Picniking

One of our favorite things in Slovenia are picnics! They are so relaxing and enjoyable and filled with amazing food!Last winter, Joel played soccer with our neighbors and several other couples on Sunday evenings. It was really great for Joel. He'd been looking for a way to play soccer since we moved to Slovenia 5 years ago and this was the first opportunity that he's had. He really enjoyed playing soccer with them, as well as just spending time with adults our age and in the same stage of life as we are.

The first week of June we had a picnic together...I never got around to blogging about it, but here is the picture from that one. It was an off and on rainy day but it was fun to be together anyway. This past Saturday we had another picnic with them. Gregor & Katja offered the use of their kitchen and we used our backyard. It was fun to share the picnic with them.
We borrowed Terry's game of Ladder Golf and played several games of "guys vs. girls". We sat around watching the little kids playing, holding the little babies and talking and eating, talking and eating.
The picnic went long into the evening which was great for our neighbors and us because we could just put the kids to bed and come back out to the party. At one point though, Eli awoke crying and was having a hard time falling back asleep again. I was feeling torn because I really just wanted to be outside with everyone and also wanted him to get sleep. Eventually though, I just took him out with me. He loved it and everyone joked that he was thinking, "Me-1 point, Mama-Zero!" Here is his "victory grin"!
We got out some marshmallows that were left over from English camp and roasted some make-shift s'mores. We didn't have the good ol' Hershey's chocolate or Graham Crackers, so they tasted different from authentic s'mores, but they were good anyway. Marshmallows are yummy roasted however you can get 'em! This was Abigail asking for just "one more Mama?"Then on Sunday, we had another picnic with the parents that were in Joel's English class last spring. It was again, filled with good food, but wasn't quite as long as Saturday's which was actually really good for the kids. It was fun to be with the parents again and to be with a few of our students AND their parents. That feels good...and needed. We'd like to do more of that. So here's a picture from that one:
Kathy went to the second picnic as well. Her she is with two of her girls, Ness & Jola, two very sweet girls. The picnic was at Ness's family's house. It was nice to spend some time in her world.