New Blog Finally!!

Here is the link to the new blog.

http://growingupluce.blogspot.com/

Next Stop U.S.A.

This ends our blog of "Luce In Prague" since we are no longer in Prague! Stay tuned for the new address of our blog when I start blogging about our adventures in America.

See you later Prague

I have learned in this process of leaving Prague that it really isn't "good-bye" but rather "see you later".  We have loved all of our time in Prague and enjoyed living in such a beautiful city.  Who knows where life will bring us but I'm sure we will travel back to Prague again some day.  We have said good-bye to people we are friendly with and see you later to our good friends becuase our true friends will never be gone from our lives.  We have not lost our friends but rather we now have the opportunity to make new ones......and as our friends move on to their next expat assignment or back to their home country it just gives us a good excuse to travel around the world.

Last, Last, Last.....

So many "last" things to do....  After leaving Beckiland we headed home and I did some more packing and we waited for Iva to arrive.  The kids were excited to see Iva just as they are every Friday night.  They were extra excited because Petra was also coming to say good-bye to the kids and Watson.  They arrived and not only to Iva and Petra come but also Iva's son, Michal came as well to say good-bye to Watson.  They have watched Watson over the last 4 1/2 years and have really taken to him as a family pet and with Petra moving out of Iva's house Michal didn't get to see him as often so he wanted one last time to say good-bye as well.  It is nice to know that Watson has been so loved while we were traveling.  Petra did break down and started crying but as Iva was having none of it Petra was able to pull it together.  Jason and I said goodbye to Petra and Michal and headed out for a last dinner at our Italian restaurant.  We had debated if we would go there on our last Friday or if we would stay closer to home but since the owners invited us back for out last dinner on the house we couldn't pass it up.  We had a fantastic dinner as usual and I held it together until the end...leaving our Italian home away from home put me over the edge and I finally let a few tears fall.  Funny the things that tip the balance.  If I'm ever back in Prague you can be sure I will be having dinner at Cicala!  We came home and said our final good-bye to Iva which was also difficult since she has really been like a grandmother to the kids and a mother to us while we have been in Prague.  I finished up my last hours packing all the last minute things and finally got in bed about 1am and up at 5:15am to catch our early morning flight out of Prague. 

Last Day of School

Friday was the girls last day of school (15 April) and they had a half day. At the end of the morning the school had a end of term assembly in which they also said good-bye to all the students that were leaving.  I was surprised that there were quite a few kids leaving at the end of term.  It was sweet to see how they said bye to each child.  Sofia had been fine with leaving, at least on the surface, but I saw a moment where she waivered and fought with her emotions after she had been called up and given her good-bye.  She sat back down and kept her head down looking at her leaving book.  I thought she was going to lose it and break out in tears but she managed to pull it together and her friend Matilda was perfect with a jovial grab of the arm and a quick comment and Sofia was back to being happy.  I am definitely grateful that Sofia has some good friends.

Rather than go home and spend time sad that we were leaving Prague we decided to head to Beckiland for one last time with a bunch of friends.  It was great for the kids to run around and have fun and it was nice for me to have another time to chat with my friends. 

Kids Good-Bye parties

On Wednesday and Thursday before the end of the school term we had parties for the kids in each of their classes as a farewell party.  Sofia had hers on Wednesday and shared it with her friend Bella who also left school at the end of term.  We brought in cake, chips, juice etc. and let the kids have fun eating together.  The kids also performed their part of the upcoming school play that they have been practicing so Beanie and I were able to see the part that our kids would have played if we had stayed at school for the last term.  It was nice to see what they had been working on.  Sofia's teacher put a book together for both Sofia and Bella in whch every child in the class made a page for the book.  It was very cute and Sofia loved it.

On Thursday afternoon I headed into Ali's class for her farewell party.  I was, of course, loaded down with all the goodies...cake, treats, chips, popcorn...as well as the plates, napkins and drinks.  Ali was happy to have a party in her honor and her teacher also had the kids in her class make a page each for a book just for Ali.  They also gave her a stuffed animal school bear which she loved.  Also her best friend Cianna's mom also gave her two photographs.  One of the photos is of Ali and Cianna's first sleepover together.  Ali loves the picture and it has traveled with us so she can always see it.

I have pics and video of the parties but I'm not sure if I have them with me or if they are on our computer traveling the ocean.  Therefore, I will have to wait to post them.

Parties Parties Parties

There have been a lot of parties and nights out since my last post.  I will start back on the first of April since I just realized I left off Quiz night.  On April 1st the school held a quiz night at a bar in town following by the Sixes Band and dancing.  We had a great time with our friends even though we came in seventh place.  I hit the back of my head on a shelf behind my chair which has taken over a week to not be sore.  I didn't let it slow me down though.  We danced the night away and didn't get home until after midnight.  It was a good night.  The next week Sofia was invited to her friend Francesca's house for Francesca's birthday.  I figured I would just take Ali with me to do something fun since she hadn't been invited to the party.  When we arrived to drop off Sofia Franscesca's mother and grandmother (I assume it was her grandmother) wouldn't let Ali come with me and insisted she stay for the party.  They both had a really fun time and when I picked them up they didn't want to leave.  Sofia was given her party bag and Ali a balloon and then to my surprise I was handed a plate of warm freshly made Korean food.  I was a great goodie bag for the adults!  Sofia was sad the next day to find out that we had eaten all the noodles since she really likes them as well.   

On to the next party that was for me on Friday morning!  I had no idea but my friends had organized a party for me as a surprise.  They completely pulled it off as I didn't expect anything.  Our friend Kerry (she moved away in December) was in town from the UK and we were all getting together to have coffee with her so you can imagine my shock when I walked in and was told it was all for me.  I totally thought they were joking with me but they weren't.  I have some great friends here and I'm really glad they did not let me leave Prague without a leaving party.  They made an amazing picture for me as well as giving me a voucher to a shop in Prague.  The picture is a picture of me from the Half Marathon that they uploaded to a website called moonpig where they inserted the picture on to a spoof magazine cover called "Running Today" and it has items on it like "Mary Luce's top running songs" and Win a years training with Mary Luce".  They put it in a nice frame and all signed the matting.  It was really a group effort as well since you can only send the moonpig items to UK addresses so they all worked together to gather the photo, upload it, write the content, frame it, fly it from the UK and sign it.  Definitely made me feel well loved by my friends.  Today I went and spent my voucher at Artel and got a beautiful glass bowl.

