Eli turns 4!

We invited a few of Eli's classmates and some friends to to help us celebrate Eli's 4th birthday. When everyone got to our house, we went outside and had a water fight. It was fun for Eli and his older classmate, all the other kids either cried or were not interested. See the video at the end of this post.

Below is a picture of Eli's younger classmate looking fiercely poised with his watergun. Once he got sprayed with a bigger, more powerful watergun and he got upset and made like he was leaving. This was a good language experience for me: trying to coax a toddler back with the others (his parent's had dropped him off)! I eventually called for Scott to help me with this.

Eli and his best friend Caleb are playing with some of Eli's new toys.

Caleb's mom and dad made a very tasty ICE CREAM cake for Eli's birthday (this not having an oven businesss is really working for me!). It had wine gums on the top of it, which Eli and Dana call "gummies."

Here's an aerial-ish shot of the action at the dining room table. It was a similar deal to Dana's party, fruit, cake, veggies and pizza. We tried to have a balloon stomp game outside, but it was once again, over most of the kids' heads and the oldest boy ended up stomping on all the younger kids' balloons before they even knew what was going on...sigh...at least it was fun for him I guess.

Here's a short video of the waterfight action. Eli got a new watergun for his birthday so he was pretty into it.

Afterwards as things wound down, Eli announced to our few remaining guests, "I want you to go home now, I'm tired." Nothing like being direct, but we all (parents included) were tired and so our friends graciously took their leave. It was a fun-filled morning, but I'm glad birthdays are only once a year.

Great Wall camping

My school offered a two-day, one-night camping trip to the Great Wall and so I jumped at the chance to go. Scott stayed back to work on his two papers and enjoyed the fact that he could work uninterrupted for more than 2 hours at a time.

Here's a picture of Eli amusing himself with our camera on the bus. There were about 30 of us total, with two other kids also going. I was a little worried that Eli might play too rough with the other kids (all younger and all girls) so I asked some of the single guys to go ahead and rough-house with Eli whenever the opportunity arose.

On the first day we walked into a village that is located near the Great Wall, about a 2 hour hike through trails, and woods and corn crops. The villagers put on a show for us, with drums, singing and dancing. The boy in the fore-ground of this picture isn't shy about showing his dislike for the music!

I carried Dana is this pack while Eli walked or was carried by those blessed obliging single guys.

This was my favourite dancer, one of the few males, he was just delightful in his expressions and really enjoyed having a large audience.

Didn't get a picture of our tent this time, but pretty much exactly the same set up as last year, we camped in one of the towers. It was a gorgeous night, clear, not too hot, with a pleasant breeze and a bright almost-full moon. It was not the best sleep of my life, sleeping between Eli and Dana, but it sure was memorable!

The next day we walked the Wall itself. I again had Dana and I borrowed a pack and a mule...uh I mean, another student...to carry Eli. So thankful for the help of everyone who went! Otherwise soloing it with both kids would have definitely been too much for me, and an experience not worth repeating!

Dana turns 2!

Dana celebrated her birthday with her "Chinese twin," they are only 3 days apart and we thought it would be fun to celebrate together. It was a fun morning, Dana picked out her birthday outfit (the top was from her Auntie Pam in Canada) and her dress was one she got in Thailand.

Scott's dad was worried that our kids are "too healthy", here they are having juiceboxes with their friends on Dana's birthday of all occasions! He hopes to remedy the situation when we head back to Canada for a visit in late June! But we hope yogurt remains as Dana's all-time favourite food.

We made fruit kebabs for our mid-morning snack! Not only visually appealing, but very tasty!

Of course we had cake too! It was absolutely huge and brought over by a friend. (I don't have an oven yet in my new place! We did a lot of eating, washing hands, playing, (repeat). Following Chinese tradition, we had cake first, then pizza.

Eli approved of the cake, as you can see.

"Put the nose on the Elmo" was a game we tried to play. It was the adults that humoured me and joined in because the kids were not too into it. The kids liked watching their parents play and helping their moms or dads get the nose in the right spot though though.

Let's not forget the presents! By this time Dana was fading and thinking: "When are you all going home so I can have my nap?" I was thinking that right along with her!

rollerblading!

Look at Eli's moves with his rollerblades! He would like it better if he didn't have to wear all the protective gear, especially because of how hot it is here (even at 9 am it's 25+ degrees C). Having the kids learn early how to skate and swim is a priority for me.

springtime changes

This is one of Eli and Dana's last rides around in our old neighbourhood. Dana is content to be the passenger and Eli shows surprising skill in driving this "police jeep" It was given to us by a friend whose son had outgrown it.

We moved to a neighbourhood closer to Eli's school, only a 5-minute-walk away! We love our new neighbourhood because it is more convenient for buying fruit and vegetables (markets nearby) as well as having a great play area and courtyard that is full of kids in the evenings (when it has cooled off).

I love our new apartment itself as well. Although it is technically smaller than our old place (and quite a bit cheaper!), the common areas: kitchen, dining area and living room are more spaceous and therefore more suitable for having people over.

I thought I'd throw in the picture of Easter bread that I made for Easter too, using my new new Czech cookbook. It turned out pretty good!

And here's a great picture of Dana smelling the lilacs that were growing like mad this spring. "Smells good!" Dana would say after a big whiff.

slovakia part 6: strecno

On the last part of our trip, we made it into Slovakia to visit my dad's brother and his family. Here is a picture of their house. Albert said that although I would probably like Czech Republic a lot, he bet that I would like Slovakia more because it has mountains readily accessible to those interested in hiking.

