Our Last Wednesday : - (

Today went to the rectory and raked leaves again.  They gave us a bushel of apples as a thank you.  We had a hard time carrying it home especially since we had to stop at the grocery store on the way home.   We also stopped at the Kral's to pick up the picture he had done of the kids.

Here's the final product.  Hopefully you can recognize everyone!

And here's the artist, Slavik Kral, with his work.  If anyone thinks you would like to have him do a picture for you,
please let us know and we will put you in contact with him.  He is a wonderful man and I know his family
could definitely use a little extra money!

Here's a practice version that he did.  Sebastian looked too old though,
so he re-did it trying to make him look more his age.

In addition to making the decorations, Karolina asked if we could make some cheesecakes to sell at the Corale party on Saturday night, so I practiced making them this afternoon.  They finally sell Philadelphia cream cheese in the Czech Republic, but it is VERY expensive and it is more of the spreadable cream cheese rather than the more firm cream cheese that comes in the boxes.

Andrea & Robin came to visit today....not sure when Pavel will be here yet.

Our Last Tuesday : - (

Again...we didn't do too much today...just school, decorations & catching up on a few days of blogging.  It was snowing again tonight, so we took a nice walk through the town (even though my foot was really hurting me).

Our Last Monday : - (

On Monday we just relaxed after the long day in Prague.  My foot was really hurting me from walking all day. We did a little bit of school, but not much.  In the afternoon I took Gabriella to the doctor to see if she needed a new cast.  I had a bit of a problem talking with the receptionist, so I called Libor to have him translate some information for her.  They spoke for a minute or so then hung up the phone.  I was then talking with her for another minute or two and then we were turning around to sit down in the waiting room and who do I turn around and bump into...Libor.  He said, "I just wanted to run over here to make sure everything went smoothly for you."  Then he sat with the kids in the waiting room while Gabriella and I were in with the doctor.  What an amazing guy!  It turned out that they didn't think we needed to take any new x-rays and they thought the cast she had on could stay until we got back home and had our own doctor take a look at it.

Later on we worked on the decorations some more.

Here's how they look so far.

Annika recording Sebastian being goofy!

When we were getting ready for bed I was sitting on the bed and a pillow was covering up my leg.  Annika jumped on the bed not knowing my leg was there and ouch...the pain was so bad I thought I was going to pass out.

Sunday - Prague

Sunday morning Gabriella, Nate and I (and Libor) woke up very early...4:45...to drive 30 mintues (on snowy roads - with me driving I might add) to Usti in order to catch the 6:18 train to Prague.  Libor wasn't going with us to Prague, he just woke up to warm up the car for us, scrape the ice of the windows and refill the windshield wiper fluid (bless his soul!)

We made it on time to our train and arrived in Prague a little after 8 am.  

Nate in front of the St. Wenseslaus statue

From Wenseslaus Square we walked to Prague Castle intending to go to 9:30 Mass at the Cathedral, but when we arrived at the castle there was some sort of military event going on.  The gates into the castle were blocked off and the street was lined with barricades and many people waiting and watching.  I tried to find out if there was an alternate route to get to the Cathedral but the only people that I could get to talk to me kept telling me that everything is closed because the president is there and this military event is going on.  We decided to go with Plan B which was to go to the nearby Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary which was recommended by Fr. Kudera the night before and see if they had a 10:00 Mass there.  They did.  It was a beautiful Mass, but it was very cold in the church.  After Mass we stopped off at a coffee shop to warm up.  We made our way back over to the Cathedral so Nate could at least see it even if we wouldn't be able to attend Mass there.  Well........... Mass was over at the Cathedral, but it opened to the public at noon, so there was a huge line of tourists already there waiting to go in.  We made our way to the back of the line which wrapped all the way around and almost to the very back of the Cathedral.  We decided to wait in line for a little bit just to see how fast the line was moving.  As we are waiting we notice a man standing next to a door into the Cathedral.  A few of the servers came out the door and went next door which is probably where their vesting room is.  So we thought that man was standing there guarding the door; however, a few minutes later a woman walked over to him and they left together.  We knew there was no entrance charge for people who were legitimately there to pray and we were, so Nate decided to check it out. He disappeared through the door and a few moments later he peeked out and waved us in.  We found ourselves in a side chapel where another man was praying.  We knelt down and started praying as well.  Not long after that a stream of about 50 people stormed the door and the security guard went nuts.  He started screaming (in Czech) Help, help, no you mustn't, help me get them out of here!  Some other guards came rushing over and helped him usher everyone outside, but he never bothered us.  Nate finished praying his Divine Office and then we were able to walk around the rest of the Cathedral.

