Happy 5th birthday to Clark!

Clark is 5! He woke up with such enthusiasm and excitement on his big day ready to celebrate! We had breakfast and family presents to start and then it was off to school where Piper and I brought in a cake to have a class party during snack time. It was fun to watch him with all his friends and I thought he was going to burst. Then as soon as school was out a few of his friends from school came over for a star wars party. All of the kids made light sabers out of swimming noodles and electrical tape (an idea stolen from my friend Lena) and then on to Jedi training with Luke Skywalker (aka Phil). We then had a few light saber battles but quickly learned those might be a little too violent for a 5 year birthday party. So we moved on to pin the light saber on yoda, pass the parcel, and party dancing, cake and presents. It was so much fun and Clark was a happy birthday boy.

It has been so amazing to watch Clark grow this year. His heart is amazing, he really loves people well and has taught me so much. He is always ready to share and loves to sit really close and watch movies together. He laughs a lot, is very silly and often times a cheeky monkey!

Happy Birthday Clark!

more cookies

Inge and Debra came over to learn how to make American Christmas cookies. We had a delightful afternoon and ended up with some very cute and yummy cookies.

football

Last Saturday was our last football practice. The kids have throughly enjoyed playing this season and have done really well. Even Piper has gotten in on the action if you can see she got to join in for the group shot, she thinks she is part of the team.

santa's grotto

So December 11 was not only Lucy's birthday, Clark's Christmas program, and Piper's Christmas program but it was also the day to see Santa at school. Santa's grotto and bake sale were set up. Lucy and Clark really had to see Father Christmas, they didn't really speak to him at all, but more just intensely stared at him. They were happy to get a little gift of play-doh, a lolly pop, and be on their way.

piper's chirstmas program

So December 11 was not only Lucy's birthday, and Clark's Christmas program at school, but also Piper's Christmas program at school too. She played a snowflake that danced, then her class sang jingle bells. She did all right until another little boy started crying and then she started her sympathy cry too. The teachers braided all the little girls' hair and tied bells to their arms and legs...they looked SO cute.

solider

December 11 was not just Lucy's birthday but also Clark's school Christmas performance... he was a solider and was so very excited! He did a great job saying his line, "you have to go to Bethlehem to be counted," signing and dancing very enthusiastically. He had a great time hanging with Nils and loved that we were there to celebrate with him. They were all so cute and I love these monumental moments in his life!

Happy 7 Birthday Lucy!!

7 years ago today our sweet Lucy was born and our lives changed forever. We had no idea what we were in for, the immense love that we felt for this new little bundle - the excitement, the nervousness, the joy, and the awe that we had. Lucy has been an amazing delight from that first day. She has a contagious laugh, a very dry sense of humor, and a heart that loves others. We have learned lots from her and are so blessed to be her parents. We love you sweet one. Happy Birthday little LU.

Lucy started her special day with presents and her favorite breakfast, Tapas (frosted mini wheats), and after school she had a Hannah Montana party. We had 16 little girls and 2 wild boys to join in the festivities. It was all about being a rock star, all the kids could get their hair dyed (red, blue, gold, orange, glitter) by the fabulous Miss Laura. Phil dyed his hair blue and was dressed up like a rocker, and led all the games. We played freeze dance where we sang Hannah Montana songs with pink glittery microphones, I think this was a big hit. We played pass the parcel, learned the electric slide and danced our hearts out. It was a great way to celebrate our little rock star!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCY!

Mrs. Gower's Birthday

Lucy's teacher Mrs. Gower celebrated her birthday the day before Lucy (which Lucy thinks is really cool) - we had a little breakfast party for her to celebrate her big day. The kids love her and we are so grateful for the person she is in our life.

white elephant

Our community group had a Christmas party last week. We had a huge pot luck dinner and had a white elephant gift exchange, where gifts (usually humorous and tacky) are exchanged and stolen from each other. It was one of the more lively white elephant parties we'd been to - the hot ticket item was a giant bottle of mouthwash. Yes, mouthwash. It's hard to find here and pretty expensive, and I'm please to say that I (Phil) ended up with it.

