Winter Celebration

Today I went into Sofia's class for her classroom winter celebration.  Gone are the days of junk food at parties.  In fact, there was no food at all!  I was not surprised though as the school policy is to not bring sweets to school.  While I think that saying no sweets because there is an epidemic of childhood obesity is ridiculous since it is not the 13 cupcakes throughout a year that make a child obese.  However, having no food at the party makes it more of a parent/child interactive time which is definitely nice to have.  Today Sofia's teacher had us work on making a polygon snowman since the kids are just starting to work on polygons.  Sofia and I had fun making our snowman and made him quite snazzy with a vest!

Swimming Test

Yesterday the girls had their swimming tests.  They both are doing well.  It is nice to have a formal evaluation to know how they are doing. 

Sofia's evaluation shows the following:

1.  She can dive off block in streamline position although she needs to focus more on getting her head between her arms
2.  Freestyle - 50 yards with streamline off the wall, bilateral breathing with flip turns but she has to focus on not breathing from the flags to the finish. - She said she tried this but felt she was going to explode.  I'm not surprised becuase it is probably 7 strokes long so she will just have to get used to the feeling and/or swim that part faster.
3.  Backstroke - 50 yards with streamline off the wall on back to the flags then release one arm then stroke, her head is back and she has a continuous flutter kick (needs to focus on always keeping her feet up).  She also now counts her stroke from the flags to the finish so she can swim hard right to the wall.  She needs to work on her flip turn to make sure she always pushes off the wall on her back and make sure when she starts her back stroke off the wall that her head is back.
4.  Breaststroke - 25 yards with pull out/streamline, proper kick, proper pull onlyto chest with continuous motion to stream line.
5.  Butterfly - This is where Sofia needs work.  She can do 25 yards  with dolphin kick in streamline with correct timing and breaathing but needs to focus on keeping her knees and feet together and getting her elbows clear of the water.

So, she is doing great.  She will stay with another session of the prep team through March and then we will see where the coaches think she should go.  There is another girl in her class, Chloe, who she is friends with and I am friends with her mom who also needs work on her butterfly so we will get together and have Sofia and Chloe have 2-3 private lessons to get their butterfly stroke up to snuff.

Alessandra's evaluation showed the following:

1. Freestyle - This needs work.  Her instructor said that he knows she can do it but yesterday on the test she went out to fast and had to stop half way so he couldn't pass her on it.  I am not surprised that she rushed this on the test day since she was already exhausted before we even got to swimming. She has made big strides on her freestyle though and is no longer doggie paddling every third stroke.
2.  Backstroke - Complete with good body position, leaning back and relaxed.  She has a consistent flutter kick with proper arm pull, elbows straight and her pinky enters tha water first.
3. Elementary Backstroke - Complete with proper kick and arm pull in a glide position.
4. Breaststroke - This needs work.  She needs to coordinate the timing of her arm pull and kick.
5. Sidestroke Kick - This needs work.  She needs to improve her scissor kick and make sure she doesn't roll onto her stomach.
6. Butterfly - She needs to work on her breathing
7. Diving - Complete with a standing dive off the side of the pool.
8. Treading water - Completed with treading water for one minute.
9. Swim underwater - Completed streamline to flags
10. Open Turns - Completed.

So, Ali still has a lot of work to do in the next session of lessons but even though she has not completed all the items in the level four list she has made huge improvements in her swimming.  She has a different instructor on Thursday who will also be giving her a swimming test so we will see if there are any differences in the evaluations.  I'm hoping she will not be as tired on Thursday and will get the complete on the freestyle on Thursday. 

Crafts

Jason decided to do a craft with the kids over the weekend.  He found a craft that included shaving cream and glue to make a snowman.  This was a good craft for Jason to do since I would probably have skipped it due to the possible mess factor.  Adding to the fun is Jason mixed the glue and the shaving cream in red solo cups.  This adds to the fun because the girls have really been into the song "Red Colo Cup" lately and have been singing it around the house..  Here is a quick video of the kids at the start of the craft.  Sorry for the poor video quality.

