Family Journal – Page 75

Oliver’s Third Birthday Party

May 2, 2008May 2, 2008billkralovec

Wednesday afternoon we celebrated my son Oliver’s third birthday party. Birthday parties in Latin America are a big deal and we went all out to give the little guy a nice day. His first two parties were small affairs, so we wanted to do something special for him. I also think that this birthday was special because Oliver was born in Anaco and this will be his last birthday he celebrates here.

Oliver’s favorite color is green and he loves to dance so we made the theme “Green Music Party.” Nadia spent a lot of time and money in planning the party. She made cute CD invitations, made green t-shirts, made a playlist of children’s music, etc. We invited 15 children and held it in front of Alejandra’s house at the school. There is a perfect cement dance floor underneath a Merey (Cashew) tree for the kids to dance on. We played musical games like limbo (see video above), hot monkey, musical chairs, etc. Everyone had a good time, especially Oliver. Ollie is currently in the stage of hitting other children and he did throw of few tantrums, but other than that, things went smoothly. He really enjoyed blowing out the candles on his cake.

Happy Birthday Oliver – You have brought much joy to our lives.

Weekend Family Journal April 26-27 2008

April 29, 2008May 3, 2008billkralovec

I had a bit of difficulty figuring out how to embed this video from flickr.com. I can now upload videos of up to 90 seconds to my flickr.com account. I uploaded several videos and will try to find time to upload some videos from earlier in the year. Some of my videos are over 90 seconds however, so I will make a Youtube account and put them there. The above video shows Nadia feeding Ocean. Nadia makes all of Ocean’s baby food from scratch. She takes much of her philosophy of feeding babies from the book, “Super Baby Food” by Ruth Yaron. Ocean is now 7 months old and is just so darn cute and cuddly. She has rolls of delicious baby fat every where! Nadia is also enjoying having a girl.

This past weekend we stayed in Anaco and relaxed on campus. On both Saturday and Sunday morning I got a chance to run, first with Oliver and then Ocean with my jogging stroller. I am making it a point to exercise more. Saturday morning Nadia and I made pancakes for the boys. In the afternoon, Andy, Owen, Oliver, and I went out to the mesa for a hike. We got a bit lost in the canyons, but made it back. The entire hike took about an hour which is pretty good with young children. I carried Oliver much of the way, although the little guy loved the whole experience. Owen got a bit whiny, but pulled through and sprinted the last 20 meters back to the car. Going out to that area really re-charges my batteries, and as I always say, a day with more time spent outdoors than indoors is a good day. Later on we swam in the backyard pool and I did some yard work.

Sunday morning after the jog, Andy and I took the boys shopping to Unicasa. I am amazed at how prices are rising here. Nadia and Ale worked on their Arabic, Spanish, and Serbian jolly phonics. The women are adapting the Jolly Phonics program to other languages. Nadia’s Serbian version has really helped us pick up the Cyrillic quickly. We did more party planning, as we are gearing up for Oliver’s third birthday party tomorrow.

One comment on the iPod and podcasts. They are brilliant! I can now listen to my favorite programs any time, any where. It makes jogging go by so quickly. I’ll do a post in the future with my podcast recommendations.

School Photo Day

April 25, 2008April 25, 2008billkralovec

Oliver Kralovec – Day Care Student, originally uploaded by bill kralovec

Owen

Yesterday we took photographs of all of the students and teachers at Escuela Anaco. Oliver’s Day Care Center photo is above and Owen’s Kindergarten photo is below. They are growing up so fast. All of our family photos from the day are in my flickr. com set.

Kralovec Family Success in “Run For The Earth” 5 KM

April 23, 2008April 23, 2008billkralovec

Owen & Papa Run the 1 kilometer Race, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Escuela Anaco hosted yesterday the “Run For The Earth” 5 kilometer race. The Kralovec family did extremely well. Above, Owen and I ran together in the 1 kilometer race. Owen needed a bit of encouragement not to stop and look at all the people behind him. He was a tough trooper however, and finished with a time of 7: 48. He would have had the fastest time of any younger student, but the others cut corners on the inside of loop of the course while Owen and I ran the proper course. I was so proud to be running with my son. It was the first time we competed together. I hope we can continue to compete together in sports in the years to come.I kept going after escorting him to finish the 4.8 kilometer course around the school grounds in 28:09. It was extremely hot with temperatures in the mid to high 90’s. I couldn’t quite catch Mr. Flinn’s friend Leo who was visiting from England. I finished with the silver medal.

Nadia was the true hero of the Kralovec family however. First she ran hard and won second place in the women’s race with a time of 31:59. She then entered the 100 meter dash for adult females. She was having trouble with her hat and fell behind early, but came from behind to beat ninth grade student Francesca. Owen finished tied with his cousin Sebey in the Kinder 100 meter dash for second. Even little Oliver got in the act and did some running with the day care personnel. So overall it was 3 silver medals and a 100 meter championship for our family. This is our last fun run at the school as we are leaving next month.

Below, Nadia wins the 100 meter dash, with hat in hand and Ollie enjoys the run too. You can see these and more photos on the run by clicking on the photo above to take you to our flickr.com set.

Nadia Wins 100