Every Sunday Night...

...Jessica and I go to Tesco It's basically the Super Target of Krakow, Poland. For as long as we've lived here this has been our Sunday night ritual. The daddies stay home with the kids and Jessica and I go get all of our food for the week. It's not uncommon for us to stop every few aisles and talk for up to 30 minutes.
Who knew grocery shopping could be so fun?! We often joke that "Tesco is our life." Seriously though, we have had such a great time planning our meals together, sharing recipes, talking about what we will make for dinner or what we had the night before and giving each other cooking tips.
Once in awhile I let Eden tag along too. She's a great help to me!

Too Early

I'm sorry but this is just wrong!

We had our first snowfall this past week. The kids and I have VERY OPPOSING FEELINGS about this day. Before I even got out of bed, they were already in their make-shift snow gear outside making snowballs. To them, it's a time to celebrate but I just want to hibernate. (I hadn't previously planned any poetry in this)

so here's Briar in her barely-big-enough coat from last year and her not-necessarily-warm rain boots and MY winter hat because she doesn't have one yet. But none of that matters to them as long as they're happy in the snow! And, they have no idea that it's WAY TOO EARLY FOR SNOW! nor do they care.

NOTE: Thankfully, the snow has since completely melted and now the sun is shining again. It was just a couple of depressing days.

ACROPHOBIA

To celebrate Justin's 25th birthday, we all went to a ROPES COURSE here in Krakow about 20 minutes from our house.
It was very cool. Basically you work your way through a series of rope activities built high up in the trees, ending with a zipline. It was very safe. Everyone is attached to a cable the entire time. There were three different levels of courses based on the height above ground. Unfortunately, it was too windy to do the highest two...but the kids were only tall enough for the lowest one so it all worked out! Briar and I were more than happy to be watching and taking pictures from the ground.

Ready to go!


training



The climbing wall

I laughed so hard when Truman said, after crossing from one tree to the next, "I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST...DIDN'T DIE" he always keeps us laughing with his overly dramatic personality.

The zipline



Eden and Truman loved it!

Acrophobia--the fear of heights...but not today!

Supper To Go!

Sometimes when Daddy is working the evening shift at the cookie shop we pile in the car and bring him supper at work!Baked Spaghetti!


I do my best to sell the cookies while Daddy takes a break to eat his supper! I'll be honest, I'm not as good at selling as he is.It gets a little late for "the baby"
Truman took this one...but I don't have any of him? Sad.

Zoo

We had a field trip at the Krakow Zoo last week. It was so much fun! It was our first time there since we moved here nine months ago and we just kept saying,
"why didn't we come here sooner?" Jessica and her kids were there as well as two of our girlfriends and their kids...
We got to see this lion daddy licking his son. Briar said, "he's making him warm."




There was a fun little petting zoo where the kids got to feed the animals.


The kids thought this chimp was so cute. He was pretty entertaining.

Eden and Truman were fascinated by this monkey who was sticking his hand between the door and the cage..."I touched a monkey hand! I can't believe I just touched a monkey's hand!" they exclaimed ...and after observing typical monkey activity for all of 5 seconds, all I could think was, "I can't believe you are actually touching that monkey's hand..."


Truman managed to upset the porcupine so he would fluff up his quills! It was "way cool!"




We loved seeing the bats because we just learned all about them in Science.

this is all of the kids: Truman, Rose, James, Olie, Roxie, Briar, and Eden






We even got to see a tiger and her little babies!

before we said our goodbyes, we said, "we should do this more often"!

Punkins

...and pumpkins

Happy October!
I love this time of year.
The baked goods are all my favorite flavors and smells. The decorations are all my favorite colors. The food...chili, yummy soups, and fresh baked bread...comfort food...mashed potatoes and gravy. Hot apple cider! The clothes...sweaters and boots, jackets and jeans, fun hats and scarves...it's just exciting to me, all of it. The weather...well, that's questionable. It seems to me that fall is all or nothin'. It's either THE BEST DAY EVERRRRRRRR!!! or just plain lousy! Anyone who knows me, knows I don't like cold weather...hmmmm yet I'm from Wisconsin and/or Minnesota...and now we live on an even higher line of latitude in POLAND? Well, I suppose the first two were non-negotiable and we definitely didn't move to Poland for the weather...
oopsie! I think I got a little off track...I was articulating my love of fall. So, as long as it doesn't get too chilly I think the weather is divine! 68 and sunny--I'll take it!

It was Eden's idea to do the individual shots with their pumpkins...
So, Truman complied..."I'll hold mine like a football"

I was half-way in the house and the girls called me back to take just one more...I thought this pose was hilarious.Truman just wanted to get back to playing football with himself!