Apple picking, Burčák and Friends

Last year we tried to find some place to pick apples. Apple picking is something that I love to do especially becuase it marks the beginning of fall. The smell of baking apples, a fire in the fireplace and hanging out with friends is something to look forward too. Unfortunately last year we didn't find anywhere to pick apples. It seems it just isn't done here. This is probably becuase it seems everyone has apple trees in the gardens. We have an old apple orchard in front of our house that did not produce any fruit last year. We just assumed that the trees were so old and uncared for that they just stopped produing fruit. To our surprise this is not the case since this year they are loaded with apples! They are not the big pretty apples, they are small and have many blemishes but they are delicious! The girls ask everyday when we get home from school if they can pick an apple to which of course I always answer yes and I grab one as well.

Since the apples are so tastey and apple picking is difficult to come by here we invited some friends over on Saturday to pick some apples. We also thought we would walk to our neighboring village and pick up some burcak, a fermented young moravian wine only available at the start of the harvest. Our friends had never had Burčák so it was the perfect weekend to pick some up. Unfortunately we didn't get to go for our walk since it was pouring out so we just drove over and picked up the Burčák. We did manage to pick apples although we didn't stay out for as long due to the rain. The rain really didn't matter though becuase we had a great time with our friends. The girls were excited to have their friends over and they all played nicely. Fortunately for us they did keep most of their play upstairs so that the adults could hear each other over the clomping around of dress-up shoes and excited girl voices. It was our first real fall meal of the season with pumpkin soup, spezzatino toscano (an italian veal stew), potatoes and menelik (a piedmont version of Tiramisu) for dessert. Good friends, good food, happy kids...can't ask for much more than that!

More celebrating

This past Friday Sofia was celebrated at the school assembly which she corrected me was only for the lower school and not the entire school.  Sofia was celebrated for being "a super assistant and helping friends".  I'm proud of her and she was very happy to be celebrated.  I was surprised when Ali showed a little bit of her competitve streak though since she was upset that Sofia now had more celebration certificates.  I had to explain that the ones Sofia earned last year don't count to this years total.  My only hope now is that they stay pretty even on the awards for the rest of the year!

Fitness blog

I have started a blog for training so if you are interested to see what I'm currently working on or if you are looking for fitness information please take a look at my Outdoor Fitness blog.  As I have only just started the blog there are only a few posts but I will be posting there regularly going forward.  All family related things will still be on this blog though.

Houses, points and awards

If you have seen any of the Harry Potter movies then you know about schools having "houses" and every student belongs to a "house".  At the girls school there are three houses, Komensky, Karel, and Hus.  Siblings are always in the same house and our girls are in Hus.  All the kids try to earn house points and every week the points get tallied to see which house is in the lead.  Both kids have earned house points since the start of school but Ali has earned a lot of house points.  She earned them for being a good helper, listening well and working really hard.  She worked so hard last week that she was celebrated at the end of week assembly in front of the entire primary school.  The school gets told why she is being celebrated and she goes up to the front to collect her certificate.  Her certificate says, "Super Dooper Work Award for amazing behavior and hard work all week!  She was excited to receive the award and I'm very proud of her and all the hard work she is doing.

This week Sofia wasn't celebrated but she did win a heart from her teacher.  Sofia's teacher tells the kids everyday that they have all done a great job and they all have stolen her heart.  She gives everyone a sticker.  She goes one step further though and says that they have all stolen her heart but especially "child".  That child who especially stole the teachers heart gets a heart cut out of construction paper that says "You stole my heart today!  Thank you for being a great kid!".  It is such a good idea and the kids love it.  It really does make them feel special.

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was our 13th wedding anniversary.  I can't believe another year has past!  I'm so happy that we made that decision 13 years ago.  I couldn't have asked for a better husband.  Last year we went out for dinner but this year we stayed in and cooked one of our favorite meals, orange chicken.  It is was great to have dinner together and snuggle up on the couch.  I am excited to see what the next year brings as I'm sure whatever it brings we will meet it together.

