1 week before jetting off to Prague...

We are all getting very excited now. It's quite busy too, getting everything organized for the trip. I'm so excited to be doing this with the girls! Not to kid myself - there is also an amount of trepidation, but generally really excited. Have been trying to find cool and fun things for us all to do en route. Activity books, playsets, new dvds, filling up the ipods and laptop...snacks...I was even contemplating getting Rox a Nintendo DS for the trip but at the moment it costs too much. Decided it's best to wait till she asks for it. Plenty of other stuff around to keep her audio visually interested... Like the new Bindi the Jungle Girl Dvds!!!

SO, Prague for the Nine Gates Festival of Jewish Music and culture. We're there for 1 week, then on the train to Budapest where we'll hang out for a week. We've booked into this really cute apartment in the middle of town near the Margit Sziget (Margaret Island) and will be going to the island, the zoo, the amusement park and climbing in the Buda hills to the wooded areas - all of which I'm sure Rox (and April) will love! I have very fond memories of going to the amusement park in Budapest with my family when I was 8 years old! After Budapest the plan is to get a camper van (Roxie's dream is to live in a camper van) and to travel north through the Hortobagy (the great plains - we'll get to to check out the horses and Summer horse programs!) ending up at Kisvarda to catch up with my family. There's going to be so much to do and see in Hungary. I wish we had more time! I'm really looking forward to Prague too. Never been there before and we'll get to hear/see some great Klezmer music at the festival. Nigel Kennedy is playing the opening night with Kroke which will be fun to listen to. 

The girls do feel my excitement building and the preparations for the trip are taking my mind away from being totally present with them, I'm trying, but I do have a tendency to drift into thinking too much about the future and what needs to be done next. At those moments I notice Rox tends to go to her room more often to watch her tele. That's when I realize I need to engage with her again. So i'll go and watch with her for a bit or take her a cheese toastie or ask if she wants to bounce on the trampoline with me and April. That's one of our favorite things. Bouncing on the tramp together. Or making a concoction. In the last couple of days it's been making cakes in the evening. Of course April makes one too! Rox said tonight that she loves baking cakes and wants to make cakes for work. As well as be an animal rescuer!! (Thanks Bindi and Diego!)

April is so funny at the moment. Word plays and jokes. Especially about 'tee'! (breastfeeding/breastmilk)

gotta go. April stirs.