The Eastern Schorr

Advent

2012-01-06T00:35:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas preparation this year was finally organized enough to have an advent calendar full of activities to do every day! It was all stuff we do every year anyway, but spaced out nicely and (mostly) planned for. Do you want to see my list? (sometimes I wish I allowed comments...) Well here it is - just scroll past if you don't want to read it:

1. Watch Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (an elementary drama production at the kids school).

2. Put up Christmas tree.

3. Go ice skating (this didn't actually work out, because I can't ice skate being 6 months pregnant, and we neglected to remember that they probably wouldn't have super giganto rental ice skates for Dave. The kids were too young to go by themselves. But we had gone to Red Square for the activity, so we still enjoyed all the lights - Moscow has great lights all over the city during the holidays, playing in some snow, and a yummy snack at Chocolodnitsa. Not a total fail).

4. Read the Tale of the Three Trees.

5. Have a picnic dinner by the Christmas tree.

6. Have hot chocolate with marshmallows.

7. Decorate gingerbread houses.

8. Read Mr. Finnegan's Giving Chest.

9. Watch White Christmas.

10. Go to Ward Christmas Breakfast (we had to skip this one too, due to "possible political demonstrations", a working Daddy, and a sick mama, so we made muffins, and had hot chocolate instead).

11. Deliver Holiday gifts to friends and neighbors.

12. Invite friends over to play games.

13. Have hot chocolate with homemade bread toast.

14. Read Christmas Day in the Morning.

15. Make treats to share with friends at school.

16. Watch Muppet Christmas Carol.

17. Go sledding (you would think by the 17th of December in Moscow, we would have enough snow to go sledding. All we had this year was mush, so we went out to breakfast for this one instead. We have had a really warm winter so far!).

18. Deliver toys to someone in need.

19. Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

20. Make cookies to donate to someone (the idea was for them to go to some people at Dave's work).

21. Have hot chocolate floats.

22. Open family Christmas presents.

23. Go to Spain!

24. Read the true story of Christmas and act out the Nativity. Go looking for Christmas lights.

It was a lot of fun, and it's nice to have some of these things down on paper, so the kids can start recognizing them as family traditions (for example, we have a TON of Christmas books, and we are not lacking in Christmas movies, but there are a few I want to make sure are family traditions, so I included them in the advent).

HOWEVER, I felt like the advent could definitely have been a little more Christ centered, or at least more service oriented. This is something I will have to think a little more about. A couple of years ago, we did one that had a scripture and a little activity to go along with it every day. Maybe we can find a way to incorporate that next year, but still keep it simple.

Because above everything else, it's the simplicity that I love!

Hope you had a great December!

Snapshots

2012-01-04T01:18:00.000-05:00

It's been a while, so here's a double dose of snapshots:

She just keeps bringing me more, and asking me to put them in her hair.

I love getting this little girl into her snow clothes, and she loves playing in the snow. Win-win.

Owen "bubble wrapped" at a birthday party. This was after chasing two pirates around an indoor amusement park for an hour on a treasure hunt. Now do you see why we don't do birthday parties?

and p.s. what does it tell you about Moscow that I don't even blink an eye anymore when someone shows up dressed like that to entertain at a children's birthday party? Dave had to point it out to me when he saw the picture.

Outside a car dealership near Red Square.

Ev in uniform. When she's not in this, she's in t-shirts and jeans all the time.

Riding with Dad while she waited for Owen to be finished at his friend's birthday party.

Getting out the Christmas stuff.

Dave playing with the crazies. Barb especially love to play "up high".

Feliz Navidad... (and Happy New Year!)

2011-12-31T15:34:00.003-05:00

I Have a Little Boy...

2011-12-13T01:30:00.002-05:00

The other day, he was talking to his sister. She was trying to come up with an example to explain something to him, and she started talking about football.

"I don't think I like sports," he said to her.

"Interesting insight," I thought to myself.

