VBS

We just finished a great week at Vacation Bible School.  The kids tie-dyed t-shirts. Not surprisingly, all the shirts were a little oversized, so we repurposed the girls' shirts into tank tops--which are still big, and was a dress on Lucy.

Love watching kids sing songs of praise.

Croatia, city

After spending an afternoon in Krka National Park, we headed back towards our apartment, and made a stop in Zadar, one of the larger cities along the Croatian coast, for a couple of hours.  

It was a lovely city center, with old churches, 

Roman ruins

and narrow, cobbled paths

We were just there long enough to enjoy those sites and a dinner along the sea while watching the sun set over the water.

Not a bad way to end the day...

Croatia, wow

A popular tourist destination in Croatia is Plitvice Lakes.  In fact, as we were planning our trip here, this was one of the few things on our list that we definitely wanted to do.

Well, once we arrived and started having so much fun at the pool and sea, we did not think a 2 hour one way drive to see Plitvice was what any of us cared to do.  However, we (we being the kids and Kristi) had done some research for school prior to coming to Croatia, and in that research we had learned about Krka, another National Park in Croatia that was only an hour away from our apartment in Starigrad, and similar to Plitvice.  We decided that we should go check it out, so after spending the morning at the apartment enjoying the sea and pool, we loaded up and headed on an adventure.

This is what we saw...

Beautiful swans from our boat ride--Mary caught a picture of two in a heart shape

and a momma and babies (vocab time:  what's the word for a baby swan)

A beautifully shaded walking path along the river with frogs and fish and dragonflies...

 and kids hanging from trees--very Sound of Music-ish

oh, yes, and maybe a waterfall

or two

or three

or a whole lot...

These waterfalls are a live, growing organism of sorts...limestone is deposited in the lichen and algae as the water flows over, and travertines are formed.  It grows at a rate of about 3 mm a year.  And yes, it is travertine as in the travertine tiles that we like in our homes.

We spent a little bit playing in some of the shallow waters.  Unfortunately for Ted, he wasn't dressed to get in the water, or he would have probably made his way to a spot under the falling water.

We are making silly faces--check out Lucy's sassy pose!

A great afternoon!

Croatia Intro...

A weekend in Croatia was not enough.  I love being near the sea.

When it's warm and there's a pleasant breeze, at least.

We found a great apartment -- it was right on the sea and had a pool.

This was our no kidding view from our patio--flowers, pool, table, sea.

The water, both in the sea and pool, was a tad bit cool, but that didn't stop the kids from playing and having a good time in it.

They found a few treasures in and around the rocks and spent lots of time in the early morning while the water was calm searching for "hermies" (hermit crabs) and snails.

We even managed to find a starfish--and the next time we found him dining on a sea urchin!

Follow The Leader

The kids at the park playing Follow the Leader.

I love watching them have fun together.

Recitals

Here are some shots of the girls from their recital.

The big girls danced to a 1970's song called The Last Dance and Lucy tapped to a 1950's song called Jailhouse Rock.  It was a lovely performance.  Lucy's first time on stage, and she did a phenomenal job.

 I actually remembered to buy flowers for them this time!

And Cory is a fantastic audience member!!!