Personal Training

After enjoying running and fitness for years now and turning friends on to running and helping friends train for races I have decided to finally make the jump and become a personal trainer.  Being a trainer gives me the flexibility to do everything I need to do around the house and for the kids but also lets me do something that I love.  Not only do I love fitness but I believe it should be a part of everyone's life.  Fitness doesn't have to mean the drudgery of a workout at the gym and being a personal trainer means I can help people find the fun in fitness.  As adults and parents I believe that we have a duty to our children to show them how to live a healthy life and if we can have fun in fitness then so can our children.  My training programs are all back to basic programs.  By that I mean all my exercises can be done outside in a park.  Being out in nature in the fresh air while using your own body weight to get fit.  By exercising this way your fitness routine can travel with you.  If you go on vacation just bring your exercise clothing and you don't need to miss a workout.  If you bring your children to the playground you can also use the playground for strength training! 

So in addition to getting the kids settled back into a routine this year I am also finding my new routine.  I am training five women on Tuesdays and Thursdays in my Beginning Fitness class as well as I have an individual client that I train with once a week.  I am hoping to increase that over the next couple months but I'm off to a good start.

Beginning of School

We have made it through the first week of the school year and have started the second.  The girls are so happy to be back at school and they absolutely love their teachers.  I am amazed at how well Ali has adjusted to year one.  She was half excited about year one and half afraid it was going to be boring becuase she would have to do math and reading which she wasn't a big fan of last year.  In the first week of year one her teacher, Ms. Willets, has actually changed Ali's tune and now she is having fun with both math and reading.  Her reading skills have improved greatly.  I'm now not sure if she could have read more over the summer but just played us for fools and pretended she couldn't or if Ms. Willets somehow found the right button to push and turned Ali's brain on to learning her words.  Ali brings home a book every night and we sit and she reads it to me.  It is still not a fast read but it is nice to see her making strides.  Ali also comes home every day talking about the math they did in class.  As we spoke about it yesterday I asked her how she knew where to put the number in the game they were playing and her response was brilliant.  She said, "because I'm smart."  I love seeing that confidence in her. 

Sofia's teacher, Mrs. AuCoin, is from the States and is new to the school this year.  She has such amazing energy and really seems to have a passion for teaching.  I think she will challenge Sofia this year which will be good since I don't think Sofia was very challenged last year.  Sofia also brings home a book to read every day and there is a comments card that comes home as well which the teacher will write on and I can also write on to give feedback to the teacher.  Her teacher is now focusing on intonation and punctuation with Sofia which she needs help on since she will just rush through reading the story.  Her reading comprehension is getting better as well so I will let Sofia read her story by herself while I'm working with Ali and then I will ask her questions about her story to see if she in fact read it and understood it.  I'm waiting to see what Sofia will have for spelling homework this year since she already completed all the year two key words last year.  The spelling from last year was also easier for her and she never had to study them after school to get them right on her quizes.  I think she is up for the challenge this year especially becuase she seems to love her teacher.

Overall it has been a great start to the new school year.  The kids will start their after school activites this week so it will be another week of adjustment but all in a goof and fun way.

Soccer/Football

This year we have decided to sign the girls up for soccer at school.  I was asked to help coach this year and since my girls were interested I agreed to coach.  I played soccer from age five until I was sixteen and it is a sport that I loved as a child and I hope my girls will love it too. Today was the first soccer practice.  I headed to the field by myself though since the girls had a birthday party to go to for Ali's friend, Cianna.  I must admit, even without my children there I had a good time.  It is fun to watch the kids play the game and move in a big bunch down the field.  It is also fun to help the kids figure out how to move the ball.  I'm looking forward to coaching this season.

First Day of School

On Monday the girls started their new year at school.  They were both very excited to go to their new classes, Ali in Year 1 (kindergarten) and Sofia in Year 2 (1st grade).  We put their clothes at the end of their beds the night before and made lunches.  When Jason and I got up in the morning to go in to wake the girls up they were ready.  Ali got right out of bed and started to get dressed and apparently Sofia had woken up earlier and put her clothes on and then got back in bed!  After having breakfast the girls were ready to go.  Sofia started to put her jacket on but I had to stop her since we still had twenty minutes before we had to leave.  It was nice to have a leisurely departure.  I was excited to have the girls be in the same building so I only had one drop off and one pick up.  There was no rushing to make it to Sofia's school site in time to put Ali on the bus to the other school.  Even if we are late getting to school now there are no repercussions.  This was a good feeling when we started to leave for school leisurely and I realized we hadn't taken any first day of school photos.  I turned the car around and headed back to our house to get the camera.  Even with the delay we still made it on time.  Once we reached school and walked to the classrooms, without rushing to get the bus, it was an added bonus to see that their classroom are literally across the hall from each other.  I left the girls at school and had coffee with some friends and headed to the grocery store alone.  It was nice!  The girls had a great first day and didn't want to leave when it was over.  It looks like it will be another good school year!

