Thursday, May 27, 2010

Grammie and Grandpa Bond's visit

I didn't have any pictures of E in the post, so I added this one. Upon the grandparents' arrival, E immediately enlisted them as book readers. They read a LOT this trip, at least to her.
This picture's from our trip to Cesky Krumlov. It was raining, so we stopped for a meal at Laibon. It's a cute vegetarian restaurant with a great deck on the river, which of course we couldn't use. But the interior's pretty fun, too.
Grammie giving an impromptu show at the marionette museum in Cesky Krumlov, because that's the kind of grandmother she is. Our trip was pretty fun -- the kids were amazingly good in the car and even during a rather dry tour of the castle theater (I liked the theater, but the tour was not great.) It was a bit odd for us, though, because Nathan was in Dallas at the same time picking out a house for us. So I'd get phone calls at odd moments and have to split off while the grandparents watched the kids (or drove the car), and I was busy on the hotel's wifi looking at pictures every night. Our hotel was great, by the way. Aparthotel Castle View. It's right next to the square and is very nice. Kitchenettes with microwave and fridge, plus breakfast at the hotel down the street. We were in a 2-bedroom apartment with a contained outside area as well.

And here's M in his school's production of Peter Pan. If he looks a bit serious, it's because he was. He did a great job and was quite intent on getting it all right. He was one of the best dancers in the group. Our other kids were great, except for V randomly throwing a program at another guest. E was seriously dancing during the musical numbers. And I fed her lentilky (M&Ms) during the dialogue.

Monday, May 10, 2010

All hail the mighty state

Yes, we're moving to Texas. Yes, we've been in Prague for 5 years. Yes, we're starting our own company. Yes, I'll be homeschooling V for PRE-school next year. And that last statement is the one that has garnered the most shocked faces so far. Seriously -- she's 4! Nathan's starting his own company, and no one blinks about that one. Oh well, just cultural difference. Public pre-school is free here, so everyone does it.

Some details, for those not on the up and up -- we'll be living in Carrollton, but don't have an address as yet. Nathan's just arrived from a house-hunting trip and we're got an option on 2 houses. Yes, Nathan picked out our house. We've never bought a house this way, but we rented an apartment this way when we moved here. Nathan visited lots of flats, took a ton of pictures, and drew floorplans. Then he made a powerpoint presentation (permanent legacy from his consulting days, I think) with all the details and maps, etc., and we picked an apartment. No problem at all, and no surprises about the flat when I arrived either. So I'm not worried about the house. After a long 3 days for both of us, we've got 2 fantastic choices.

We expect to move in early July. If the house needs it, we'll do a bunch of painting and flooring. Definitely lots of visiting with family, time at the public pool, I need to make sure we've got library bags for everyone, about a million small trips for settling into the house needs ... and M will be doing some testing before school starts. I think we'll find that our summer is not too long this year. We probably won't even have our shipment from Prague before the first day of school. This week we've got companies coming in to give us estimates on the move.

My parents are in town right now, more on that later. I'll post some lovely pictures!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Happy Star Wars Day!


May the 4th Be With You -- international star wars day. Hope you have a great one!