Wordless Wednesday (#3)

Well it’s Wednesday and that means little or no words from me!  So here is how we spent the last week.

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So what fun family thing did you do this past week?

Guess who is 100 today?

It is hard to believe that Girl Scouts is 100 years young today!!!

I hate to date myself but I have been a member of Girl Scouts now for 31 years!! My mother started me when I was in 1^st grade (back in those days there wasn’t Daisy scouts yet).  Over the years I was truly blessed to have such a GREAT mom because she was always one of the first ones to volunteer for many of the volunteer positions in Girl Scouts.  She was a troop leader, a Neighborhood Committee Chair and a Camp director which made my experience in Girl Scouts so much more fun.  I stayed in Girls Scouts all the way until I graduated from high school.  While many girls quit Girl Scouts when they get to high school, to me that is when the fun really started!  I was President of the high school aged Girl Scouts advisory committee for our council, I was 1 of 40 girls selected to participate in an International Girl Scout 3 week canoeing camp in northern Canada, and earned the highest award in Girl Scouts, the Gold Award.   For a graduation present from my now mother-in-law I was a given a lifetime membership to Girl Scouts which I am really thankful for!  Because before I even had any daughters I was a troop co-leader, day camp director and President of an Overseas Committee when we lived in Panama.  Now that I have 2 daughters who are in Girl Scouts and 1 more joining next year I am still volunteering as a troop leader, activities coordinator, Gold Award committee member and for the last 5 years before we moved here to Poland, I was the Oversees Committee in the Netherlands/Belgium area.   My husband over the years has volunteered to with Girl Scouts as Cookie Dad for more years than I care to say!

People ask me why am I so outgoing, kind hearted, giving and love to volunteer?  My answer is because this is the way I was brought up which because of the example my mother set for me and ethics instilled in me from the last 31 years of being a Girl Scout!

So “THANK YOU” Juliette Lowe for starting Girl Scouts 100 years ago today!

For more information about Girl Scouts click here.

For more information about Girl Scouts here in Europe that my girls participate in click here.

Here are some pictures of what my girls and I have done with Girl Scouts while living here in Europe.

My daughter and her friends in Lieden, the Netherlands.

World Scouting Chalet in Switzerland.

World Scouting Chalet in Switzerland.

World Scouting Chalet in Switzerland.

My daughter at Thinking Day.

My AWESOME middle school troop!!! Small but mighty we were. Miss you guys.

My AWESOME high school troop!!! Miss you guys.

She raised funds to purchase food and got several items donated for the animal shelter.

The reason why we went to Poland on this trip was for one of the girls in my troop Silver Award project for an animal shelter there.

Learning to make pierogi’s in Poland. I never thought when we were doing this I would be living in Poland less than 9 months later!

The men enjoying our cooking class products.

Making Polish pottery.

My daughter poking holes for flag placement at an American WWII cemetery in the Netherlands.

Sweet 16 and never been kissed….WRONG

Today is another great day in our house, my oldest daughter turned 16!!!!

One of the my claim’s to fame is that I have 4 kids who were all born in different countries.  My husband calls them our souvenirs of where we have lived.  Lydia is our Panamanian souvenir.

So of course being her birthday we had to wake her up by singing “Happy Birthday”!  But wait, where do we live?  In Poland silly, so her 2 little sisters said we had to sing it in Polish.  What? We have lived here for 3 months there is no way that they know this song in Polish, WRONG again mom!

Follow this link to YouTube to watch the girls waking up Lydia singing “Sto Lat”

http://youtu.be/BtPWxZk7BHA

While there were a few hiccups in the song but for the most part these 2 have it mastered!  I can’t even begin to sing this.  We have heard this song many times over here already as it song any different occasions not just birthdays.

Here are the words to the song….

Sto Lat

Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje zyje nam.
Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje zyje nam.
Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz, niech zyje, zyje nam.
Niech zyje nam!

Sto Lat (English version)

Good luck, good cheer, may you live a hundred years.
Good luck, good cheer, may you live a hundred years.
Good luck, good cheer, may you live a hundred years.
One hundred years!

Happy Birthday Lydia, Love Mom!!

I think I gained 5 pounds!

One of the things that has made the transition to Poland an easy easier move is our wonderful church.  As many of you are aware a great church family no matter where you move to can either make you or break you.  Well yesterday we went and spent half a day with one of ours.  They live about and hour and 15 minutes from us in a neat town called Torun.  The great thing about Artur and Kornelia is they are truly dedicated members of our because every Sunday they drive that same distance to come to church.

 

 

 

First polish housing is a bit different the American.  In big cities they tend to look like this.  I guess during the communism days these buildings were all gray with no color.  Can you image?

 

 

 

 

 

Then we were off to climb five stories of staircases.  All I can say this  would be my daily work out if this was our house. Then we finally got to their apartment, all chaos broke loose!  So what if between the 7 kids they don’t speak the same language, a toy is a toy, that and sign language works too!

 

 

 

 

 

Before long it was time to eat.  So I was thinking this simple little meal.  Boy was I wrong!!! Kornelia and Artur made this 5 course meal of traditional Polish food.  First up…..