Friday afternoon Sofia and I joined our friends Daisy and Bella for birthday/leaving party at the bowling place near us.  It was pure mayhem but the kids all had a lot of fun.  I even bowled a few times since I would stand in for kids who were too busy playing on the trampoline or slide.  Ali did not join us for the party becuase she went to her friend Cianna's house for her first sleepover.  I was a little nervouse for her but she was nothing but excited.  She had a fantastic time and Cianna's mom sent me a couple pictures which just really showed how happy Ali was.  She was absolutely beaming in the pictures.   

After bringing Sofia home from the party and getting her settled in with Iva, our babysitter, Jason and I went out to dinner with friends to our favorite Italian place.  We had debated if we would go there again on Friday as the last time or not.  We hadn't decided but at the end of our meal the owners invited us back for next week on the house.  That made our decision for us! So our final meal in Prague will be with our Italian home away from home.

After getting home late on Friday night I had to get up and bring the kids to the Easter Egg Hunt put on by their school.  The hunt is in the local woods and actually requires quite a bit of walking through the woods and not just on paths.  Jason had to work (which he has had to work on the Easter egg hunt for the past three years!) so I was on my own with the kids.  Ali came to the hunt with Cianna so I ended up sending Sofia in to the woods with her friend Matilda while I waited for Ali so in the end I only had one child to watch out for during the hunt.  We met up at the end and had a picnic with friends before the girls and I headed into town to buy Czech hand painted Easter eggs.  While we were in town we also stopped and bought a Czech glass fish and Czech glass dolphin for the kids.  This is our time to buy all the things we haven't bought in the last four and a half years!  It was a busy day.  Even though the the day was over the night was just beginning.....On to the next party...

Saturday night was the leaving party for my good friends The Speirs and The Waddells.  The Speirs are heading back to the UK and the Waddells are heading up to Poland.  I don't get to see Kim (Waddell) to often but Beanie is my best friend here and we spend a lot of time together.  Our families get on well together and have had great time on Holiday together.  We are sad to part ways but rest assured while this was a leaving party it is definitely NOT a good-bye!  The party was a lot of fun and Jason managed to get out of work on the earlier side (10:30pm-ish) to join in the fun.  We stayed until the end and hopped in a cab and got home around 3:30AM.  We left Sunday morning open so that we could just relax a bit and not have to do anything while we were so tired but Sunday afternoon brought on the next party!

Sunday afternoon we dropped Ali off at her friend, Max's birthday party.  The party was at a rock wall climbing place.  I got Ali into her climbing shoes and then headed off with Jason and Sofia to the mall so Sofia could use her gift certificate to the toy store that she had gotten for her birthday.  After much internal debate Sofia ended up choosing a stuffed animal, 2 mood rings, a pet shop and some balloons.  We headed back to pick up Ali from her party.  She apparently did amazing at climbing.  I'm not really surprised since she has such amazing upper body strength.  For such a little person she is very strong.  This is the picture of the card that Ali made for Max all by herself.

It has been VERY busy and this week isn't slowing down either.  Today I brought Watson to the vet to get his pet passport.  Tomorrow I am bringing cake etc into Ali's class for her leaving party and then we are going to a friends for dinner.  Thursday I have to drive to the basket lady to pick up the baskets I ordered then be back by two for Sofia's parent/teacher conference followed by the leaving party in Sofia's class.  Friday is the end of term assembly where they say goodbye to all the kids that are leaving.  So, we will be busy busy busy right up until we get on the plane on Saturday morning.  Time is flying by!

Gymnastics



Petra, Sofia, Ali and Pani Ucitelka (Mrs. Teacher: Dasa)

 This last week may have been the girls last gymnastics class.  I say may be b/c Ali might go next week but Sofia has a birthday party to attend so I'm not sure if I will bring Ali to gymnastics or not.  The girls gave it their all this week.  I took a video of the first round of holding themselves up on the bar.  As you will see in the video Ali held herself up for the count of thirty four in the first round.  On the left hand side of the video you can see a little girl, Ester, is not happy when Ali reaches 34 because it meant that she beat Ester.  Well the rounds went on and Sofia, Ester and Ali really competed for first.  Sofia and Ali eventually beat out Ester with Sofia having 45 and Ali staying up for 52!  Needless to say they had some sore arms.  Ali woke up at 2:30 in the morning because her arms were aching.  They did a good job though.  It is nice to see my competitive spirit in them.  Ali was nice though and when it was all done and Ester was upset Ali went over and gave her a snuggle.  It is nice that she is not a sore winner because I'm sure if the shoe was on the other foot Ali would have been doing the same thing as Ester.

Busy Week

This past week has been crazy busy for me.  The insurance for our move requires that I inventory everything that we own.  Yes that means me counting how many books are in the house and how many pairs of socks the kids have in their drawer.  It is a huge pain and very time consuming.  In between doing the inventory Jason and I had to try to sell our car again.  The person who was going to buy it backed out leaving us with 3 weeks to sell our car.  Needless to say we were not very happy.  I quickly posted our car for sale on czechinfo.net which is a huge email distribution list.  We had two responses the next morning and since Jason is at work it meant that I had to show the car.  This definitely cut into my inventory time since it meant cleaning the car and then showing it.  The first people looked at it and wanted to bring it to their mechanic which of course required more time.  Unfortunately those people completely low-balled us which was very irritating since we didn't really have the time to be wasting.  The second people that came to see it where perfect.  They came, saw the car, drove it and bought it!  It is a huge relief to have the car sold and it is now fine that the other person backed out since we got more money for the car then we would have gotten if we had sold it to a friend. 

In between all of that I did have time to have coffee with some friends.  While I may have had my last big family dinner with my friends Emily and Kirsty that doesn't mean I won't see them again before we leave.  We made time for a quick coffee  this last week.  It was nice to have a short break from all my "to do" items.  Emily's mom was visiting as well so we took the opportunity to take some photos together.  It is nice to know that I will have some nice pictures of my friends for when we are back in the States.

