More of Christmas! :)

Here are some more pictures from Christmas that I just felt like adding to the blog. :)  What a wonderful time we had here at home and with friends!  Above are the Christmas brownies Sofia made with me and Madison.

 So much love!

 Probably his favorite gift of all- a new hot wheels car.

 She was so excited about each and every gift.  There were a lot of "wow!" and "I love it!" moments.  She is super sweet. :)

 What a blessed Christmas time with plenty of gifts and love given to us from friends and family both here and in the states.

 "Wow!!!"  I think it was about her blue toenail polish from her stocking. :)  Her first one!

 Winter socks! :)

This is the beautiful ginger bread house that Jakub won in our white elephant game the week before Christmas.  It was his first year to play with us and our students at our annual Christmas party.  I think it was really the best gift of the night and he was so excited when he opened it and then got to keep it.  It also tasted very good. :)

 The beautiful knit-ornament family my friends Sona and David gave us this year for our tree.  I will hang them every year and remember what a dear friend she is to me and how much we love and appreciate their family and all we get to do together here in Olomouc.

 Playing some of the games we got for Christmas, including an x-box from our family in the states.  Everyone loves it!

A quick Christmas-time trip to Prague to see some friends and also renew my passport at the embassy.  We had a great time and I'm so glad Madison went with us.  Train trips and hotels with kids are always a fun and exhausting adventure. :)  Here we found a beautiful nativity scene and some live animals to pet and feed in downtown Prague.  Thank you God for one of the best Christmases so far and thank you for your Son- the reason to celebrate every single day of life.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2015!

You sweet things!  This was a very magical and beautiful Christmas holiday!  You were so excited for it to begin and every week was full of fun events, parties, surprises, and special moments with friends and our church.  Thankfully, Jakub was well in time for it all.  Prior to the holiday time he had been sick for about 5 weeks with urinary infections, antibiotics, 3 stomach flu viruses, a bad cold, and iron-deficiency anemia.  It was rough and I felt like he might never be fully well again.  Thankfully, with the help of his doctor and God's blessings, and a lot of prayer from many people, he was well just before the holidays started and was able to enjoy almost all of it with us and with his friends. Praise God!  Here's to hoping and praying that in 2016 he feels much better, is very healthy, and the anemia does not return!

The kids helped me make Christmas cookies this year and we had so much fun!  I especially loved the little reindeer with hearts.  The kids were most excited about their extra-large Christmas trees they ate after dinner while we watched Frosty the Snowman together.  :)

Our beautiful, real Christmas tree.  Jakub, you and Daddy picked it out and carried it home together.  We usually use our fake tree, but this year we enjoyed very much having and smelling a real one. :) It was great to decorate it with you and Sofia while we listened to Bing Crosby sing Christmas carols. This is my favorite time of the year!!

I just really love this picture of you three getting the lights ready.  I hope we have many more Christmases together and that we always enjoy them this much.

This beautiful lady, Madison, also spent Christmas with us this year.  Jake and Sofia, you love her very much and she has been a very good Aunt to you all while living in Olomouc and working with us here the past two years.  She loves you both more than you'll ever know and she spoils you rotten. :)  In a good way.  She is constantly bringing you treats, and gifts, and thinking of you and helping take care of you.  She doesn't even mind when you are sick and she has helped me through some difficult times to take care of this family. :)  She'll be leaving Olomouc this April to return to the U.S. to continue in life and work there, and be near her family, but I hope our family will always be connected to her and that you might know her the rest of your lives.  She's wonderful!

And Christmas was wonderful as well.  We took you on Christmas Eve morning, with Madison, to the movie theater to watch old Czech Christmas fairytales from the 50's and 60's.  You laughed a lot and we had so much fun together.  The Kino Metropol does this for families every year and they are so sweet there.  They give gifts to you children and really provide a great, family-like, holiday atmosphere.  We then spent the rest of the day playing and eating and listening to Christmas music.  You both were so excited!  On Christmas eve, after your baths, we heard the bells ringing near the Christmas tree and we knew that Ježišek had visited and brought you some of your Christmas gifts.  You both received some new books, crafts, markers, and chocolate.  You were very happy.  And you couldn't wait for Santa to come in the night and bring the rest of your gifts.  Madison also spent the night, which you were both thrilled about.  And waking up the next morning all together was very special.

