One week off in the kindergarden and then one more in the nursery and so we went for holidays to grandparents. The children played on all playgrounds, they ate peas, currants, cherries and strawberries all the time. Dominik used to “drive” the tractor in a barn every day. After two weeks, they asked when we would go home and when we were arriving to our home town, Dominik screamed in the car “hoooome”.
Our Easter was one very enjoyable extended weekend full of trips. Only weather could have been warmer and less rainy. However, we visited the Wildpark in Poing and we palyed on the playgrounds. A week later, Olivia was still talking about Ivka and how she loves her and she asked when we would visit her again. This year we joined a local tradition and were looking for Easter eggs. “Mami, the easter bunny was here” was the reaction when she found the cooked eggs in the flower pots and the garden hidden by the grandparents.
They are really different, but one thing they have in common, each pursues their own interests and follows them. Olivia is like a manager and her assertiveness has no boundaries. When I want to pick her up from the kindergarten, she first goes to all teachers to say goodbye with a handshake (I do not know where does it come from). The best is when we are talking about how to do something, she listens to everything and then she says, “You know what we do it this way …”.
Olivia talked about her birthday since summer. She couldn’t wait till she would put four candles on her birthday cake, light them and blow them out. We celebrated together, with her friends, with the grandparents and finally in the kindergarten with cakes. Luckily, everyone has birthday only once a year :). Olivia got Cubetto (she calls him Kubo), a small robot to learn programming and improve spatial orientation in a funny way.
We planned to go somewhere for the winter holidays, but it snowed so much that we changed our minds. We are every day in our garden playing with shovels or sledding on the nearby hill. And I started introducing Olivia to skiing. First, in the garden just to learn balance on her own and then on the nearby slopes, but they seemed to be too steep. Then my friend recommended me a small ski resort for children.
I always try to take my children outside in any weather and every time I say we are going out they both rush to the door. But sometimes I just want to be at home, it’s raining, cold or dark early outside and then it is good to have a place where they can spend all their excess energy. So we made a gym in the basement. They can throw a ball there, slide, climb, boulder and chase each other.
A new school year started and Olivia finally became a kindergarten kid. Although she long longed for this moment, it took her a while to get used to a greater number of children and related noise, but now she is going to the kindergarten with enthusiasm, she brings home lots of drawings every day and she tells us what everything they did there. She also likes the music education they have.
In a small town Pöring, near to us, there is a large playground on the edge of the forest. I like it very much because it’s all in a pleasant shade of trees and you can play there even when it’s hot outside or raining lightly. There is something for everyone and it’s a favorite place for birthday parties or just for a picnic. The best thing is that the children go home completely tired every time:)
When the weather is bad, you need to find a place where it’s better and so we made a trip from Stefanova, immersed in clouds, to the historical forest railway and open-air museum of Kysuce village in Vychylovka. Our children were enthusiastic about the train, sheep and playgrounds and we enjoyed “živánska” in a local restaurant :) And after a pleasant walk among the wooden houses we stopped in Stara Bystrica to see the only astronomical clock in Slovakia.
We wanted to eat some proper slovak food specialties like halušky, pirohy and šúľance, relax and relish the nature and so we made a culinary trip to Štefanova in Vrátna valley. We made a trip to a cottage on Grúň and under Chleb and on every trip we found a playground or sheep, so our children were more than satisfied.