Garden party

Last week, our dear friends Maria and Orlando Arzapalo invited us to Maria's mother's house for a delicious strawberry lunch and a walk to her "garden" — more on why that's in quotes later.

This is me and Anna before we left. Even when pressed, I couldn't tell you why I have such a freakishly huge smile on my face.

We ate strawberry-filled dumplings (yum) and a tasty bacon-cabbage dish. We also had strawberry apple juice to drink.

After lunch, Maria and her mother showered Anna with gifts. They have been SO kind to us. Seriously. This day alone, Anna walked away with probably 5 new outfits, two books, a Flintstones lunch box, and a big bag of chocolate, yogurt, and other snacks.

Maria's mother lives next to a park, so we walked through it to a plot of land where her garden is. Since most people in Poland live in apartment buildings, there are areas around the city (like near parks or in other remote areas) where people can build a little cottage and/or plant a garden to work in.

Maria, Trevor's behind, and Orlando in the garden

Maria's mother's garden is beautiful. There was a little cottage with a living room, kitchen area, and a bathroom. There was also a great covered patio to the side.


One of Anna's new favorite pastimes is washing. That girl loves to wash. And she'll wash anything: her hands, her toys, my papers. After we washed her hands when we got to the cottage, the only way to persuade her to come out of the bathroom was to give her a big tub of water to play in outside. Here you can see one of the dresses Maria's mother gave her . . . and some cherry juice on her face.


The flowers were beautiful. It was so peaceful and so nice to imagine ourselves away from the noisy city for a while.


We had such a fun time. The food was delicious, the company was wonderful, and it was cool to see how Polish people like to relax and get away.