Baboe & Dziadek in China

In May this year, Baboe & Dziadek visited us in Shanghai. We walked on the Bund, visited the insect market and Stasiu showed Baboe his class where she read a storybook to all his classmates. One weekend we took the train to Beijing where we visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall. It was a busy and demanding schedule, but well worth it. It was wonderful to show them where our home is now and let them have a little taste of China, including hotpot, Peking duck, Sichuan mask-changing show and the simply relaxing view from our living room window :)

Frequent Flyers

Flying gets more comfortable when you are together with someone who enjoys a frequent flyer status. It gets even better when you share the same name as that person....complimentary upgrades for Mr. Stas(iu) Chlapowski and his mom and sister who accompanied him on the flight from Shanghai to Amsterdam.

Rendez vous in Jaszkowo

We just returned from a fantastic weekend in Jaszkowo where we attended a family wedding. It was great to see so many people again and the wedding, held at the same premises as ours in September 2005, brought back a lot of good memories.

Anita and the kids had already spent over a week in the Netherlands and drove in from there together with Baboe and Dziadek, while Staszek came in directly from Shanghai with less than 48 hours to enjoy Poland before flying back again.

It felt great to introduce Nina and Stasiu to the place and people that have such a special place in our hearts.

We were not able to return to Shanghai without the firm promise to improve our blogging discipline. Let this be the first post again of hopefully many more.

So, here is the first impression of two future amazones :)

Stasiu 4!

Our little Stasiu is a big boy now: he turned 4 today! The day started with presents. Then off to school with a basket full of treats for his classmates. Lunch in his favorite restaurant with Lucy and mama. Play with his birthday presents. And later in the afternoon a few of his friends came over to sing, celebrate and share the birthday cake. It was a great day!

Swimming lessons!

Nina and Stasiu had already started swimming lessons during 'colonia de verano' (summer school). To keep up their acquired skills, they now go for the weekly session too. They were delighted to find that they will have the same instructor. For a moment it seemed like they were going to have the semi-olympic pool to themselves. The group was small, the activities fun and they had a great time!

Felices Pascuas!

Apart from our cat Jip, the Easter Bunny is Nina's favorite animal at this moment. All week she's been talking about him and anticipating tons of easter eggs in our patio. Fortunately he came and left some colorful chocolaty presents for both Nina and Stasiu: they were very impressed and could not wait to finish everything off in one session :) Fortunately they did not, but will for breakfast tomorrow morning! Happy Easter!

First day at school 2013

The first day at school is a fact for both Nina & Stasiu. Both mom & dad accompanied them this morning to Amapola: Stasiu to the Jardin location and Nina to the Primaria (where the big kids go!) location. They were all excited to see their new teachers and friends so no problems at drop-off. All went well and two very happy kids were picked up at midday.

Roller Skating in the Park

Nina got the pink roller skates she really wanted already some time ago from ciocia and we finally made it to the park to give them a good try. Stasiu did not want to be without wheels either so he took his trike. It's not easy to 'walk on wheels', but slowly Nina was getting there. A few more practice sessions and she'll be making rounds like a pro! After a while it was time to change: Stasiu the skates and Nina the trike. But the round in the park is big so they finished it off together!