Happy Birthday Pat!

Last Thursday was my brother Pat's birthday.  We headed down to his house on Friday to celebrate with him.  It was nice to have time with my brother with only our family (my parents, brothers, nephews) around.  Usually when we go to my brother's house for a party it is filled with his friends and we do not get any time to really see or talk with Pat so this was a nice change.  The kids all played together and had a great time and the adults got to sit around and talk.  At the end of my brother's road is a house that puts on a "Festival of Lights" every year.  The light display is amazing.  The man must spend hours putting up all the lights.  He even has little houses for the kids to look in to see toys making candy or Santa and Mrs. Claus's bedroom.  There is popcorn and cookies and even Santa was there.  It is definitely a lot of work for the owners of the house and they give the money they receive to charity.  So, after having some pizza we all headed across the cul de sac to see the lights.  It was a nice night and the kids left there exhausted!

Gingerbread House

The girls and I put together a ingerbread house this year.  Of course the kids just wanted to eat all the candy but they managed to contain themselves and did a nice job decorating the house.  My icing work was not of the best quality but the kids did not care.  it has been nice to see it on the counter every day.  The decorating quality is going down by the day as we continue to pick all the candy off the house to eat it!

Finally a night out!!

Jason and I have become accustomed to going out together every Friday night since living in Prague but since we have moved back to the States we have only managed to go out to dinner alone twice.  We sent the kids down to my parent's house for the weekend.  Friday night we just relaxed and Jason worked on Saturday but Saturday night we went out to dinner.  We headed into Boston's North End for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Giacomo's.  It was so wonderful to be in the city again.  While living in Hopkinton is nice and scenic there is just something about city life that is special as well.  We walked to the restaurant and enjoyed being in the city.  We had a fabulous meal of lobster ravioli for me and homemade fusilli with lobster and shrimp for Jason.  We love Giacomo's food and the hustle of the restaurant.  It is definitely not a relaxing restaurant but the hustle/bustle and small space make you feel like you are in an Italian kitchen.

We followed dinner  up with cappuccino and cannoli at Mike's Pastry.  I don't know if we have just been away from Mike's for too long but it seemed like the cannolis were much bigger than we remembered.  We could have just split one they were so big.  No matter how long it has been though since going to Mike's the cannoli was just as good as I remember them!  It was so nice to have time alone to just talk about life.  We are so busy here that life seems to fly by and we haven't had time to catch up with each other.  It was definitely a much needed break from the speed of life.  Thanks to mom and dad for taking care of the kids!

Sofia's first bank account

Sofia's school has a program with a bank in the center of town for kids to open up passbook savings accounts.  They sent the paperwork home a while ago and we went back and forth about whether or not do have Sofia participate in the program.  In the end we decided it would be good for her to learn about saving money and she would also be doing math without even realizing it.  We completed the form and sent it in to the school with Sofia's $6 that she had already saved.  On the first Tuesday of the month the passbooks and deposits get collected at school and brought to the bank.  They get brought back to the school on Thursday and the children can take them home.  Today was the first month the Sofia participated in the program and came home today with her very first passbook savings book.  It is so cute and she is very excited about it.  We will have to work with her every month to make sure she completes the deposits slips correctly.  It may be about the right time to start a chores list that she can earn an allowance for so that she can add money regularly to her account.

Mikuláš

Every year on December 5th Mikuláš comes with the Angel and Devil to visit Czech children.  The last two years the girls have taken part in this tradition and I did not want it to end.  I want them to keep their memories of the Czech Republic alive in them.  So on December 5th when the kids went to bed I set about making my first batch of roholicky from scratch.  I had the recipe from Mrs. Pekarkova, our landlord when we first moved to Prague, and decided to see if I could do it.  I'm quite happy with my first attempt!  Anyway, I wrapped the Czech cookies up and put them in decorative bags and left them next to the kids beds for them to find in the morning.  Of course the kids didn't even notice them so before they left for school I have a brilliant acting job....."on my gosh! What day is it?" Did Mikuláš come?  I don't know if he did or even if he comes to kids who live outside Czech but maybe he comes to kids no matter where they are as long as they lived in Czech at one time.  Where has he left things before because I don't know since Iva was with you when he came in Prague?"  .... and the kids were off with ..."on the window sill!!"  I started up the stairs after them and saw Ali run into her room and straight for the window when she saw the gift out of the corner of her eye.  They both bee-lined for their gift bags.  They were so excited.  Sofia yelled, "I can't believe he came!!"  It was well worth making the cookies the night before to see them so happy!

