PRAGUE, OR AS THE LOCALS SAY PRAHA

Yippie, I am finally blogging about our trip to Prague. Prague was beautiful. It was a little stressful getting there because our GPS is a little crazy. It got us lost a few times on the way there. What should have only been a 5 hour drive, turned into a 9 hour drive. We got there safe though and that was what was important. It was a beautiful drive. It was so fun to be able to see a lot more of Germany that we have before. Prague is only an hour into the Czech Republic, so we got to see a lot of Germany. Although it was a little stressful leaving our kids for the weekend, we enjoyed our trip. We got to see almost everything that we wanted to. The one thing that I wanted to see that we didn't get to is Houska Castle. It has an interesting story that goes along with it. I am not going to write about it, but you can read about it here,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houska_Castle
It would have been fun to see it. I guess we will just have to take another trip there. I also tried to talk Ethan into going to see was the Ossuary. You can read about that here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary
Ethan said that it was too weird and creepy. Anyway, despite the things we missed, we saw a lot and learned a lot about their country while we were there.

We rented a car to drive down there. We figured out that it would actually cost the same if we rented a car and paid for gas versus just driving our van. We decided to rent a car and not put the miles on our van. Our brakes need changed on the van anyway. Ethan thought the car we drove was so funny because it was small and very European.


We're rich! Don't I wish. This was actually the smaller amount that we took out. 1000 Czech Krone actually equals out to around 60-70 dollars. Their money system is so different. They don't actually have any "change." Their money starts at 1 Czech Krone. Everything up to 100 Czech Krone is actually coins. So different and interesting. Even though we weren't actually rich, it was fun to feel like it.


This was our Hotel. It was actually a hostel. It was so different staying at a hostel instead of a hotel. The bathroom wasn't actually in our room. It was across the hall. The shower wasn't in the same room as the bathroom. We paid a little extra to get a private shower. I am glad that we did. They also had a fairly nice breakfast. Of course breakfast for most European countries means bread and coffee or hot chocolate. Sometimes, they have yogurt. I can't quite get used to the taste of European yogurt though. The texture is so different. All in all, I learned that staying in a hostel isn't too bad. I was terrified at first, but it was a very nice experience. I think I wouldn't mind staying in one again. A few notes for my next time though. Bring my own towel. I didn't really enjoy drying off with a hand towel. Bring my own pillow. Theirs were terrible. Bring my own toilet paper. I hate the cheap cardboard stuff.


This is the entrance to Charles Bridge (Karluv Most). There was a gate on both sides. The bridge had venders all over it. You could buy almost anything. There were a lot of musicians on the bridge. They were very talented. Marionettes were invented in Prague, so there were a lot of really talented puppeteers trying to make a few dollars on the bridge as well. One of my favorite things was rubbing the statue for good luck. I love little traditions that you do for luck. For some reason, I didn't get a picture of the bridge as we were walking across it. So you will have to do with looking at the gate.


This is the old town hall. There is an astronomical clock (Orloj) on the outside of it. It is pretty cool to look at. Inside the old town hall, there is a ton of history about who created the clock and the history of the clock tower. They also do a light show projected onto the clock tower at 10pm. That was also pretty cool to watch because you can watch it being built and stuff. The clock has lasted a long time even though the tower has been burned down a few times. The clock is located in Old Town Square (Staromestske Namesti). It is the largest town square in Europe.


This is just Ethan being goofy at the top of the tower. I love this photo. We have so much fun together.


Getting married in Europe (well I am pretty sure it is all of Europe, I know it is Germany and Czech Republic at least) is different than it is in the states. When people get married, they have to get married at the court house first and then they can go to whatever church they want to get married at and get married there. Even if you were to get married in the temple, you would still have to be married in the courthouse first. This is the room that people walk into right after they are married. It is a beautiful room. It is a bit of a shock that there are places like this in a courthouse.


This is a close up of the pictures on the wall in the room. That's right, the pictures are made out of these tiny rocks. I couldn't even imagine the time it took the artist to make these murals. It is just beautiful.


