Pokeno & Polish Pottery

A couple weeks back, I was invited to a Pokeno girl's night at my friend, Robin's, house! I had NO idea what Pokeno was, but as long as it involved laughter, adult interaction and alcoholic beverages, I was in!!!

A little background for you - Pokeno is a game that was manufactured by the United States Playing Card Company, and is a combo of Poker and Keno - very similar to the game Bingo in several aspects.  We each had a card and a handful of marker chips.

As the caller flips over a card from the deck of cards, those that have that card on his/her Pokeno card, would mark it - see, very similar to Bingo! When you cover a row of cards on your Pokeno card, you call out Pokeno!!!

As the winner of the Pokeno round, you got to pick a present from the pile (we all brought a small, fall themed gift).  The more you win, the more you collect - you don't need to pass yours to someone else!  As you got a gift, you also opened it up for others to start plotting out what gifts they were going to steal from you in Round 2.

At the end of the first round, I had this beauty!!! My first piece of Polish pottery! Oh and a bottle of vodka (because vodka is good in the fall too)!  :)

I was sure to announce to everyone that this was my very first piece of Polish pottery and I was so happy to bring it home with me! He he! My trick did not work...it was quickly snatched up by the first winner in Round 2.

After winning a game in the second round, I then got this lovely serving dish - my "second" piece of pottery!

It too was also snatched away rather quickly and I was left empty handed - it sure was fun owning some Polish pottery for a quick little bit! Ha! Even though I was going home empty handed, the night was a ton of fun and I met some wonderful ladies! As we were getting ready to leave, Liz, who I had met for the first time that night, gifted me the bread pan back and said she really wanted me to have it as my first piece of pottery! How sweet!!!

That's some focused concentration!

Robin happened to need some pottery the following week, so I tagged along and went to my first Polish pottery shop - Kim's! Can you believe how many pieces are crammed into this tiny little shop!!! The pieces were stunning!

Since we were still in purge mode from our second shipment, I knew Andy would have some no-so-kind words to say if I brought home a couple of platters - he already thinks we had WAY too many! But I had to get something though - right!?! My first time Polish pottery shopping and come home empty handed - no way! SO I got this small little bowl! Isn't it beautiful!!!

Here are some fun facts on Polish pottery:

• Most Polish pottery has a white background and either dark blue stamping as the pattern or a dark blue rim.  Dark blue is the most popular color.  Other colors include green, yellow, brown and sometimes red or purple motifs.
• Ceramics has been a part of the city of Bolesławiec, Poland for an extremely long time - as early as the 14th century.
• It is often referred to as Boleslawiec pottery.  This means that it is stamped with a special seal, indicating its authenticity.  Here are samples of the stamps:

• The pottery can be put in the microwave, oven and dishwasher - yes please!
• One of the most popular shapes is the eye of the peacock feather.  Other common motifs are dots, speckles, floral patterns and triangles.

Eye of the peacock design

I do plan to collect many more pieces while we are in Poland - I am thinking appetizer plates (Robin's were amazing!), a couple bowls, serving platters and Christmas trees!!! 

Special thanks again to Liz! I made my Aunt Karen's banana bread yesterday! Yum!!

Celebrations!

October 22nd is a big day in the Joehl household - Beckett's birthday and our wedding anniversary! Beckett was our little one year anniversary gift!

Let's first talk about how the heck it is possible that we have a 4 year old!?! We were told that the years would cruise by and boy oh boy, it is true! We also feel like he has aged and matured so much since we got to Poland - time can slow down at any point now! 

I usually have a hard time the night before the birthday - when it is the last night that he/she is a certain age.  Friday night was the last time that our little guy would be 3! Ugh! Below is the last family photo with our 3 year old!

Nothing sweeter than a daddy ready to his kids! 

After putting the kiddos to bed, we put up the birthday decorations and finalized the gifts - most were bought long ago in the US.  We usually fill the kids' bedroom floor with balloons the night before their birthday, so they are surprised when they wake up on their birthday morning.  This year, with Reese on a really low bottom bunk, we decided to go a different route - we filled the floor of our main level and added decoration to the banisters.  Beckett loved it!

