Matthew's 3rd Birthday

Ready to take his cake to school for celebrating
with his school friends on Friday the 6th. 

It's hard to believe our sweet boy is already three.

He requested a "horsey cake
with a chocolate horse."
Mama obliged. 

His birthday fell at the beginning of Emmy's fall break, so we decided to wait and have his party a little later. That way, we were able to take advantage of the opportunity to travel for the break to the U.K. More on that later.

Matthew makes us laugh a lot. He still loves horses and cowboys. Anything is subject to being a target of his "lasso." You'll hear him playing on his rocking horse or with some of his toy horses saying "yah, yah, yah!"

His love of Bubble Guppies and Sofia the First (he loved the flying horses) has waned, he now likes Scooby Doo and he's recently seen the Cars movies over a couple of sick days and he's now a big fan of Lightening McQueen and the other characters from the movie. 

Friday afternoon was "Pasowanie", the official
welcome into the class for the year. Matthew is
in Biedronek class this year, Ladybug class. 

One of his favorite books is Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, and he'll be sure to point out any bulldozers or "diggers" he sees when we are out and about. I love to hear him "read" some of his other favorites to me, which include Brown Bear, Brown Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Dragons Love Tacos, just to name a few. Like his big sister he really loves to be read to. Stories are a sacred part of bedtime in this house!

He loves his school. He moved up this summer to the next class, so now he's in the "Biedronek" (Ladybird/Ladybug) class in the other school building. He gets to take karate and dancing at school and they do lots of crafts. He learns German (and they have English lessons but he's pretty set with English, haha). His teachers are very sweet, they don't speak much English this year but I know they love him. Agnieszka told me that they asked him recently "Matthew, do you love Ms. Agnieszka" and he said "noooo" and they said "Do you love Ms. Magda" and he said "Noooo" and they they asked "Well, who do you love?" and he said "Mama!" Which is totally not true, but it gave us all a laugh. He is a Mama's boy! But he also loves his Daddy and wants Daddy to play all the things with him.

He is  really interested in letters and sounds. He's good at remembering things. He already is alternating feet when he goes up and down stairs some when the stairs aren't too wide for him, and he's starting to skip (both are which are precursors to reading). He's very advanced, haha. He's also stubborn. Really, really stubborn. Gee, I have no idea where he gets that from!  He's not potty trained because he just refuses to use the potty. He knows, and he'll ask for a clean diaper just so he can potty in it. It is SO frustrating and I'm trying really hard to be patient because I know he'll do it one day. I just wish it would be soon. 

Trying to capture one of his "explantion" faces.

He makes hilarious faces when he's talking to you about things. He has all sorts of stories to tell and opinions to give.  Mostly he talks to us in English, with some Polish mixed in or a little Danish or German if he's around people speaking those languages. "Thank you" and "please" are almost always in Polish. He is so Polish now he doesn't like his milk cold (Poles don't give kids cold drinks, they think it will make them sick or something). It was funny at first, now it's super annoying, but we do it because we love him and it's just one of those things that's easier not to argue about.

Birthday present time! 

Matthew loves his big sister, and she loves him. I absolutely love watching their relationship grow and I hope they will continue to be friends. Sure, I know they'll argue and disagree and have different interests as they grow up, but I hope this bond lasts and they can support each other and be friends.

We sure do love this boy of ours, he continues to bring us loads of joy. This next year is going to bring lot of transitions for him, Moving back to the U.S. will be a big deal for all of us, but for him, he'll be leaving the only country he's really known as home! It's strange, but exciting at the same time.

New fences and a new horse and accessories. So exciting! 

In one of the malls near us, a few days before his birthday. Charles said he was getting ready for our U.K. adventure! 

Our little traveler on the evening of his birthday, getting ready to fly to London! 

Emmy is 8!

Emmy turned 8 years old yesterday! So this blog turns 8 years old today!

This year we decided to celebrate a little differently and have a small sleepover with two of her friends instead of a big party. We went to Spain last week (more about that soon), so in the end not having a big birthday party turned out to be good for Mom's planning sanity. Ha!

All in all, I think she had a great birthday weekend!

The Saturday before her birthday, she had two friends, Freja and Iza, over for a sleepover. I took them to the trampoline park nearby for an hour. Then they came home for pizza and a movie, enjoying their spa bags I'd put together and playing with make up (Emmy recently received a bunch of make up from our friend Katie, who was cleaning out her stores of beauty products). They made ice cream sundaes and watched some more of the movie and had their slumber party in the living room. The next morning, the parents of both friends (Freja's parents are some of our best friends here, we're with them all the time) and our friends Chris and Michelle and Katie came over for brunch. Of course, we had Emmy's favorite biscuits and sausage gravy, along with quiche, fruit, and grits. It was a different sort of birthday party this year but I think she had a really good time. It was fun to do something smaller.

