play dates

Piper had a few girls from her class over for a play date. These are her BFF's from school...Piper, little Lucy, Nella, and Milli. All super sweet girls so grateful they all have each other!

Christmas Market

We went to a Christmas market one Sunday morning at the Castle Nehalozeves (say that fast 5 times!) about 30 minutes outside of Prague. It was the most beautiful crisp day, the skies were blue, the sun was shining and all the wonderful things of village life were on display. The vendors had some amazing beautiful handmade items, lots of yummy food and several art projects for the kids to participate in. It was a wonderful morning. So refreshing and fun. And definitely a great way to kick off the Christmas season!
Vendors inside and out. Look at the sky... wowThe kids painted magnets in the cellar of the castle. Where you could also buy the castle's wine and some yummy cheeses. Pikle are my favorite Czech treat. It is fried dough with sugar and cinnamon... along the lines of a churro.

This glass blower was making ornaments as we watched.

More vendors in the castle.

St. Mikulas (Nicholas) is a czech tradition that happens on December 5. He travels around the city with the angel and devil. He asks you what you want for Christmas, they ask about your behavior, make you perform a song or poem and then they give you candy. Lucy and Clark sang Jingle Bells in English and everyone loved that!

Really great day we will definitely be at this market again next year!

Thanksgiving #2

Every year we have a Davis/ Syvertsen Thanksgiving the Saturday after. Laura hosts, the kids run around and lots of food is consumed. True bliss. This year Tom and Cyndy joined us along with Carrie and Mathias and a few storm troopers. We ate dinner and then headed to the neighborhood playground in the dark. The kids rode the merry go round until they couldn't walk straight and all the daddies tried climbing walls. It was such a lovely evening.

Black Friday...

Our kids do not get Thanksgiving Thursday or Friday off but every year I keep them home for Black Friday. This year I kept it a surprise until late Thursday afternoon and then told them what we had planned..We headed out for breakfast at Starbucks for Peppermint Hot Chocolates with Miss Jessica and Miss Betsy. Then off to the church to "help" (I use that term loosely) decorate the church for Christmas. Then Phil met up with us so we could go get our tree. I think we are the first ones in Prague to go out each year! Then we rounded our day out with dinner at a friend's house and ELF! Saturday was reserved for tree trimming and house decorating! LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I love Thanksgiving.. reflecting on all that we are thankful for, a big feast surrounded by friends and family. I love the preparation for it, the hunting and gathering of just the right ingredients, the anticipation of being together for a yummy meal, the laziness that comes after with great conversation and football on in the background.

This year as I looked around the dinner tables as our community group gathered together, as all the children were sitting at the kids table, and all of the amazing dishes flanked us, my heart was just reminded at how truly blessed I am. That the people around me, my sweet family and friends are all given to me. They are all gifts that I am not entitled to, but they are given to me from the Lord, they are precious gifts that I am so thankful for.

I cooked this one and Talitha cooked the other... really have not tasted a better turkey, and I don't think I have ever eaten as much food as I had on this Thanksgiving. Every single dish was truly remarkable. We even had non-Americans making stuffing that was delish.

We cleared out the playroom and set up some tables and had great fellowship and community.

Sweet blessings in my life.

This man makes my heart melt. Love him and blessed to call him mine.
Wish bone.. Clark got the bigger piece and really he has captured my heart.
After dinner we had an ornament table set up to make ornaments for our church Christmas tree.
It was really a sweet night. So blessed. So Thankful.

Dresden

November 17 is know as the Velvet Revolution. It is the day that the Czech Republic was freed from communism. So it is a national holiday. We had a really lazy morning, and just enjoyed the day off in the middle of the week. And then around 11 we decided to drive to Dresden for lunch and a bit of shopping. It is an easy two-hour drive. First stop was lunch at the Milk Shop. Yummy... very good cheese, fresh milk, and ice cream. We had a lovely leisurely lunch, yes I just said leisurely (our kids are getting older...). Then we headed to the toys r us to do some pre-birthday shopping. It was one of those days that is just a pure unexpected blessing. Thankful.

