Ethan Is A Pinball

Ethan is bouncing off the walls! Confinement is not good for anybody but especially for a 4 year old named Ethan. We (Stacey and the kids) have been stuck in our flat since Wednesday with a short break for me to get groceries on Friday afternoon and a short trip in the car for the kids to get me once I was done with the shopping. Ethan has been going crazy with cabin fever since Friday and we are so ready to get out! His spots are clearing up well and so far so good for Mikaila. We are packing up today for our travels coming up. Tomorrow we will go to Warsaw and then on to Olsztyn to see our house and sign the contract then we will go to our Annual General Meeting near there. We can't wait!

Our Dalmation

Here is our newly spotted son. He has Chickenpox. There are up to about 50 spots as of tonight when Bryan was putting the stuff on to help them not itch. We hope there is an end in sight as far as new spots. We have a conference coming up that we would hate to miss. It's a week away so we should make it OK.

Chickenpox!

Ethan has the Chickenpox! He had the vaccine so hopefully they won't be too bad. As of tonight before bed he had about 13 spots. He hasn't complained of anything hurting and he doesn't have a fever. He is still eating well. Most of his school is empty because most of the kids have them as well. I don't think they have the vaccine here and we have heard that some of the kids are in the hospital. Please pray for them and that Ethan will have a very mild case and if Mikaila gets them that she will have a mild case as well. We'll let you know how it goes. Bryan and I have been remembering when we had them and sharing our stories with the kids. I had them over a 4th of July because I remember going to watch fireworks with that lotion all over me! Wish I knew where a picture was.

Home Away From Home

Here is a picture of the outside of our "home" for 3 weeks while in Prague for our training. It was a pretty decent place to stay with access to public transportation really close and a mall a few blocks or one tram stop away. We ate at that mall probably a third of the time unfortunately. We ate all our meals out (except one) while we were there and we were glad to get home and eat a home cooked meal. Thanks to the Barnwells for a great home cooked meal of Mexican one night while we were there! We enjoyed it - the food and fellowship!

The Moist Towelettes Rocked

During our training time in Prague we competed with other tables to get as many points as we could throughout the day. We played Outburst for these points. It was a really fun game. We would do one round (sometimes two) after coming back from breaks and lunch each day. At the end of the day - the team with the most points got to pick an item from "the suitcase". This wasn't just any suitcase. It was a suitcase that was filled with goodies from the states! We were on the best team "The Moist Toulettes" and we kicked some tail! Below is a picture of our teammates and friends from Budapest, Hungary. We had a blast with it. Competition got a little heated sometimes but all was good. We have enjoyed the goodies. Thanks to the volunteers who brought them over.



It's not the greatest picture, but it is all I have. Go Moist Towelettes!!

Kids On A Tram

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids during a tram ride while we were in Prague.


Making silly faces.


Mikaila hanging out.

Back In The Saddle Again

Hello all! We have been back in language classes for the past week and a half after our long break for our 3 weeks in Prague. We thought we wouldn't start back to language until after our move but when our move date got pushed later (end of April now) we decided to get back into it and thankfully our teachers had not filled up our spots with other eager students. Also a new change this week has been that Mikaila is staying home and doing home school now. Friday was her last day at polish school and we did the typical Polish stuff of taking her teacher a bouquet of flowers and chocolate and getting Mikaila to take a picture with her (I will try to get that off the camera later this week). She will still go once a week for her art class until we move and then we are going to try to find something for her like that up in Olsztyn. It has been a busy beginning of the week for us but is going well. It is really great to hear Mikaila reading. We even heard her with Ethan in his room this morning reading to him. Another interesting thing this week is that the kid's school is about 3/4 empty. There were only 4 kids in Ethan's class today including him. Most of the kids have Chicken pox! Mikaila and Ethan both got the vaccine so hopefully they won't get it. We will see. Ethan had a pimple like thing on his chin late last week but that is all so far and hopefully that will be all! Don't know if it was a chicken pock or not. I can't really think of much else to say since my brain is dead from studying and learning so much. Ha! It's really hard getting back into it after such a long break.
Z Bogiem

Train Ride to and from Prague

We took a train from Katowice to Prague and back for our 3 weeks of training recently. We were not looking forward to the long trips but all turned out well and both were without any complications. We were glad about that. I could not believe it but the kids made it all the way to Prague without having to go to the bathroom! Which I was very thankful for since they are usually pretty disgusting. We all stayed pretty entertained but were glad when we got off of each train after the long trips. We got to spend time with a colleague who is in Warsaw and is from Oklahoma as well. Thanks Joe! For making the trip a little better. Joe played his Nintendo DS while the kids played with their gameboys and they passed them around along with the games.


