Final Sweet Six Sunday

one. Beckett's had his show performance at the Little Gym last Monday night! It was so fun to watch how much he has grown in the last six months with his confidence in the class.

Beckett was pretty excited to have Reese in class with him!

I could squeeze him all day!

two. Our kiddos go to school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, so this past Wednesday was their last day of school until camp in August.  As much as we love the school, there have been some challenges with Beckett and he was sure ready to say goodbye for a couple months!

Outside their school on their last day!

Beckett's teacher, Miss Karolina!

Reese's teacher, Miss Iza!

And their off!

First day and last day of preschool this year!

three.  Part of being an expat is having to say goodbyes each year to friends who are moving on to another adventure.  This week I had two goodbye lunches for good friends, Sandra and Katie.  Sandra is returning to Germany and Katie is moving to Bangkok.  I wish them all the best in their moves and will miss them next year!

four. We ordered these water beads from Amazon when we were back in the states this spring, and I had them tucked away in a bag and completely forgot about them.  This week, we pulled them out and made what I thought would be a small batch (only 2 Tbsps of the beads) and we were shocked with how many we got! The kids LOVED them! They would be a great item for kids from 2+ this summer!

five.  Saturday was a crazy day! It was Reese's turn for her show performance at the Little Gym on Saturday morning.  She did great and really liked her teacher, Pawel.

Meanwhile, Beckett thought it was fun to run towards me and knock me over! 

And she is just as yummy! 

We rushed how from the Little Gym to grab the chocolate chip cookies and headed to the end of the year school picnic at ABC Montessori.  It was fun to think back to the beginning of the school year picnic, where we didn't know anyone, and played with the kids the entire time.  This picnic, we were friends with a lot of the parents, and the kids wanted to run off with their school friends and play.  We are looking forward to another great year there next year! Not many pics taken as we were having so much fun!

After a quick nap, we went to cheer on the boys at the Majors last baseball game/practice of the year! Andy was one of the main coaches and it was fun to see the relationships he has built with a lot of the kids. :)

Look at Beckett and Reese - supporting their daddy!!!

six. To end a busy Saturday, we headed out with the Batas and the Peliciottis for dinner at Thai Thai in Warsaw! Great food, lots of laughs and wonderful friendships! Boy am I going to miss these ladies!

To end this week's Sweet Six Sunday, I wanted to include a list of things that we really like about Poland and things that we miss from the States - it was supposed to be a separate post, but you know, life gets in the way! We have been adding things to the list for the last couple of months. :)

Things we miss about the States:

• Back up cashiers at Target - and in general the speed of checkouts in the US.  
• AND Target! I have had dreams about Target since we have arrived here!
• AND clearance shopping in general! I like a good deal and the sale/clearance shopping here is just not the same.
• Crushed ice for our shakes
• Big parking lots - and really, parking lots in general.  
• Personal space - people will be within inches of you in line and not think twice about it!
• Garage - wow, do we miss our four car garage.  Shoot, we would take a two car garage.  We have a tiny one car garage that is full of typical garage stuff, bikes and kids toys!
• Keyless entry to our vehicles!!! This may be my number one! I never had my keys out in the States.  I had a nifty little button on the side of my amazing van (that I miss every day) and I could unlock and lock my car.  It was a wonderful thing!
• Saying hi to people on the sidewalks.  Most people keep to themselves here, do not return hellos and will practically brush shoulders with you and not say hello.  MN nice - we miss you!
• There are a lot of food products that we miss AND convenient healthy options, but one of the big ones is small carrots.  We can buy them peeled here, but you get the whole carrot! We have many hilarious pics of the kids gnawing on the large carrots.
• Plain cheese pizza! Our kids LOVE cheese pizza, but it is hard to find a quick, frozen cheese pizza, in general, but if you find one, it has a ton of seasonings (aka "icky black things") or blobs of sauce on top of the cheese.  Yes, we can make a cheese pizza with plain cheese - we would have to shred the cheese as shredded cheese is hard to find, but we usually only serve up pizza when we are looking for a speedy meal option.
• Double oven.  If you have a double oven, you understand! A double oven is one of the best inventions every! SO easy to make multiple things for dinner at the same time and have it all come together at the same time.  
• Ellen - I didn't watch her a ton, but I loved to watch her at 4pm CST during the week right before the kids got up from a nap, or for a good laugh, or to have on in the background as I got a workout in!
• Highways.  There are a lot of smaller roads here and I miss hopping on a highway and being able to get to where you are going quickly.
• And of course, all of our family and friends! And our neighborhood - we had a great neighborhood!!!

Things we love about Poland:

• Heated bathroom floors! Especially nice in the winters.
• We have a house cleaner and a gardener, which frees up a lot of our time!
• The kids' bathtub! The faucet is in the middle, so there is no fighting over sides - it is amazing!
• The produce and food in general have a lower cost than the States!
• Family friendly restaurants - SO many places have a kids' play area with toys, books, play kitchen and many also have a kids' playground right next to the tables! 
• Brick sidewalks and streets - so lovely to look at!
• European travel - the opportunities we have to travel to other countries (like if we were traveling to other states in the US), is amazing! We have a list of places that are must visits before we go back to the US!
• School lunches - I am not sure the kids would agree with this, but their school serves typical Polish dishes, which always includes soup, and it has opened the kids' taste buds to new food.  They are definitely more willing to try new things.
• The bread is fresh every day at all grocery stores.  We don't eat a lot of bread, but when we do, it is nice to have fresh bread options!
• We love the island/peninsula in our kitchen with stools!
• The exposure to other languages and cultures for both us and the kids.

I am sure that there are a ton of things that we don't have on the list, so maybe some day I will do a post on it!

AND one more thing! We went to a benefit tonight - Give Help, Give Hope - to raise money for a mom who has brain cancer.  Our friends' son, Grayson, and his class performed various songs, dances, poetry and speeches and it was amazing! What an incredible group of kids!

In closure, we are leaving on a jet plane...TOMORROW!!!! Our flight leaves at 6am and we get into the US at about noon! The kids are excited! Can you tell!?! Ha! So are we!