Sunny postcards

While booking tickets for this summer’s holidays in Poland and Hungary, I was thinking of all those barbecues, garden parties, joyful meetings with friends and family, splashes in my parents’ swimming pool and generally slow, lazy moments that were awaiting us. As it happens, most of those plans shattered  when just before we got there we learned that my mom was about to have a very serious surgery. We didn’t get to spend much time together and the time we had was often fearful and difficult but we still collected lots of happy memories. And I’m just happy that everything went well and we can make up for that time.

We even managed to attend a weeding. It was wonderful; beautiful couple, magnificent palace, delicious food, funny moments. We’ll remember it for a long time.

Hungary would be unbearable without air conditioning and ice-cream as the temperatures reached even 41°C. Luckily, we spent most days in water, only taking breaks to have langos or meet with some of our favorite people.

June

June is crazy this year. It started with rain, as usual. Kids had time of their life playing with gigantic paddles and I let them jump until their gummy boots were full of water and we had  to squeeze water from socks and trousers before entering home.

All short sleeves and sandals were packed already waiting impatiently for July and our holidays in Poland and Hungary where they definitely will be of some use. But the weather played a trick on us and we had few amazing days when temperature reached 29°C. We even got burned, which is nearly impossible in Ireland 😀 .

On days like those, Ireland is perfect place to live being surrounded with seas and the ocean because beach is never far away 😉 .

Czerwiec w tym roku szalony. Rozpoczal sie jak zwykle deszczowo. Dzieciaki zwariowaly bo mega kaluze i pozwalalam im skakac, ze az przed wejsciem do domu musielismy wode z kaloszy wylewac i skarpety wykrecac. Pralka pelna. 

Wszystkie krotkie rekawki i sandaly spakowalam juz do walizek bo zaraz lipiec i wakacje w Polsce i na Wegrzech wiec tam sie chociaz przydadza. A tu pogoda splatala nam milego psikusa i przez kilka dni temperatura dochodzila do 29°C.  Spalilismy sie nawet, o co w Irlandii nie latwo 😀 . 

W takie dni jak te, Irlandia jest swietnym miejscem do mieszkania bo otaczaja ja morza i ocean wiec plaza jest zawsze gdzies w poblizu 😀 .

Stonehall farm

Second day of Easter we spent with our friends visiting Stonehall farm. Kids love animals but we live really far from the Zoo so farms are good substitutions 🙂 and there’s no shortage of them in Ireland.

We fed donkeys, got spit at by a lama, chased peacocks and held chipmunks. Even Misike was fascinated with all the creatures, interacted with them and really enjoyed the trip. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice my phone camera lenses were clouded until we were half way through so the following photos are not my ineffective attempt on special effects but simply effect of my absent-mindedness.

Apart from animals, the farm offers also a play centre which was a hit with kiddos. And Rosie got the coolest ride 😉 .

Summer reflections

We’ve been back for few days now and even though it’s dark and pouring outside, good moods don’t leave us. Because there’s no place like home.

It’s always wonderful to visit my homeland, family and friends, but my home is here. Upon visiting Poland, I always face the same question from different people: if I wouldn’t like to move back to Poland. Well, believe it or not, I wouldn’t. I know to some, it sounds like heresy but this is the way I feel. It doesn’t make me less Polish. I was still raised on same books, cartoons, movies, jokes and food as any other Polish my age and so it is very easy for me to bond with other Polish here or anywhere. But I left Poland twelve years ago and all the most wonderful things in my life happened here and happen every day.

I was so excited about the vision of spending full 6 weeks in my parents house, that I hadn’t thought how much I would miss Misi and our life together. That separation wasn’t easy on girls either. Anabel cried nearly every day and she told me : “No child should ever be away from her daddy for so long”. I don’t think we will ever do it again. But having said that, I’m glad we actually did it. Coming back to all I have, made me fall in love with it all over again. Not things, they’re just things. But my husband, my abilities and possibilities, things we do together, we grow or create, we go through.

It’s good to be home but enriched by those beautiful memories. Here my children don’t have granny and grandpa on daily basis, they don’t run wild in big gardens, meadows and fields, they don’t ride on wheelbarrows, spend weekends with cousins, explore garages, stables and barns, hang from trees, eat berries straight from bushes or plums straight from trees, don’t wake up to cock’s crowing, hardly ever see stars. Those are our Polish holidays treasures 😉 .