The Castle

 










Sofia asked to visit the castle one more time before we left Prague.  As she put it "the castle is so beautiful and we don't have any castles in America." so we headed back to the castle for one last trip.  I took the time to take more pictures of the small detail of the castle and we enjoyed just walking around.  We watched the changing of the guard and noticed some thing swe hadn't before and thought about how long it has been since our first trip to the castle.  Here is a picture of the kids on our first trip to the castle and then a picture from last weekend.  Times have definitely changed....

Dinner with Friends

After going to the market last Saturday we came home and picked up the house a bit and prepared dinner.  Our friends Kirsty & Radek and Emily & Radek came over for dinner along with their children.  We always have fun with them and the kids have a blast together.  We started a little later than usual so the younger kids were tired but the older three (Sofia, Kiera, and Annalee) had a grand time playing together.  It is one of many "lasts" that we will be doing in the coming weeks so we tried to enjoy it as much as possible  We had hoped the nice weather of the week was hold through the weekend and we planned a BBQ but the weather didn't hold.  It was fine though we just brought the BBQ inside. 

It was funny to watch the kids play together as Sofia Kiera and Annalee play well together and at times Ali joins in with them and has a great time but at other times Ali really enjoys playing with Oliver so she splits off from the girls and has fun with him.  This time it may have been that they were both (Ali and Oliver) hungry since they both kept coming into the livingroom for snacks.  They both tuckered out early also.  Oliver fell asleep in the livingroom and then Ali decided it was time for bed and left the party and went to her bed and fell asleep.  It was a good night all around.  We will definitely miss our friends when we leave.

Spring Market

Last Saturday my friend had told us about a spring market being held at Okor.  I have written about Okor many times before but it is a ruined castle very near to our house.  We decided to check out the market and see what the stalls would be selling.  Unfortunately the day was not very nice and we did misjudge how cold it was so we didn't stay at the market for very long.  The market was held on the grass area in front of the castle so we followed the circle of stalls and checked out everything that was for sale.  We finally bought the kids Easter whipping sticks which they have wanted in past years.  We also had to stop for some mini donuts and of course a trdelnik.  We finished our time there with the kids having a ride on the merry go round swings.  We ran into some friends while we were there and had a quick chat before we headed home and out of the cold.

Easter Bake Sale

On Friday the girls school had its Easter bake sale.  Since it was last bake sale we will attend at their school I decided to make cupcakes.  Most of the bake sales I don't make anything and opt to help set up instead but this time I didn't want to have to do any work so making the cupcakes the night before was easy.  Anyway, the weather was nice outside so as soon as the kids were done having their faces painted we headed outside with their sweets to enjoy the day.  I got there early to browse the different stalls and finally bought some baskets from the basket lady.  These baskets are made out of plastic and I have looked at them for a while but have never bought any but I decided to buy two of the smaller baskets to go in the kids bathroom of the house we don't yet have in the United States. Haha, at least I'll be ready when we find a house!

The Dump

Over the last week I have been cleaning out closets and drawers and donating the things that are in good condition to a food and clothing drive that is being held by the kids school.  It really came at the perfect time for me!  Over the weekend Jason and I attacked the attic and the basement to get them all cleaned out for the move.  The attic was fairly simple as we only had a few boxes up there but the basement was a little more involved.  We did manage to get it all cleaned out and had piles for "move back to US", "give away" and trash/recycleing.  Most of the trash/recycling was easy and just went in our outside trash can but we did have 4 old winter tires and the old crib mattress from Ali's crib which couldn't just go out with the trash.  They needed to be disposed of separately and since I knew where the dump was I headed there today to see if I could get rid of the tires and mattress.  I found my way to to the dump and went into the office building that was there.  Noone spoke English so I used some horrible czech since my automobile czech and dump czech are not my best and got my point across that I had tires and mattress to get rid of.  They found a man to help me and the rest of easy.  He brought me over to the "little house" where i drove the car onto the scale to be weighed.  We went inside and filled out some paperwork.  The man then came out with me and directed me to drive to deposit the different items.  After dropping off everything I had to drive back to the "little house" and drive onto the scale again.  I then went inside and paid about $12.  I guess it doesn't matter what you dump since you pay for how much it weighs.  It was an interesting experience and even after four and a half years in Prague I still get to do new things.

Flights booked!

Jason and I have started the moving process in full now.  We have made our to do list and have divided the items to complete.  It feels much better having our lists in place and knowing when everything has to be completed.  Last night we booked our flights back to America (the girls and I on April 16, Watson on April 18 and Jason on April 23rd) .  Finally booking the flights was a big hurdle for me.  It makes it seem real and definite.  I wanted to feel excited about the flights but I actually felt sick to my stomach.  I realized that I felt like I was in a sort of limbo...I can't stay/don't want to stay but also am nervouse about making the transition back to the States so it is a can't stay but not ready to leap forward yet either.  Today I am feeling better about it but am still a bit torn.  As I have said to the kids and Ali repeats back to me often, "it is happy and sad".  Either way the limbo feelings won't last forever though becuase come April 16th the girls and I will be on a flight bound for the United States.  Even as I write this a smile comes to my face...maybe my limbo feelings will end sooner than I think! We're coming home!!!!

Outside playtime

The weather was absolutely beautiful over the weekend.  Jason was in Chamonix and Melissa left on Saturday morning so it was just me and the girls.  The kids are at an age now that they don't need me outside with them which gives me the flexibility to get things done in the yard or in the house and I don't have to worry.  The girls love being outside and they have such great imaginations that even in a small yard like ours they can spend hours.  On Saturday they were outside for about 4 hours and Sunday they spent the entire time from after lunch until 6pm when I called them in for dinner just playing together in the yard.  I am happy that they enjoy the outdoors so much and I am thrilled that they are such good friends.

Chamonix

While Melissa and I finished out week of sight seeing in Prague Jason headed off to Chamonix, France for skiing with his brother.  His brother had asked him if he was interested in joining him and a group of his friend for a guys ski weekend.  Jason thought about it for a while but I told him he should definitely go since when would he have the opportunity to ski in Chamonix again?  No time in the near future for sure!  He decided to make the trip and he had a great time.  The snow conditions weren't great since apparently it was a bad snow year for Chamonix.  They still skiied it and they had a Chamonix Guide for the day on Saturday so they got to see things they wouldn't have seen had they just done it on their own.  After hearing of crevases I'm glad they had a knowledgeable guide with them.  Jason may post more about his trip but in case he doesn't here is a picture of Jason, his brother Graham, and the Chamonix Guide Robert.  Jason and Graham looking a little worn from their day of skiing with the guide.