We had a very magical Christmas time and I'm thankful to God for the many gifts and blessings He gave and continues to give us.  The best and most important is his Son, Jesus, whom we thanked and celebrated at Christmas time.  I'm also extremely grateful for our family and the good health we enjoyed and the memories we made this holiday season.  I pray we have another great, even better, year together loving each other and making more memories.  We are blessed!

Beginning of školka for Sofia!

Sofia, my princess, you LOVE school.  You are only 2, but you already want to be at pre-school with the other kids, with Jake, and to learn and play with others.  You are very social, though shy at first, and love to be around other people and where the activity is going on.  You talked with us many times about going to school, long before the day came to try it out.

In December your class at pre-school opened- a brand new class.  They are called "little mice" in Czech.  Since you will begin full-time in February when you turn 3, you are now allowed to "try" school for 5 days each month.  You were and are so ready for it.  :)  On your first day you were so excited and jumping around the house, getting ready enthusiastically, and practically running to school with your little back pack on.  You're adorable and happy almost all of the time (until you get sassy and bossy).  Unfortunately I didn't get to go with you on your first day because Jakub was very sick at home, but Daddy took you and you were so brave.  You put your things away in your locker and left him to go into the classroom and to your teacher, a very kind woman you call "Pani Učitelka" (ms. teacher in Czech).   You held her hand as she walked you around the room to meet the other children and tell them your name.  You were very quiet, but brave, and stayed until lunch time with no problems.  The teacher said the entire week you were very sweet and very quiet and happy to be there. You did many crafts and played with some of the kids.  You were also happy to play alone.  On your first day to be picked up you hugged the kids goodbye. :)  Sweet, sweet, sweet Sofia.

You liked it very much and are ready to go back "when I be 3."  As you say.  My heart breaks for you to leave me.  I have loved having you home with me every day and through all things.  You are sweet to me and love to be by my side doing most things together.  And I love to play and cook and clean and do those things with you as well.  But I'm also happy for you to go and play and learn with the other children, because it makes you so happy and you already thrive there.  I think you will be just as social, energetic, smart, and happily challenged by school as your brother has been.  I can't wait to see what all you learn there and how you grow. :)  And I can't wait to see you confidently speaking Czech.

We love you Sofia!!

Happy Birthday Jakub!

Happy Birthday Jakub!  We had a wonderful time celebrating your 6th birthday at home.  Your best friend Mikuláš and his Mom, my best friend Stana, came to celebrate with us, as well as our good friend Madison.  We had so much fun opening gifts together, eating, and playing.  You and Mikuláš ran around like crazy, as usual. :)  You can see in the two pictures above that you two have been friends since you were babies.  In the first picture you are both 1 year old.  Now you are 6!  The time has gone by so quickly.  You both remain good friends at pre-school and like to play together there as well.  You sometimes still fight like brothers, but you also play very well and love each other.  You especially love to go to his house and play and spend the night.

Madison helped me make this beautiful cake for you.  I saw a picture of it on the internet and really wanted to try and make it.  You really love super-hero things right now, playing with spiderman and batman, and you also love to build with your legos.  You have great ideas about how to engineer things and maybe one day you will want to build, design, or be an architect.  You really liked the cake, but didn't want to eat much for some reason.  We would later find out in the night that you were going to get a stomach flu and be very sick for a few days (and then a few weeks... more on that later.)

Here's a picture of me and Stana.  She has remained a very good friend of our family's.  She's very encouraging, positive, and sweet.  I love to spend time with her while you kids play.  :)

And very close to your birthday we had a "fall festival" party with our "Moms and Kids" Wednesday English program.  You were dressed as Spiderman and Sofia was a princess.  You both had a lot of fun on this day and we had a good party.  Two of your friends from school started coming this semester and it made the class more fun for you.  In general, though, at this age you didn't like to participate anymore because you were "bored" and already knew all of the English well.
It was hard for you to sit through the classes, but you loved to play with your friends. :)  I always have a lot of fun teaching this class and many of the moms have become my good friends as well.

