Dinner with friends

Last night we had friends over for dinner. It is so nice to be able to entertain friends in our new house and to have the space to have more than one set of friends over at a time . We have so much more space and the way the kitchen is set up to face the dining area and the way it looks out to the patio makes me not feel rushed to finish so I can join our guests. I can be part of the fun while I'm getting everything ready. I'm still on my asian kick so I made sushi as well as a salad with an asian dressing, a ginger garlic hummus, and asian grilled salmon. It all came out really good (if I do say so myself). Since I don't know any asian desserts, I kept the asian theme until dessert. For dessert we finished up with Pavlova and brownies. The brownies were an afterthought since I realized we may need more dessert for the kids but the pavlova is my new favorite dessert. My australian friend, Kirsty, taught me how to make pavlova as it is an australian dessert. It is delicious! It is essentially a meringue topped with whipped cream, banana and berries. I wasn't sure if I would make it for dinner since I wasn't sure if I could make it as good as Kirsty but since it is my favorite now I decided to give it a try. Luckily it came out good and Kiera (Kirsty's daughter) gave me her approval. In addition to all the yummy food our friends, Radek and Emily, brought us two bottles of burčak. It is the first time Jason and I have had burčak although we have heard about it before. It was quite good and very sweet and doesn't taste a lot like alcohol. While I was finishing up a few things for dinner the girls were playing with their friends, (Kiera, Annalee, and Oliver) our neighbor sent her granddaughter over to play as well. This struck me as funny and odd since we did not think this neighbor particularly liked us. Who knows, maybe we are winning her over. Her grandaughter seemed to have fun playing here and we fed her along with our children. Here is a picture of the kids with their friends and the neighbors granddaughter whose name I still don't know.

Mommy Day Off

It doesn't happen often but when a mommy day off happens it is a splendid thing. On Saturday my friend Laura (a fellow mommy) and I took the day off from being mommies and headed to Dresden for the day. We laughed at the beginning of our adventure that we hadn't come laden with bags filled with drinks and snacks. It was so nice to just walk out the door and not worry about forgetting anything. I had read about this milk shop. It is in the guiness book of world records as the most beautiful milk shop in the world. Now, I don't know how many milk shops are up for that award but I was curious so we went to check it out. The ground floor where the cheese shop is is really stunning. It is floor to ceiling villeroy & Boch tiles. It is actually a bit overwhleming. The upstairs is a restaurant which we decided to try for lunch. We each got a cheese plate that had cheeses from around the world which were delicious. We also both had a vanilla milk shake which was to die for! It was really all I could do not to just drink it down in one gulp. After a great lunch which was leisurely without worrying about getting the check before the kids melt down, we headed into town. We took a peek at the old town and then hit the shops. To browse, I mean really browse, was great. I did find a few nice things but the enjoyment wasn't in the buying it was really in the leisurely looking. We decided to have dinner before heading home since we wanted to make the most of our day off. We ended up at a pizza place that was basically a pizza hut knock off. When I first walked in it had that pizza hut smell but I just figured it is a pizza place but when our pan pizzas came they tasted just like pizza hut! It was a great day off and I am looking forward to doing it again!

Going to the Zoo

We hadn't been to the zoo in quite a while so when my friend Elizabeth suggested it we deicded it was time to see the animals. I was actually interested to go since the zoo had recently opened a new sea lion exhibit. The kids had fun running from animal to animal together. It ended up being quite hot that day too so the kids had a good time playing in the little water fountain area. Ali did slip twice so I had to dry her dress in the sun and then once she was done swap her semi dry dress for her wet underwear but she didn't care. We spent some time in the petting zoo which the girls loved. I wasn't sure if the girls would like it since goats can be a little forceful but after some inital uneasiness they settled right in and let the goats eat out of their hands. (Don't worry, I properly sanitized their hands once they were finished in the petting zoo.) After the petting zoo we waiting in line for the pony rides. I was surprised that Sofia wanted to ride the pony since just last week she announced that pony rides were boring but she had a good time. I guess when you are five, things can seem boring one day and exciting the next! After seeing some animals, having ice cream, riding a pony, and feeding the goats we decided it was time to head home. I think the kids could have kept going but the adults were tired!

My own sushi!

I have made sushi all by myself now! My first attempt was good although the rice was a little drier than it should have been. My second attempt was very good with the appropriately sticky rice. I am really enjoying making sushi. I also like the heath benefits of seaweed. I bought cookies at the Japanese shop the other day that were wrapped in seaweed. That was stretching it a bit for me. I like seaweed but I have decided I need to drawer the line with my desserts! Here is a picture of my sushi...not perfect but not bad for a beginner!