Spa bags!

They loved their spa bags! 

As soon as they had eaten their popcorn and pizza, they were upstairs to play with their spa bags and put on make up. 

Ice cream sundaes!

Matthew LOVED having two extra big girls around. When Emmy hopped up, he quickly settled down in the middle between the other girls. Emmy made him move back up to the sofa upon her return. Also, note he also wanted a sleep mask. Fortunately, they came two to a pack so he could have his own. 

She requested carrot cake for her birthday, so I made mini cupcakes, which was perfect for brunch. 

Birthday morning! She got to open one small gift before breakfast. 

Impossible to get them to both look at me. Matty's hair is pretty typical of mornings around here. 

She wanted chocolate cake for her class. 

Pictures from her teacher! Can you tell I fell on the stairs carrying the cake up to her classroom? 

Birthday dinner, Michelle's recipe for chicken and dumplings. Fortunately Mom making it was still acceptable. 

More presents! Some clothes, a wallet she'd picked out in the Netherlands, and a new jewelry box for her jewelry, to include new earrings for her soon-to-be-pierced ears. 

Opening her necklace from SuSu and Big Daddy (they are on skype, you just can't see them). It is a pearl earring of SuSu's that's mate went missing, so she had it turned into a pendant, and the chain was Grandmommie's (her great-grandmother). 

We can't believe this girl is eight years old now! She is, by far, the best big sister any little brother could ever ask for. He adores her and she is wonderful with him. She is patient (most of the time), loving, plays with him, shows him things and teaches him things. It is delightful to see. She is smart and funny and observant. She still asks a million questions and wants to know how things work. She still sings all the time, I always say she was born with a song in her heart. She loves science and wanted a chemistry set and microscope for her birthday. She still loves babies, both dolls and real ones. She is going to be a great baby-sitter one day in the future. She is super excited to get her ears pierced soon. She still loves the beach and had a great time in Mallorca the other week with our friends, finding shells, building sandcastles and splashing in the water. She was also wonderful with their three little boys and they enjoyed being bossed around and mommy-ed by her.  Charles and I are pretty lucky we get to be her parents Happy 8th Birthday, Emmy! 

Weekly Update and Charles' birthday

Happy Birthday, Charles! We celebrated the day before with our Danish-American Friends.  I feel like I was in the kitchen all day (and I just about was) but he's worth it.

We had grilled chicken and steaks with blue cheese and shallot butter, twice baked potatoes, creamed cabbage, roasted broccoli, and peanut butter pie and Sarah's delicious Danish birthday cake for dessert.

One thing about living in a new place is that you cannot always find certain ingredients. In Colorado I had the hardest time finding frozen coconut for our favorite cake we make at Easter. Here in Poland, we are missing certain items that I have to make from scratch, or find a substitute. you may have to make an ingredient from scratch first that you might otherwise have purchased. For example, before I made the pie I had to make a cool whip substitute using gelatin and cream of tarter. Simple things like that take more time, so cooking sometimes just takes longer. I find that in my kitchen here, cooking always takes longer! It is just a strange layout and after six months in it, I still haven't totally found my groove.

Anyways, I think the birthday boy had a good day! Since his birthday fell on Monday, he of course to work. My Polish lesson was canceled, so Matthew and I went to the barracks to have lunch with Daddy. Then that evening we went out to supper at one of our favorite places. Yum!

Giving Daddy good-bye hugs after lunch.

After supper hot chocolate, it's so yummy! 

On Wednesday, I finally tried my hand at making pierogis. Back in the fall, some of the ladies invited me over for a pierogi making session. Our friend, Tanya, taught us how she makes the Russian, or ruskie, kind. They are my favorite, and they have potatoes and a kind of cheese called tworóg in them, which is like cottage cheese that has been drained.

Pierogis are best served with sautéd 
onions on top. Yum!

I need to practice my technique, but
I was pretty pleased with my first attempt! 

A friend asked me why in the world I decided to make them while we still live here and can easily get fabulous ones from a pierogarnia. I figured it is better to try them while the process was still a fresh in my mind, and then if they didn't turn out well, I could ask Tanya for help. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, but maybe we'll have another session with Tanya just because hers are amazing.

