Piper as a snowflake

Piper's school, Our Submarine, also had a special Christmas program. They sang a couple of songs. Piper's classmates were snowflakes - they danced around and sang, then they got their teddybears and went to sleep. Piper had to tap each child with her magic wand to wake them up while Sam enthusiastically played the triangle to signal magic wake up time. Very cute. All parts were played with great excellence.

Clark's 6th Birthday

Clark started his birthday off early, he got up before the crack of dawn and was ready to open presents! This is one of the things I love most about Clark - he is a "go big or go home" type of person. He is all or nothing.. here are some examples he doesn't just know everyone in his year but almost everyone at school, he doesn't just giggle he throws his body on the floor and laughs hard, he never walks only runs from place to place, he doesn't just listen when you talk he asks a million follow up questions to make sure he fully understands. Clark is very sensitive, cuddly and heartfelt - he never wants to sit alone and watch a movie but always wants someone to come and snuggle with him and to enjoy the experience with him. He loves people. He loves to pray for people and he has great insight when it come to praying for them that has encouraged my own heart immensely. It is a delight to be his mom and to wonder who God is shaping him into be. He brings lots of laughter and tons of joy to our lives.

Happy Birthday Clark!

Thank you for all the laughter you bring to our lives!

Lucy and Clark's Birthday bash

It was all sorted - Lucy was going to have her own birthday party as well as Clark. She had been talking about her own party for weeks and then suddenly one Saturday afternoon she said to Clark, " Clarky, I would really like for us to have our birthday's together this year" and he ate that up. So they decided on Beckiland, this crazy indoor play area with trampolines, bikes, climbing walls, a train, and huge jumping and climbing stuff. They invited a bunch of friends and then went crazy one Saturday morning. I love that they wanted to have their party together, that they invited lots of friends and that I just got to enjoy being with them.

Lucy's 8th Birthday

I really can not believe our sweet Lucy has turned 8. Her laugh is contagious, her smile is warm and she is a delight. She is growing in so many ways I can hardly believe it. She loves to learn, loves to read and loves to be outside. Her heart is sensitive and she really cares about others. She is coming into her own, learning how to maneuver her way through friendships, learning how to love others well, understanding what she wants and how to go after it, and understanding her relationship with God. Her heart is transforming before my eyes. I have learned so much from her and I am sure as the years go I will learn a lot more from her. I am truly blessed by this one and so grateful to be her mom.

We celebrated Lucy in the morning with presents and breakfast. Then she and Clark had a birthday party together at Beckiland (more to come on that). Then she had a special treat with Kyra spending the night and all of the Falk kids coming for a movie night. Lucy got a perfume kit for her birthday so we made some perfume with Kyra the next morning... it smelled YUMMY!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

We love you!!

Christmas Celebrations at School

We love that the Riverside school celebrates Christmas! They turn the school into a magical wonderland for all of the children. They put huge Christmas trees up and all the classrooms have decorations and have had so much snow this year that it really was white and beautiful.

Father Christmas comes to visit each year too. Lucy and Clark still love the magic of Santa. Piper would not get close to him for anything.
Each class helps to decorate a tree in the jidelna (cafeteria), they each make an ornament and then come as a class to hang the ornament on the tree and have hot chocolate and milk.
Here are Lucy and Clark's ornaments
We also have a nativity performance. It is outside under the stars in the (freezing) snow. Lots of singing, lots of laughs and of course the story of Mary and Joseph and a little baby born in a manger. Clark was a King this year and Lucy was an Angel. Clark was quite tired and kept looking like at any moment he was going to fall asleep. We just kept laughing at him. Lucy loved being an angel this year and I was so proud of her singing and smiling thru the whole performance. She is coming out of her performance-shyness shell a little bit. (sorry these pictures are quite dark)

And of course last but not least Christmas class parties! With dancing and food and lots of sugar!

Lots of December fun!

Girl Scouts Investiture

Lucy has been a part of Girl Scouts this year and they just had their Investiture this week. Each of the girls got pinned and took the girl scout pledge. We also had snacks, and sang more silly songs that they prepared. She is excited to be a real girl scout now that she has her pin, and also is really interested in earning badges!

Cinderella

Lucy and I went on a mommy-daughter date to the ballet to see Cinderella. We saw it in the National Opera House and it is quite a small theater and so beautiful but it made for a great place to see the ballet because we felt like we could really see what was happening in the story, the facial expressions and gestures. The outing was sponsored by the Girl Scouts so we also got to meet up with some of Lucy's friends from her scout troop.

special visit

Clark had a special visitor in town last weekend, Grace! Grace's family moved back to England and were back in Prague for the weekend. We had a special morning with them on Saturday. These two were so cute, they picked up right where they left off with lots of giggles, running and laughter. It was great fun to have the morning together and watch the kids play while Karen I also got to catch up on all the happenings. There were lots of hugs as they left and a few tears... so sweet.

Sledding

We have had so much snow and it has made for perfect sledding conditions. We headed out with some friends and hit the park. The kids loved it. We loved it. The hill is long and fast.

Piper loves the hill, but she would really like to go by herself.

We also went one night after dinner with friends for a grown ups only sledding night! Super fun too.

Baby Book Club

Piper and I go to Baby Book Club every friday morning. Riverside's early years building hosts it, and Mrs. Jelenik leads it. Each week there is a theme, we start with a book then we continue upstairs with an art project, snack and outdoor playtime. Piper has lots of little friends who also come so it makes for a very fun morning.

snow

We got our first dusting of snow on Friday, it was very light and melted fast. Sunday night we had snow in the forecast and it actually was snowing on our way home from dinner and kept snowing all night and all day monday. We got at least 6 inches of snow. Today we had the most beautiful day with blue skies, snow flurries and the sun shining. This is my garden today around noon. It was glorious.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year we took a break from our big blow-out Thanksgiving celebrations and had just our team (and extended family) over to celebrate. It was really fun to have a small, intimate, fancy evening. We set up tables downstairs in our playroom/ office area and pulled out the china and wine glasses and ate and ate and ate. We had so much fun being together although a bit loud with all the children including lots of giggles, laughter and a few Thanksgiving knock knock jokes.

All pictures by the fabulous Talitha

Owen's birthday!

Happy Birthday to Owen! We had a great time celebrating Owen's 6th birthday. It has been a great joy to watch him grow up from such a wee little one to what seems like such a big guy. We have lived so much life with the Syvertsens that they seem so much like a part of our family. All of our kids love each other somewhere between cousins and brothers. It is a great privilege to celebrate Owen and the the year that he his lived, and to celebrate what is to come. We love you O!

hours of fun

This box was originally obtained for Clark's book club and it was a rocket that was decorated, it made its way home and then provided more hours of entertainment then one would think possible. All three of them have spent many hours gluing, coloring, placing stickers and pushing each other around. I love the creativity of it all.