Karneval 2015

Here's Jakub at his school "karneval" they had recently.  I know I've said it before, but I just LOVE his school, appreciate all the teachers do for them, and am extremely grateful that we were accepted to it.  Jakub has experienced many new and exciting things here, as well as been on many adventures I'm not accustomed to pre-schools doing for such young children, like ski-trips and bus rides to nearby castles.

As they do each year, they recently held a carnival for the kids and invited the kids to dress up however they would like and plan for a day full of games, fun, and adventure at the school.  I usually make Jakub's costume, but this year we decided to let him pick out a more elaborate one.  He chose spiderman, of course, and loved it.  The spider on the chest lights up.  I was just as enamored by it as him. :)

I am so happy his teacher captured this expression on his face.  It actually says a lot about her and the school as well.  This is his "I'm very happy, but a little embarrassed to express it, but still happy enough and feel safe enough with you to show it a little" face.  He wouldn't just let anyone have this expression and it's one more reminder that his teacher is awesome and that he is happy at school.

You can see above some of the fun things they did throughout the day.  Bag races, obstacle courses, balloon fun, and posing for silly pictures.  They also danced, exercised, listened to music and sang, and enjoyed eating special treats.



And here are the amazing teachers we've enjoyed having for 2 years now.

 

And his classmates...

Just a few things about Jakub at age 5:

- He's 4 feet tall and measures around 97th percentile for his age.  He's an entire head-size above most of his classmates and peers.  Not only does he look older, but often prefers to play with kids older than him as well.

- He loves to ride his bike outside, even in the cold.  And recently we've been enjoying sledding a lot with the winter weather.  He's not afraid to go alone and even to slide on his body on the ice down the hill near our home.

- He's physically fast and strong, which sometimes gets him into trouble when playing with others as he can hurt them quickly when playing too rough.  This obviously happens a lot with sister.

- He eats pretty much anything without complaint, except cooked carrots, peppers, and mushrooms.  He prefers them raw.

- He's enjoying praying again on his own and volunteers to often, which makes my heart and soul happy and thankful.  He often prays for everyone in the world to be ok and for God to watch over them, prays for family members, and almost always asks that God help each of us 4 to listen to Him and to each other.  Sometimes Sofia already wants to pray with him or she tells him what to pray for and he obliges, which is sweet and kind.

- His best friends at school are Filipek Vanek, Mikulasek Vejmola, Alex and Terezka.

Love you Jakub!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Sofia!

Here you are on your 2nd Birthday.  You are just the sweetest thing (though plenty sassy as well) and you were especially happy and energetic on your special day.  You knew it was your birthday and you could clearly say "I am 2" well before the big day.  We practiced a lot. :)



The day started off as beautiful with clear, blue skies and very cold temps.  There's still snow and ice on the ground from the previous weeks weather.  We had a nice, normal Saturday morning full of play time around the house and getting ready for your small birthday party later that afternoon.  Jakub drew you a birthday card at breakfast time and that was so kind of him to do.  No matter how much you two might argue at times, he has a really protective and loving side for you as well.  He couldn't wait to tell you Happy Birthday and to sing to you.

I spent most of the morning working on your cake as well.  I had it in my mind that I wanted to make you a really special, beautiful, girly cake.  What turned out was good enough, and tasted great, but wasn't as pretty as I had hoped.  Still, it was fun and I was looking forward to making it for you and thinking about you the whole time.

And while you and I were cooking and playing during the morning time your brother and Daddy went out to get you birthday flowers, which I also used on your birthday cake.  They were gorgeous!

And after your nap time most of our teammates, who are more like family to us here, came over to celebrate with us.  Mitch was away in the U.S. and Monika was away at her home in Slovakia, but the rest were able to be here.  They love you very much!

Here you are with Kaylee, Madison, Conor, and Alyssa.  You loved opening your gifts from everyone and then eating a bunch of cake as well. :)  You also seemed to like us singing Happy Birthday to you, but you were also shy with all of the attention and hid your eyes at one point. :)
Here are some more pictures from that time.

