Sport Doing Man

One of my goals this year was to do a triathlon - something I've always wanted to do. Now that my wife is a marathon runner (!) I got some inspiration from her. So my friend Honza ("Johnny") and I entered a race in nearby Podebrady last weekend - and it was fun! I had a great time putting the 3 events together, which I'd never done. Swimming was, by far, the hardest part for me - I'm really glad it was first, and I was really glad when it was done. The bike and the run felt much better, and I was happy with my overall time. The whole experience was so fun that I think I'll keep doing it!
My fellow sport-doing man Johnny, after we finished...

yum

We had a salad from our garden tonight. Fresh tomatoes, lettuce and red peppers. It was so satisfying to plant our own vegetables, water them and then harvest them. The kids think it is quite magical and actually I do too.

Look what we got!

We just got a trampoline and it is SO fun. We haven't seen piper much these days as she spends all of her free time jumping. The big kids LOVE it too and spend several hours on it after school each day.

Church Picnic

On Saturday afternoon Faith Community Church had a picnic in the park. Everyone packed their own dinner, brought a blanket and sports equipment and we headed to the park for the afternoon and early evening. Lots of good conversation, yummy food, and a great way for us to build community together. The weather was amazing, we found a beautiful tree to sit under and just chatted the day away. A game of football was happening with people rotating in, that then turned into frisbee catch, and everyone took a turn pulling the little ones in our red wagon (Yaya, that really was the best $10 you ever spent). We are so grateful for our little community here and all that God is doing in and through it.

Pool's Open!

The pool is open and the sun is shining and we have started our summer rituals- lazy days at the pool, ice cream, and lots of fun times with friends, bliss in my world.

Lion King

We had two very excited children as they got ready to perform in the school musical "The Lion King." The show included dancing and singing. Every class took on a different wild animal - Clark's class was hippos and they sang "Mud Mud Glorious Mud". They did a fantastic job. Clark was quite serious and concentrated very hard for all his parts. Lucy's class dressed as meerkats and they danced to "Stayin' Alive". We thought she was going to burst out laughing during the whole thing. They both did wonderful and were absolutely SO cute!

A day at the farm

Piper school went to the Farm! They rode horses that were ginormous, they went on a hike in the forest and had a picnic. It was a very fun day and she loved being "out" with all of her friends. She also decided that she was going to take up a career in modeling.

Baby Ingrid

We had the pleasure of hosting a baby shower for Sarah and soon-to-be baby Ingrid. It was the most beautiful day, the others hostesses brought delicious food, great conversation and lots of itty bitty cute baby things. We can't wait to meet baby Ingrid.

community group

A couple of months ago we started a new community group. It's a Bible study that strives to really get into each others' lives, to be real and a place to grow in our relationship with God. Phil and our friend Ben are co-leading our study in Luke which has been very interesting.

We also all enjoying hanging out with each other so last week we all made dinner together and then went to a play that Ben actually directed and topped the evening off with games.

The play was a fascinating cultural experience. We saw "The Importance of Being Earnest", in a Czech high school, performed by Czech students, but all in English. They did an amazing job, the timing was fabulous and they were right on cue. And if that wasn't difficult enough, the night before they performed the whole play in Czech.

We have so enjoyed this community group and are excited about growing together.

bike race

Michal and I entered a mountain bike relay race a few weeks ago - we were WAY in over our heads, but it was still fun. It was a relay race, so I rode a 4K loop, then Michal, then me, etc. and we had 2 hours to do the loop as many times as possible. It was definitely more technical than we were expecting, but it was fun in its challenges.

Here's the "before" shot. Anyone who's Facebook friends with me can see my embarrassing "during" shot which is my current profile pic.

Our fan club...

Early Years Open House

Early years had an open house, and since Piper is going to start at Riverside next year we decided to check it out! They had a bouncy castle, face painting and a cook out. It was the most glorious day so we sat outside and soaked up every moment.
His face was painted as batman and then he went all afro on us.

"My birthday bike"

We have been doing A LOT of this. Piper LOVES bike riding and every chance she gets she is on hers. She calls this her "birthday bike" opposed to her little blue motorcycle bike that she calls "Big Blue" which is used for "tricks" at the bike park on the bike ramps like the big boys do.

