Under the Sea!

The weather has been so crazy and unpredictable the past 2 weeks... One day it will be sunny and beautiful and the next it is rain and hail the size of golf balls. Don and I went to the school to pick up the kids and ended up waiting 10 minutes in the car (don't judge us... we moved here from Phoenix) waiting for the hail to let up. Yikes.

The weekend of May 24th was busy, busy. Saturday the kids went to soccer again (this time without snowsuits!) and then spent some time playing with their friends on the playground at the school’s “car boot sale” aka: people selling stuff out of their car trunk. We didn't find anything to take home, but did enjoy some bacon sandwiches (yeah, that’s basically the best idea anyone ever had) and ice lollies (aka: popsicles).

Holden vs. Archie! 

Bacon sandwich... why didn't I know about this before?

Burke & Lexi playing on the train

The kids doing a playground obstacle course... this kept them busy for a while

On Sunday we stopped for lunch at a local cafe we'd been wanting to try and had some delicious salads and what they called a "Jacked Potato," which was essentially a baked potato with all sorts of good stuff on it. It was delicious!

Potato with ham, spinach and cheese

From there we were off to enjoy some sun, food and music with friends at BeerFest (http://www.ceskypivnifestival.cz/en/czech/prague-2014/), a big festival that runs for several weeks in a giant park not very far from our house. Like everything in CZ, it was also pretty kid friendly, with face painters and lots of kids running around and playing. We ended up with a crew of Ninja Turtles, Spiderman and Hello Kitty.

They had 75+ beers on tap, lots of Czech specialty food and live music. 

The girls

The boys (note the new t-shirts)

Hanging with a Ninja Turtle

Green beer? Why not!?

You load a card with money and then take it to your tap of choice

Ruth and Doreen

I think this was my first beer since I was 17... 

There was a Mercedes tent where they had a simulation to show how the seat belts work if you’re in a rollover accident. The guy talked Chrissie and I into getting in and the next thing we know the car flips over and we’re hanging upside down. If you’re in the market for a Mercedes, I can confirm that the seat belts are top notch…

After a fun weekend at home, I was off to Wrocław, Poland for a few days. Wrocław is a decent sized city in Poland and was unfortunately mostly destroyed during the war. There were some really beautiful places, but most of the city was newer and there was also still a lot of housing remaining from communism. They do still have a pretty main square though that has market vendors and a funny little “beach” set up. It was less than 60 degrees out, but people were hanging out in these lounge chairs enjoying the mostly cloudy day.

I don't know that I'll ever get use to
walking in a hotel room and seeing
single beds...

Beach area in the square

I stopped in an H&M and there were 14 people in front of
me in line.. 14!! Time to hire another cashier I think...

Dinner! Pork, pork and some more pork

Friday, May 30th was the kids’ big school musical debut! The Early Years and Primary schools teamed up and performed Mrs. Fizzle’s Magic School Bus (an original “musical”). Our kids performed Under the Sea and we were very proud of our little jelly fish and crab. It was pretty funny because we couldn't find Holden for the first half of the performance. It turns out he was up on stage playing the drum (which was 4 times his size). It also turns out that multiple people had told Don that Holden would be playing the drum, but Don forgot. He even tried to convince me that Holden was a little brown haired kid on the other end of the stage. Burke was also marching to the beat of her own drum throughout the performance… When the class was down, she was up. When they were up, she was down. And, the whole auditorium got to see a good bit of her tummy too. So, most of our video is of Burke wandering around the stage & some little brown haired kid (Holden peeking out of the background from time to time). I guess with 3 year olds this is about as good as it gets!

Outside the auditorium

Getting ready for the performance!

A little interpretive dance?

I think Archie was unsure if he wanted in on this...

He came around :)

Playbill!

Our little crab

Jellyfish / drummer

Here are some short videos from the show. The first is of Burke and the second of Holden. If you would prefer to watch the little brown haired kid that Don thought was Holden, just let me know. We have a ton of great footage of him...

After the show we celebrated with some ice cream.

Did somebody order ice cream?

Before...

After.

Lexi demonstrating good sharing (notice that I don't have
a photo of Burke sharing hers... )

I'm pretty sure Holden just stood there with his tongue
out waiting for the other kids to bring their cones...

After all that excitement it was a pretty low key weekend. Saturday morning we were back at the soccer fields and we are making progress. Holden is still using his hands to stop the ball, but he didn't tackle anyone this time, so we’re moving in the right direction.

After soccer we hung out at the Farmer’s Market.

Donuts!

The kids wanted to stand on this ledge while waiting for the bus.
Somehow I grabbed a 5th kid and threw him up there too. Thank
goodness his mom didn't mind!

We woke up Sunday and made some pancakes (don’t be too impressed, I just had to add water and put the kids to work stirring) and then we went over to the Hordleys for a little lunch.

Pancake helpers

Success!

Picnic

Burke getting a push from Don

Unfortunately our weekend was a little short because I had to fly back to Poland (this time to Poznan). Leaving Sundays really stinks, but I did get the best goodbye. Don put the kids up in the windowsill so they could waive goodbye and blow kisses. I hate to go, but this definitely the sweetest way to leave.