Of course brother wanted to be right there with you and had a hard time not opening everything for you or showing you how everything works.  I can't wait to see you two play in one more year from now when you can really keep up with him.  I think you two will have a lot of fun.  Right now you love to follow him around and you think whatever game he comes up with is the best.  You really look up to him and it's sweet to see.  I have to add here while I'm thinking of it that one of my favorite things is watching you see him for the first time when you wake up or when he gets home form school.  You immediately look for him, ask for him, or call out to him (Kubo!).  You want to hug him and hold him and talk to him right away.  He doesn't always want this, but even when he pushes you away (as older brothers often do) you keep on loving on him or following him around.

Above is you opening the necklace and earrings he gave you.  He picked it out for you and was so happy to tell you that he thought of you and picked it out all by himself.  It was a great moment to witness him publicly loving on you and giving you a gift.  You loved it and wore the necklace to church on Sunday with your birthday dress Daddy and I gave you. :)

Jakub decided to take some pictures and made me do a silly face - his favorite thing. :)

There are so many more pictures I could add.... You were just so sweetly and innocently happy to be experiencing and enjoying a birthday with the people who love you so much.    After opening all of the gifts you and brother began playing with many of them.  He loved the play-do set Madison gave you and played with that a lot while you blew bubbles and played with a monkey game Kaylee gave you.  Conor and Alyssa gave you an apron, which was perfect, because Daddy and I gave you a small kitchen and you already have a lot of play-kitchen things to cook with.  You love to cook and make me food- especially pizza!

We also made a birthday dinner all together which consisted of soft tacos, avocado dip and chips, a mexican bean dish, a bean and corn salad, salsa, and fresh cucumbers and bell peppers sliced.  It was yummy and you loved it!

We had such a fun time together!  Here are a few more things I want to remember from this special time when you turned 2:

- After the party was over, everyone had gone home, and we had cleaned up the house, your Daddy and I spent 1.5 hours watching videos of your birth, your first day at home, and brothers first time to see you and hold you.  It was wonderful!

- I made another cake with flowers on top and took it to church on Sunday so we could sing to you and celebrate with our church family.  It was very meaningful to me to do that.  And there you received your gift from Nav, which was a painting I asked her to make for you.  It's a beautiful, starry night with 4 owls sitting in a tree- one for each of us in our family.

- You are speaking all of the time now and saying many 3 word sentences.  You repeat most anything we ask and pretty clearly now.  You say many English words (I counted one day but stopped around 100...) and in Czech you say "Doma (home), pa pa (bye bye), ahoy (hello, goodbye), tady a tam (here and there), ne (no), and jo! (yeah, yes).  Our Grandmother here, Babi, keeps you 2 times a week and says you understand her completely now, even if you don't say everything back to her yet.

- You can count to 14, though you miss numbers here and there of course.  But you get close to getting it all right each time.

- Your favorite stories or cartoons are still Barney and Baby Bop, Curious George, and Princess Holly and Ben Elf.  You ask to read these books at bedtime every night.  You love to be read to and you will listen for as long as someone wants to read, which is great.

- Your favorite colors, because of Barney, are still "Barney Purple" and "Baby Bop Green."

- This winter we have had a lot of snow and ice recently and you LOVE to ride on the sled with Kuba and also to sled down the hill behind our home.  You are not afraid to go down it and you love to just be outside in general, even if it's really cold.  You aren't even afraid to run on snow and ice, which always scares me to death.

- I don't know your health stats as we haven't had your 2 year check-up yet.  I plan to do that this week. :)  You seem very tall though, for your age, and you talk more than most kids your age around us.  You wear 2-3year old clothes and your shoe is a 26-27.

- You have a baby doll that you call baby that goes everywhere with you and that you must sleep with.  It's sweet to watch you take care of her.

- You sleep well by yourself in your bed each night, still a crib, and you sleep usually from 8 to 8.  You share a room with Jake, which you both seem to like.  I think he finds it comforting to know you are there.

That's all for now.  More to come soon!  Happy Birthday to our sweet little girl.  We love you so, so much!