Poland, Days 15-17

Saturday we were excited to have a vehicle to borrow for a few days.  We were also brought some fans and some Polish cash from another family who was here and went home. (Thanks again!)  The fans were very welcome, for Saturday was hot and sticky (though not as bad as it is at home) and no air conditioning means hot and sticky in the house.  There have not been many days like that: today is a cloudy, cool 70*.

Yesterday, Mark took the three older kiddos to church while I kept the youngest girl home and afterward, they went to a store to pick up a few toys for DD.  We were really unsure what types of things would be good for her, so we did not get much before we left home.  We also felt like she needed a few more things to occupy her time here during the down times.  Right now there is quite a bit of down time, and boredom is setting in for the kiddos.  We have cut back the amount of tablet/TV time that they are allowed to have to the limit they have at home, and there is not a lot for them to do.  As mentioned in the previous post, we have found four different parks within a 30 minute walking distance with various activities at each of them: the closest park is only three blocks away.  We head to the park at least once a day, and sometimes multiple times per day.  I hope they do not all go into withdrawals when we get home and no longer go play at the park every time they turn around. :D  Whoa..way off topic!

Ping Pong table at the park

The park three blocks from the house. :-)

 Mark and the kiddos came home with some four piece puzzles, a stacking toy, some large Legos, plastic blocks, and ping pong paddles and balls!  One of the aforementioned parks has a cement ping pong table, and all we need to bring are the paddles and balls.  DD has loved the puzzles, stacking toy, and Legos, and we have been working on teaching color names with them while we play.

Today, we got ready to head to the grocery store, only to find out that the van would not start.  Grrr!! The battery is dead.

How we felt about it.

We are not even sure why it is dead: no doors or lights were left on that we could find.  Mark moved the van into the garage on Sunday to keep DD from playing with the wheels and getting her hands, face, and clothing filthy (true story, several times), and it worked fine.  One of our facilitators who speaks the best English is out of town for a few days, but we called him.  He was already out of the area, so we are stuck until tomorrow when we hope to get a jump. This left our oldest son and I to head to the grocery store with the pink polka dotted stroller in tow as a makeshift grocery cart. We only shopped for a little bit, but it gets heavy when you have to carry it home. On the plus side, I remembered to bring the shopping bags with me, so I did not have to buy any more plastic grocery bags.

I need to go fix dinner, but here are a couple of random pictures from this past week.  

Play Doh creature made by our facilitator when
he was here with us for the second social worker visit. :)