Quick swim with daddy

The girls have really been enjoying the pool. We swim almost every day now that the weather has been nice. Yesterday the girls and I played a lot in the pool after dinner since it was still so warm out. By seven o'clock I had gotten out of the pool though since I was chilled from being in so long with the kids. It was also time to start wrapping up play time so the kids could go to bed. Luckily for Sofia, Jason came home just as we had gotten out of the pool. After commuting home in the heat Jason was definitely ready to go in the pool. Sofia had a little extended pool time with Jason. It was nice to see them having so much fun in the pool together.

Dresden

We headed to Dresden today. I love that the car offers us the freedom to just up and go to Germany for the day. Anyway, Jason had never been to Dresden and the girls and I had gone once but only to the children's museum so we wanted to really see the city. We decided to go this weekend since it is the Dresden City Festival. We were able to walk around the old town of Dresden while seeing the festival at the same time. I'm curious to go back and explore the old town a little more when there aren't quite so many people so that I can get a better look at the amazing buildings. It was fun to see all the huts selling things for the festival. It was mostly food but they also had quite a bit for kids. Ali rode a pony. Sofia loved watching people go into the dive tank. They both had their face painted and of course they both enjoyed yummy treats like donuts and ice cream. A festival isn't a festival without junk food! After a fun day of walking around the city festival we headed home for a swim in the pool. It was very hot in Dresden today so we were all longing to cool off. I love coming home to our new house but especially today when I knew I could not only come home to the house I love but I could also jump in the pool.

Knee Update

So I went to the orthopedist on Wednesday. Of course by Wednesday my knee was no longer hurting. I was tempted to go for a run to make it bad again so the doctor would see it but since my appointment was across town at 8:40am I didn't really have time. Anyway, he moved my knee all around and pressed on it and took an xray but couldn't find anything. I could have told him that! Even when my knee is so painful it hurts to walk I can still press on it and not find one spot that hurts. I figured it wasn't a bone problem so there was really no need for an xray but I went through the process anyway. In the end he told me he didn't see anything but gave me some pills to take for 2 months and told me no running for 2 months. I can bike and swim. Since our pool is so small that trying to swim for exercise is out of the question my other option is bike. I do not have a bike. Well, actually I should say, I don't have a bike here since my bike is back in the States. Jason and I have talked about getting bikes for a while so this might be the reason to finally get around to it. At any rate, I will take a little bit of time off from running but hopefully not 2 months. I am hoping i will back to running after a month.

Painful knee, Sushi making and Dinner with friends

Today the girls and I headed to my friend Sung Soon's house. We had planned to go there for 2:30 but unfortunately I had some pretty bad knee pain from the run this morning and ended up making an appointment to see the doctor. Fortunately for me I have good friends who can take care of my children at a moments notice. I dropped the girls off with Sung Soon and headed to the doctor. The doctor talked to me for a couple minutes and gave me a referral to an orthopedist that I will see on Wednesday. (I will keep you posted.) It was a quick doctor visit and I headed back to Sung Soon's to make sushi.

I had never liked sushi until I had Sung Soon's sushi. Her sushi is excellent! One day I was craving her sushi so much that I bought sushi from the grocery store. This was a bad decision and left me sick all night. I vowed never to have store bought sushi again. I asked Sung Soon if she would teach me how to make sushi so that I could have it whenever I craved it. Today she taught me. She also lent me one of her rice cookers and gave me some of the ingredients so that I could get started by myself at home. It will be interesting to see how well I paid attention to how she cooked some of the ingredients. I hope I can make it as good as Sung Soon or at least good enough to fill my cravings. Anyway, Jason got out of work early and came over and enjoyed the sushi as well. After gorging ourselves on sushi, Sung Soon also made us dinner. She made typical korean food for us that was very good. The meal included things like sesame leaves from Korea that I have never had before. They were quite tastey with the beef she made. We also had seaweed which is different than the seaweed you use for sushi. I had no idea there were different kinds of seaweed. The one we had for dinner was a salted seaweed that we placed rice in and ate. Jason enjoyed the soup but I decided to skip the soup since I couldnt' possibly fit anything else in my stomach! We had a great time and I feel like I learned a lot about Korean cooking and the girls practiced using chop sticks. Her is a picture of Sung Soon teaching Sofia how to hold chopsticks. Ali had beginner chopsticks and was doing great with them. I think I needed the beginner chopsticks as well!