Tour of Prague

Melissa and I toured the city while she was here.  It was nice to see the sites again.  We did not sight see every day but the days we went into town we spent the entire day walking around the city.  We were able to see Prague Castle, Old Town Square, the Powder Tower, Obecni Dum, Wenceslas Square, Strahov Monastery libraries, Petrin Hill, Mala Strana, and my favorite view of the city from Letna Park.  We ate at our favorite Italian restaurant twice and had lunch with my friends one day so Melissa got to know some of my friends as well.  It was nice to catch up with her after not seeing each other for two years.  It is nice to know that nothing has changed between us and we fall right back in where we left off.  I guess that is the benefit of being friends since third grade!  I'm glad she had the chance to see my life here so that when we move back it won't seem so abstract and she will be able to picture things when I tell stories.  Being here for a week does make it a bit of a whirlwind tour for her but I'm glad we fit in as much as possible.  It was a fun week.

1st Lost Tooth and 2nd lost tooth

Sofia lost her first tooth last Sunday!  The tooth (lower middle) has been loose for a while and she has been playing with it non-stop in hopes that it would fall out.  She is the last of her friends to loose a tooth.  Some of her friend have lost multiple teeth so she didn't understand why hers weren't falling out.  I told her it was because her baby teeth didn't come in until she was a year old so since she got teeth late she would loose teeth late.  I don't know if this is an accurate assumption but it was the best I had and she did seem to buy it.  I'm happy that she finally lost a tooth.  She was very excited.  The American Tooth Fairy came last night and left her $1.  I have been playing up that their are different fairies for every country since some of her friends received expensive toys from the tooth fairy so I thought it only fitting that she would receive American money.

Quickly following the lost of the first tooth Sofia lost her second tooth.  She lost the second one at school.  It is a little unclear to me if she just fell on her own or if she was pushed during some game the kids were playing but either way she fell and smacked her face on the ground.  Since the tooth was already loose the impact with the ground knocked it out so now she is missing her two bottom middle teeth.  The American tooth fairy is making a lot of transatlantic flights!

Melissa arrived!

My best friend, Melissa, arrived this morning from the U.S.  I'm excited that she was able to make it over to visit before we move back.  We will be dropping the kids at school everyday and seeing the sights of the city.  It will be a good chance for me to see everything another time before we leave.  I'll keep you posted on our adventures.

Taxi driver excitement

On Thursday night Jason went out for drinks after work with some friends.  He took a taxi home since he was out after the last bus left the city.  The taxi drove him to the end of our road where Jason told him was good enough.  The driver told him the price but the price was too high.  We know what the price should be since we have taken taxis many times.  Jason asked the driver to show him the meter.  The driver refused and got angry.  He started to back up so Jason immediately jumped out of the car as it was reversing.  He repeated to the driver that he wanted to see the meter and then he would pay him the fare.  The driver got out of the car and pushed Jason.  Jason's was holding his phone in his hand at the time and his phone fell to the ground.  The driver picked up Jason's phone and got back in his car and locked the doors.  he again told Jason to pay but this time he had to pay if he wanted his phone back.  Jason again repeated he wanted to see the meter and if not he would call the police.  The driver didn't believe him though because he then drove away with Jason's phone.  Jason came in the house and got my phone and called the police.  After speaking on the phone for a while with the police we waited for the police to come out to our house.  When they arrived they brought Jason back to the police station with them to fill out a police report.  When he got to the police station he was told they had already recovered his phone (since Jason had the taxi number) but his phone was at a different station.  Jason got back home at 5am and we went to sleep for two hours before waking up at 7am for Sofia's birthday.  We went to the police station in Prague 8 in the morning to pick up his phone.  After waiting over an hour Jason was told that they did have the phone but could not give it to him since it needed to be sent back to the station where the complaint was filed.  So now we are waiting from a call from the police station to call us so we can pick up Jason's phone.  So in the end, Jason is fine, his phone will be given back to him and the taxi driver will have a problem with his taxi license.

Happy 7th Birthday Sofia

Yesterday was Sofia's 7th birthday!  I can't believe that she is seven years old.  She was very excited for her birthday.  Jason and I gave her a Nintendo DSi for her birthday that she has really wanted.  It will actually arrive tomorrow so we wrapped up a picture of a DSi and gave that to her yesterday.  She was happy to know that it will be here soon.  She opened that present as well as presents from her grammie in the morning and then went to school.  Jason came to read for the mystery reader which was extra special for her birthday.  After school we picked the kids up and headed to a bowling place in Horomerice for her birthday party.  The kids jumped on the trampoline at the bowling place and also bowled in between jumping.  After about an hour of play the restaurant served the kids chicken schnitzel and fries (kureci rizek, hranolky) which was yummy and eaten up fairly quickly.  Next we brought out the double layer cake that I had made and sang happy birthday to Sofia.  It was great to see her so happy and surrounded by friends.  After cake the parents came to pick up their kids and we headed home to open presents.  Sofia was very happy with all her gifts.  It was a good 7th birthday.  Now she is just waiting for her first tooth to fall out...I'll keep you posted.

Mystery Reader

Every friday in Sofia's class a mystery reader comes to read to her class.  I have been the mystery reader twice but yesterday was the first day Jason was the mystery reader.  Since it was Sofia's borthday we both went to her class.  She was so excited to see Jason that she didn't even say hi to me.  I didn't take it personally though and I was glad she was so happy to see Jason.  I sat in the back and chatted a little with Sofia's teacher while Jason read to the class.  He chose two books that were both a hit and the kids were very involved with the story.  I took a short video with my iphone to share with you.



Gymnastics

After a few weeks off from gymnastics becuase of our holidays and the czech holidays we finally went back to gymnastics this week.  The girls always have a lot of fun at gymnastics and have made friends even with their limited Czech.  There is a little girl in the class, Ester, who is taking English lessons too so she often tries to say a few words in English to me and the girls.  I finally downloaded the app to my iphone to take short videos so I took a couple videos of the girls on the bars.

We are moving.....