On our first day, we walked to this old castle. Can you imagine having a castle in your neighbourhood? I loved that we could just walk there from my uncle's house! And the history of it! Read on!

Majestic and romantic ruins of the Strečno castle are a dominant above the Váh river and are standing high on the hill as a symbol of feudal power in the region of middle Považie. The castle has been in ruins for three centuries, but it still belongs among the best known castles in Slovakia. Although the recorded history of the castle started in the half of 14th century, the first settlement at the castle hill is much older. In early Iron Age up to late Roman Age there was a settlement of the Púchov culture and in the 9th century there was not only a Slav residence but probably it was also the oldest fort. Artifacts of the settlement from early Stone Age - a copper pick axe was found on the Zvonica hill, Slav tumuli was found in the area of Dedová and a fort was located at Bašta hill from 15th century.

Unfortunately we could not enter into it and explore further, it had not yet opened for the season. I enjoyed this sign and thought...so it's not just the Chinese who have funny signs! I like the part where it tells visitors "not to leap over the castle walls". Excellent advice.

Here's a view of it from further away, on another day.

We were on our way to visit this old fort, which was a short hike up a good hill:

And here's the view from up there.

Here's my mom with her favourite childhood candy bar, Horalky (or also Tatranky) or which are chocolate-dipped wafers. Light and not too sweet. Mom has the best smile!

My cousins Kubo (left) and Juro (right). Kubo is finishing up a civil engineering degree and Juro has a year to go or so in his Information Technology degree. They were very friendly, polite and accomodating, and their English was great which meant I could get to know them better, faster.

I also got to meet Martin, my youngest cousin (also probably my tallest)! He was in the hospital while we were there getting treatment for what they think might be psoriasis. He was in good spirits under the circumstances. He is just graduating from highschool and planning on studying Information Technology as well.

Below is a picture of my Aunt Lubka with my Uncle Jirka. She is gorgeous and looks more like my uncle's daughter than his wife! (Just don't tell him that!). She is 13 years younger than him though. I enjoyed our evenings together talking and looking at photographs. My uncle is a great storyteller. I liked hearing about his membership in O.S.A., a members only association invented by himself and a few friends to get exercise, go hiking and goof off together once a week. I love that idea!

When my dad and Albert went to Europe together some years back, they got this portrait done of my dad in Vienna I believe. It is framed outside my cousins' room, so they see their smiling Uncle Otto greeting them every morning. I really like the expression my dad has in this picture, pensive and warm.

And then, before we knew it, it was our last evening together. Here's an impromptu group shot that my mom took. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys again too and having them meet Scott and Eli and Dana sometime.

So that concludes my trip! I'm finally done blogging about it, but I'll never recover from the experience. I'm a cousin, a niece, as well as a daughter, sister, aunt, wife and mom. It's new and special for me to experience belonging to an extended family. I don't just belong to a little Czech island in Western Canada consisting of my family of origin! I have a clan!

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How wonderful to meet relatives and be relieved that they are people you would choose to have for relatives if you had that choice! I won't dare ask them, but I hope they feel the same about me.

czech republic part 5: pardubice

In Pardubice, we met up with my cousin (also named Olga) and her husband Petr and their winsome daughter Lada. They graciously agreed to let us stay overnight (we didn't give them much warning!). Pictured below are Olga walking and Lada on the scooter. Olga is my Uncle Lubor's daughter. I did not get a chance to meet Uncle Lubor's son Bob and his family this trip, as they live in Stuttgart.

After they picked us up from the train station, we got ourselves settled at their place and went out for a walk. It was a gorgeous day, and really felt like spring had finally come for real. This was a real treat as it had been quite cold previously.

Here's Petr, he's quite the active guy, one who especially enjoys running (although he is speed-walking in the picture). After our walk, he invited me to for a run with him and I did. It was a good workout for me, and probably not for him because he's used to going so much faster!

Pardubice is a real hockey town, the hometown in fact of Dominik Hasek, the famous goalie for some NHL team (I used to know!). Petr went to school with him and they used to play tennis together actually!

These brightly coloured buildings remind me of a storybook setting...and somehow they look just right. I had to take a picture because no one would get it that yellow, pink and green houses side by side wouldn't look just plain wrong otherwise.

Didn't manage to get a picture of this peacock with his tail fanned out...not for lack of trying either! But it was fun to surprise some Taiwanese tourists with a little of my Mandarin as we were watching these birds.

Lada was so fun to hang out with...not bothered in the least that her "teta jesterice" (auntie lizard--that's me!) could barely communicate with her. She just happily chattered on and grabbed my hand and took me places. I was sorry that we couldn't stay longer, she was providing me with invaluable Czech and daughter lessons (giving me ideas and insight into what Dana might be like at her age).

These look like Christmas decorations don't they? My dad could paint this, no problem, it looks like something he would consider doing. I think it's beautiful.

We had lunch in an old beer cellar turned restaurant. I copied Lada and had svickova na smetane (if i remember correctly), one of my favourite dishes. It has dumplings with a really really yummy (indescribable!) cream sauce and meat. It was good, but of course my mom does it better.

I really like this picture, I would love Lada to get to know my Eli and Dana...they would be fast friends I'm sure. Maybe the next time I go to Czech Republic (me with Scott and Eli and Dana next time!), we can stay with these guys in the Jindrichuv Hradec house... I can picture it already: "Pass the salt, pass the Czech-English dictionary..." It would be a hoot.