And let me be honest and tell you that I don't know how this happened.

Happy...

2011-12-06T02:56:00.005-05:00

Birthday!

Owen's Nerf cake that I made. The marshmallow fondant was incredibly easy. I was just too lazy to order good dye, so he has a pastel Nerf cake. And he's okay with it. Dave's traditional pineapple upside down cake that he never remembers is the tradition until I make it. Evelynn's star cake to go with her American Girl theme. I know, it's an awesome cake. Don't be jealous. (Dave's Mom actually frosted it, because I couldn't do it without crumbs all over the place) And finally, the Boston cream cake that Dave made for me. When I remind him that this is the tradition, usually he buys one (can you tell he's not into traditions?), but I would feel pretty safe saying that they are impossible to find in Russia. So, he made it!

And of course, birthday cake has to have ice cream. Even Russian style Neopolitan. Grab yourself a slice.

Happy Birthday everyone!

Halloween!

A strawberry, a peacock, and Frankenstein (who left his hair/hat thing at school and was most often mistaken as Hulk). I was super sick, and couldn't even think about making costumes this year, so we bought some cute ones. Barb loved dressing up and trick-or-treating, and I loved her doing it!

Thanksgiving!

The kids still had school, but Dave had the day off, so we still cooked, and then got together with some friends for dinner and some football.

Dave's parents sent us a package with all of the ingredients and instructions to make these cute little turkeys! We opened the package in the car, and the cookies almost didn't make it home.

Those little marshmallow ones are my favorite! and Oreos? Fuhgettabout it.

Now we are getting ready for Christmas!

Yay!

And now we don't have to rationalize the Christmas music we've been listening to for over a month.

Sankt Petairsboorg (and roll your Rs)

2011-12-05T09:23:00.003-05:00

While Dave's parents were in town, he took them to St. Petersburg. I was sure to remind them to keep their wits about them. St. Petersburg is a popular European tourist town = pickpockets.

They came back safe and sound, and gave me a few tips.

Then, when my Mom was in town, I took her.

By myself.

On the train.

And I don't even speak Russian!

I was so proud of myself.

This was the view from the front door of our hotel. It's St. James Cathedral. I think.

This is a corner on our way to some sightseeing. Check out the - let me see if I can spell this - trolleeyayboos (trolleybus) tracks? Lines?

This is something. I don't speak Russian. And this is where we were "accosted" by two men trying very physically to sell us calendars. It was a little disconcerting. Nyet means nyet!

This is the Baskin Robbins that my Mom asked me to take a picture of as we recovered from our confrontation and continued on our walk.

This is the "Cathedral on the Spilt Blood". That's not the actual name of it, but Tsar Alexander II was assassinated here, so for some reason it picked up the name. There was an English sign.

Hi Mom.

This is where I asked my Mom to hand me my wallet from her purse, so I could buy our tickets, and she realized it was missing (after the photo).

It appears we paid for a calendar after all.

We forgot to keep our wits about us.

This is where I decided that I couldn't let having my wallet stolen ruin our trip. I didn't want to go home without seeing anything because I spent 36 hours worrying about a stolen wallet, so we turned around and went back to the church. And also, I prayed.

This is the inside of the Cathedral. I'm glad we went back. It was amazing inside. A huge room, and all of the walls and ceilings covered in these mosaics made with tiny stones. The real name of the Cathedral is the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, so most of the mosaics were of part of His life, with a few of his apostles. It was really pretty.

Then we headed back to the hotel, and kept praying about my wallet (it had all of my IDs in it).

This is the walk back, where around the corner, another man (not the calendar guys) came running up from behind us, and handed me my wallet.

Aside from the cash, everything was left inside.

The end.

This is the metro. I don't know if I'm supposed to take pictures of police/military guys, or if they appreciate it, so instead of doing the honorable thing, and asking, I always just wait until they look the other way, and try to sneak it.