After that we started making our way back to the train station where Nate would catch his bus to the airport.  We stopped off for lunch in a small pub.  Gabriella had svickova again, her 3rd day in a row.  While we were eating another tourist stopped in.  We got to talking and it turns out she lives in Vail, Colorado and is a nurse at the hospital there.  What a small world!  After lunch we stopped by the church of the Infant of Prague.  Nate met a monk who was working there who had spent a lot of time at Holy Hill in Wisconsin...again, small world!

We made it back to the train station just in time for Nate to catch his bus.  We said a quick goodbye and he was off.  A little while later my phone rang and it was Nate.  Libor had borrowed Nate his jacket for the day since it was so cold and we had forgotten to get it back from him before he took off for the airport.  Gabriella and I caught the next bus to the airport where Nate was waiting for us with the jacket and then we hopped right on the next bus back to the train station.

Gabriella and I ate dinner, did a little shopping and then took a train back to Usti, drove back to Zamberk.  We got home around 10:30 that night.  I was so ready to hit the hay, but it was only 3:30 in the afternoon in America and Petr needed some help with real estate stuff, so I stayed up for about another hour helping him with that.

Snow Day!

First thing in the morning we tried to find out where Nate's Great Grandma was from in the Czech Republic.  We think we found the correct name of the town; however, there are two towns in the Czech Republic with that same name, one near Český Krumlov which is over 4 hours away and one near Pardubice which is only about an hour and a half away.  Karolina tried to look up some genealogy websites to try and see if we could figure out which one she was from.  If she was from the closer one, we were going to plan our day for that direction.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any substantial information, so we gave up on the idea of going to that town. Plan B was to walk around Žamberk then go to the nearby Craft Museum.  The museum includes more than 50 comprehensive expositions of crafts and trades from the period 1840 - 1930.

The boys look at some of the exhibits

The book binder's section included a catalogue turned to
the page displaying the chalices they had for sale at that time

In the embroidery section we saw beautiful embroidered vestments

In the baker's section they displayed the forms used to make hosts.

Seb & Tobi in the ropemaker's section.
They have ropemaking in their history.  The house that Petr grew up in was a ropemaker's house.  I think it was his great-grandfather who was a rope maker.  We don't know how far back the trade went in Petr's family, 

WEATHER REPORT BY ANNI...

Today it snowed!  We couldn't believe it.  Everyone was very excited.

Especially me!

Here is the backyard as it began to snow.

This is the roof of their house as seen from the window
where we usually look out of

This is the balcony

Another view from the balcony

This is the hill we play on but its full of snow so we don't
play on it any more or we will slip and fall

This is Zach having a lot and lot of fun

Here is a  picture of  Zach chasing snow

And now back to you, Mom...

In the afternoon we were going to drive to Klášter Králíky, a cloister on top of a big hill with views, a nice stations of the cross path, lots of beautiful artwork, but it was just too snowy.  I was worried about the drive, so we didn't go.  Here are some pictures for you Nate, since we didn't make it there...http://kraliky-klaster.cz/kkcz/102/exterier-arealu.  We were also going to try and make it to Neratov (http://www.neratov.cz/fotogalerie2/kostel-nanebevzeti-panny-marie/soucasny-stav/), but we decided to just stay home and visit and help Karolina make the decorations for the party on Saturday night.

Libor watching the action

That evening the parish priest came over for dinner with 2 "scouts".  We had our favorite for dinner.  Do you know it's name by now?

We found out a few interesting facts from the priest that evening.  He is only 1/3 of the way done with the restoration work on the interior of the church.  There are about 10-20 active parish families.  The Czech Republic is divided into 8 diocese with 15 seminarians from this diocese and overall about 50-60 seminarians for the whole country.

Moving Day

Today we spent most of the day packing up and cleaning our home in Záchlumí.  Mirka made Gabriella's and my favorite meal for lunch before we left.  We didn't finish packing up though, until almost 4:30.  The little boys were being just a little uncooperative which delayed the process.

Gabi & I agree, we could eat Svickova 4 times a week!!!

After we got back to Žamberk, we were waiting to hear from our friend, Nate, who was flying in from Rome that afternoon and then taking a train to come and visit us.  Martina & Karolina drove with me later that night to pick up Nate at the train station in Ústí.

An Afternoon Surprise

We went to Mass this morning, there were more people here today than last time we went to daily Mass...counted 37 today...that's a pretty fair number.  After Mass we were going to rake the church grounds, but it was pretty damp, drizzly weather so it had to be postponed.

This afternoon Mirka had a surprise for the kids.  One of her colleagues took the kids to see her horses and give them a little ride.

Two beautiful horses.  Bella is a Welsh Part Bred and Shenny is a Czech Warmblood.

One happy horse lover!

What a beautiful animal.

Another happy horse lover.

I made Chicken Tetrazzini tonight for Marketa and her parents.  We tried to skype with Petr & Katja during dinner but we just couldn't get a good connection.

After dinner the girls went to their room and I overheard them practicing their Czech.  For over 45 minutes they tried to speak only Czech to each other.