BACK TO AMERICA!!! Yes, you read that correctly,  We will be moving back to the United States at the end of April.  We have had a wonderful four and a half years in Prague but it is time to say good-bye.  We have always struggled with when to move back home.  We came here thinking it would be for two years but arrived here and just loved it.  There was no way we were going to move back after only living here for two years.  We were happy.  The kids were happy.  Watson was happy.  We all had good friends.  Why would we leave that?  So, we kept putting off the decision to move back home.  After four and a half years the kids have grown a lot.  While we all still love it here the kids are at an age where we want them developing their relationships with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  We also want to move them into a school system in the U.S. before cliques form and it becomes more difficult to make friends.  With the girls finishing up kindergarten and first grade (Year 1 and Year 2 here) it finally makes sense to move back.  While we all feel sad about leaving we are also looking forward to the next chapter in our lives.

Slovenia

This past week was half term week (February vacation week) for the girls' school and our friends, Beanie and Guy, invited us back to their home in Slovenia for the week.  I was very excited to go to Slovenia again as we only stayed there briefly last summer.  I really liked Slovenia last summer and I would have listed it as one of the top places we have visited while in Europe.  This trip confirmed to me how much I love Slovenia and that it is absolutely beautiful.  While it is hard to say that there is one place in Europe that is my favorite since it is hard to compare cities to countrysides and every place offers something different, I would have to put Slovenia at the top.  Slovenia is so peaceful with huge mountains and big cliffs which run down to emerald green rivers.  In the winter you can ski and in the summer there are a lot of different activities on the rivers.  Drive forty five minutes and you can see a completely different side of Slovenia...the wine country that borders Italy with its rolling hills and row upon row of grapevines and views out to the sea.  When you want a little more Italian you can pop over the border into Italy for excellent food, cappucino, and nice shops to stock up on your olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

We started our trip off at 8am so that we would have enough time to catch the car train through the mountains.  There was very little traffic until we were north of Munich and then it was stop and go traffic.  Fortunately our friends had their GPS (as did we) and we followed our friends off the highway and took back roads around the traffic.  We made it to the car train in Slovenia in eight and a half hours which gave us about twenty minutes to spare before the train.  We were the first ones to drive onto the train which was fun.  This time we also managed to get the train that went all the way to the village of Most na Soci so we were able to unbuckle and be silly in the car for forty-five minutes.  We danced and were silly going through the dark tunnels and enjoyed the views of the mountains when we were not in the tunnels.  The car train is an experience I am glad we did not miss.

After the long drive on Saturday we took it easy on Sunday and relaxed in the morning.  We decided to go to the Slovenian wine country bordering Italy for lunch.  It was a forty-five minute drive through windy mountain roads into the wine area.  Once we were in the wine area I was surprised at how different it was from in the mountains and how much it looked like Italy.  Unfortunately we were there off season so the two places we stopped to buy Slovenian wine were closed but we did go to a fantastic restaurant, Hiša Marica, in the village of Šmartno.  The food was delicious!  We started off with home made prosciutto, cheese, and salami with bread followed by gnocchi with bolognese for Jason, gnocchi with olive oil and Parmesan for the kids and mushroom risotto for me.  I only ate half my risotto since Ali really liked it so I traded half way through for her gnocchi.  Lunch wouldn't be complete without dessert so the kids had crepes with Nutella and the adults all had panna cotta with a coffee sauce.  We all left there very full and satisfied!  After lunch we climbed a tower to have a view over the countryside out to the sea.  The day was very overcast so it was difficult to see the sea near Venice but we were just able to make it out in the distance.  I can imagine it must be beautiful on a clear day.

After a day of relaxing we decided it was time to hit the slopes.  We headed to the ski mountain, Cerkno.  The mountain was about forty minutes from the house so we headed out at about 8:30 in the morning so that we could get the kids rentals and lessons taken care of so skiing could start by 10:00.  The interesting thing about skiing in Slovenia is that the rentals, lessons and bunny slopes are all at the top of the mountain.  Instead of parking at the bottom of the mountain and taking a lift up we drove to the top of the mountain every day.  It was a little stressful the first day driving up/down but once we did it and knew it was not really slippery we were fine with the drive.  Parking near the top and walking up one final steep road was preferable and easier with the kids.  The first day of skiing the kids (Sofia, Ali, Daisy and Bella) did great.  They had to get their ski legs under them and we hired an instructor, Kaya, who the girls really liked.  We met the kids at the end of their two hour lesson and Kaya said they did great but maybe Ali should be in a separate group b/c she is so young.  We just nodded and kept skiing with the kids for another run.  Ali was definitely tired and seemed slower than the other kids.  The second day of lessons we decided we would let Ali ski with the group for the first hour of lessons and then I would take her for the second hour.  We went back to the meeting point after an hour but the kids were there yet.  We gave Kaya a call and she said that Ali was doing great and was keeping up with everyone so we left Ali in the group.  We met up with the kids at the end of their lessons and decided to take them off the bunny slope.  Sofia, Daisy and Bella did great off the bunny slope.  Sofia was going very fast which made me a bit nervous so I made her slow down but she was having a blast.  Ali was very afraid of the bigger hill which was not surprising as it was quite steep.  I ended up staying with her and letting everyone continue on.  We eventually made it down the mountain and took the lift back up and then took another run down the bunny hill to boost her confidence.  After a good day of skiing we headed down the mountain and to the local town to Shock Bar for some hot chocolate.  Guy had told us the hot chocolate was very thick and he wasn't kidding.  It resembled Jello Chocolate pudding more than hot chocolate but it was still delicious!

On the way home from the mountain Guy pulled off the main road and we followed to an unknown destination.  This is the great thing with traveling with other people.  You get to share an experience you might not have stopped to see otherwise.  The turn led us to the Franja Partisan Hospital.  It is a hospital built into a gorge during World War II.  Most of the site was closed to reconstruction since it was damaged in the 2007 flooding but it was fascinating to see a small part of it.  To think that people risked their lives to help the injured and did it so brilliantly.  The gorge is so hidden in the woods and so deep that you would never think it possible to run a hospital there.  The people who worked there had to blindfold the injured and wade through the river up stream to bring the injured to the hospital.