Doesn't he look SO tall in this pic!?! He is thinning out!

We then quickly started back up on the Lego set that we began the night before! He sure is into Legos these days - following in his cousin, Nathan's, footsteps!

As it was Beckett's special day, he decided he wanted to open up his first present as soon as Reese got up!

The Bat Cave - awesome Craigslist find!

Then we headed off for donuts - a birthday tradition in our family! We have a Dunkin' Donuts not too far from our house that opens early!

Happy boy!

His third donut!

On to another couple gifts!

Mimicking her big brother! Ha!

He has been asking for this for months! Thank goodness he now has it! 

Then we headed off to a fun indoor play area, called Fikoki - we LOVED it! SO fun! It cost us $6 per child for an hour of play, which was a perfect amount of time!

We searched high and low for a place that we could find helium balloons and couldn't get any without a week's notice, so we were pumped to find out that they had some at Fikoki! Beckett picked out Disney Planes and Reese picked Frozen's Anna - shocking! :)

It wasn't quite the same, without friends and family, but thank goodness for technology - we got to see some of our favorite people throughout the day! And we got some fun birthday cards in the mail for the big guy too! 

Noodles for dinner and cupcakes for dessert!

We told him to make a wish and he said "I love my mom and I love my dad!" Melt our hearts, bud!

We couldn't forget to measuring the big four-year-old on the growth chart - up 3" from last year!

Showing us how much he has grown!

Beckett will be celebrating his birthday at school on Monday with his classmates! We made the only box of cupcake mix that we could find at the store and since we couldn't find containers of frosting, we used what was included with the cupcake mix and a little powder sugar and water combo! American kids would be SO disappointed if I pulled these out! Ha! Hopefully the sprinkles help!

Happy birthday, bud! We love you SO much!

Cheers to five fabulous years with this guy! We plan to celebrate next weekend! :)

Where we live!

When Andy first emailed me about moving to Poland - yes, he sent me the news in an email - I had to pull up a map and figure out exactly where Poland is located.  Seriously! I knew the general location, but didn't know exactly where in Eastern Europe it was located.  Ha!

Fun facts about Poland:

• The official name of Poland is the Republic of Poland.
  
  
• Poland is the 9th largest country in Europe by land area.
  
  
• Seven countries share a border with Poland including Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Germany.

• Poland is home to over 38 million people (38,383,809) as of July 2013.

• Warsaw is the largest city and capital of Poland.

• Poland’s national symbol is the White Eagle.

We live in a south eastern suburb of Warsaw, called Bielawa - just outside of Konstantin.

And our neighborhood is located right next to the beautiful American School of Warsaw.  The neighborhood is affectionally referred to as the American School Compound.  Now when we first heard about the "Compound" as our potential future neighborhood,  we were a bit nervous and thought it sounded a little to cultish for us. But we were pleasantly surprised by how wonderful of an area it is! The technical name of our neighborhood is Konstancja.  

Konstancja is the entire area of houses just south of the American School of Warsaw.

There are five phases within our neighborhood - we are in phase two.  They are currently building phase five - see the image  below - the bottom left homes are currently being built.  I will definitely have house envy when they are done! 

Phase 5 addition

We live at Guadiego 11 in a beautiful home that backs up to the park! Besides the need to continue to purge to make our stuff fit, we LOVE it!

All of our streets are brick streets and they are absolutely stunning! Andy often talks about our street looking like a street straight out of Harry Potter when all the street lights are on at night, which he LOVES! HUGE Harry Potter fan!

Our street - Guadiego

Our neighborhood is gated and we have security at each entrance - not because Poland is unsafe, but more for a status symbol (I believe). 

Our neighborhood is a good mix of many different nationalities - including very wealthy Polish residents.  Most residents that live in our compound though are here with corporate relocations and rent their homes.  When we came to look for a house in June, we looked at about 10-11 homes and we could have easily lived in any of them - all had their pros and cons.  We actually liked another house a bit better, but now that we are here, we are so happy with our selection! 

Cheers to an amazing 3-5 years with this wonderful place as our home!