So, Happy Birthday to you Jake!  You're awesome and we love you very much!  You are confident, smart, energetic, and constantly wanting to learn something new, try something new, run, play, and live life to the fullest.  You keep me on my toes and striving to challenge you and show you new things.  I think you are going to love first grade next year and the new challenges it brings.  I can't wait to see it!

A swimming they will go!

Look at them go!  The swimming lessons are continuing to go very well.  Jakub is growing in confidence and skill and often likes to show us now, in the bathtub, how he can successfully hold is breath and head under water for a bit.  I'm so proud of him for being brave and for enjoying this class with his friends from school.  I can't wait to see what his swimming is like at the end of the lessons next February!

Happy, Gorgeous Fall 2015

We have had a very beautiful fall season this year!  Though many days for the last 3 weeks have been cloudy and quite cool, or even cold, the trees and flowers around us have changed to some brilliant and vibrant colors.  I would say it's one of the prettiest autumns we've had in a few years.  And on the rare days the sun has come to shine down on the leaves it has felt like a true fairy-tale land around us.  I love this season and I love God's creativity!

These pictures are all taken from around our home and neighborhood.  Those with red trees are from directly around our apartment building and local playground just across the road from our home.  We play there almost every day and have spent many hours picking up the leaves, playing hide and seek beneath the trees, and collecting chestnuts from the trees.  The golden trees are from just down the road, and still near our home, at a local park where we love to play with the kids and friends also.

We have been blessed with a great home and area of the city.  I can't imagine living anywhere else here with the kids.

Around the World - Kindergarten

Jakub's kindergarten class is learning all about their personal world around them as well as the world at large.  They focused a lot this semester on learning about their country, city, neighborhood (most of them live in the same one as us), street address, family information, etc.  They've also started focusing on the world as a whole, learning about different continents and some of the larger countries and people groups.  Jakub has been singing or reciting a lot of songs and poems he's learned at school for each place.  And he has his personal information memorized.  It's been fun to watch him learning these things and exploring new places with his teachers and friends.

Above you can see their first field-trip of the year to our city center (Jakub is at the very top in the grey jacket).  They walked around the town hall, several important fountains and statues, and were even given a tour of the main center memorial statue of the great black plague and all of those who perished from it in Europe and in our region.  They learned some of our local history and some basic information about Olomouc.  Jakub was so excited when he shared it with me at the end of the day.

Learning about some of our local fountains.   I believe Olomouc is known for having the most historical fountains of any central European city.  It could be just of our entire country. :)  Either way we have very many beautiful fountains in this city.

Here they are learning from a guest speaker about Asia.

Jakub sitting with his desk mates at school.  So far they have studied about Europe and the Czech Republic, Asia, Africa, and Australia.  He says they are going to study America next.

He's been doing well at school so far and occasionally tells me excitedly that he has earned some "1's" and stars at school.  In the grading system here you earn grades from 1 to 4 I believe, and a 5 means you failed and must repeat the class.  A mark of 1 is the best and Jakub seems very proud to have earned a few.  I'm sure the teachers are helping to prepare them for this marking system which will begin to take place in the first grade for him next year.



Here's a picture of Jakub from his first ceramics class he attends at school after the learning day is over on Wednesday afternoons.  He loves it and seems to really enjoy creating with his hands.  They have been working on making plates, one bowl, and some kind of creature face/head. :)  I can't wait until they have their end-of-the-year display day and we can see everything he has been working so hard on making.

I also am thankful for our healthiest start to school yet.  It's been almost 2 months of school and Jakub hasn't missed one day for illness.  He also has a great attitude about going to school and seems to enjoy being with his class and friends very much.  I'm extremely thankful, especially as we look to the future of Sofia attending this same school starting next February.  We recently received notice that she's been accepted and will be a part of the new class of "mice."  She is thrilled and keeps asking how long it will be until she can attend with Jakub. :)  It's very sweet and breaks my heart a little at the same time.