layers of fun!

hanging out with Barney

funlayers — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:22:26 +0000

Mikaela’s graduated kindergarten!!

funlayers — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:14:46 +0000

Mikaela’s last day of kindergarten! What an emotional day that was. Just knowing that next year she’ll be starting ‘real school’ (and they really do hit it hard in first grade here in Poland) — combined with the fact that Maia will be starting preschool in the fall — well, that was the makings of a tear-filled day for Sarah. Her teacher made it worse by reading aloud a letter Mikaela had written to her. It was so sweet, so like my Mikaela. My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude for how well-adjusted Mikaela is to life in Poland. Her Polish is awesome. Her teacher even commented to me that there is no difference developmentally or with language ability between Mikaela and other kids in the class. I don’t think that’s necessarily true – Mikaela’s vocab is much smaller than theirs, but for her teacher to be able to say that is an amazing thing. To a certain extent, we take it for granted that our children will grow up well-adjusted, self-confident, able to cope in situations, don’t we? There are so many things that work together to ensure our kids have everything they need emotionally and spiritually – loving home, consistent discipline, church family and Sunday school, lots of good Christian friends, maybe even a Christian school. But with two-language, two-culture kids, it’s not necessarily a given that the child is going to be well-adjusted. I mean, no offense, but look at how many MK’s don’t know how to cope in either culture. Whatever the reason for that is (and if you know, please share), I feel so grateful that Mikaela feels this comfortable in Polish culture. After 3 years in preschool, she’s self-confident, happy, and nowhere near the shy little thing so terrified on the first day. If only she’ll be as well-adjusted and confident in American culture! Anyway, I’ll post some pictures of her big day as soon as I figure out why I can’t attach them to this blog.

domestic bliss

funlayers — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:23:39 +0000

No one would ever accuse me of cleaning my house too well. Unfortunately, my girls have followed in the footsteps of my lighthearted approach to housecleaning. UNTIL NOW. I’m tired of cleaning up after everybody and I’m tired of hearing “But MOOOOOM, I can’t clean that up — it’s too messy!!” So we’ve begun cleaning lessons (a good exercise for me as well), and we’re starting with vacuuming (which is the funnest chore there is, according to the girls, and hey, why not start with something they like?) The house has never been so dust-free.

Mikaela is 6!!

funlayers — Fri, 04 May 2007 19:54:23 +0000

…and has been for about three months now, but since I took such a long break from blogging and am just now getting back into it, I have to go back into the photo archives and update you all. Her choice for party theme? Strawberry Shortcake, of course! It was a very strawberry day!

little monkeys

funlayers — Tue, 01 May 2007 14:32:37 +0000

Aren’t they the cutest pair of monkeys you’ve ever seen? Auntie Alia home-made festive fleece ponchos for the girls – they LOVE them. As if that wasn’t enough, when Mark came to Poland he brought along a little monkey and polar bear with matching ponchos Alia had made. Thanks, Auntie Alia!

to explain the bare legs, the girls were getting ready to streak from the hotel room to the pool

good thing they had nice warm fleece ponchos to keep them warm!

We love SPRING!!

funlayers — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 13:34:15 +0000

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year! – Robert Frost

As most everywhere in Europe, we’re having an unseasonably warm spring, and I personally couldn’t be happier about it! Easter Sunday still required long-sleeves with the girls’ Easter dresses, but refreshingly there wasn’t any snow on the ground. In fact, this year we only had about a month of winter; which beat the socks off last year’s six-month deep-freeze. The budding of flowers and trees is such a miracle to me – what an amazing God we have! It makes me wonder what in the world awaits us in heaven. Happy Spring!

Hey, People!

funlayers — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:42:41 +0000

Long time no post, but better 2 months late than NEVER — which is probably when you all thought I’d post something next , right? Well, it’s probably no surprise to those who know me best that I have serious problems following through. Ben thinks I have ADD, but it’s actually just old fashioned aversion to anything that feels like work. And why should posting pictures of my girls seem like work? Well, because most of the pictures somehow show the nitty gritty of life with M&M instead of showing them as the little angels that you all know them as. For instance, here’s Maia having just pushed her friend Clarissa down in order to steal the little girl’s sitting-whirly toy (or is it a whirling-sitty toy?). And here are the girls, uncombed and looking frazzled after Maia put her own pj’s on.

Here they’re stealing

blue hotel toilet paper

in order to build

some sort of costume for Maia. And finally, this picture shows their true angelic nature, as they sweetly play together. Yeah, I guess they’re pretty cute anyway. Hope to get back in the posting swing of things! Thanks for your encouraging comments!

Merry Christmas!!!

funlayers — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:05:31 +0000

Our holiday plans include Sunday morning church, then having friends over for a traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner (which I’m not cooking – hooray!), dinner on Christmas Day at a family’s house from the church, and then a three day trip north to an indoor water park! Meanwhile, we’ve been decorating our tree (everyone here dresses the tree on Christmas Eve, but we decided we’d finally waited long enough), drinking eggnog and Christmas caroling at every chance. What an amazing story – that the God of All willingly made Himself into a man, with all the helplessness and dependency that that included. And all so that one day He could die on a cross for me, for my sins. I keep thinking of things from Mary’s perspective. How strange it must have all been for her! Well, happy holidays to you all – may the story of the birth of Christ be as new and amazing to you as the first time you heard it!

Maia’s 3rd Birthday

funlayers — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:30:40 +0000

Maia turned 3 in November, so here are some highlights of the fun! Musical Maia tries out her new keyboard…

Happy Birthday, Maia!

Back to bloggin

funlayers — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:03:12 +0000

After a month or so break from blogging, I’m back. I really was enjoying myself before the break, but life got busy, and when things get busy I guess I don’t turn to writing for relaxation. But I apologize for the shortage of updates on the little Layer girls. That was cruel. So, to bring you up to date on the girls’ recent activities: Mikaela is preparing for her big debut as angel in the preschool Christmas program, got her hair cut at a salon for the first time, and got her ears pierced this week. She recently received a load of dress-up clothes from her Grammy Layer and decided that maybe she should invite all her preschool girlfriends over for a dress up party. Great idea, I thought! The ear piercing was quite an adventure! She reeeeally wanted to get earrings, so I agreed that we would do it for a surprise for her dad (he was indeed surprised). But after the first ear got pierced she started to cry and changed her mind. Meanwhile the little Polish lady was trying to convince her that it hadn’t hurt after all, and Maia was crying and yelling in English at the lady “I don’t want you to do that to my Mikaela! Mikaela doesn’t want you to do that!!” But after a few minutes we all calmed down and she agreed to have the second ear pierced. After 15 minutes she was pain-free and they look beautiful! And what has Maia been up to? Hmmm, Maia managed to spread almost a whole bag of powdered sugar throughout the house, cut off huge chunks of her beautiful curls, and shatter a glass jar full of all her tiny hair pretties. She’s also learning new words in Polish every day, starting to remember her English letters and doing an inCREDible job of coloring within the lines. She also got her hair cut at the salon because I had no idea what to do with it now that most of the top is so short. But she admits to everyone how naughty she was and when prompted she’ll repeat that, no, she’ll never cut her own hair again. My little beauties. As soon as I can figure out what’s wrong with the camera, I’ll get a recent picture up. Have a great day, everyone!