After two days of skiing we took a day off to give the kids a break.  Our friend had a meeting in the morning as well so it was the perfect day to take a break.  After our friend got back from his meeting we headed to Italy for lunch and a bit of shopping.  We went to the small village of  Cividale del Friuli.  We walked down a typical Italian village road into an open square and went to a Pizzeria for lunch.  The Pizza was, of course, fantastic and the cappuccino was delicious.  After lunch we walked across the square for gelato.  It was too cold for me to eat gelato but the kids were very excited.  Ali looked at me in awe and said, "ice cream in the winter?!" since I always tell them we don't eat ice cream in the winter because it is too cold.  As usual we asked for very small cones but got very big scoops anyway.  The kids were happy!  We snapped a few pictures in the square and then walked through the village a bit waiting for the shops to open again at 3:30 (the Italian siesta).  We walked down to a Devil's Bridge and looked over the side down to the pretty river and the houses along the side of the river. 

We headed back towards the pizzeria to go to my friend, Beanie's, favorite shop for balsamic vinegar.  I can see why it is her favorite.  The man in the shop is incredibly friendly and clearly loves what he does.  We tasted different balsamics and olive oils as well as wine, whisky and chocolate.  Of course he is also a salesman so we bought a lot of stuff but while I think he has to sell it he also finds great joy in sharing his goods with people.  We are now fully stocked with five bottles of balsamic (3 different kinds) and two different kinds of olive oil.  Good balsamic is delicious and is usually expensive so any savings is great and this shop had good prices...savings from $10 -$15 a bottle.

After a day of relaxing and shopping it was time to ski again.  We decided to try out a different mountain for skiing.  The terrain on the mountain looked good and it had the added benefit that we could ski from Slovenia into Italy which would just be fun to do.  We got to the mountain and took the Gondola up to the skiing which was a very long gondola ride.  We got to the top and booked the lessons for the girls.  We only had three kids with us for skiing since Daisy came down with a cold.  She didn't miss out on anything.  The skiing at Kanin was not ideal.  The ride on the Gondola was long.  We booked the kids ski lesson and then took them out on the slopes since there lesson wasn't for another hour.  We started on the pommel.  It was the first time Sofia and Ali have been on a pommel and they did well.  We got to the top of the hill and got off the pommel but the wind was so strong that I was holding onto Ali and we got whipped around and I had to throw all my weight into my edges to stop us.  The lift over to the Italian side was closed because of the wind so that really left one trail that we could ski with the kids.  The trail would have been good except as we were coming to the end of the trail we realized it went back up hill!  Thankfully we only had three children so each adult could take one child and pull them up the hill on skis....a heck of a workout for the adults!  We took the kids down the little nursery slope with the pommel a couple times and called it a day.  The ski rental wasn't open until 3pm so we ended up going down into the town and having lunch until it was time to return the skis.  At least the ski rental place was in the town so we didn't have to go back up the mountain.  The only upside of Kanin was the views which were amazing!

After a not so great day of skiing at Kanin we brought the kids back to Cerkno for the final day of skiing.  We signed them up for an hour lesson with Tomas since Kaya wasn't available and then skied with them after their lesson.  They did great.  They were going down the intermediate slopes without a problem.  Everyone had a great final day of skiing since they skied well and the weather was fantastic.  A perfect end to a great week.  We headed back home yesterday but went via Linz, Austria instead of Munich to avoid the traffic.  We had no traffic and made it home in just over eight hours.  An excellent holiday with great friends in a beautiful country....we can't ask for more than that!

Click HERE for the rest of the pictures from our trip.

School Projects

Today I went into the girls school since they both had projects to present to the parents.  Sofia's class have been spending time building houses.  Each child built there own house which they designed and constructed on their own.  It was interesting to see what each child came up with.  Sofia had a great house and what I loved the most is it had a tunnel in side it that would shoot you up to the roof where you could then walk to the diving board and jump into the pool!  Quite an imagination..maybe I should build that into our next home or maybe I should make sure if we ever have a pool again that it is not close enough to the house for jumping!



In the afternoon I went back to the school for Ali's class presentation.  All the children in Ali's class had been making puppets.  They each chose what they wanted to make and drew it on paper.  They had to cut out the design and sew it together and then glue on any necessary pieces.  The children were then put into pairs and they had to give puppet shows.  Ali was paired up with her friend, Max.  Ali had a fish and Max had a jellyfish.  Their puppetshow was very cute.  It is hard to hear Ali but she does say a few things.



Tangled

Last weekend Jason worked on Saturday so the girls and I had lunch at Cafe Giraffe followed by going to the movies to see Tangled.  The kids school had a private showing of Tangled at the cinema in town and since Jason was working I decided to make a day of it.  Lunch at Cafe Giraffe means salad for me but Crepes for the girls along with fresh lemonade.  They are pretty consistent with their choices.  Sofia usually gets nutells and banana and Ali usually gets strawberries and vanilla ice cream and this time was no different.  I have to cut their crepes for them and I always charge for my cutting abilities and take a bite of each of their crepes.  My salad is very good as well but it is not nearly as yummy as a crepe!  After lunch we drove in to town for the movie.  The girls were excited to see their friends and I very quickly found myself sitting alone!  Sofia was across the aisle and down a row with her friends and Ali was up a row behind me with her friends.  I had to smile that my girls are growing up but then I had to frown becuase I realized it meant I had no popcorn for the movie since the girls had taken their popcorns with them to their seats!  I kept turning around and checking on Ali but I don't think her eyes looked toward me once.  She was perfectly happy watching the movie with her best friend Cianna.  Thankfully Tangled is a movie even an adult can enjoy!

Valentine's Party

Last Friday my friend Emily invited us over so the kids could have a Valentine's day party.  I did not tell the kids it was for valentine's day but just that we were going to Emily's so that there was no expectations.  The kids were so excited to go to Emily's since it meant playing with their friends Annalee and Oliver.  They were even more excited when I told them their friend, Kiera, might be there as well. They get so excited to see these friends since they do not get to see them every day because they go to different schools.  Since Emily and I had decided in the beginning of the week to get together on Friday and I told the kids they kept asking me the question, "How many sleeps until we see Annalee?"  You would think we were going on some grand holiday and not going a quarter mile from our house.  I did nothing for the party but Emily and my friend Kirsty really went all out.  The kids had valentines crafts to do, candy to eat and cupcakes to decorate.  The kids also each got two roses to take home!  It was a great way for the kids to celebrate Valentine's and since the kids are so happy to be together it meant that my friends and I had time to chat which is always nice.

