Photo walk with friends

Saturday, a small group from our church went on a photo walk through Prague. We started at the castle, of course, which is actually St. Vitus' Cathedral.

Tourists!!!!

???

Blessing the crowds...

I think Laura's been looking for this........

Chris and Mikhail - show and tell...

The show must go on......

St. Nicholas Church

Outside the Klimentium...

Talitha and Jen - lunch time!

Musings on pencils

Most homes I know have at least one or two pencils lurking about- hidden under papers in the junk drawer or stuck in the cup by the phone with the pens. The lead may be broken, they may be short and stubby, but if you really need a pencil, you can usually find one somewhere.

Except... I couldn't. It's tax time, and I need to plug some figures into a form supplied by our accountant. I usually do it in pencil, so that I can easily change the figures (too bad the form isn't on-line) and keep it legible. So I looked in every drawer, purse, suitcase, etc. in our flat, and no pencil. I had to actually go to the store and buy one!

That lead me to think about all the pencils we disposed of prior to our move here. Where did they come from? Did I ever actually buy any? I don't remember EVER picking up a pack of pencils to purchase them except at back-to-school time, years ago when students were required to have #2 pencils. Sometimes I bought special "funky" pencils for the kids as gifts, but that was YEARS ago too. Do they just hide away for all those years until needed? Do visitors or salesmen leave them on the table or desk in the house? Did we pick them up at the bank, or an office, and bring them home? How many were acquired as a result of asking "Hey, have you got a pencil I can use?"

And at the store today? Even in Prague there was too much choice. How many should I buy? Should I buy a mechanical pencil or just a plain old wooden one? What type of lead? Why aren't there any with erasers on the end? Do I want plain ones or ones with a design? Do I really need a pack of ten? or even three? Ah- there's a single pencil (#2 1/2 lead - no eraser) with a package right next to it containing a sharpener and an eraser. I grabbed it up - all set. The perfect beginning to my new European pencil collection.

And now - how many pencils do YOU have??

Elliot's First Birthday

Yesterday was Elliot's first birthday, and his first birthday party! He loved having all the people around, and there were several other children in attendance to keep the noise and activity level high! :-) No boring birthday here!


It's cake time - Elliot's first foray into the fine art of cupcake eating! Banana cupcakes with chocolate chips and vanilla frosting - yum!!

Opening presents- this is for me????

Tired but happy.....a successful party!

Here's a video of the festivities.....

eh... What's up Doc?

This is Simba. (Yes, I know that's not a rabbit name- but he came with the name.) One of the teachers in school offered to donate him to the class- but cautioned that he would need a caretaker on weekends and holidays.

How could I refuse? Tom and I had been talking about getting some sort of pet, and felt this was a perfect opportunity.

So - Simba is here for the next week, learning his way around the flat (yes, we let him out). We are very excited to have him here, and we plan to build him a run for the terrace in the spring. We will have a home for him here, and one at school, and he will travel back and forth with me via a cat carrier (we hope).

Owen and Elliot are very happy too that we have the bunny .... Good way to entice them to come visit!!

Thanks!!

Thanks to all who made this birthday so special!

The celebrating started at school, with a cake at a teacher get-together Thursday evening, followed by a party at school on Friday planned by the moms. We had a scrumptious cake with candles (yes, we use real lighted candles in the classroom here in the CR) and I had a party hat and birthday "crown".

Then, on Saturday, Tom cooked dinner and we had a family celebration with Chris, Laura, Owen and Elliot. Laura made her famous chocolate cake AND some delicious vanilla ice cream! Erika and Mike joined the festivities by Skype, and it was so much fun I was able to forget that I am another year older. :-)