This is Peterhof. It's Peter the Great's summer palace, and it is amazing!

After visiting Versailles, Peter wanted his fountains to be better, and they are! And I think that the fact that it's Russian is even more impressive to me. This might sound bad, but I usually find that Russian things are not the same level of quality that I have seen elsewhere, so to see a big, pretty palace, with seriously impressive natural fountains that are all old and still in good condition is just... amazing.

Peterhof is actually known for it's gardens (which were still very pretty in the fall), but with cold weather and nothing blooming, seeing the inside of the palace was the highlight for us.

THIS is the Hermitage. Russia's version of the Louvre.

Used to be a palace, now a huge art museum.

This is where I discovered that I love Rembrandt. They have the world's largest collection of Rembrandt's (if I overheard correctly). The Hermitage has some great art (and funny things like walls painted to look like carved reliefs).

St. Petersburg impresses (read: surprises) me again.

And this is us on the speed train home, after 36 hours in St. Petersburg, carrying our backpacks in cold, rain, and sunshine, with my wallet now stowed safely away and all our wits all about us.

Our First Birthday Party

2011-11-07T08:15:00.003-05:00

We don't do birthday parties. Theoretically, we do "other parties". Like, one year we had an end of summer party, and we've thought a lot about Halloween and Christmas and Valentine and Just Because parties, but it doesn't really happen.

I don't want my kids to have to feel like they need to keep up with the billion dollar birthday parties that some other kids have, and I also don't like having a bunch of random toys around (my toys are organized into categories, and birthday gifts are just way too much of a risk).

We do other fun traditions, which I've mentioned, like our birthday gift treasure hunts, and fun themes.

However, it has always been in our plans to have birthday parties at 8, possibly 12, maybe 16,... it's kind of a "cross that bridge when we come to it" deal.

Well, Evelynn turned 8.

We were at the bridge.

So, we had a party.

We waited until a month after her actual birthday, because my Mom was going to be in town, and she wanted to be there (and I wanted her help). Also, since she was baptized very close to her birthday, I wanted to keep that time special, and the focus on being baptized, not on partying. It was her first birthday party, after all. Very exciting.

She wanted an American Girl party, so I went with the red and white star theme (you can't just pick up American Girl party supplies on the shelf at Target). I was back in the U.S. for a long weekend a couple of months ago, so I picked up anything red, white, or stars, as well as a couple of American Girl craft projects.

We kept it simple, invited just a few friends, made Evelynn's favorite foods, and played a few games with dolls that the girls brought. We finished up with our crafts (fortune tellers was the favorite), and the girls went home! Easy peasy!

Hey Evelynn, what did you think of your birthday party?

"I thought it was awesome. It was the best party I've ever had."

There you go folks. Best party she's ever had. I think we better call it quits while we're ahead.

A Visit From the In-Laws

2011-11-06T06:59:00.003-05:00

While Dave's parents were in town for Evelynn's baptism, we spent a lot of time hanging out with the kids, and helping out at school (I was still pretty preggy sick), but we also got to show them around town a little.

We went back to the honey festival.

Rows and rows of honey and other bee related products.

We spent some time trying different kinds of honey, and then...

...went across the street to Tsaritsyno.

This was an old palace built by Catherine the Great (I love how rulers are nicknamed, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Ivan the Terrible. I wonder what I would be called...). We've never been inside, but I don't think she ever lived it in either, so I guess in a way, we could be considered royalty - Sjauna the Ridiculous...

The grounds are really pretty to walk around, and there are newlyweds everywhere taking pictures.

Grandma and Evie making some creations that Evelynn can use with Kit.

We found a cute little restaurant (if only you knew how impossible that is) with yummy Russian food (again, if only you knew...). We ate borsch, shii (a yummy soup, i don't know how to spell it, and i can't find a link for it), and pelmeni, and wanted to go back for more!

Inside St. Basil's Cathedral.

These guys were singing to try to sell cds.