Owen's Birthday!

Owen turned 7 and we had a blast celebrating him. Owen, we love you and are so glad you and Clark are BFFs and that little P has a crush on you and that Lucy thinks of you as another brother.... Happy Birthday!

Fireworks Night

Riverside had it's annual Guy Fawkes' night. Spectacular fireworks, friends, and food... what more could you ask for?

Exploring the world

Clark's class has made a passport and has toured all over the world from their classroom. They have been to Antarctica, Europe, Asia, and now North America. The fun part about being at an international school is that everywhere they tour they have experts to help, or in our case freaks that LOVE America. Laura and I really can not help ourselves. We brought in books, treasures from many favorite places, money, pictures, and of course patriotic cookies. Like I said freaks. Yes we had a great time talking about all things American and even maybe singing some patriotic songs..... maybe.

Happy Halloween!!!

Three little jack-o-lanterns sitting on a stoop... Here is our crew of trick or treaters... they were so cute and so fun. The Syvertsens and the Pokludas joined us after school for costume dressing, pizza, and trick or treating. We realized that we have been celebrating together for 6 years, the first two were a party that we hosted and the last 4 years we have gone door to door together.
Piper is a bunny, Vivi is Jessie from toy story, Lucy is a girl version of gargamel from the Smurfs, and michelle is Asrielle, Gargamel's cat.
We have two astronauts, and Cap'n Jack Sparrow.



It was a really fun night of trick or treating in "little America" a neighborhood that is connected to the International School of Prague. We saw lots of really fun costumes, fabulously decorated houses, and lots of friends.

Berlin!

The kids had half-term break that corresponded with a conference that Phil and Jake were going to, in Berlin. So we decided to go with him and the rest of the Hunt family. The Hunters, another WHM family from Vienna, were also attending the conference so we got to hang with them for the week, so fun!

The conference was for church planters in Europe, specifically indigenous. It was hosted by Redeemer Church in New York and Tim Keller was the main speaker. It was huge, almost 500 people attended and they were from all over. It was exciting to see what God is doing in different places throughout Europe. It was really exciting to hear about the ways the guys could really partner with church planters here in Prague.

While the daddies were at the conference the moms and kids took on the city! 3 moms and 8 kids played really hard in Berlin... we kicked it off at the Lego Museum, we spent a whole day building, climbing and running... pure Bliss. Dinner was at a new favorite Mexican place Berlin Burrito Company, oh yeah baby.

Love how much these two enjoy playing together.
Multiple stops at Dunkin' Donuts... yum
Day two was the ZOO! really en route to the aquarium that happens to not be the right aquarium but it was great fun anyway. The Berlin Zoo is amazing. It is like you are transported 60 years ago where the animals were almost so close you could touch them. Dinner: more Berlin Burrito Company (can you tell we miss good Mexican food here).

On our way home we took a major detour to Tropical Islands, Europe's largest indoor waterpark and spent the day swimming, sliding, and pretending to be on a warm tropical island.

Fantastic Fun Three Days!

impromptu saturday

We had tennis lessons Saturday morning and then ended up heading to the Syvertsens for an impromptu lunch, cookie-baking, decorating, and lounging-around afternoon. Lots of yummy cookies and time with sweet friends.

We then went home and ate more cookies, built a fire and had more lounging. Pretty perfect Saturday.

Piper's Harvest Breakfast

Sweet Piper had her Harvest Breakfast this week. The nursery and reception children sang several harvest songs and had a special breakfast and art gallery presentation for us. They are SO cute. She was SO proud to show us her friends and her art work, and for us to eat fairy cakes with her. And we are SO proud of her.

Fairy cakes...yum!

Sweet!

Partners in crime, Kavita and Nella

Some of her artwork