This is by far, my favorite photo of Prague. I love the clouds and the view of the city. This was taken on top of Petrin Hill. Petrin Hill is a giant park. they had a miniature Eiffel Tower there. They also had a mirror maze. I was so excited about the mirror maze. I have always wanted to go in one. It was a lot of fun to get lost inside. I am proud to say, I didn't walk into any mirrors. Ethan did though. :)


This is the John Lennon wall. When the Czech Republic was still a communist country, people would come and paint on this wall about freedom. You can still write on the wall. They take pictures of it every now and then because it is always changing. You can actually buy a book of postcards with some favorite paintings that have been done on the wall. I loved this site, but Ethan was not impressed. He was so not excited about it.


This is the Loreta. We were excited to go into this cathedral because inside is supposed to be a replica of the house where the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she was going to have Jesus. We were a little disappointed after we paid to go inside that we wouldn't be aloud to take photos unless we paid another fee. We didn't want to pay for the pictures. There was also a statue of a lady that, as legend has it, prayed to be ugly so that men wouldn't desire her because she wanted to devote her life to Christ without any distractions. She was crucified. She became known as "The Bearded Lady."


This is the courtyard before you go into the castle. I thought it was very interesting that it look so unlike the usual castles that you see around Europe. It reminded me a lot of Buckingham Palace. Prague Castle (Prazsky Hrad) is the largest castle in Europe. There are a couple churches inside as well as many other sites. We didn't have time to go into all of them. The camera battery died half way through the castle sights. We were so bummed because the best part of the castle tour was "Golden Lane" (Zlata ulicka). It was where the people that worked for the castle lived. They had refurbished many of the houses so that you could see how they lived. Seeing the houses (a better term would be rooms) where these people lived, was a humbling experience. These houses were smaller than our bathroom. Just imagine having your kitchen, bedroom and living space inside that tiny room. They also had a display of armor that the knights wore for each time period.


The guard outside the castle. It was crazy to know that they still have guards there.


This was what you walked under to get into the castle. It was a little frightening. Almost like they were saying, "Enter if you dare," or, "Would you rather be stabbed or clubbed to death."


This is a photo of the inside of St. Vitus' cathedral (Katedrala svateho Vita). This is the biggest cathedral I have ever been inside. It was very beautiful. There was a lot of gold. I couldn't help but think, "What a waste. Even though the things inside are so beautiful, what could the money have gone towards that would be a better cause."


The tomb of one of the most famous saints in Prague. I can't remember what he did that was so great. I do know he was pushed off the bridge.


This is the outside of the cathedral. I love gothic architecture, so of course I thought this building was so beautiful. It is amazing how things like this can still stand after so long.


This was the best picture I could get of the outside of the castle. The castle covers the top of the hill. I couldn't believe how massive it was. You could spend an entire day just walking around the castle. We rushed through the castle though. There was just so much to see.


Prague is supposed to be one of the most haunted cities in Europe. While we were there, we decided to do a ghost tour. There is a tourist office that hires local actors to play a character that has died from some tragedy in Prague. They walk around the city late at night and show you all the spots that are supposed to be haunted and why. It was a lot of fun. This was our actual tour guide. He was very dramatic. His story was, he murdered this girl that he was in love with because she didn't love him back. He put her body down a well. He body was discovered when the town people started getting sick from drinking the water. The people of the town, tied him to the back of a horse drawn cart and he was dragged to death. Kind of gruesome. I think the contacts add so much to the costume.


This was not our tour guide, but it was fun to get a photo with him.


This was by far my favorite building in Prague. It is The Church of our Lady Before Tyn. We were also not aloud to take photos inside this church. It was so beautiful. I loved it. I put the night photo up because I think it looks even more stunning at night.






I know there are a lot of pictures on this post, but there was so much to see. There are a lot of photos that I didn't put up. I didn't put up any photos of the Jewish quarter because it doesn't do it justice. You are not aloud to take photos inside any of the Synagogs. There is a lot of Jewish history in Prague. There were over 80,000 Jews that were put into a concentration camp during WWII. Walking through the Jewish area made me realize the magnitude of the horrible things that the Nazis did more than any other place I have been yet. There was a synagog that had the names of all the Jews that were in the concentration camps written on the wall. The names that were in red were the ones that died. walking into that synagog was the biggest shock for me. There wasn't a single spot on the wall that was free of writing. It was two stories high. There were also many drawings from the Jewish children before they went into the concentration camp and after. It was hard to believe how much sadness you could see in their art. It was definitely an eye opener.

