Pipers 2nd Birthday

Our little Sweet P is 2! She has been an pure delight and we love her immensely. She has a hysterical personality that keeps us laughing. She is snuggly, sweet and has a bit of fire in her too. She is talking lots, and likes to run and run and run. She also loves shoes, books, conversation hearts, dora, anything purple, puzzles, dancing and playing doggies and dressing up in anyone's clothes she can find. We had a fabulous day celebrating her, it was presents in the morning followed by a morning of sledding in our park. Then it was naps and party time! We had a few friends over for cake with purple sprinkles, and home made ice cream (thanks Aunt Laura!). It was perfect for Miss P.

Happy Birthday, Piper, we love you so much!

Piper's School Party

On Friday the day before Piper's birthday they had a "day of celebrations" as they called it. I wasn't really sure what to expect but they said I could bring cupcakes in after lunch. So I did and they had a whole party table set up for her for after lunch. They had a party hat, a princess chair, and had played all kinds of fun birthday games before I got there. Her highlight was the party hat and the happy birthday played on the piano. It was a fun way to start the birthday celebrations.

just because

ESI Retreat

Shanna and I spoke at a one-day Spiritual Renewal retreat last weekend for a group of teachers with ESI (English Services International) - these are mostly young, energetic guys and girls who come over for a year or two and teach English in Czech schools, while hopefully building relationships with them to share their faith. We really like the ESI teachers we've met, so we were honored to be invited to speak at this retreat. There were about 25 teachers from across the country, and Shanna and I spoke on Contentment and Calling.

We had never spoken together before, so this was exciting on many levels. We enjoyed the day, and our talks were broken up with some time to worship, pray, and get to know them a little bit more. And they took us out for a great dinner afterwards. It was definitely a great day.

The next day we had the teachers who live in Prague over for dinner and NFL football after church. Halftime gave us some time to rock out on Beatles Rockband...

Howdy Partner

These two really have a fun relationship - they love being together and at this stage are really similar in a lot of ways. One of their favorite things to do after dinner is to run. They have a path that they run from the front door down the hall to the ottoman. Then they re-group and go again. They also really like to play cowboys and girls. Tonight they put the two together and had a rodeo. They were cute.

Art

Clark loves to create. He loves art and will be starting a club after school next week called "Trash to Treasure". We worked together on a big hama bead project. Hama beads are small beads you make designs with, then you iron them together to make a picture. Clark has been wanting to make this horse and we had a fabulous time on it.

Davis Rock Band

It is still snowing here and to keep warm we have been playing a lot of Beatles Rock Band. Lucy loves being the lead vocalist along with Paul (McCartney), and Clark is the drummer and Miss P plays a a mean guitar. Phil and I fill in whereever we can.....

More Czech marketing

I saw this in a toy store a few weeks ago. I'm guessing that George Lucas did not give permission for Indiana Jones' image to be used on this Cowboy kit, which includes a toy gun, handcuffs, and badge.

Third Culture Kids

I just found a couple of pictures I'd meant to include in our Christmas travels - I love these because it confirms everything we'd heard at mission training: our kids feel most at home in an airport!

bundled up

It's been cold... really cold. This is what the peeps look like every morning before school. Everyone has on a hat, scarf, gloves, snow suit or pants, fleece, school uniform, with undershirt, and tights (yes even boys), socks, and underwear! It takes a long time to get ready in the morning but aren't they so cute!

snow magic

This is what I see out in my garden every night. Phil puts lights on this tree each year for me. He puts them up right after Thanksgiving and they don't usually come down until beginning of March. It gets dark here so early (4:30) and these lights give the darkness some magic, especially in the snow. I love them. I love Phil more.

Snow

When we arrived back to Prague a huge snow storm was expected that day, 12-18 inches. David Baker picked us up (thank you David) and the snow started and it did not stop for days. The temperatures were cold and the snow kept coming. The first couple of days we just relaxed and enjoyed the snow, unpacked and reorganized our lives. But then it was game-on. We headed out fully layered and had a blast, sledding, making snow angels, and just playing in the magical white stuff. We saw him in the park and fell in love
Piper's favorite snow transport

mani-pedi

While in Richmond we had a girls outing to get a mani-pedi. I love this picture it is one of the ladies' daughters who has been around the shop so much that when she saw Lucy I am sure she thought yeah a client just for me! She really knew what to do and kept us laughing the whole time. Lucy got dark purple with sparkles on her finger nails, and dark blue with sparkles and flowers on her toes.

Yaya's Birthday

We usually don't stay long enough to celebrate Yaya's birthday (on January 2nd), but this year we were still there. Well, physically we were there - almost all 7 of us (except Shanna) caught a nasty flu bug at one point, so we were in varying stages of lethargy during the celebrating.

Despite Papa over-baking the cake (by, oh, 40 minutes) - it turned out fine and we had fun helping Yaya feel special while we were there.
Yaya goes out of her way to make us feel at home, taking care of us, spending time with all of us, and letting us take over the house for 2 weeks! We love you, Yaya!

Major Rock Stars

The kids also took in a couple of movies - Piper's first theater movie was Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. Our favorite part was the Chipettes rendition of "All the Single Ladies."

Davis Bowling 2009

Another of the vital traditions is our Davis bowling tournament. Lucy, Clark, and even Piper got into the action this year. Piper was equally excited about the shoes and the bowling balls.

Christmas in Richmond, part 3

A big part of the fun in Richmond is seeing the rest of the family - all of my cousins, uncles, aunts, etc. We have several traditions, some of which I've done ever since I remember. One of them is getting together to eat Bill's Barbecue. Since Mimi (my 96-year-old grandmother) had recently broken her leg, she wasn't able to leave her retirement community - so we brought Bill's to her.

4 of the 5 great-grandkids (cousin Kate is on the left)...
Then we had massive present chaos. Paper was flying, there were many "ooh, aah, ohhh"s, and more yummy food was consumed...
We visited Mimi in her room as she tries to recover.

And we had a fun evening at the Yeatts', my mom's side of the family. Piper eventually warmed up to my uncle Archie.
What a cutie...

Christmas in Richmond, part 2

Christmas morning was VERY exciting. Wake up time, thanks to a combination of jet lag and Christmas enthusiasm, was around 5, and we convinced them to make it until 6 to wake up Papa and Yaya.

When we arrived, the only bag that didn't make it was the kids' suitcase (which arrived the next day). When he found out, Clark said, "That's OK - Yaya will have some new pajamas ready for us to wear tonight anyway." And he was right...

Lucy and Papa both got atlases this year. Lucy, who loves maps and has learned a lot this year about geography, loved comparing hers with Papa's...

My big gift this year was Beatles' Rock Band. I love it...

Piper got in the swing of tearing paper - amazing, there's something in there!

We all watched to see what Santa had brought everyone...

We had PLENTY of toys to play with the rest of the day!