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.

Having Fun

This last week has been a lot of fun. We have really started to enjoy our new house. We have been in the pool even though the tenmperatures have not been that high and we have had friends over to play and swim. We have been to friends houses to play as well as meeting friends at playgrounds. While I took Ali to have her ears checked Sofia got to go with her friends to a fire station. She said she had a lot of fun and got to spray the fire hose. I wish I could have seen that! This past Saturday was loaded with fun since we finally had Ali's birthday party. We decided to have a joint birthday party with the girls friend, Michelle. Since we were doing it together and Michelle had her heart set upon Beckiland (an indoor play place) that is where we had the party. I'm so glad we had the party there. It was the easiest party ever. We had 15 kids to watch and 4 adults to watch them. We each took a zone and made sure everything went smoothly. There was no fighting, crying or injury. Everyone had a ton of fun. After the party we went home for a little rest and then headed over to a friends house for dinner. We had a great dinner and the kids played well all night. We were even treated to a nice fireworks display from the next village. After watching the fireworks our friend broke out some sparklers. Ali was a little too scared to hold one but Sofia really had fun holding hers and making lines and circles with it. This week has us full of friends as well so I'm looking forward to another fun week. Supposedly the internet guy is coming to the house tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed and maybe I will have internet at home again!!!

First week

So we have lived at our new house for a week now. We are completely unpacked and can really start to enjoy ourselves. The girls have been playing in the yard and in their playroom by themselves for the last week while Jason worked and I diligently unpacked everything. Sofia made me feel good about all the work I have been doing when we had the following conversation:

Sofia: "Mommy you do a LOT of work and daddy doesn't."
Me: "Daddy works sweetie. He is at the office right now."
Sofia: "Yeah but daddy just sits at a computer all day making money but you do a LOT of work that takes a lot of muscle. It is hard work."
Me: "Well...."

It just made me laugh and Jason got a laugh out of it too when he got home. Anyway, the girls have had a lot of fun playing in the yard. They play in their sandbox and under the trees, in the flower bed...basically everywhere. Their imaginations are amazing. My friend, Joanna, came over on Friday with her daughter. The kids had fun playing and I it was nice to catch up with Joanna since we hadn't seen each other in a while. My friend, Julie, and her girls also came over Friday afternoon. Sofia and Ali were excited to have them over since Julie was the nursery teacher for both and her daughters are "big kids" which my children love. We broke out the sprinkler and the girls had fun playing with Julie's daughters since it was warm and we hadn't quite sorted out the pool at that point. I loved it too since Remy and Eden are old enough to watch my girls and keep them entertained. It made it easy for me to sit back and relax. I think we have figured out the pool now but we still need to do a lot of vacuuming since there is a lot of sand at the bottom of the pool. I'm hoping to have that done today and tomorrow. We also had friends over for dinner on Sunday night. Entertaining after a move always makes me feel like we have finally made the house a home. I finished the last few boxes of unpacking yesterday and it felt good. Since I finished the unpacking yesterday and the kids, while having done great entertaining themselves, were a bit stir crazy we decided to meet some friends at a nearby playground. There is a new playground a couple minutes drive from us so we went there and ended up spending over three hours playing. It was good for the girls to play with friends and have my attention as well.

The kids are at czech lessons this morning and I have finished mopping all the floors in our old apartment. Next Czech lesson will be the final cleaning on this apartment. The nice thing about coming back to our apartment is I can get online! We still do not have internet in the new house. As a matter of fact, we don't even have a computer since we had to bring our computer in for service becuase it isn't working AGAIN! I'm hoping by the time we get our computer back (within a week they tell us) we will also have internet. We shall see.

Moving

My blogging will be limited for a little while since we moved to our new house over the weekend. We still have our apartment until August 15th so I'm sitting in an empty apartment with our laptop now while the girls are around the corner at Czech lessons. I'm not sure how long it will take us to get internet set up at the new house but since this is Czech, I won't be holding my breath. Anyway, The move went great. The movers came and packed up our entire apartment Saturday in four hours! They came back on Sunday and started loading the truck. The men were amazing. They would carry 6 boxes at a time down from the third floor strapped to their backs. I was shocked when I saw one man carrying our big livingroom chair by himself and another man carrying Sofia's bureau by himself. They had our apartment empty in three hours! They took a lunch break and then showed up at the new house. The unloading was a little trickier since they had to figure out how to get our furniture in the house. They ended up having to bring our beds and bureaus over the balcony since the stairs were too narrow. As I watched one man holding the balcony by one hand and pulling the mattress up with the other I couldn't help but think, "no OSHA regulations here!". They had everything moved into the house in 2 1/2 hours. We have started the tedious task of unpacking but it is a slow process. Luckily we have a covered patio to put all the empty boxes, paper and bubble wrap to get them out of the way. There is just something gratifying about moving empty boxes out of the house. Once we have internet at the house I will post pictures.