Soup.  She had made both tomato and cabbage.  In Polish they are called Pomidorowa and Kapusniak.  All I can say, if this was just the first course we were in for trouble because this was AMAZING!!! As you can see Ella enjoyed every bite. Then it was on to the second course….. This was Mieso Wiepporzowe Schab. In english this was a pork loin rolled and stuffed with kielbaska and cucumber with gravy. She also made mashed potato’s and served beet pickle relish.   I think after eating this course Jim and I were ready for a nap.  But NO!  it was time for the next round of food…. Birthday cake!  Their littlest one turned 3 years old.  And yes, Kornelia made the cake too! Just when you think you should have worn your jogging pants instead of your jeans, out comes more food!  This time it was polish peach cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies.   Sorry I didn’t get a picture of these because I was in calorie overload by then. So right when I thought is was going to be time to go, out comes MORE food. This time I made sure I had room, because it was the famous Polish sausages!

We had a great time with Artur and Kornelia. So needless to say we are already working on dates when we can teach other how to cook our foods.  She wants me to teach her to cook chocolate cake, brownies and anything else American.

So what do you think I should teach her?

7th Birthday Polish Style

It’s hard to believe but our little girl turns 7 years old today.  Living here in Bydgoszcz for only last 9 weeks telling a soon to be 7 year old little girl that we don’t knew where to throw a Birthday party for here is just was going to happen.  Her little sister was invited a birthday party about a month ago for a fellow classmate and Ella didn’t forget about it! So Family Park here we come (aka polish version of Chuck Cheese without the pizza and McDonald’s play-areas without the Happy Meals.)

So off I go to Family Park to try to book a birthday party with my limited Polish!  Well to my surprise some of the staff spoke English but then again when most of the staff is under 21 by the looks of it, English is usually not a problem.

And away we go!.

Ella and AnnaFleur with a friend at the entrance to Family Park and yes it was a wee bit cold that afternoon, -9 C on Saturday.

All kids getting a welcome from our 2 party hosts.  These 2 were amazing!  They watch those 15 kids like hawk.   Jim and I didn’t have to lift a finger the whole 2 hours of the party.

Here the birthday child is the king/queen for the day.  So the entire party went on stage to sing Happy Birthday to Ella in Polish and English.  I was amazed how much Polish the girls have learned the 9 weeks we have been here.  They both knew how to sing in Polish from the few parties that we have already been too.

Now it is time to make a wish!  Yes, that is a firework on top of her cake.  The only bad part of the party is your are not allowed to bring your own cake in.  So no American birthday cake this year!

After that we went off to our own private party room.  They have 6 different themed rooms to choose from.  Of course Ella choose the Princess room.  Here they had lots of snacks and juice for the kids to eat. (and for parents to snack on!)

Ella showing off her cake name plate.  Pure chocolate so she was in HEAVEN!

Jim taking with some friends of ours.  They are another American family here from where Jim works.  While there might not be many Americans here we are a tight bunch.  I am thankful for people like them that have just welcomed us with such open arms! The rest of the parents were smart and huge out in another room that had sofas, table’s and T.V.’s and enjoyed coffee and left over birthday cake.

Present time!

After presents they took them to do some bowling.  No strikes that day.

The girls being girls.

Then it was off to drive the go-karts.  Do you think Ella is having fun?

AnnaFleur and her Korean friend(one of the reason why I love here we have ALL nationalities here!) driving their go-kart.  AnnaFleur has NO fear at all, she a speed demon on the cart.

Then it was off to shoot Nerf like balls at each other in another room.  Have I mentioned I don’t have to do a thing during this party?  Our 2 party hosts totally kept the kids in control the entire time.

They say a man’s work is never done.  Well here is good ole’ dad having to quick do a thing or two for work, unfortunately.  And yes he has blue shoe covers on because outside shoes are not allowed to keep everything clean.  So your options are no shoes and only socks or shoe covers.  During the winter time I highly recommend keeping your shoes on, it’s a bit chilly in there.

After all the playing, it’s time for more food!  The kids got to choose from chicken strips or fish sticks and fries.  Or course 14 kids chose chicken!

Now that the offiical birthday party was done, it was finally time for this….a HUGE play area that the girls get lost in for hours.  “Heaven” through a child’s eyes!

AnnaFleur thinking ” Are these real??  Inside they had this cute little fish pond with Koi fish.

AnnaFleur is glued to this drumming game. We might have a future drummer on our hands!

Yes, even in Poland there is access to a sugar high! They were only 3zt each(about $1.)  These kids for the most part weren’t going home with me, so why not give them a sugar high?

So this is what a 7 year old looks like when you tell her it is time to go after being there for 4 hours!  “But mom, do we have too? It’s my birthday and I can do what ever I want!”  Mom – “1….2……….”

Overall I think Ella and her 14 friends had a great time at Family Park.  After seeing how they destroyed Family Park, Jim and I think it was worth the little bit of extra money not to destroy our house!  Now time to start planning Lydia’s sweet 16 birthday for March

For more information about Family Park here in Bydgoszcz here is a link to their site…http://www.familypark.pl/  If you don’t read Polish, open the site up through Google and it will automatic translate to what ever language you read.