Santa

On Sunday we brought the kids to see Santa.  He is pretty magical and was available in a couple places nearby over the weekend.  After having the kids up late on Friday night and Saturday night we thought anything was crowds was out.  Fortunately, Harvey's Farm was one of the places that Santa was going to be making a stop.  We figured it would not be very busy there and it wasn't.  We walked in and there was Santa sitting in his sleigh.  The girls walked up to him and Sofia climbed up on the sleigh first.  She didn't have a completely amazed look in her eye but you could tell she was nervous since when Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas she froze and couldn't think of anything.  We gave her a couple ideas and she was able to add a couple things herself but overall her list at home is much longer than what she told Santa.  Ali cracked me up because before we left to see Santa she told me she was going to look her best...nice clothing, necklace, scarf, her hair brushed and down with a gigantic flower in it.  It was very cute.  When it was her turn to go into Santa's sleigh she was amazed.  She just kept staring at him in utter amazement.  She did come up with a few things that she wanted for Christmas but mainly she just looked at Santa with amazement.

Christmas Tree

 We went and got our Christmas Tree this past weekend.  I looked up places we could go to cut our own tree and found one about a ten minute drive away from us.  Not only was it close to us but it had any tree for $45 which seemed like a good deal compared with other places I had checked which had trees starting at $60.  I was excited to pick a big tree this year since in the past four years we have had fairly small trees.  This year we got an 8 1/2 foot tree.  Once we had it home we realized we could not get it through the sliding glass door even with the wrapping on it.  Fortunately the windows on the sun room are quite large and we brought it into the house that way.  We got the tree into the stand and took the wrapping off the tree and Jason put the lights on the tree.  We gathered up all the ornaments and started decorating the tree later in the afternoon when the tree had settled.  We have a LOT of ornaments.  Between all the ornaments we had stored in my parent's basement and all the ornaments we bought in Prague and at Christmas Markets in Europe as well as all of Jason's childhood ornaments we filled our tree. 

We ended up not putting a lot of the basic balls on that we had originally bought in Prague as filler (since we hadn't brought any ornaments with us) because there just wasn't any space left.

Happy Birthday Dad and Joe!!

Last week was my Dad's and my brother's birthdays.  This is the first birthday since 2005 that I have been able to celebrate their birthdays with them.  I picked up cards for both of them and made a custard pie for my dad since it is his favorite and once the kids were home from school on Friday we drove down to my parent's house.  The kids were so excited to wish them happy birthday and to play with their cousin, Michael.  It was an added bonus for us that my Aunt Carlene and Uncle Harry were there since I did not expect them.  The kids were excited to see them as well especially when they came in with all the Christmas presents to leave at my parents.  Ali wanted to open hers right then but I told her they had to stay there until Christmas Eve so now she is counting down the days!  Anyway, the kids had a blast playing together and they get along so well that as parents we don't have to worry about anything and can sit is chat.  We sat down for a Chinese food dinner followed by ice cream cake and then the kids were off and running again.  My Dad had put out the deer food so the kids spent sometime staring out the window watching the deer come into the yard to eat but otherwise they just ran around nonstop.  It was so nice to just be able to drive down for dinner and cake and spend time with my family that we ended up staying later than I had planned and didn't get home until close to ten o'clock.

