******::::.....Trail of Glitter.....:::::*******

Jakov, one of the tour guides that we traveled with the other day does not have children. He commented on the clean-up required when we left the vehicle in a gentle, teasing way. I thought he meant the cracker crumbs but he clarified that the crumbs were not the issue, it was the sparkles that he found everywhere that were difficult to clean up. So true. So indicative of travel, no, life with our three princess girls. Glitter is everywhere in our lives because of their shoes and other assorted clothing, crafts and toys.

The two older girls, and especially our middle child, love to dress up. We believe it is a sign of creativity and self-expression so we pretty much allow them to choose their own clothing whenever reasonable. Reasonable has been the key word here when we are living in a place with weather so different from home.

That being said, we have found that it has been exceedingly difficult to convince our Canadian prairie girls that it is winter here in Europe. Yes, we have seen snow but it melted within days. Yes, we have seen rain but to us that means spring. And it isn't getting any easier as we start to see the flowers bloom and trees blossom. So sometimes we might seem like lunatics taking our children out in light jackets and dressy shoes while the kids here are in their parkas (even ski pants!) and boots. After a few chilly trips, including the aforementioned tour to Lake Bled and Ljubljana, I think we finally convinced the girls that it is best to dress in layers and be prepared for cold even if it doesn't seem cold. (There were some tears shed from the cold, wet feet that we got on our trip to Slovenia -- see picture below).

Beautiful snowy day at Lake Bled, Slovenia in February 2014. We couldn't get up the hill to visit the castle.

To be honest, we did not come well-prepared for winter either. We decided that boots (rain and snow) were too big for the number of suitcases we wanted to come with. If we needed them, we told ourselves, we'd buy them once we got to Croatia. We have needed them but as non-shoppers, we have not purchased them. We really need to get more realistic with ourselves about what we are actually like!

Travel is a good time to become introspective and self-reflective. We have learned a lot about ourselves during this trip. Sometimes the lesson seems to be that we shouldn't be doing this kind of travelling with 3 little girls -- in many moments that is how it feels. But then when we reflect on it we are continually amazed at what our children are capable of and what they are passively absorbing just by being exposed to different places.

I love watching them learn, grow and develop on their own glitter trails!