Family Hike

The kids had 2 weeks (!) off from school for Easter, so we took advantage of their free time and took an overnight trip to Spindleruv Mlyn (where we had our church's recent men's retreat). The snow had almost completely melted, and we had gorgeous sunshine. We took a nice hike together at the top of the mountain, which was on the border with Poland. At various times, we were in Czech and the next second in Poland.

Spindleruv also has a nice indoor waterpark - so OF COURSE we had to visit...twice. Fun family time!

Piper likes to always look her best for every outdoor occasion...

On the hike...

projects

Lucy has been working on lots of projects lately. One of them has been homemade chapstick. Made with essential oils. It smells delicious and she did it just about all by herself. She gave them to all the girls in her class. Another project she embarked on were these sheep cupcakes that she found in a kids cookbook that she has. This was no easy task in a country that doesn't typically sell marshmallows. She made them and also took them in for an afternoon snack for her class. She is quite creative and has said that she would like to be an artist when she grows up... I can see it.

sleepover...

Lucy and clark were invited to our friends the Lang's house for a sleepover. They got decked out in hockey gear and painted their faces with the Canadian flag because before the sleepover they headed to thier first hockey game- CZ vs. Canada. Since the Langs are die hards (and Canadian), the kids chose to root for Canada (good choice). They had a blast - Canada won and the night was everything you hope a sleepover is.

While they were out, Piper and Devyn had their own sleepover! We spent some time at the park, had dinner and a video. They gave lots of kisses and hugs before bed. They were asleep in no time and were SO excited when they found out that they were still with each other in the morning!

Sweet Friends!

Shannathon

I have always wanted to run a marathon and I always thought that was crazy idea especially since I am not really a runner. But a couple of years ago I ran a a half and have been running ever since. My friend Kelsey had this crazy idea to run the Prague marathon and asked me to run too. I knew I wanted to train with her but wasn't sure about the actual race. It just seemed scary, running a course I'd never run, running at a time I wasn't use to running and in the warm weather of spring, when I have been training through lots of snow and ice. What I really wanted to do was my own race, in a place I felt comfortable and familiar under the cover of trees. We started training in Jan and ran 4 days a week and followed a training plan pretty closely, we would run at 5:45 am (!) and Kelsey always had a great story of the day. I loved my running mornings. As the Prague marathon was approaching Kelsey kept asking me if i would want to run it, I wavered a bit but then decided I really wanted to do my own marathon in the park. Phil dubbed it the Shannathon and I needed to pick a date. Kelsey got a job offer she couldn't refuse and in a matter of weeks was packing up her life in Prague to coach basketball in the States. We contemplated running 26.2 miles together on one of our last runs but life was a whirlwind for Kelsey and I couldn't commit. So on our second to last run together I woke up and just decided to run as far as I could,rationalizing in my mind, we have trained for this and with my running partner gone not sure I could keep up the mileage on my own. So Kelsey and Melissa showed up at 5:45 and we set out. We all ran the first 6 together and then they headed home and I kept on. I ran another 2 then another 6 and by this point I was up to 14 miles and just decided I was going to do this thing. So at mile 17, I texted Phil and let him know my plan and that I needed some water. So by mile 20 Phil and the kids set up signs and a water station and cheered me on for the last 6 miles. Lucy and Clark each did a loop with me on their bikes. The last two miles Laura andMelissa came and walked next to me while I very very slowly ran. Let's just say they were passing me walking while I was running but I just wanted to run the while thing. After 5 hours and 55 minutes I finally finished! It wasn't the Prague marathon with all the hype and excitement but it was better, it was the Shannathon in Stromovka park with my family and a couple of sweet friends. Perfect.

Sweetness! Loved that my family and sweet friends were there!

yeah hooooo! (as clark always says)

more Easter

After the Sunrise service we rode home on the bikes and checked out the Easter goodies. Everyone was very excited about bubbles and chocolate. Then an Easter egg hunt at home.
Followed by another Easter egg hunt and brunch with friends.

The day was beautiful and the garden was amazing.

Happy Easter!

The Lord has risen indeed!