Legos

The girls have been enjoying their legos.  They still need help with building things and figuring out how it all goes together but fortunately for them Jason also seems to have fun playing with legos.  After winning the two lego things from Burns night the girls were eager to put them together.  Sofia really enjoys putting things together and it is funny to watch her "help" Ali or "include" her in the construction. Needless to say, Ali doesn't get to do much of the constructing but she seems ok with that for the most part.  The girls (and Jason) were so proud of their construction that Jason took a picture so here it is...

Disneyland - Paris

We decided the kids were at the perfect age to go to Disneyland.  Since we are in Europe that really means Disneyland - Paris.  The park opened at ten in the morning so we go there just after it opened. We made a pit stop at the Starbucks in Disney Village so that Jason and I could prepare ourselves for the whirlwind of Disney.  The kids were very excited.  It was definitely the perfect time to bring Sofia to Disney.  She could barely contain herself.  You could see all this happy emotion running through her as she tried to rush from place to place.  We slowed her down a bit but didn't want to dampen her spirits.  She talked a mile a minute in her excitement.  As we entered the park we saw Mickey and Minnie so we walked over to stand in line.  As we were debating whether to wait in line Princess Tiana  and Prince Naveen came outside.  The kids quickly forgot Mickey and Minnie and we ran over to take a picture with the princess and the prince.  Ali was shy and needed some coaxing and help from her big sister to have her picture taken but once she had Sofia's hand she was ready. 


Jason and Sofia on Dumbo's Flying Elephant



After seeing the prince and princess the kids were ready for some rides.  The great thing about going to Disney in February is that there are hardly any lines for all the attractions.  If there was a line it was max ten minute wait which was perfect.  Ali was a little scared by a couple of the rides because they were dark and had some spooky sounds but overall she had a great time as well. 

Ali staring in amazement on the "It's a Small World" ride

Sofia is on the cusp on not believing but Ali believes it all.  We went on the "It's a Small World" ride and the kids looked around them in amazement.  After we finished that ride Ali said "that was all real right mommy?" to which I replied, "of course!".  Such joy and innocence in our children just warms the heart. We went on many rides, headed up into the tree of the Swiss Family Robinson, walked across suspension bridges on adventure island and went in Sleeping Beauty's castle. 

As we were finishing exploring the Swiss Family Robinson tree house we stopped to have a look at the map.  As I was looking at the map there was a man with his face next to mine.  I screamed very loud since it really startled me.  It turned out to be Jack Sparrow! He was on his way to the area where he does his meet and greets.  After scaring me near to death I told him he owed me a picture.  He was nice enough and stopped for a picture so I didn't have to stand in line (which i wouldn't have done).  We all had a good laugh at how loud I screamed.

For all the expense of going to Disney it is worth it.  Disney runs the park so well.  There were a couple parades to watch during the day as well as a performance and then another bigger parade at the end of the day that had all the princesses.  It was a very fun day for all of us!



Paris

Jason and I had decided that we would spend a weekend in Paris without the kids.  We figured Paris wasn't the best city for children and it would be nice to expereince Paris as adults....relaxing in cafes, leisurely dinners, stroll along the champs-elysees.  It was not to be though.  Sofia came home from school one day and asked if we were ever going to go to Paris becuase she really wanted to see the Eiffel Tower.  Jason and I looked at each other and gave a very noncommital answer.  We hoped that it would be a passing request and she would forget about it.  She did not.  a couple weeks later she came home with a book she had made titled, "My Holiday Destination - Paris".  She was excited about what she had made and showed me inside the book....information on the eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, weather in Paris, distance from Prague etc...all information she had compiled herself!  With this book we knew our romantic weekend was over.  We could not go to Paris without Sofia knowing that she had such a desire to see the city.  So we changed our plans and booked the Marriot just outside of Paris near DisneyLand.  When we booked the hotel we checked our calendars first to make sure we had nothing scheduled.  After booking the hotel we realized that we had Burns night to attend!  So rather than leave on Saturday as planned we left on Sunday morning after a restful :) 4 hours of sleep! 

We managed the drive even though we were tired and the kids behaved great which helped.  The drive to Paris is very easy and all highway so we got there in nine hours even with a couple bathroom breaks.  The hotel was very nice but our room was very cold.  We had all the heat turned up but it wasn't warming the space up.  We figured it would take a while since it was a two bedroom townhouse so we turned the heat up and went to bed.  When we got up in the morning it was still cold so we called the front desk.  We had noticed there was a space in the patio doors so when the serviceman came to look at the heat we showed him.  He agreed it needed to be fixed but in the mean time we stuck a towel in the crack and he gave us two space heaters to keep the place warm.  It did the trick and the rooms warmed up nicely.  He had the patio doors open for a little bit when he was working on them which apparently attracted the local swan.  After he had closed the door and close the drapes as well to block any draft I kept hearing something knocking.  I finally walked over to the door to see what it was and there was the swan knocking on the glass.  The kids thought it was hilarious and kept putting their hands to the glass.  We didn't want the glass to break and did want the swan to leave so we eventually closed the drapes again and the swan finally decided we weren't going to feed him and left.

Since it was such a long drive on Sunday we decided to just stay at the hotel on Monday and relax.  We went in the pool and then the kids went to the kids club where they made chinese lanterns and colored and played on the climbing structure.  The woman running the club, Mimi, was great and the kids loved her.  We had heard there was good shopping close by so we headed over to check out the outlets and the mall.  Ali was the only one who ended up with anything.  She really wanted new sneakers so she got a new pair of Pumas.  She was very cute in the store and ran down the aisle showing us how fast she could go in the sneakers.  After the outlets we headed to the grocery store and stocked up on cheese and snacks and headed home.


We decided on Tuesday we would take the train into Paris for the day.  The city is so big that you could spend weeks exploring so we just picked out the must see items and headed to those.  The first stop on our trip was the Arc De Triomphe.  Sofia was very excited to see it.  It was cold though so after standing outside seeing it for a bit I decided we should pop into a cafe on the Champs-Elysees for coffee/hot chocolate and croissants.  We warmed up and I took a couple pictures of the kids in the cafe so that when they are older they can say "i sat in a cafe on the Champs-Elysees" and have a picture of it.  Who knows maybe they will sit in the same cafe in 20 years!  After warming up we walked a little bit on the Champs-Elysees and then decided we should go to the top of the Arc De Triomphe.  