So here is a story about how well Sarah and I "planned". Thursday was "Fat Thursday", in Poland people celebrate the Thursday before Ash Wednesday by eating lots of jelly donuts. They are filled with a marmalade and topped with candied orange peel. You can buy them at other times, but on this day every year, you see them everywhere, so we'd been told. So, around 13:00 Sarah and I decided to walk to the market, about a 15 minute walk from my house. We load up the three kids (it took us like 45 minutes to get them all out the door) and we mosey over, buy some veggies, honey, meat, some good local stuff. Then we decided to get in line at the best donut place in the market (or anywhere so far as I've tried here) so we can also partake in this cultural deliciousness. When in Rome, right? After about 15 minutes or more of waiting, I glance at my watch and realize it is almost time to leave to get the girls from school. Yikes! Sarah had one sleeping in the stroller and one sleeping on her, so I asked if she wanted to stay in line and get us both donuts for our families, and I'd run home and go get the girls and meet her back at my house. Then she could let Claire sleep in the stroller longer, nurse Hannah in the comfort of my house while I was gone, etc. And, I still got donuts. Good plan, right? So I booked it home with Matthew in the stroller. I knew I was going to be fine, but I like to leave so I have plenty of time to park because it gets dicey at pick up sometimes and I didn't want to rush. But I was going to be home by 3, perfect. Until I walked up and saw that Sarah's car was blocking my driveway. BRILLIANT. So I called another friend, who offered to grab both our girls and let them play on the playground, Sarah hoofed it home to move her car, and I drove over to pick up the big girls while she stayed home with the 3 littles. I think the universe was telling us we didn't need jelly donuts. Oh well, next year! Or next week, I mean the donut place is open all the time...

Friday was the last day of first school term, and so the kids had a Carnival party at school Friday afternoon and wore costumes for the day. Lots of fun! Next year I should see if I can figure out how to make a king cake for her to take for her shared snack! Apparently the peanut butter chocolate oatmeal cookies I sent no one wanted to try. :\

Here are a few photos from Friday and Saturday.

The end of the week and start of the weekend has been spent getting ready for our trip to Prague, which is were we are headed next! I'll post photos of that trip soon!

Friday is pizza night and this Friday was also
movie night! He looks so grown up to me
here. 

Such a treat to eat in the living room! 

Reading to her brother. I love this, just had a
hard time getting a good photo through
 the crib slats! 

He may kill me for this one, but too funny,
dressing up Daddy! 

Our Little Pumpkin's First Birthday Party

Invitation designed by Aunt Sarah, as usual. We used all his
monthly photos, just like we did for Emmy's first
birthday invitation. Sarah is the best! Too bad I was not much
better at taking photos of parties back then, since I can only
find a photo with like a fourth of the invite in view. 

On Saturday the 10th, we had a party to celebrate Matthew's first birthday. When we began to plan, we decided we would invite all the Americans because well, when there are so few where do you draw the line? It is the start of the school's fall break, so I thought a lot of people might be gone, but in fact most everyone said they were coming. And we'd invited a couple other families from school, so in all we would up with about 55 people here, not counting the four of us. Whew!  We had a sandwich/slider bar with pulled pork, meatballs, grilled chicken, salami and smoked ham from the market, and lots of toppings, sauces, and salads. I think people had a good time. Most of the food was gone and the last guests left 6 hours after the party started. The birthday boy only took a 30 minute nap in the morning (and usually it is about 2 hours), so I just knew that at some point he'd fall asleep. But no, he was raring to go all day! Finally when the last people left around 5:30, we put him in pjs and he was in bed by 6.We'd asked for no gifts, but Europeans and Americans in Europe don't listen, so he has a collection of new toys and we have 5 bottles of wine, chocolates, coffee, flowers and more. Apparently it is also customary in Poland (and perhaps other countries here, not sure) to bring the mother gifts on the baby's first birthday, so that was cool!

Really, we wanted the party to be about building community, and we are grateful that we have a community of people excited to come celebrate a one year old they are only getting to know. We desperately missed having our family and loved ones from the U.S. with us, but Matthew is well loved.

I took ridiculously few photos of the preparations or the day, but here's what I've got! Thanks to BG Tate's photography with my phone, I have photos of Matthew eating his cake!

Cupcakes in progress. since it was a "pumpkin" theme, I tried to make them look like little pumpkins on top with the icing tips I had. There are no Hobby Lobby's or Michel's to dash off to for supplies! (And yes, I'm sure there are places to get cake decorating supplies, but I have not found one yet, nor do I know any bakers.)

Handsome men ready for the guests. 

Birthday cake and smash cake. 

Family photo! 

The little monster bib seemed appropriate. 

He dug right into the cupcake on his birthday, but this cake he seemed a little more unsure of. 

Emmy and her friend Zöe were happy to help him along. 

Then he got into it. 

I do love this boy so much! 

This is the only picture I took of the food table. The gorgeous sunflowers came from the florist at the market near our house. I got a dozen of them for the equivalent of about $13.00. (I love Poland!)
The whole event was a lot of work, but lots of fun.