Swimming/ New friends

The girls swimming is going well.  We realized that Ali's friend, Chloe, (from her bus) is in Sofia's group for swimming.  Now they all have a great time together before Sofia and Chloe start their practice.  I also met Chloe's mom, Erika, who is really nice.  I feel like we have a lot in common since she actually grew up in Berlin and her parents are German and French.  It makes me feel right at home to hang out with her.  I met her husband at swimming last week and he is also very nice.  They currently live down the road from us but will soon be moving across town.  We had them over for dinner on Saturday and you never know how it is going to go...will it be easy and fun or will it be awkward.  Well, I'm happy to say that we had a great time!  They are definitely a family that we will be spending more time with.  The kids get along fabulously and played until 11:15pm when they went home without a fight or any fuss happening.  It was a great night.

Thanksgiving

After getting the yard in order we were ready to head into Thanksgiving week.  The kids had a half day of school on Wednesday so we had planned to drive up to Maine after school.  I, fortunately, was organized and had almost everything packed for the girls and myself by Tuesday afternoon.  I did not want to feel rushed on Wednesday.  I'm glad I did that because when I got the girls to swim practice I got the call from Jason...."Matt says there is a big storm coming and it should hit Maine about 2am."  So as soon as the girls were done with swimming we went home and finished packing and loaded the car and headed for Maine.  We got there just ahead of the storm with about thirty minutes to spare before it started at 11:30pm.  I'm glad we left Tuesday night because it snowed most of the next day and accumulated over a foot of snow.  Jason's brother arrived about 2am so had to drive in some of it but at least most of his drive was not in a foot of snow.  We all relaxed on Wednesday and did not do much of anything except that the kids played together and Ali got her hand closed in a door. 

Thursday we went outside with the kids to enjoy the snow.  I'm glad I packed all the snow gear because we all had a blast in the snow.  We all wore our orange so as not to be shot by any crazy hunters and headed out into the woods where we had a great snowball fight.  Of course it ended how all snowball fights end...with a child inadvertently getting hit in the face by a snowball meant to go from one adult to another.  Oh well, a few tears and Sofia was ready to move on.  She was a trooper. 



We had a great Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings and then we all relaxed again.

By Friday the swelling and pain had not gone down on one of Ali's fingers so I took her off to the emergency room.  Fortunately for us the emergency room was not busy at 8:30am the day after Thanksgiving so we got in fairly quickly.  They took x-rays of her hand and said it was fine.  If there was a hairline fracture it would not show on the x-ray yet though so the doctor just said to keep an eye on it and let the pain be her guide as to what she can do.  This was good advice for me since Ali had been doing non-stop hand stands and I would have told her to stop doing them but the doctor said if she can deal with the pain of doing them then she should be fine.  I'm not sure he knows my children though since Ali continued to do the handstands and after a while of them she would come ask for ice to put on her finger.  Maybe she is a natural gymnast....continuing on through the pain!  Anyway, after getting the all clear from the doctor we headed back to the house to meet up with everyone in order to head into North Conway to do some shopping.  We weren't planning on doing any major shopping as in years past as we have pretty much already finished our Christmas shopping but it is always fun to take a look in some shops.  While we weren't doing major shopping we did purchase a major item...new skis for me!  Since our skis were stolen lost Jason and I have been looking at skis.  I finally decided which ones I wanted and one of the shops in North Conway had them at a good price so we bought them.  We enjoyed lunch together at one of the restaurants in town and then continued our shopping. 

On the way back to the house we stopped at Walmart to pick up a game for us to play at night.  We decided on Apples to Apples.  The game is hilarious and with a few drinks is even funnier.  It took us late into the night and had us laughing a lot.  I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a new game.


Before leaving on Sunday we went and cut greens and made our holiday wreath.  To be honest, Jason's brother Matt and his daughter Keely did all the cutting of greens and the rest of us stood around or played in the snow.  Sofia ended up getting a stick just above the eye so I walked her back to the house and cleaned her up.  She was fine but I'm sure it did hurt.  Jason's mom prepped all the wreath making for us and then the girls and I prepared the pieces of greenery and handed them to Jason to tie onto the wreath.  It was a nice family project and out wreath turned out nice.