Dřevo a Dřevo a Vic Dřevo

Today we went back to the rectory to do some more volunteer work.

Our mission, should we choose to accept it...to stack some wood

our first pile of wood

just beginning

Anni & Seb working together so nicely

Luke cutting down the boards that are too long

Tobiah helping out

and Gabriella too, even though she only has one good arm

first pile taken care of

and semi-neatly stacked over here

onto our second pile of wood

After all that hard work I had to reward the kids with something they have been wanting to do for a long, long time...go to a monster truck show!  And there just happened to be one in Zamberk this evening, so we went over to take a look.

It was advertised as a monster truck show, but it was really more of a stunt show.  The kids still enjoyed it though.

Here are some of our favorite "stunts"

trying to shake off the passenger

man riding on top of car through fire

on two wheels

finally the monster trucks make an appearance

One again going to an event like this in the Czech Republic is such a unique experience for us overly protected Americans.  We were right up there in the front row just 2 feet from the cars going past us at some points.  It was just like the circus we went to years back.  If we had wanted to we could have reached our hands out and touched the animals as they performed in front of us.  If we had stood up our head would have been knocked off by the acrobats swinging overhead.  It is definitely a "take responsibility for your personal safety" type of mindset here!

Hradec Králové

Tuesday morning we woke up early and went to Hradec Králové which is about 50 minutes away.  It is the town where Vendula goes to school.  We met her at a shopping mall and then drove to a swimming center.  We had a great time.  There was a really fun wave pool and a water slide.  Gabriella was even able to go with her cast wrapped up in plastic bags.

After swimming we went to the square for lunch

Walking to the square

Rob...we wanted to go up the tower to see the enormous
bell that you saw, but unfortunately it was closed!

Lunch underground

After lunch we walked over to one of Vendula's dance studios to pick up some discount tickets for the place we were headed to later in the day.

At one of the dance studios...can you tell
that is a poster of Vendula behind Sebastian?

Next we went to another dance studio and Annika was able to participate in a Street Dance lesson with some other kids her age.

Vendula had to go to a class for school during this time and after her class the kids went to Tongo with her and I went grocery shopping.  Tongo is an indoor playarea with huge ball pits, trampolines, a giant labyrinth of tunnels, climbing walls, etc...

"Czech" out this page for some more pictures & a video... http://www.tongohradec.cz/fotky-a-videa

Cheddar Cheese - a rare find
These tiny 3 slices cost  $1.60.  Can you believe it?
That's $7.56 per pound.  Boy do I miss Wisconsin right now!!!

Woohoo...gas prices were down a little bit today...$7.96 per gallon!!!

After we got home and I got the kids to bed I watched the 3rd Presidential debate.

Just Another Monday

Not too much to report today.  We just did school in the morning.  Luke went to Matej's class again.  I attempted to make Šunkafleky like Martina had made for us when we were at the cabins.  It is a pasta dish with onions & ham.  It turned out pretty good.  After dinner we watched an episode of Secret Millionaire on youtube then the kids went to bed and I worked on my online real estate class.

Jana, Matej's English teacher, was at our house with Corale in 2006.

Drakiáda & Fotbal

After the concert last night it was so, so foggy and late that I was worried about driving home, so we stayed overnight at Libor and Martina's house.  Sunday morning we woke up and went to Mass.  After Mass we went back to the Kainek's.  They made us a huge breakfast while we were gone.  Bacon, scrambled eggs, donuts, yogurt with M&M's, brownies, cake, hot chocolate, rolls with soft cheese or marmalade.  We stayed and visited there for a while after breakfast then we went back to Marketa's house for a yummy lunch  made by Mirka.  One of the kid's favorites - Ptáčky - thin cuts of tenderized round steak with hard-boiled eggs, pickles and little bits of kloubasa served with rice and a stew like gravy.

Later in the afternoon we went to an event organized by Petr's church called a Drakiáda which basically translates to kites party.  We met at a big field behind one of the parishioners homes.  Everyone brought kites and sausages to cook out over the campfire.  The hosts provided lots of warm drinks, snacks and sweets.  Unfortunately it wasn't very windy that day, so we played volleyball, soccer and frisbee also.  I was able to talk for a little while with a few of the parishioners.   

Anni & Luke were able to get the kite going for a little while at least.

Later in the day we went to watch Marketa's brother, Milan, play soccer for the Žamberk team.

Not too many spectators

Žamberk scores!

Milan, #10 makes a quick stop

Later in the game Milan scored a goal for Žamberk, but apparently the 

opposing team didn't feel the goal should have counted.

The opposing team is in the striped shirts and their goalie is in the green shirt.  

They were pretty angry with the refs. At the end of this video the goalie is shouting

to one of the spectators, "Come on, let's go!" - as in let's take this argument outside.  

Žamberk ended up winning 4-2.