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Trampolines

We don’t own a trampoline. Misi and I talked about it few times, but we have so little garden space, that we feel it would simply be a shame to waste such big part of it on a trampoline. But who knows, maybe our kids will convince us some day. It is a fact that girls love jumping and any time we visit friends with trampolines, they’re sure to spend lots of time on them. So we were thrilled when Rosie’s godmother and my cousin- Weronika, took us to a trampoline park GoJump in Wroclaw. Girls had such grate time and if I didn’t have to look after Misike, I would gladly join them and jump out of few calories myself ,-) . Unfortunately, Misike had more interest in scaffolding and tools of a handyman doing some work in the building than in trampolines themselves. I think I still managed to burn few calories,though, trying desperately to keep my boy away from those tools  😀 .

 

Electrified

 

 

Wroclaw Zoo

Our time in Poland is slowly coming to an end. We have spent here full 6 weeks. Weeks full of noise, meetings and even little trips. On one of those trips girls were taken to Wroclaw Zoo by my parents. We have been to Wroclaw Zoo few times already but we hadn’t seen the famous africarium. And since Misike is simply to small and to energetic for zoos yet, he stayed at home with me.

My parents tell me, the Zoo belonged to Rosie on that day. Everyone inside could here her screams of excitement. And the one animal she absolutely wanted to see, was an anteater 🙂 .

Though, when I asked girls afterwards, which animal they liked the most, they both answered :” cow!” . Apparently, they spent the most time at farm animals section with cows and goats. It’s so strange to me that my children need to go to a zoo to see a cow while I remember watching my grandma milk our cow on daily basis when I was their age.

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Give it a go

Today was a very exciting day for both girls. It was the last day of school for Anabel since we’re leaving for Hungary on Monday. She signed a card and gave presents to her teachers. She was both excited and upset. She got so attached to her teachers that realization that she won’t meet with them in September (since she will have a new teacher) made her cry. Only my promise that we will send them postcards from Hungary and Poland calmed her down.

Rosalie, on the other hand, is starting school from September and today she met with her new teacher and the class. I had to leave her there for 40 min and I was a little worried since she can be a bit shy and she is such a loner. But when I went to collect her, she didn’t want to leave. She’ll do just fine.

And since we got all Anabel’s work from past school year, I thought I’d share the best bits. They had a notebook called “Give it a go” in which they got to write their own stories every week. They could make up whatever story they wanted, just to practice writing. Most stories were about ponies and princesses but few were different.I had never seen that notebook before and when I opened it in a car while waiting for Rosie, it made me cry from laughter. Seriously, I had to fix my make-up before leaving the car. You have to read this.

Once upon a time there was a woman. She had too many kids, she did not know what to do.  So she gave them soup with nothing and gave them a kiss and sent them to bed.

Here is another one, with reference to Poland 🙂 . It’s a good thing we will spend summer in Poland because it looks like Anabel has a very grim vision of our homeland.

Once upon a time there was a girl. Her name was Emma. She lived in a poor house and she lived in Poland. She worked very hard but they got little money. Emma said why don’t I get a new job? and then they got lots of money. the End

Teacher commented that she was happy for Emma 🙂 .

And the last one is from the “weekly news” notebook . It’s not that funny but it’s, well, honest.

On Friday the 3rd of June we went to the church.The class and Claire and Ms X were there. We sat and genuflected when we found a seat. It was boring.

For last two weeks I have been packing and repacking us. Either I pack extra things because they seem absolutely essential, either I unpack them because I packed too much again. I am ready for all kinds of weather, from heat- wave to snow storm, because you never know :-),  and all kinds of occasions, from weddings to funerals. And there’s an even more intensive weekend ahead of me of checking everything and most likely repacking again. Packing took Misi, though, less then 30 seconds: 2 t-shirts, 2 shorts and some underwear. Yet again, the differences in functioning of men and women hit me. Because there’s 3 hours of travel by car, then another 3 hours on the plane and again 2 hours or so in a car, thinking of girls, Misi is packing tablets, laptop and game console, while I  am printing games, tests, crosswords and coloring pages from printoteka.pl and superkid.pl. Gender differences are truly fascinating. 😉