Okoř

We had another beautiful day here today. Jason, unfortunately, had to work today but the girls and I took advantage of the day and headed to Okoř. Okoř is an old castle or really it is a castle ruin. The girls and I started out with lunch and then we walked through a field and took some pictures. That was the most I could get before the girls were off to the bouncy castle that was set up on the path up to the real castle. Oh well, I let them take their three minutes in the bouncy castle and then they were ready to explore the ruins. We had to wait a few minutes for the tour to begin which I wasn't thrilled about since I knew the tour was in Czech so it wasn't really going to help me. To my surprise I did understand some of what the tour guide said and was able to explain what some things were to the girls. We had fun walking around the castle and the girls seemed to enjoy it. They thought the old castle toilet was disgusting since it was just a hole in the seat that opened up to the ground far below. I can't say I blame them. I'm just happy we don't live in the time when that was the way of making toilets. After walking around and exploring the different areas of the castle we headed out of the castle and I got the girls some ice cream.

Fun in the pool

Today was such a beautiful day. The sun was shining all day!! We had friends over for most of the afternoon and the kids all played so well together. There was plenty of time spent in the pool and plenty of time for dress up in the playroom. Ali is really doing an excellent job with her swimming. She really has no fears about jumping in the pool and swimming around. Today she even swam the length of the pool twice. Granted, our pool isn't that big but it is still a huge success for Ali who wasn't even able to swim at the beginning of June. Sofia is still a little scared of our pool and thinks it is too cold so she mostly goes in with her noodle although she did swim a tiny bit today on her own. We all had time to really relax and play today. In between swimming and dress up we enjoyed watermelon and popsicles. All in all a fun filled beautiful sunny summer day!

Bike Ride

This morning we went for a bike ride with friends. Well, actually the kids rode their bikes and the adults walked. We went on the bike path along the Vltava River. This is a path on the opposite side of the river from where I had been running from our apartment. It is also further outside the city from the path I used to run. Anyway, after a complete meltdown by Sofia this morning, because she wanted her training wheels back on, we headed off to meet our friends. Sofia did calm down after she realized she could just push herself along without pedaling. Shortly after she started though she started to actually pedal. She is getting it little by little and soon I'm sure she will be comfortable riding without training wheels. It was a beautiful day for a walk along the river and the kids all had fun riding their bikes together. I may have to start running on this path as well since it is so peaceful and I do love running along the river. Here is a picture of the kids on their bikes. (I was a bad parent and forgot to bring helmets! Oh well, next time.)

Playground fun

We have found a playground in the town next to us that is about a 3 minute drive away thanks to my friend Inge. This playground is definitely the girls favorite. We can easily spend 3 - 4 hurs there without a single whine. I'm not sure what makes it such a great playground. It could be the spinning thing or the climbing structure with buckets and pulleys to play with sand but the girls have a blast. We have been meeting other friends there as well so the girls get to spend a lot of time with friends while playing in a place they love.

Bye-Bye Apartment

Today we said bye to our apartment. We handed over the keys, had the final reading of gas and electricity and gave hugs to our landlords. We really had a fabulous two and a half years in that apartment (not including cabinets falling off the wall). Our landlords have been very kind to us. They invited us into their home for Christmas the first year we arrived and made us feel welcome. They have had us over for tea and given the girls gifts. They have made christmas cookies for us and other baked goods throughout the year. They have helped us when we needed them and we will miss them. The girls seem to be fine with leaving the apartment which is good. I wasn't sure how it would be since it is really the only home Ali has ever known. Luckily we have such a nice house now with a yard (or garden as the girls have learned to call it) that the girls seem to have adjusted to the change easily.

Grills & Parties

Today we decided we had finally settled in enough and were ready to buy a grill. We were told the cheapest place to go to buy a grill (without leaving the country) and we headed there this morning. When I say the cheapest place i do not, by any sense of the imagination, mean cheap. If it isn't a necessity here you can be sure it is expensive. So imagine the price of a grill in the States and double it! After getting over sticker shock and accepting that we live in a different country and can't pay U.S. prices we bought the grill. We had enough time to bring it home and unload it from the car before heading to our friends house for a birthday party. We had a really fun afternoon hanging with our friends and the kids had a blast with their friends and swimming in the pool. We have officially said bye to floaties (except kickboards and noodles to play with) as both girls were swimming like fish today without any floaties needed. Ali was going down the slide into the pool and then swimming all the way to the other end of the pool by herself! After a fun afternoon we headed home. Jason and I took the opportunity to hop in our pool and cool off. The water in our pool is much colder (at about 70 degrees) than the pool the kids were swimming in today but Ali decided she wanted to swim a little more anyway and jumped in too. After a full day the kids are in bed and now Jason is putting together our new grill. I'm looking forward to many nights of BBQ ahead.