Our community group has been a fun group so far this year, and the Christmas party was a nice chance to celebrate and fellowship together. We look forward to picking back up with it in 2010!

cookies

During the month of December we make cookies as a family more times then I could possibly count. It is one of our favorite holiday traditions. We make lots of sugar cookies decorated to the hilt. We use frosting, millions of millions (that is what the Aussies call sprinkles), cookie cutters, and lots of imagination. We also make peanut butter, chocolate chip and my family favorite candy cane cookies. Piper also gets in on the action by eating as many as she possible can!

oh christmas tree

I love Christmas and I love to decorate the tree. We put ours up Thanksgiving weekend and have just been enjoying it ever since. My favorite part of putting the decorations up is looking through our box of ornaments and waiting for the rush of memories from each of them. I love them, we have several ornaments that Phil or I have made as children. We have ornaments that my mom and I made together when I was about 6 or 7. We have ornaments that belonged to my grandmother, some that were collected on trips, and many others that have a special story of their own. It is like opening a box that is filled with little glimpses of my life that has passed and each year as we add to the ornaments for the children, we get glimpses of life that is to come.

girls

While the boys were gone the girls just hung out and baked cookies and watched Christmas movies. It was so nice. Riverside school also really loves to celebrate Christmas to. In fact they love it so much that all the moms get together and make decorations and then totally transform the school into a winter wonderland. The kids show up to a fully decorated school with massive lit up trees and wreaths everywhere. Each of the classes then get to decorate a tree together. They make an ornament and then as a class come down to the jidelna (cafeteria) and place their ornament on the tree, drink hot chocolate and eat cookies. It is a fun to get into the spirit of Christmas morning. This year I helped serve hot chocolate and watched Lucy put her ornament on the tree. Her class made angels.

Treasure Hunt

Clark has been wanting to go on a treasure hunt for quite awhile now, so we made it a boys-only overnight trip to the mountains. We had a fantastic time, hiking through Cesky Raj (Czech Paradise). I "found" a treasure map for us to take, which led us through various locations on our path. Along the way Clark discovered treasure at each place (actually "someone" had strategically placed chocolate coins for us when "someone else" wasn't looking), leading to the big treasure at the end of our hike.

We had a great time walking and talking, and spent the night in a castle that doubles as a hotel - I'd stayed there before but I thought Clark would like it too. I hope this becomes a regular thing for us.

Setting off on the train...

One of our treasure finds...

The big treasure in the end was in this clearing...

Our dinner that night - Clark looks so big to me in this picture

Our castle/hotel... awesome!

Piper's Tricks

it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

We cleaned up all the Thanksgiving hoopla and pulled out all of the Christmas goods, turned on some Christmas music and started the decorations. We got our tree on Friday and decorated it today. Piper was in all her glory and kept shrieking every time she got a new ornament. Lucy and Clark were so excited to see all of the ornaments and they wanted to put ALL of the ornaments on the tree - I restrained them but not before they put about 90% of them on. Our tree is quite sparkly and homemade all at the same time, especially the bottom half where certain someones could reach. Bring on the holiday cheer....

some new ponies in town

The school was having a second-hand toy sale and I got these ponies at a steal of a price 75 kc (about 4 dollars) and let me tell you I think it might be the best money I have spent in a long time. Lucy and Clark ride them each day (to care for them) including jumps, tying them up at night and have started their very own riding school - Piper is their first student.

Thanksgiving, Part 2

After we had a day to recover from our big party, we had a nice (and smaller) Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday at the Syvertsens. More turkey, stuffing, potatoes. First Christmas movie of the year. And the family picture that we didn't get to take on Thursday.

Clark read the menu for us before dinner...