It worked. We bought one. It sounded beautiful.

(and the links are just for Wikipedia, by the way, which may in fact give you more information about these places than I have learned after going to it three times. Let's just say the English audioguides are a little lacking.)

A lot of the buildings in Russia are built with wood and plastered and painted to look like brick or something else. The funny thing about this wall is that it looks like it's brick painted to look like... brick.

Everything is always a conundrum in Russia.

In a Palace in St. Petersburg, we found wood that had been carved, then dipped in plaster, then gold-leafed.

Dave and Barb are cute.

Outside St. Basil's.

G.U.M.

Pronounced goom. Along one side of Red Square, it was the Government Universal Store during Soviet times, now it's just a super upscale mall.

And across Red Square, the little brick structure is Lenin's Mausoleum, where you can go to see Lenin. Dead Lenin. Supposedly with all kinds of chemicals and whatnot that has kept his body preserved for the last 87 years. Interesting. He looks great for his age. No pictures allowed.

And behind the brick wall, the Kremlin, including a museum and some cathedrals. If this seems confusing to you, because you thought the Kremlin was a person or people, you're right. The President of Russia lives here, and the word is sometimes used to refer to the Russian Government. For example, imagine, "The White House is over there saying... blah blah blah."

Eating lunch at Stardogs, which I love solely because it looks like Crapdogs in English.

You can get all kinds of funky on your hot dogs here. In a tortilla, in flatbread with mashed potatoes, pickles, french fried onions, crazy. I usually get it in a roll with mustard and mayo, but the mustard is so spicy, I can only get half way through, before I give it to Dave.

Barb and Grandma playing with matryoshkas.

We did lots of shopping for matryoshkas. Dave's parents came with a big shopping list, and I think they got all they needed. Plus a little more.

We also went to an awesome Russian dance show and Dave took them for a quick trip to St. Petersburg.

It was great to hang out with family, and we really enjoyed their visit. We missed them the minute they left.

Growing Up

2011-11-06T06:06:00.004-05:00

In September, Evelynn turned 8!

She is growing up so fast.

She is so responsible and thoughtful, that I think she could move out tomorrow and be absolutely fine on her own.

Thankfully, that would be against the law.

I need something to keep her here for the next ten years!

After she turned 8, Evelynn was able to be baptized by Dave.

It was very exciting!

We drove about an hour to one of two church buildings in the area that have a baptismal font.

Dave's parents came all the way from Idaho for the occasion.

Good thing, because it would have been hard to have them give talks from Idaho.

It was hard to be far away from all of our family and friends for such a special thing (two of Evelynn's cousins, and several friends in Maryland are getting baptized this year! We miss you guys!), but thankfully we have a lot of good friends in our ward here who love Evelynn and all came to support her or dropped by little notes of love.

If you know Evelynn, you know what a sweetie she is.

And the truth is, baptism is special no matter where it happens or who is there.

Owen read this poem from the Friend in 1974:

Baptism

"Me, my Lord, baptize Thee?

Why comest Thou to me?"

And John the Baptist bowed his head

In deep humility.

But Jesus said with a gentle smile,

"Let your heart be still.

Suffer it to be so now,

All righteousness fulfill."

So down the Jordan's shallow bank

Christ went with humble grace.

Into the stream John lowered Him

With wonder on his face.

When from the water Jesus came,

The heavens opened above.

God's holy Spirit came to earth,

A gift of His great love.

And now, my child, your turn has come,

You have been baptized too.

The Light of Christ is in your face

For all the world to view.

And after it was all said and done, this is what Evelynn said during the primary program at church about her choice to be baptized:

"When I got baptized, I was expecting to feel like a new person, but I didn't. I was still the same person, but inside I felt really great. I am happy I made the choice to be baptized, like Jesus."

I think that says it all.

Daylight Savings

2011-11-06T05:46:00.002-05:00

So, Russia doesn't participate in the Daylight Savings Program anymore.

