Warsaw, Poland Day 1

The Leaps met the Gabrielski's in Warsaw, Poland this weekend!

It's been months since I had some Jessica time!  

(standing in front of Chopin's house)

Most of the city was destroyed in World War II.  They have tried to rebuild the city.  

They used paintings to recreate buildings.  

Thank goodness we had Jessica and her AMAZING Polish language skills!  Nate and and I were so impressed that she has learned so much Polish in only a year.  

Prime example....she could read this sign NO PROBLEM!

One word she taught me about a year ago was Drugie Sniadanie.  It means second breakfast!  I love saying it (and do on a weekly basis).  I was so happy that we actually had

 Drugie Sniadanie on our first day!

 The boys loved Drugie Sniadanie too!

Nate took the lead on this trip.  He researched Warsaw and found a walking map of the old town!  We were able to walk and see most of the sights on his map.

 We tried to stop and have boy time too!

The awesome fall leaves made it easy to have a leaf fight!

Ms. Jessica got into the fun too!

 Nate found a bell that you should walk around three times for good luck!

Parts of the old town wall were left standing.

We also walked by Madame Marie Curie's house. 

 (I dressed up and gave a report of her in the 3rd grade.)

 The Gabrielski's have to get their water from a city well.  Lincoln was very concerned that we would have to drink water from a well.  We found a city well and the boys took turns trying it out!

EVEN Lincoln!

The highlight of Nate's trip was eating pierogies!  We had them twice!

These signs were all over the city.  They marked places where Hitler's army killed Polish people.  

At this sight 430 died.  

There were lots of Ninja fights all over the city too!

We ended our first night at Warsaw HardRock Cafe!  The burgers were great!  

Small Package!

It's only Wednesday, yet Lincoln has experienced an eventful week already!  

On Monday, I received a phone call from the office because he mooned his friend on the bus!  

On Tuesday, he came home with a two, but told me that he went all the way up to a four (four is as high as it goes).  At soccer practice Tuesday evening, he hit his coach three times and followed that up with some high pitch screaming!

He's really been testing the boundaries in his new first grade class.  In fact, he's been testing the boundaries at home too!  

After a firm discussion on his "out of control" behavior, along with the threat of NO video games or movies for week, he came home with a one today!  He ate all of his dinner, and was as close to a perfect little angel as you could get!  

This little man can pack a punch!!!  

Ethan's Climbing Wall B/day Party

 Ethan celebrated his 9th B/day by having a party at the Outdoor Rec. Climbing Wall! 

 This year he invited his whole class and a few friends from his class last year.

 His best friend had his party here last year.  He is basically a monkey.  In this picture, he stopped to tie his shoe without losing his footing on the wall!  

 Lincoln was awesome!  He moved up the wall like a spider!

 I love this picture of the biggest climber (Chase) and the smallest climber (Lincoln)!

 He had a great turnout of friends!

 After their first climb.

 High Five!  You did great!

 Charlotte's first climb!

 Caroline's terrified face!

 Pat and Sara were a HUGE help!  

 Pittsburgh Cake!!!

 He was one happy boy today!  

This may be the first birthday where he was so appreciative of everything!

 These two guys slept over tonight!

 He received so many great gifts.  The kids clapped and cheered for each one!  He asked Pat and Sara for a pencil/marker kit from Globus (a German store).  All the kids cheered at this gift!

Hot wheels were hot this birthday!

I love how the girls were at one end and the boys at the other end!  Ethan had a great birthday! 

Happy B/day, big boy!

Oktoberfest 2013

 We hit Oktoberfest yesterday!

 Last year we went to Volksfest in Stuttgart in our jeans and felt so out of place!  This year we purchased Lederhosen and a Dirndl and went in true German style! 

 Monday was pretty tame.  In fact, we saw two school groups!  

There is NO way I would send my kids to Oktoberfest for a field trip!

 We went straight the Hofbrau tent and luckily found an empty table.

 The place was pretty empty.  About an hour later, it was almost full!

 We ordered potato pancakes, applesauce, and a roasted chicken.  

 This was the crowd when we left the tent!  It was crowded!

 Right as we walked out, the Hofbrau horses were walking by.

 We did a little exploring.

 We stopped to peek in a few other beer tents.

 After Herr Schuster told the boys that many children die from bumper cars, they had to give it a try.  Ethan actually hit is nose pretty hard on the steering wheel.  Maybe they do!

They went into a crazy house!

 This crazy man loved it!

 It was FREEZING!  I bought an edelweiss scarf to warm my neck from the skimpy Dirndl!

 The boys found a ginormous slide.  They ran up to get their mats and a German man started talking to them in German.  Lincoln looked at him and said, "Sprechen sie English?"  The man smiled and said, "Can you carry that mat?"  Link smiled and then ran up to ride with Ethan!  

We were cold and wanted to see more of Munich, so we ended Oktoberfest with a fun slide ride!

We stopped at St. Michael's church to see King Ludwig's tomb.

 His whole family was here.  The boys love King Ludwig!

 There were two tiny tombs and Lincoln said that there must be a hobbit buried in there.  

 The New Rathaus was amazing!  You can see the Glockenspiel here.  

We weren't around for it to chime.  

 Next we walked over to the Feldherrnhalle.  Here Hitler was arrested and sentenced to prison.  

 We were completely frozen by this point in the day.  So, we headed to the hotel to thaw out!

I think I could stare at the these boys in their Lederhosen all day!  They were so adorable!  

As Nate would say, "We checked another thing off the list!"  Oktoberfest, CHECK!