Fire

Over the weekend we went for a drive to a near by town.  On our way home we make a left onto a dirt road to come home on a short cut.  As we made the turn onto the dirt road, which has fields on both sides, we noticed the field was on fire.  As we were close to our friends house and they speak Czech we decided to drive there and tell them about the fire so that they could call the firemen.  Our friends were not home so we called first the wife who didn't pick up so we called the husband who also didn't pick up his mobile.  Next I called another czech speaking friend who lived nearby only to have her not pick up her mobile either.  We didn't feel like we could just drive away from the flames without trying to get help so we saw a couple sitting in their yard.  I got out of the car and tried to explain to them that there was a fire.  She clearly did not understand and was trying to send me to a fire station.  Fortunately someone else must have seen the fire becuase we heard the sirens coming so we drove back towards the fire to make sure the trucks were actually going to the fire.  They were there and had it under control so we continued on our way home.  Having this happen made us realize that we need to have the emergency numbers for all services available and at least cursory phrases readily available.  Now I have that information in my phone with the statements such as "there is a fire" translated on my phone notepad.  I'll be ready for the next field on fire!

Back to Life

This week has been busy with getting back to life.  The girls start school next week so we needed to get haircuts.  I am not very good about having their hair cut regularly so they hadn't had it cut since February.  They definitely needed to be cleaned up.  Fortunately the place I bring them had availability and we were able to get in on Monday.  The haircuts were in time to have Ali's new passport pictures done since we have to renew her passport.  Her passport doesn't actually expire until next summer but because we have to renew our visas this fall and the passport has to be valid for the entire visa period (1 year) we have to renew her passport now.  That lead us to our next task of going to the U.S. Embassy.  It is a fairly easy task since you make an appointment online and then show up.  There is no waiting and it is, of course, all in English.  The only difficulty is in getting to the embassy.  Becasue of all the construction in Prague we were going to have to take the metro to a tram but to our surprised the construction at Hradcanska is finished and they have reopened the tram lines so we just hopped on the #20 tram and headed to the embassy.  Other than that this week has been filled with laundry and going through all the fall clothes in preparation for school.  Today we have school orientation.  I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine.

Return to Prague

As we left Innsbruck on our way back to Prague it started to rain.  I think after every holiday we have we come back to Prague and are greeted with rain.  It is depressing!  As we neared Prague though it actually stopped raining which was a pleasant surprise.  We got home and I went to pick up Watson and takeout dinner since we had no food in the house.  It was nice to see Watson again and he was excited to see us.  He had a great time with Petra and Tom as usual.  He went to the mountains with Petra's language school and played with all the kids and he went for a camp out with Tom.  They hiked 30K (18 miles) and camped out.  I'm told Watson was very happy to sleep on the ground next to Tom and didn't bark all night.  He did get a little cold as it got towards morning but Tom put his jacket on him to keep him warm.  I can't picture Watson getting cold since he sits outside in the snow in freezing temperatures for long periods but I think it is sweet that Tom gave him his jacket.  Anyway, Watson playing in streams and learned to jump from rock to rock across waterfalls.  He was apparently unsure of this at first but eventually figured it out and then had a lot of fun.  He, as usual, came home happy and exhausted. 

After going to the grocery store on Saturday morning we just pretended we were still on vacation for the rest of the weekend.  We played a lot of tag with the girls.  They love playing tag and it is good exercise for all of us.  I love hearing the happy squealing as the kids run away from whoever is it.  I am always surprised at how fast the girls are getting and how they really understand the aspect of trickery in tag.  We finished our game and came inside just before the rain.  We had a nice surprise though since it was raining and sunny I went out on the patio to check for a rainbow and sure enough there was a beautiful rainbow over the fields.