On Top of the Arc De Triomphe with the Eiffel Tower in the background



I was relieved when the man asked us if we would prefer the elevator with the children rather than walk up the 284 stairs.  We readily accepted the offer.  The elevator took us up to the gift shop and then we had to finish the short climb to the top.  It was not a great day for viewing Paris as it was foggy but it was still fun to be up on top.  We could see all the roads coming off the round about that goes around the Arc de Triomphe as well as the Eiffel Tower. 

Watching the traffic on the round about was very funny.  It is such a mad house and there are no lanes on the road so it is a complete free for all.  We were all excited for our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower (Jason had already seen it on a previous trip to Paris but it was a first for the girls and me).  After spending time looking around the city from on there we decided to head to the Eiffel Tower. 

We headed back to the metro and over to the Eiffel Tower.  The activity lady at our hotel had told us which stop to get off to have an unobstructed view of the Tower and I'm glad she gave us that information.  It was great seeing it in full with nothing blocking our way and it gave Jason a different view of the Tower as well since when he last came to Paris he approached the Eiffel Tower from the opposite side.  We slowly made our way over to the Tower while snapping loads of pictures and we stood in line to buy our tickets.  We could only go to the second floor since they were doing some kind of renovation work on the top.  This turned out to be fine though since it was a foggy day I don't think we would have seen much from the very top.  I can't imagine coming to the Eiffel Tower in the summer when the crowds are so big.  It took us 20 minutes to get the elevator down from the second floor and I think we were probably there during the slowest time of the year!

Surprisingly after only seeing two sights it was time for lunch so we walked from the Eiffel Tower to a restaurant on the way to our next destination.  We found a small creperie and stopped for lunch.  The girls and I opted for the banana and chocolate crepe while Jason went for a little more substantial, ham, egg and cheese crepe.  After lunch we walked down Rue Cler and checked out some of the shops.  We could not pass up the cheese shop so we stopped in and bought more cheese.  It is hard to resist buying cheese when there are so many excellent options to choose from! 

Jason and I knew we would only have one more stop left to see since the girls were getting tired as were we.  We decided to head up to Montmartre to Sacre Coeur rather than Notre Dame.  It was suppose to have a great view of Paris as well as an artist community and it would make our return train ride faster and easier so we opted to go there.  Of course once we got there we had to take a potty break which also meant coffee/snack break so we sat in a cafe at the bottom of the hill looking up at Sacre Coeur.  After finishing our snack we took the funicular up the hill and turned to see the view of Paris but unfortunately the fog was there so we couldn't see much.  We headed into the church and then walked around the neighborhood a bit to see if there were any paintings we were interested in but given the time of year and the cold there were not many artist around.  Oh well, maybe on the next trip to Paris we will come when it is a bit warmer!

After a full day in Paris we headed back to the train to go to our hotel.  We didn't really see that much of Paris but it took an entire day to see what we did.  We didn't get back to our hotel until around 6PM.  We made dinner of bread and cheese and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Burn's Night

Last Saturday was the annual Burn's Night Supper put on by the kid's primary school.  This was our fourth year attending the dinner.  Last year I was on the Burn's Night committee and the night was huge success and I had fun but this year I decided to just kick back and enjoy the night without any stress of working the event.  It was funny not being involved in the event this year after being so deeply involved last year.  I didn't even buy our tickets until a few days before the dinner!  We were prepared for a fun night out though.  We had our babysitter sleep over so that we didn't have to worry about getting back late.  The kids love when Iva sleeps over!  We called a cab, picked up friends on the way and started our night.  The night always involves alcohol and it always involves scotch whiskey.  I have my obligatory sip of the whiskey but that is all I can manage.  While Jason and a lot of our friends enjoy the flavor of Whiskey, to me it just tastes awful and it is really only good as cough medine.  This year I missed what was said for most of the toast to the lassies since the accoustics in the hall were not that good and the man giving the toast had a very heavy scottish accent that takes most of my concentration to understand even when there isn't a lot of other noise around.  I had a Scottish friend sitting next to me and he did "translate" some of it so it was still funny.  After the toast to the lassies and laddies and the toast to the haggis we sat down to enjoy our meal.  This year the serving staff didn't ask you what you wanted but just put heaping portions of everything on the plates.  As I did not feel like having a bloated belly this year I skipped the haggis and ate the potatoes and neeps.  Neeps, as far as I can tell, seem to be made from turnips but there also seemed to be some carrots in with it but I could be wrong.  There were two raffles this year.  The first raffle was for the bottle of Whiskey on the table and the second raffle was for a bunch of different prizes.  Our table all just put equal amount of money into the Whiskey raffle envelope and the opened the bottle and shared it among the table.  The second raffle everyone bought tickets for to see if we would win anything from the list of prizes.  It seemed our table was a lucky table as most people sitting at our table won some prize.  We came home with two boxes of legos...a helicopter and the jeep and green army men from Toy Story.  Once the raffle was finished and the plates cleared the tables were moved aside to make room for dancing.  We had a lot of fun dancing the Scottish dances.  I danced one with a Scottish friend who knew what he was doing but i still think that particular dance is very difficult even when I'm being dragged along by someone with knowledge of the dance.  The last Scottish dance of the night (I think it is called the Highland Barn Dance) Jason and I danced together and we felt that we finally figured out one of the dances.  It has only taken us 4 years to figure it out!  It was a fun night and we finally called it quits and got home around 3am.  We were grateful that Iva slept over so that we didn't have to leave the party any sooner!

Birthday Party

                                                                                     Last weekend we went to a birthday party for the girls friend, Kiera.  We are good friends with Kiera's parents and the girls have been friends since we first moved to Prague.  The kids don't see each other as often any more since they go to different schools but we try to get them together as often as we can since they have such a good time together.  Sofia was a little nervous going to the party becuase she was worried that all the kids would speak Czech since Kiera speaks Czech and goes to Czech school.  Once we
arrived though all of Sofia's fear evaporated and she jumped right in playing with everyone.  It is always interesting to be at these events to watch the kids and adults switch back and forth between languages.  There never seems to be a problem with languages and even when the same langauge isn't spoken you can still converse in a limited way.  The kids had a lot of fun coloring, dancing, joining in the conga line, trying to bite a donut from a string and some of the adults joined in for a little limbo game as well.  It was a fun party.  We all left the party tired from all the fun.