and then went easy for a week with only running 2 miles and then 4 miles. Since I had no pain I increased my run to 5 miles and then 5.5 miles. I am happy to report that I still have no knee pain. I'm hoping that the knee pain is a thing of the past but I'm not planning on going on a really long run just yet. Which brings me to biking. I have really been enjoying riding my bike. I have replaced my long runs for now with long bike rides. Yesterday I decided to go for a ride, after my morning run with friends, with only a general direction in mind. I wasn't going out for exercise but rather just to be outdoors in the great fall weather. It is so enjoyable though that my ride ended up being 17 miles long and very hilly. By the time I was home I definitely felt like I had had a good workout and I got to see some places I hadn't seen before. One of the great things about my friends here is that a lot of them like to exercise and be outdoors so this morning I headed out with two of my friends for another bike ride to check out some woods nearby. I love being able to mix socializing and exercise. It makes exercise fun and really just a byproduct of having fun with friends rather than a chore. Here I am with my friends, Inge and Natalie. Fortunately we came across someone walking a dog and were able to get a picture together. I'm looking forward to riding with them every week.

Walk in the woods

This weekend we enjoyed the fall like weather. Jason and I cleaned up the yard and put all the summer stuff away. We went as a family to a garden center and picked out decorations for the fall and halloween (the kids were really excited about halloween). It was a lot of fun to be in a garden shop again after a two and a half year hiatus. Today I put all the plants in the window/fence boxes as well as the planters in front of the door. I put the small pumpkins out and the little gourds in the house. This afternoon we decided to go to a harvest festival or something to that extent. To get to the wine cellar where this festival was happening we walked through the woods on a trail that links our village with the next village. We weren't sure exactly where in Unetice it was but it is a very small village so we figured it would be easy to find. When we arrived in Unetice we saw a wine cellar but didn't see anything resembling a festival so we walked all the way through the village to the other side only to find out there was nothing there either. We headed back to the wine cellar we had seen. I'm assuming we got there late and that is why there really was no festival but I could be wrong. The aim really was just to try out the new Burčák and that we got to do. It was really fun to go to the wine cellar and get Burčák becuase we also learned that they sell all kinds of wines there right from the barrells. It was fun to see it all and the people were very friendly. After sampling a couple wines we left with only the Burčák. The kids had had enough of being in the wine cellar so we paid our 40Kc ($2USD) for our bottle of Burčák and left. We followed a different path through the woods to go back home. The kids really enjoyed this path too since it had 3 waterfalls along the trail. At the end of the trail back in our village is a small pub where we stopped for dinner. The food gave the kids the burst of energy they needed to make it the rest of the way home. Sofia biked about 6 Km ( 3.8 miles) and Ali had a combination of walking, running, piggy back rides and shoulder rides. I was very impressed with their stamina. We got home just about bedtime. It was a great way to spend the end of the day.