Knorr Family Adventures

This week has been rough.  Chris was away in Iceland so I am on my own and while it's usually not a problem this week has been a bit rougher than normal so here is a break down of what happened.  Needless to say no pictures :( Monday - I had an appointment with Ilya's Russian teacher at 7:30 in the morning which went well.  Ilya is doing a pretty good job in the class, he understand verbal communication but it's hard to find him books to read because his vocabulary is still lacking.  Anton has German class every Monday where I have to take him to the class at 9:35 and pick him up at 11:15 at which point he goes to kindergarten. During the class I took Chris to the airport.  Andrei had an eye check up and we waited for over an hour and then left because we had to go pick Anton and Ilya up.  That got rescheduled for another day in May but overall I need to find another eye doctor for the kids.  The receptionist did apologize which was nice because it's so no a German t

Since I have not had the chance to write anything about scouting, this seems like a good time since Andrei just transitioned from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.  We originally joined Cub Scouts because our friend worked it out so both boys can attend on the same day and because we thought it would be a good idea to get the boys into an American activity with American boys.  Ilya joined Wolfs and Andrei joined Arrow of Light so Ilya is the oldest in his den and Andrei is the youngest.  Ilya is really enjoying the Cub Scouts.  It really seems that getting the badges the the belt loops is a great motivator for him to read and do the assignments.  The requirements are very structured and organized so Ilya can do most of them on his own with a little guidance from me and an occasional drive to things like botanical garden.  The Wolfs have 5 requirement adventures and they include things like learning about American flag, learning about God (very open vague adventure), physical activities, ob

This was the last of stop of the March adventures and the friend I went with does not want to be disclosed but we had a blast.  We were in Madrid for 1,5 days so not a whole lot of time; however, Madrid was charming and really really cold.  After we checked into the hotel, we wondered throughout Madrid and made our way to Retiro Park.  It was fun - we weren't so tired yet and the weather was beautiful.  It's similar to many other European parks with the statues in the middle of well laid out paths and a lake in the middle. Look at the beautiful sky! After the park,we went to Prado Museum - it was the only museum we visited in Madrid, but there are many more for those with more time.  Prado Museum has free entrance 2 hours before it closes but you have to be ready to wait in line.  The line moves quickly but they do give each person a ticket and we probably waited for around 30-40 minutes which means once we got into museum we only had a little over an hou

Seemingly as of late I have no time to do anything for anything but minimal survival and as I was thinking it was time to drop this blog, I got a "signs' that I should attempt to keep it up. March had been fun but busy - Chris and I went to Portugal (Porto and Lisbon), I went to Spain (Barcelona and Madrid) with a friend, and all of us went to Burg Rieneck with Cub Scouts. Easter brought some interesting discussions to our house.  We do not discuss God or anything religion related unless it's either relevant (we are going to Vatican or such) or they ask.  Ilya had some questions earlier this year when Cub Scouts were doing their Duty to God requirement and he was the only kid in his den not to attend church or say prayers.  I told him that if he is interested we would take him to a church and he can learn all about religion. Spring is finally here and it's awesome!!!  We are at the park, we are biking, Andrei got new roller blades and enjoying the weather. Part o