On Vacation - Innsbruck, Austria

After five nights in Piedmont we started our travels toward home. Since it is a ten hour drive from Piedmont back to Prague we decided to fit in one more night of vacation and stop in Innsbruck which happened to be perfectly situated between Piedmont and Prague at the five hour point in the trip. I had really wanted to see Prague as my father proclaims it to be the most beautful place in Europe. As we left Piedmont and drove past Lake Garda the drive alone was beautifully stunning. Driving between mountains in the Trentino/Alto Ridge area of Italy is amazing. The highway runs down the center with villages and vineyards along either side up to the base of the moutains. As we came into Austria you could see snow on some of the mountains which in August I assume were glaciers. You continue on this highway right into Innsbruck where we were surrounded by mountains. We checked into our hotel and went up to our room on the eleventh floor and looked out our windows to an amazing view of the mountains. Dad was right...it is truly a beautiful place.

While I'm not sure I would call it the most beautiful place in Europe it definitely ranks up there. After checking into the hotel and marveling at the view from our window we headed into the old town. The old Town was small and easily walkable. It is what I picture when I picture being in Austria...walking around a village and being able to look around and see massive mountains. After walking around a bit it was time for dinner. We stopped at a beer garden for dinner since it was simple. The food was fine although I did not eat what I ordered. I ordered a sausage but when it came in a plate of boiled water it did not look appealing and after one bite I couldn't get over the texture. It wasn't that my food was bad but rather not something I was willing to eat. While we ate dinner there were drummers in dress-up clothing along with what appeared to be the King, Queen and their court. It was fun to watch the drummers especially because they practiced in a tunnel so the sound was even louder. The girls were fascinated by it so after dinner when we saw the drummers marching through the town playing we walked along with them on the way back to our hotel.

On Vacation - Piedmont, Italy

After leaving Lake Como we headed south west to Piedmont in the Monferrato Hills.  This area is known as undiscovered Tuscany.  To that we can attest there were very few tourists anywhere.  Our apartment rental was nice and had a lovely pool that the kids really enjoyed.  The owners also had two dogs and two cats which the girls just adored.  I was not happy when we found a cat in our apartment since I'm allergic but otherwise I was happy for the animals to be around.  They were all very cute and tollerant of being petted a lot.  We spent the mornings traveling around to see different towns and the afternoons by the pool.  The mornings were definitely more difficult than our last trip to Tuscany.  The first reason is that we were there in August when everyone in Italy apparently is on vacation so many shops were closed and towns were like ghost towns.  The second reason is becuase it is undiscovered there are really no books out there listing the towns that are must sees.  We did our research, albeit only two days before we left, and came up with a list of towns that people had recommended online.  Some of these towns were a hit and others were not. We drove about an hour south to Alba since it is one of the main towns in the area and we thought it would be a good place to start.  Unfortunately the day we were there was the day that all shops in that town are closed.  Fortunately we had other towns we wanted to see so we headed out. 

The driving around Alba was beautiful as it was hill after hill of vineyards.  If I were to go back I would definitely find a rental in this area.  We stopped in the town of Barbaresco which was basically deserted except there were two wineries open.  One had just opened and the man there had just gotten back from Holiday and the other was a local family winery.  We stayed there for a while and Jason chatted it up with the the man while tasting the wines.  I didn't worry about the girls being in the winery since the guy running the shop had a small boy who was pushing a stroller around and crashing into everything and the man was completly at ease. 

We all had to laugh when he picked his son up and had him smell the wine and the little boys face lit up in joy.  He gave him a quick sip and the boy was off to play.  Jason bought some wine and then we kept talking and the man ended up giving us a free gift which was another bottle of wine.  I'm glad Jason remembered what it was becuase when we got home we realized that it was a completely unlabeled bottle.  It made for a nice end to our exploring that day. 

During the middle of the week we had a chef come to our apartment one night and teach us how to make a piedmont meal. Paolo was great. The kids really liked him and he was really good at including them in the cooking and having them help. We made a ricotto/olive mousse with toasted bread, vitello tonnato, cheese risotto and tiramisu. They were all wonderful and we made so much that we ate it for three days! I'm looking forward to making them again since Paolo also gave us his cookbook. It made such an impression on Ali that since we have been home she has asked to help me cook a lot.

The day after Paolo came we headed to Torino.  It is where Paolo is from and he made a good argument and told us exactly where to go.  It was not my favorite city though and dragging to kids around a city on a hot day didn't last long before we headed back to the apartment  and the pool!  On our last day we went to another random town and ended finding a great little village.  Not a foreginer to be found and daily life just happening around us.  We stopped at the local bar for our coffee and then went to the bread shop, cheese shop and salami shop.  It was a nice way to end our visit to Piedmont.