Dzisiejszy dzien byl niezwykle ekscytujacy dla obydwu dziewczynek. Byl to ostatni dzien szkoly dla Anabel poniewaz w poniedzialek wylatujemy na Wegry. Wypelnila kartke i podarowala prezenty nauczycielkom. Byla zarowno podekscytowana jak i smutna. Tak bardzo przywiazala sie do swoich nauczycielek, ze na mysl o tym, ze nie beda jej uczyc we wrzesniu (bedzie miala nowa nauczycielke), rozplakiwala sie. Jedynie moje zapewnienia, ze wyslemy im mase pocztowek z Wegier i Polski, ja uspokajaly.

Rosalie natomiast we wrzesniu zaczyna szkole i dzis miala spotkanie z nowa klasa i nauczycielka. Musialam ja zostawic sama z dziecmi i nauczycielka w klasie i troszke sie tego obawialam poniewaz Rosie bywa niesmiala i jest raczej samotnikiem. Kiedy jednak przyszlam ja odebrac, bawila sie w najlepsze i nie chciala wyjsc. Wiem, ze sobie poradzi.

A skoro dzis otrzymalismy wszystkie prace i notatki Anabel z calego roku, pomyslalm, ze podziele sie najlepszymi fragmentami. Jeden z notatnikow byl przeznaczony do kreatywnego pisania. Co tydzien dzieci pisaly krotkie, zmyslone przez siebie opowiadania. Chodzilo o praktyke pisania. Wiekszosc opowiadan bylo o ksiezniczkach i konikach pony ale kilka bylo innych. Nigdy wczesniej nie widzialam tego notatnika a gdy otworzylam go w samochodzie czekajac przed szkola na Rosie, poplakalam sie ze smiechu. Serio, musialam poprawiac makijaz przed wyjsciem z samochodu.

Dawno, dawno temu byla sobie kobieta. Miala za duzo dzieci i nie wiedziala co robic. Wiec dala im zupe z niczym i pocalowala i wyslala do lozek.

A tu kolejne, z odniesieniem do Polski. Dobrze, ze spedzimy lato w Polsce bo wyglada na to, ze Anabel ma bardzo ponura wizje naszej ojczyzny 😀 . 

Dawno, dawno temu byla sobie dziewczynka. Miala na imie Emma. Mieszkala w biednym domu w Polsce. Pracowala bardzo ciezko ale mieli malo pieniedzy. Emma powiedziala dlaczego nie znajde nowej pracy? I potem mieli duzo pieniedzy. Koniec

Nauczycielka skomentowala, ze cieszy sie szczesciem Emmy :-). 

Ostatnia notatka pochodzi z notatnika “Wiadomosci tygodnia”. Nie jest az tak zabawna, ale, coz, szczera.

W piatek 3-go czerwca poszlismy do kosciola. Byla tam  cala klasa, Claire i pani X. Po znalezieniu siedzenia, siedzielismy i kleczelismy. Bylo nudno.

Ja od dwoch tygodni, nas pakuje i przepakowuje. To dopakowuje rzeczy bo wydaja mi sie niezbedne, to wypakowuje, bo jak zwykle za duzo nabralam. Jestem przygotowana na wszystkie typy pogody, od upalow po sniezyce, bo kto wie 🙂 oraz na rozne okazje, od slubow po pogrzeby . A przede mna jeszcze intensywniejszy weekend ostatecznego sprawdzania i zapewne kolejnej serii przepakowywania. Misiemu natomiast pakowanie siebie zajelo niecale 30 sekund: 2 t-shirty, 2 pary szortow, troche bielizny. Po raz kolejny uderzyly mnie roznice w funkcjonowaniu mezczyzn i kobiet. Poniewaz czeka nas 3 godziny jazdy samochodem, potem kolejne 3 godziny lotu samolotem i znowu jakies 2 godziny w samochodzie, Misi z mysla o dziewczynkach pakuje tablety, laptopa i konsole do gier podczas gdy ja drukuje zadanka, cwiczenia, krzyzowki, duble i kolorowanki z printoteka.pl  i superkid.pl . Roznice plciowe sa fascynujace :-).