holiday weekend

In Lithuania this is a long holiday weekend- and not for July 4th! But July 6 is Mindaugas Day, the crowning of the only king in Lithuania's history. It also is the extended weekend of the Lithuanian song festival in Vilnius which happens every 4th year. And since this year Vilnius is a European culture capital and Lithuania is celebrating 1000 years of the name Lithuania being recorded in history, the song festival is getting especially large attention.

For our part though, it is too large of a crowd and undertaking to involved our boys at this age. So, we taught them just a little about the American flag (they made theirs) and we had other Americans over for a cookout which turned inside as the weather was not so nice for being outside.


We enjoyed our first tomato from the balcony today as well. The plants are thriving, but we can understand now why tomatoes are generally only grown in greenhouses here. The weather is so windy and cool often that they would have a tough time growing to maturity. And of course ours are taking over what space we give them!

Our lives seem different now in a few ways. Summer warmer weather is here, even creeping up toward 90 degrees (though today is 67). The boys are home from preschool every day now- all day. And the boys who live in the apartments here are out to play often including our boys. They have learned to play outside without us for the most part, though we are most comfortable if the older girls are also out there playing for they keep watch over them too.