Easter

Luckily the Bunny has a key to the house so he was able to hid the eggs inside since it is cold and rainy out. But with the big brother in the lead they were able to find all the eggs that they dyed the previous day (actually mostly Adi since Rea just ate them).  It was quite fun to have Aunt Stacey join us via skype.   And even more fortunate to have kept the egg dying kits from last year since they are quite hard to come by out here. It took 7 stores before I finally found one with white eggs;-)

Middle Age(d)

Well as my good friend said, it only means you just can't say, "When I grow up I want to..."

Pranvera and I celebrated our 45th bday's three weeks apart from each other. Low key family and friend affairs in the city first and then each one followed by a nice weekend present away. For mine we went locally to the ski resort about an hour away. Of course no luck in having enough snow to actually get on the mountain to ski but we did sled and had plenty of playtime at the cabin with Adi's school friend family (all photoed in another posting).

Then for Pranvera we truly celebrated by leaving the kids with her parents and we drove 4 hours away to stay at a fantastic boutique hotel in the center of Thessaloniki Greece where we ate well, walked the city, shopped, had late night drinks and just relaxed. It was a wonderful time for us to reconnect and appreciate even more being back in the Balkans with the support of family and such great getaways right next door.

Day Trip to Prizren

It is nice with our new super highway that we can make it to the historic town of Prizren within an hour for a day trip with the kids and a nice hike up to the restored castle overlooking the city. We started off with the obligatory traditional meal of meats and fresh vegetables of which Rea happily eats as much as we'll give her.

Then with the desperate need to walk off the meal, we walked up the main hill to play around in the castle. A lovely family adventure in our backyard...

Todd's Birthday Celebration

Well it is true the older you get, the greater chance you have for actually forgetting what number it is. Pranvera and I had to briefly debate this and realized this makes us officially middle aged. As a dear friend just attested, it only means we can no longer say, "Well when I grow up...".

Pranvera arranged a surprise happy hour at our local favorite pub for some close friends and family. Was great and a simple quick break without the kids (as we celebrated at home earlier). But the real treat was her finding a family we could rent a very nice house from at our local mountain Brezovica only about an hour south of Pristina . Another family joined us whose son is a classmate of Adi's. Since Pranvera's job kept her in town till the next day, the kids and I had 5 days down in the fresh air and stove heated house. Ironically we went there to get several days of skiing and snow play in but the warm weather left no snow around the house and relatively little up on the mountain top. There was enough for a sledding afternoon but not enough to get ourselves up on the lifts only to avoid all the exposed rock, grass and very bad skiers.

The kids had plenty of playtime in and outside the house and we all cooked great meals including fresh fish caught just up the hill from us in the local river. Plenty of wine and time to laze around the house talking, reading, resting and watching movies. Disappointed to not get any boarding in for the third try in the last 2 years at our local mountain even though the last night we got 10cm of fresh snow a bus in the morning slid off the road blocking access to the mountain top for anyone wanting to ski the powder. Such is our luck. Till next year I guess since it seems like winter has almost already left us (really can't complain).