Wonderful Spain

We had a wonderful time in Spain with beautiful sunny skies every day. This was our third summer going to Spain and every year we have stayed a little longer. This time we spent 2 full weeks and my mom joined us for the first ten days. I loved having my mom there and the girls loved having Grandma with us. Grandma rubbed Ali's legs and scratched Sofia's back. (She massaged my back too!) She gave them baths and read them stories and sang them songs. Ali had a fun partner to walk with too since Ali and my mom love flowers equally so they enjoyed walking together and stopping every foot to smell a flower.
Our trip started out a little shaky though when, as we waited to board our flight, Sofia said the dreaded words, "my ear hurts". She got visibly worse as we waited to board the plane. Luckily I had my handy medicine pack in my carry-on and gave her some motrin. This seemed to do the trick and she was fine but I still worried. By Saturday we couldn't deny it anymore, she had an ear infection. I'm glad that Jason and I are now pretty comfortable finding healthcare in foreign countries. After finding a doctor and recalling my Spanish classes so I could speak broken Spanish we left with a prescription. Being a saturday and also during siesta time we headed to the nearest town, San Pedro Alcantara, with a 24 hour pharmacy. While I was there getting Sofia's antibiotics and ear drops I also picked up some decongestant/expectorant for Ali since she started in with a horrible cough the previous night. With our medicine cabinet stocked up we stopped for lunch at a little place on the main pedestrian road in San Pedro. Jason and I decided to order the fried seafood plate for two since we had read that it is a common local dish. The plate came with fried calamari, baby squids, anchovies and a couple other things. We ordered the girls pasta but they continue to amaze us with their willingness to try new foods. Once they saw our plate of food they started to ask for some. We gave them one piece each since we weren't sure if they would like it but they both loved it. Ali really liked the baby squids and Sofia loved the anchovies. It was a lot of fun to watch them. Sofia continued to ask for the "little fish" throughout the trip.

The first week we spent at a resort just outside of Estepona. This is further west than we have stayed the last 2 years. While we still had fun, the beaches in that area are not as nice as our favorite beach, Cabopino. (I do admit though that it is really just nit picking because we have been so spoiled with Cabopino.) We could walk to the beach from our hotel but we only did that one day since the beach was very rocky. After the first day we decided to check out different beaches in the area.

We went into the town of Estepona to the main beach (Rada Beach) there for the day and had fun. The water dropped off a little steeply for the girls so they didn't do a lot of splashing in the water but spent a lot of time playing in the sand. We enjoyed lunch at one of the restaurants on the beach and completely skipped the pasta for the kids and ordered half orders of fried sole, anchovies and calamari. After filling up on seafood Jason and the girls headed to the playground on the boardwalk and my mom and I decided to see if there were any shops around. After two beaches that were ok but not great we decided to head back towards Marbella for the beach. We weren't sure exactly where the beach was and the coastal highway exits are not very well signed we did the best we could and ended up at a nice beach. It wasn't the beach we intended but it was quiet and not rocky. Next beach stop was in Puerto Banus. This town is where the rich go when they are on the coast. The marina had 100ft yachts which were beautiful. There were so many big boats that even the 36ft boats looked small. My mom and I walked along the Marina and window shopped as well. We weren't actually going to buy anything from the shops since the shops included stores such as Dolce & Gabanna, Dior, Cartier etc. The kids had a lot of fun at this beach since there were no rocks. They spent some time in the water an building sand castles. Our final beach destination, and where we went for the remainder of our beach days was Cabopino Beach. This is by far still our favorite beach. It is also the kids favorite. the slope into the water is gentle and they can walk out quite far. The sand is perfect powder sand and it isn't busy in the morning so it is easy to get a spot just out of reach of the water. We built many sande castles and collected shells. The kids had fun collecting muscle shells after we explored a rock covered in live muscles.

