The Joehlski Adventure: April 2017

We have had a crazy two weeks, and have loved every minute - correction: most minutes!

one. We celebrated Tiffany's birthday last week at Flaming & Co. Tiffany and I became quick friends after she reached out to me for a coffee date, when she realized there was a new American family at the Montessori! She has been here for almost four years and I hope she will be here for another four! Even though she would not! ;)

two. I have been trying new recipes in hopes that the kids will eat more of what we eat for dinner. :) I made this turkey meatloaf last week and it was a HIT with the kiddos! Beckett gives it a thumbs up!

Find the recipe here.

three. We celebrated Easter with the Pellicciotti family this year. Tiffany took a last minute trip to Tokyo to see her sister, so her hubby, Bill, and the girls came over for some egg dying, egg hunt and a yummy meal!

We tied yarn to the kids' door to lead them to their Easter baskets this year!
The kids LOVED it! That silly Easter Bunny!

Beckett found his!

Please excuse the hideous sheet behind the kids that
covers our seasonal bins!

For at least an hour, he was busy with his new gifts!

And we had to put his bike light on immediately!

Most of our eggs here are brown, so I had to go through about 40 cartons
to find four cartons worth of white eggs for dying!

She had to do it all herself! A bit scary!

And then she popped one in her mouth - shell and all!

Before they were even dry, they both peeled one and ate away!

Let the egg hunt begin!
Due to rain, we had the hunt inside.

Avery and Addy

The crew!

This year, the Easter Bunny put the kids' names on twenty eggs each!
By doing this, the hunt lasted a lot longer and the kids got an equal share.

We then headed out for a family bike ride!

Facetime with both families!!! Sure do miss them!

four. We have spent a lot of time outside the last two weeks! We had a really warm period about a month ago and ever since, we have been eager to be outside with fresh air.

This little beauty helped me pick out flowers!

Picking up the playhouse!
How many Poles (and Andy) does it take to load it into our car? Ha ha!

Looks easy - right!!?!

First task - finish the trampoline to keep the kids busy while we built the playhouse!

I shorted out the screws to help with the process.

The kids were excited to set up camp!

All done!
Now time to decorate!

Then I started this project!

Just the start to our decorations!
Artwork by Beckett

five. We decided to head to Ikea for a play kitchen for the playhouse and boy did we have quite the ride! We have heard others talk about a "goat road" that they take to Ikea. The two routes we have taken were quite smooth, so we really didn't know what they were referring to - until Thursday! We took a different route - just for the fun of it - and found the "goat road"! After 40 mins of an extremely bumpy road, Reese started moaning and said "Mommy, stop the bumps!" I quickly pulled over to the side of the road, to look back in time to watch her throw up all over herself and our new car. Poor girl! It was everywhere!

I only had a spare shirt for her, so after cleaning up as much as I could, we headed to Smyk to get her another outfit. Now, we usually get a ton of stares in stores here, but when you bring your daughter into the store in only a diaper and no jacket on a cooler day, people literally turn around in line, back to the register, and stare. We got her a new outfit and headed to Ikea! Now I only brought her to Ikea because we were two minutes away when the incident happened AND she was requesting food and water immediately after getting sick. I hope this car sickness doesn't continue in her future!

New outfit! Skirt and all!

Devouring Ikea ice cream!

six. We celebrated Reesie's birthday yesterday with a house full of great friends! What a difference 6 months makes - we didn't have a party for Beckett when we first got here as we didn't really know any other kiddos or families, so we just had a family celebration. In the last six months, we have created friendships with some amazing peeps!