I could go on forever about Prague, but I am sure you are done reading about it by now. This post has turned into quite the book. We had a lot of fun and we are looking forward to our next family trip. We are thinking Spain.

CHASE STARTED KINDERGARTEN

I would have to say this week has been emotional. Chase started school. I still cannot believe that I have a child that is old enough to start school. We had a lot of thoughts and issues about Chase starting school. He was not very fond of sure start, so we were worried that he would fight us about Kindergarten. We thought about keeping him home for a year and starting him next year. He is young for a kindergartner. We were unsure if he was behind academically. He doesn't know all the letters of the alphabet and he can only count to 15. The only number he recognizes is 1. We have heard that the kindergartens around here are very intense. Some of my friends told me that if he couldn't read when he started, he would be behind. They also told me he would have a lot of homework which was something else I was stressing about. For some reason our kids seem to be unbelievably stubborn and strong minded. I wonder who they get that from. :) I was really worried that Chase would push against me when I tried to get him to actually do his homework. His stubborn and carefree attitude are part of the reasons I believe he doesn't know his letters and numbers yet. I actually think he does know all his letters, but he doesn't care to show me he knows them. I think he would rather I did it for him. After talking to a few close friends and a lot of talking between Ethan and myself. We decided that Chase should indeed start school. He is so social. I think he would hate life if we kept him home for a year. Even over the summer I had to wrack my brain with ideas so that I could keep him busy. If he gets bored, he gets cranky. We decided that if he is behind at the end of kindergarten (not according to us, but according to his teacher) we would hold him back then. Another thing I was worried about was the bus. Ugh, they put all the kids on the bus together here. I am not sure if it is the same in the states. I know that in the States, a lot of kids have a drivers license when they are in high school. Here, most kids graduate without ever even having a permit. Because of that, the buses are packed. If the younger kids sit in the back of the bus, the high-school kids will be very cruel. They will threaten to hurt them or call them horrible names that I cringe to think of. There also have been several incidents with pornography and Ethan saw some of the older kids playing with condoms. Yes, I think it is terrible. I was seriously thinking about not letting him ride the bus. We have some amazing neighbors and when we signed Chase up, we thought he would be riding the bus with them. There was some serious confusion at the bus office and Chase didn't get signed up for that bus. There was no problem taking him to school because Ethan works swing shift, but I would have to pick him up right in the middle of Maddi's nap. That girl needs her sleep or she is downright cranky. Again after a lot of discussing what to do and a lot of tears (from me) and prayers, we decided he should ride the bus and learn from the experience.

Well that turned into a book. Sorry, here are the pictures, which is what I know you are all looking forward to. :)


Chase all ready for school. He loves skinny jeans and his, "Harry Potter shoes." He is funny because he usually asks for shirts with a picture and no buttons, but that morning he told me he wanted to wear a shirt with buttons.


All ready to go. He was so excited about his Darth Vader backpack. He was very excited and nervous about making new friends.



Giving Ethan a hug before he went to class. I didn't realize until I picked him up that I didn't get any pictures of me and him.


Standing in front of the school doors. He is such a big boy.


The kids get off the bus and go into the cafeteria. They wait at their table for all the kids to show up and then they all walk to class together. He was very excited about being able to take his lunch.


Here he is walking to class with his classmates. Yes, I know I take too many pictures of everything.


This is the first time he walked into his classroom. He was so excited that he was the first one to go in.


He walked in like a seasoned kid. He found his cubby and hung up his jacket and backpack, put his lunch box in there and found his seat.

This is Chase's head teacher. Her name is Mrs McMillan. I don't know if it is the same in all schools, but here they have a head teacher and an aid. The head teacher has the teaching degree and the aid doesn't have to. We are lucky and both Chase's teachers have degrees in teaching.


This is Chase's other teacher Mrs. Wagner.


