And Foster's 5!

What a fast journey it's been from Foster being born to becoming a 5 year old. We have been so lucky to have such a thoughtful and fun loving little boy.  He loves Legos, anything Paw Patrol or police related and reading, especially the Boxcar Kids. Other than sitting to read, he is always in motion at full speed. He loves Kai, although sometimes too much, but is a wonderful older brother. He wants to be a dog catcher when he grows up. He has started to work on learning to read and his numbers. He is super sweet and still likes to cuddle at night and makes friends so easily.

Foster got to have a cake and wear a special crown at school on his special day--then we had to go 

and get shots, but this was balanced out by him getting to pick out his own toys at the toy store.  he had never gotten to do this before.  He didn't have any difficulty picking out a police helicopter and Chase's police car from Paw Patrol.  Then we had pizza and more ice cream cake on the roof of our apartment in Sarajevo with friends.

I'm 5!

Jets + Bubble bath= oh my!

Once we got back from the U.S., Foster noticed that our bath tub had jets in it like his Grandpa's hot tub and then he got curious and before we knew it we had mountains of bubbles in our tub!

Here kitty, kitty

Back in June we had to go and check out the new kitties, 6 of them at Vera's house.  So sweet, roly poly moving everywhere and jumping up on things.

Woo--Baby Kai is Two (and definitely not a baby any more)

Kai's 2nd birthday came a few days after we arrived back in Bosnia, so it was a low key affair, we're saving the celebrations for August when he and Foster will have a party together.  He got a "bi-ce-cl" as he calls it so he can move around in the courtyard with the big boys.

He has grown by leaps and bounds in the last year, or really 6 months since he started walking.  He has finally stopped falling so much that we can go a few days with out bumps on his head.  He is determined and strong willed and started talking in both the local language and English.  Some of his first words were "jaje" (egg) and matze (cat) and up and down.  He loves all things transportation related, from cars to choo-hoos(trains) and buses.  He still sucks his thumb and has "wa-wa" his stuffed dog as his constant companion.  He charms many people in our neighborhood with his sweet smile and laid back personality.  He loves Foster and wants to do everything like him.  

Fishing with grandpa

Foster got some good fishing in while we were at the lake.  Unfortunately, he and grandpa had no luck,  but lots of fun chatting.  Later in the day though, he made up for it and caught about 8 fish off the end of the dock.

Family Picts at the Lake

A trip to Western BiH

We took a 48 hour trip to the eastern part of BiH last weekend.  Our main goal was to hit the popular plivice lakes national park across the border in Croatia.  It was beautiful and packed with tourists.  We did the 2 hour walk and the boys were trooper--especially with the promise of ice cream at the end.  We were surprised at the sites we passed through in BiH.  There were beautiful water sites and lots of green, and no tourists to boot.  We started off in Cazin where there is an old fortress called Ostrozac.  No tourists here, we had to call a local guy to even open the fence door for us. Then we stopped at a beautiful restaurant in Bihac.  That evening we stayed at a farm stay an hour away called Čardaklije.  It was perfect for the boys, there were roaming puppies and horses, goats and some great food for us.

We then took an adventure to Martin Brod, a small town about one hour away.  For about a half hour the roads were only gravel as we went through the Una National Park, we almost turned around, but we were happy we didn't.  We had stopped and had fresh fish (literally pulled out of a tank full of water from the river drifting by) and then pay $1 to go and see the beautiful waterfalls. What a hidden gem.  The ride back to Banja Luka didn't disappoint either, huge expanses of rolling green and even more surreal when we stopped and heard Serb music coming from a local church.