Party Week! October 25-October 30

And there were several reasons why.   
Reason #1:  Spence was in Cairo, and the last thing we needed was to mope around the house.
Reason #2:  The kids were out of school for 3 days for the Czech Independence Day (October 28).
Reason #3:  It was my birthday (Tuesday)
Reason #4:  It was Halloween.  (Saturday)
So get prepared!  This one’s a biggy.

Monday—Baking
For FHE, the kids wanted to bake my birthday cake.  It started out pretty rough (fighting and not wanting to cooperate), but we pulled it off in the end.  We talked about what it meant to be a family, and all of the ingredients that it takes to make a family “work.”  Each kid had a job, and it turned out great!  If only the cake was the same.   (I was estimating on my measurements, since I didn’t take time to convert them to metric.

The Bakers and some of my presents that the kids have been giving me from 3 weeks ago (minus the finger-knitted bracelet from Aiden).  They were far more excited for the day than I was!

Tuesday—My Birthday
My day really started on Monday night when I picked Liz up at the Metro station from her date.  We bought milk on the way home, and she was the first one to wish me a happy birthday and told me not to wake up with the kids in the morning. 

This is what I woke up to!  How adorable are they?  Thanks, Liz for the perfect pancakes, the delicious chocolate, and the fabulous morning!  Then I got to open Spence’s gift that he left for me!  I will love watching Pride and Prejudice—the 6 dvd BBC version.
That afternoon the kids did their math, and then we had birthday cake—that is everyone else had birthday cake while I tried to wash and trim my hair after lighting it on fire with the birthday candles.  How can you tell when you’re getting old? 

Before the fire.                                                                                 Me trying to blow out my hair.
We spent the evening with some friends at Beckiland—an indoor plaground that the kids loved!  This was the only picture  I shot.  I spent the evening sitting and chatting with a friend, which was a wonderful birthday.

Wednesday—Meet the Robisons
Yeah, they’re pretty crazy, but they’re not those Robinsons, and while the Petrin Tower looks kind of futuristic, it’s definitely from the past.  We had a great time with a fun family.  We started at the base of Petrin Hill, took the funicular, and then climbed the 100-some odd steps to the top of the tower that overlooks the city.  But let’s be honest, the kids enjoyed the playground at the bottom as much as or more than the view at the top. 

The tower                                                                A view on the way up

Charles Bridge from the tower                                              Coulson bringing the best out of Bev

Kian fills his hat with rocks                                                     And then tries to wear it.

Earl copies Kian with a little more success, and then was buried in the rocks by the kids.  A little girl came up and started grabbing his toes.  It was pretty funny. 

“Earl”                                                                                          On the hammock giving the adult onlookers heart attacks

The Crew
Thursday—Kutna Hora
For Halloween, we met another cute family, the “Miles” for a picnic in the park and then an excursion to Kutna Hora, which is a small town outside of Prague.  It is famous for its “bone church,” a place where in the 1100’s or so, someone came from Palestine and poured soil from the Holy Land on the ground and then built a church there.  All of the nobles in the land wanted to be buried there.  Then when the plague hit, 30,000 people were buried there in one year!  It is said to be a common grave of over 40,000 people.  It was obviously too full, so a Renaissance artist came in and symbolized the importance of heaven vs. this mortal life by taking the bones from the graves and creating “beautiful” art with them.  It was sort of creepy, but Coulson and Elyse loved it and it worked for Halloween.  Evie had to leave early because it made her sick.  I’m with you, Evie.
Afterward we saw a beautiful gothic cathedral called the Cathedral of Saint Barbara; that made everything feel better.
The Park

Liz and Wynnie “chillin’.”  The kids had so much fun with Chris and Ashley.  They are recent BYU graduates with one cute little baby that our kids LOVE!  Chris is 6’7” and was a starter for BYU’s basketball team.  He’s here playing for a Czech team for a year.  This was cracking me up!

Ashely poses for Kian and this is the park.
The Church

They had several chambers like this that are supposed to represent the countless numbers of people in the eternal realm. 

Coulson loved this, and took many more pictures than this.  I’ll let him post them while lyse was just trying to prove how tough she was.
Cathedral of St. Barbara

The Kids and the Miles with the cathedral in the background.  This was the view from the hill that the cathedral sits on—it was a beautiful time of day to be there.

Wynnie getting all “toured out,” and Aiden?  getting goofy?  Never.
Friday—Letna Park
Finally Friday came and that meant Daddy came home.  Even though he woke up at 1:30am for his flight home, he was a trooper and let us drag him to a gorgeous park and play.  It was so beautiful that we took lots of fall color pictures.  We weren’t really planning on it, but we had to!  This is my favorite park so far.


My “brownies.”
Saturday—Halloween
Then on Saturday we finally found pumpkins—little tiny baking pumpkins that still made pretty cute Jack-o-lanterns.  The boys (Spence, Coulson and Aiden) did an all-day service project with the men in the branch while the rest of us carved pumpkins, then we all went to the Branch party in the night.  A pretty good Halloween.

Kian was SO proud of “Tim.”  He carried him around and played pretend.  I guess the little pie pumpkin was a hit.

Dorothy and Glinda, and then Dorothy coloring.

This picture is bad, but they had the kids “trick or treat” on classroom doors where missionaries would answer the door and give out candy.  I’m sure every missionary would love to be the one answering doors instead of knocking.

More to come later!