After the first 10 days in Estepona, we moved location to Calahonda (the town we have stayed in the last two years). This year we didn't stay at the same resort but rented a condo for the week just up the hill. The condo unit was nice and comfortable. The balcony was amazing and had views of Gibraltar and Morocco. We used the pool some at this condo but being so close to Cabopino beach meant we spent most of our days at the beach. It was nice to come back into the town we know so well. We ended up eating out more here since we knew exactly which restaurants we wanted to go to. We also spent one afternoon/evening with friends who own a condo in Spain. We got together with them last year as well. It is fun to hang out with friends on vacation. We got to see their new condo which they bought over the winter. The condo is beautiful with stunning views. It also has great pool and a tennis court. We swam, played tennis (which I haven't played in ages) and enjoyed a gret meal with friends. We are sad though becuase they will only be in Prague for another 3 weeks and then they move back to England.

It was a fun filled 14 days in Spain and we are already looking forward to next year. I will post some pictures soon.

Spain, Spain, Spain!!!

I will be taking a two week blog vacation since we are heading to Spain tomorrow! We are making our yearly trip to the beach in southern Spain. We have loved our time in Spain and we all look forward to it every year. We are also excited since my mom will be joining us for 10 days! I am looking forward to spending time with her. Hopefully by the time we come back Prague will actually feel like summer.

Last day of school - Good Bye Mrs. Bulthuis

Today was the last day of school for the girls. We had a nice party for nursery/reception classes together. It was my last official duty as the class representative for both of their classes. It is nice to know that my class rep duties are complete. This end of year party was happy and sad. It is happy because the kids had fun and there is only one child not returning next year so the kids will get to keep all their friends for another year. It is sad because we have to say good bye to Mrs. Bulthuis, Sofia's and Ali's nursery teacher, who is moving back to Canada. We were blessed to have her teach both our girls and we will miss her. She is a kind, caring and fun. I will also miss singing with her in church as well. Good bye Leanne. We wish you all the best!! Below is a picture of the girls with the Nursery teachers, Leanne Bulthuis (left) and Julie Clarke (right).

We have the keys!

We met with the landlords for our new house rental today and got all the instructions for the house (pool, heating etc.) and they handed over the keys. It is very exciting to finally have the key transfer complete and know that we can go to the house whenever we want. Of course, it will be even nicer when we move there on July 12th! I brought the girls to the house after school today since they had never seen the inside of the house. They were super excited to see the new place. I loved seeing the excitement on their faces as they checked out each room. After checking out the house we headed into the back yard. The girls loved the seat swing and the pool. I tried one of the cherries from the neighbors cherry tree. (Our landlords told us to feel free to pick any cherries from the cherry tree that overhangs our yard.) The cherry was delicious so the girls and I picked a bunch of cherries and ate them. Most of the ones on the tree aren't completely ripe yet but there was a LOT on the tree. I'm looking forward to enjoying more cherries soon.

So what are your plans for the summer?

That is the common question or some variation that you hear in Prague at this time of year. Summer is the time that everyone heads out of Prague to either their home country or other vacation spots around the globe. There are people that stay here all summer and people who leave for all of it. There are also people, like us, who take a two week holiday but otherwise are in Prague. It is always interesting to hear where others are going whether it is to America, Slovenia, Italy, Scotland or France. All sound like exciting plans and gives me more ideas for our own family holidays. This last week of school has me scrambling to see some of our non school friends before they leave for the month of July. When we come back from Spain we will be trying to see friends who leave for the month of August. I'm sure the summer will go by so fast though that all our friends will be back before we know it. I will particularly miss my running partners (and good friends), Beanie and Shanna. I have really been enjoying running with them over the last couple of months. Beanie started me on pilates too which I'm also enjoying. So, while I am looking forward to the summer and all it offers, I will miss chatting with my friends while I run and the added motivation it gives me on days I don't really feel like getting out there. Here is a picture Shanna took of the three of us at the end of our last run. We have one more run together before we part ways until August.