Here is Mikaila on the way to Prague watching a movie.



Ethan is watching as well. Thanks goodness for headphones!



Uncle Joe is showing Ethan how to do somethiing on his gameboy.



And now Ethan is showing Joe how to do something. They enjoyed sharing their knowledge with each other. It was great to watch and listen to them. If only I had a video camera with me.

Playland Here We Come!

These pictures are from a recent trip to a local playland here in Katowice. We went with a friend of Mikaila's from school and her dad. No one wanted to leave and the kids were really tired once we got home.


Here are Mikaila and Karolina playing with some dump truck type contraption that pick ups the balls and you move them over and then drop them.


Ethan is playing air hockey with some other kid who wanted to play. He is pretty good at it.


He's a climber!


Check out this face. A little scary.


Look out below. Mikaila and Karolina going down the huge blow up slide thing.

Mikaila's School Party

This year we had a party for Mikaila at her school. All the kids had a blast and it was great.


Instead of birthday spankings they have the person who's birthday it is sit in a chair and they lift them up in the air once for every year that they have. Mikaila was a little freaked in the beginning but all was OK.


Here is part of her class getting ready for the cake. Mikaila wanted Barbie stuff for this party too, but I didn't do another Barbie cake. We just did cupcakes.


All are eating the cupcakes and everything else. They seemed to like them (they were made with an American cake mix and icing!).



Mikaila with one of her good friends Paulina.



Fun with pretzel sticks. They started playing with them by making walrus teeth, alien things coming out of their head and other things as well.



They did singing and dancing too! It was great to see them do all the stuff and Mikaila actually participated!



Here's another shot of one of the dances they did. It was really funny. They had to move around in the circle while holding on to different things of the kid next to them.

Mikaila's 7th Birthday

Mikaila wanted a Barbie themed birthday party. It worked out well because I was able to find all the decorations here. It was a fun party with our missionary friends. We had a party at her school for her school friends and I will hopefully get those pictures up soon. I am hoping to have some time later this weekend.


Here are the table decorations and other things.


Mikaila is blowing out her candles! This is the Barbie cake. I can't believe that I made it and it turned out so well. My mom used to make doll cakes all the time but she had special pans and dolls for it. I had to do some checking on the internet on how to do it with what I had. I enjoyed doing this special cake for my daughter just like my mom did for me.


Mikaila is opening up her presents with her friends. She really had a great time. We all had a good time.

Happy New Year!

We didn't get out on New Years because Mikaila was getting over being sick and Stacey wasn't feeling well. We had fun though. We got some sparklers and decided to go ahead and light them on our balcony.


Here is Mikaila with her one sparkler.


Ethan loved them. He was sad when as shown in the pictures below... that we were done after lighting only 4 sparklers.


Here is Bryan trying to light another sparkler. The wind was blowing and the sparklers would not light very well.



We had to call it quits after about 4 sparklers because our lighter melted! Can you believe that? Crazy! We had fun while it lasted.

Christmas Cookies

We made Christmas sugar cookies on Christmas Eve. They were really good and the kids enjoyed the whole process.

Here is Bryan with the kids as they begin to roll the dough out.


They are ready to go in the oven!


Now it is time to decorate them.


Ethan taking his first bite of his masterpiece.


Mikaila is taking her first bite which I think was her only one. I think it might have been too sweet for her.

Makin' Stuff

We got these suncatcher craft projects in a package from Bryan's parents. The kids were really excited to do them. They had a blast.


Mikaila got a kitty one to do.


Ethan got frogs to do.


Mikaila "had" to do most of it on her own. She didn't want alot of help.


Ethan enjoyed the help which allowed him to play around. Which included seeing how far some of the crystals could go by shooting them off the spoon. Just look at the innocence written all over his face!

Jasmine Enjoying Her Gift

Bryan's mom sent us several packages the other day and she put in a few gifts for our kitty. So thoughtful! Jasmine loves this gift. I don't know what you call it but she loves it. She likes to get in it and then when one of us walks by she jumps out and attacks us.


Here she is waiting to pounce!


She has gotten spooked and is going all crazy. You can tell by the way she has her ears.


She is not so sure about this one and neither are we! The kids love it though. You push some button and it starts singing. Bryan's mom loves to get us noisy things.