Chase surprised us and has been doing amazing in school. He is loving his teachers this year. He comes home and works really hard on his homework. He has a lot of writing. He loves learning and is already learning a lot of the sounds that the letters make. I am so proud of him and how he is growing. He also has done amazing with the bus. He has a girl that is in his class that rides the same bus. They sit together. He even told me that he was tough because he defended her when her older sister was teasing her. He said, "I'm so strong." He is so sweet. Anyway, I am so relieved that things are going good at school.

WOOPS

I just realized that I never did a post for Chase's birthday. I know, it is a shocker that I am finally posting a blog. There won't be any pictures on this post because our computer broke and we lost those pictures. :(

Chase turned 5 this year. Holy cow, what a big boy. He weighs around 48 pounds (he goes up and down between 46 and 48) and he is 43.5 inches tall. He is so caring and so much fun to have around. He is always thinking of others. He is quick to give me a hug and he gets so upset if he knows that he has upset either me or Ethan. He is seriously protective of Madison and they really enjoy playing together. We got a dog because he has been begging for one. He loves having Max around. Max sleeps in his room and loves him just as much. His favorite color is green. He is really into Star Wars (or as he says, Star Whores). His favorite character is Darth Vader (or Darth Gator). He also loves Legos and GI Joes.

He helped me plan his birthday party this year. It was a pirate theme. He loves pirates. I was honestly surprised he didn't want a Lego or Star Wars birthday party. I made a pirate ship cake. The candles came out the side kinda like a cannon ball. Chase loved it. We did a pinata this year. It is the first year we have done a pinata. My sister actually sent the pinata from Canada. I was happy about that because I haven't found any places over here that sell pinatas. Chase really enjoyed it. He got to spend a lot of time with his friends.

LAZY DAYS

These are just some pictures of the kids doing some fun stuff. Chase loves having the feet out on the couch, but he has to scoot way down in order to make it work.

Madison figured out the best way to ride on the swing.

The kids with the local ice cream man. They love getting ice creams.


The kids enjoying their ice cream with Ethan.


Chase is learning how to ride his bike with the training wheels.


It is a really long process because he is terrified.

Chase drinking some juice outside.


I love catching Ethan playing with this toy. It is a toy tractor. You can dig holes and stuff. He loves it. He hates that I take pictures of him playing with it. I have to sneak them.


Chase wearing Ethan's motorcycle boots. He wants to be just like his dad.


Ethan giving Chase a ride on the trike. Chase loved it.

They got stuck so Chase had to push them out.

THE MAY CARNIVAL

You all should know by now that I am a carnie. I love that once May hits in Germany, you can find a carnival almost every weekend. Come to think of it, that is Christmas time too. Actually Easter too. So maybe they take a break from February to March. Another good reason to love Germany. Anyway, back to the reason for the post. I know it is late seeing as it is almost July, but Ethan and I went to the May carnival. This is the first year that we have gone just the two of use since we moved here. We were so excited to go on the grown up rides and play games without having to worry about where the kids were. I was downright giddy.


This is Ethan and I as we were about to go on our first ride.





This was the ride. It swung from side to side while spinning in the air. It doesn't actually go upside down, but we figured it was a good choice for our first ride. We couldn't have been more wrong. This was actually the only ride we went on because we were so sick by the time we got off of it. I feel so old. I always thought I could ride these rides forever because I love them. Blah, just thinking about this ride makes me sick.


Ethan about ready to go on the ride. I don't know what he is doing with his mouth.



Me about ready to go on the ride. I so wish I would have taken a photo of us after the ride was over.



These are our feet as the ride started.


This picture is telling you just how much of a carnie I actually am. That white semi-truck with the blue design on it. That is what the trailer Ethan and I are going to buy when we retire and become real carnies is going to look like. I have it all planned out. We are going to bring European crepes to the American carnival. It is going to be awesome.


These are the steins that we won in the ping pong cup came. It is by far my favorite carnival game. This is the first time Ethan and I have actually won any steins. We always win the big glasses like the one in the middle.


I love how this stein says Deutschland on it. This one is going in my permanent collection.