Pool Party

Today Sofia and I went to a birthday party for Sofia's friends, Bella (above) and Matilda(left). We weren't sure if the weather was going to cooperate but it ended up being a beautiful day. All the kids seem to have a lot of fun playing in the playhouse, jumping on the trampoline and swimming in the pool. After getting in the pool with her life jacket on Sofia ended up taking it off after seeing all of her friends in the pool swimming without any floaties. She still used noodles and kick boards instead of actually swimming but she is making progress in believing that she can actually swim. The party finished up with a pinata. The pinata was a lot of fun and everyone left with bags filled to the top with sweets.

Ali can swim!!

Yesterday was a tough day for Ali at the pool but today Ali decided it was her day to swim. She swam by herself for the first time! Here is the video of Ali swimming.

Happy Birthday Alessandra

We celebrated Ali's 4th birthday on Tuesday. It is hard to believe that she is 4 years old!! We started the day off by letting her open her birthday presents. She was very excited to have her own big girl bike and was ready to hop on and ride it around the apartment. She also loved her new ugly doll (who is actually two dolls in one. You can see the two sides of the doll in the pictures.) from Grammie and Grandpa.

Her school had a class trip on Tuesday to a playground so we actually were able to spend most of the the day together. Ali loves climbing up the fire pole and sliding down. Her arm strength is amazing because not only does she climb up the pole once, she does it over and over again. After the playground we headed back to school. We had cake in her classroom which only ended up being 2 other children since the other kids were all sleeping after the busy morning field trip! We also had cake again after dinner. We have decided to hold off on her party until we move into the new house. She is excited to be able to invite her friends over to play in our yard.

Life update

Life is moving by at hyper speed. The kids are busy with many activities like gymnastics, czech, ballet, and swimming (if the weather ever gets nice!). They also have lots going on at school. This week is water week for Sofia's class. I'm not exactly sure what that involves but she needs to have spare clothes for when she gets wet. Ali's class doesn't have water week but apparently Ali thinks they should and proceeded to throw herself into the water table in her classroom. Her teacher tried her best to reprimand her without laughing since I'm sure it was rather amusing. Next week the girls will have activity week at school which involves a lot of arts and crafts as well as a field trip to Detsky Ostrov, an island in the Vltava river that has a huge playground. We will also be celebrating Ali's 4th birthday next week. The following week has Sport's day at school and end of year parties and then we are off to Spain. I'm still running 20-25 miles a week and I started pilates. I've finally organized our movers to move us July 11th and 12th. Put all that together with the day to day of cleaning, grocery shopping, dog walking etc etc...things are very busy here.

Signs

Some signs are just too funny to pass up. I pointed this sign out for soft sided hot tubs to Jason in the mall with quite a few giggles. He just couldn't pass up a chance to take a picture since it was so funny. I know it is incredibly childish but what is life if you can't laugh and have fun.

Summer Fayre

The girls school had their annual Summer Fayre on Saturday. We were a little concerned it would rain but the rain held off until the end and we all had a great time. There are all types of things for the kids to do such as talking to firemen and checking out a fire truck, tie dying, face painting, hair salon, limbo and other games as well. There are sausages and ice cream to be eaten as well as fruits and vegetables to buy. As usual, Sofia put off eating to try different games and Ali headed off with Jason to find food. The school also brings in different vendors to sell things like books, bags, jewelry etc. The girls really enjoyed the day. Sofia decided to tie dye a t-shirt this year which was fun and she also tried to eat a donut hanging on a string. Both girls were very interested in the fire truck but Ali was too shy to try on the oxygen helmet. The Fireman was very friendly but he was a very large man so I wasn't surprised Ali wouldn't interact with him. I was surprised that Sofia didn't seem to have a problem though. Maybe she is growing out of that stage of her life. Both girls had their faces painted and their hair done of course. It was quite amusing to see so many little girls walking around with their hair crimped. Sofia was very excited for the crimping but Ali stayed with simple pig tails that were fancied up with ribbon. It was fun to see them interact with there friends as well as decide which things they wanted to do regardless of who was doing them. We all had fun and we were sad to have it end. We decided to keep the fun going though and we invited friends over for dinner. By the end of the night the kids were exhausted!

Birthday Party

Sofia's friend, Louis, had his birthday party last weekend. Luckily we were able to go to the party since Sofia's ear infections didn't get bad until towards the end of the party. The kids all had a lot of fun running around together and jumping on the trampoline. Sofia always seems to get a seat next to the person of honor at all birthday parties. Here she with her friend Louis.