Some days I really wish they would.

This was my kids in June around 9:00pm.

Can we save up some of this daylight?

For contrast, here is a photo of them on the porch, again around 9pm in June,...

...and this is a photo I tried to take around 5pm last week, but it was too dark.

We needed a couple of those daylight hours.

The sun doesn't start to rise now until after 8am. We had a wonderful late breakfast during dawn last week around 8:45am.

And we still have more than a month left until Winter Solstice.

I will survive.

June was...

2011-11-06T02:12:00.003-05:00

June was a long time ago.

Especially since, the thermometer read 18 degrees this morning.

June is also a long time away.

And June is my Grandmother's middle name.

Here are some pictures from June 2011, because I can't in my own mind post about September and October until I've told you a little about June.

Even if it isn't very exciting.

First, the Last Day of School:

Owen had his last day in preschool. It was sad for me. Especially because his Montessori preschool was so great! Not only did he function really well in that environment, but he had great teachers who orchestrated these big productions/parties every few months. The last day was a travel theme, and the kids dressed up and danced and sang about travel. This is Owen with his good friend, Christopher.

Evelynn's school closing ceremony. Students carry flags as they announce all of the different nationalities that attend the school, and everyone cheers (the loudest cheers were for the USA. what does that mean?). There are a lot of nationalities here. The parade goes on for like five minutes (okay, so maybe that doesn't sound so long, but how many countries can you say in five minutes?).

Evelynn's ballet class got to perform a Russian dance in front of the whole school (K-12) and a bunch of parents. They were pretty excited.

Saying good-bye to friends. This was one of Evelynn's good friends last year, Tia.

And this was Owen's good friend, Owen.

Owen and Tia moved in June.

And we will be moving next June, and saying goodbye to more friends.

Ahhh, life in the foreign service.

Barbara is funny, spunky, and cute.

After a Saturday morning baptism, we stopped at a new mall. It's very "Western" (as in American). And it has American Eagle, Gap, Banana Republic, even Payless (or so I've heard). When I first got here (to Russia), I used to love to go to places like this to revive a little and feel more at home. This time we went to check out the GIANT matryoshkas and Pinkberry!!! Just our luck, we made it in time for the grand opening. Or so we thought. True to Russian style, it was running about 30 minutes behind, and when it did open was in complete disarray. We stayed long enough to get free t-shirts and then got out of there. We went back for yogurt another day.

And believe it or not, it does get hot enough here to play in the pool.

(especially when the hose is hooked up to the warm bathtub water in the house)

What We've Been Doing

2011-09-16T14:18:00.006-04:00

In July and August:

(I'll catch you up with June, eventually)

playing games

visiting some Russian sights

the changing of the guard

photographing a "how I cut Owen's hair" tutorial, and then realizing that my alien fingers are way too embarrassing to post online

making bread on the floor in the living room, because I couldn't get the transformer to work in the outlet in the kitchen, and I had already added all the ingredients

turning 6!, getting nerf guns, posing for an awesome picture, and then getting the nerf guns put away after half an hour of fighting (we've sorted it out now)

going on mom's crazy summer field trips

(and making mom take a picture of us posing... can't... make... it... too... many... stairs...)

trying to get Barb's face in a picture (smile is a bonus)

playing at the playground

all this time I thought she was saying Grandpa, "uhpa? uhpa?", nope she's been saying iPad. and she is proficient at locating and operating netflix.

losing a first tooth! finally!

starting 2nd grade (and trying to figure out this new uniform thing.)

starting kindergarten!!!

starting her first and last year at home alone with mommy...

because baby number 4 is on the way!!!

This is Pukh

2011-08-01T01:55:00.000-04:00

In Russian, the letter X makes a harsh h sound. In English the closest way to spell it is "kh" even though that's not really how you would say it.

And in Moscow, we have pukh.

It's not exactly something I can google (my primary source of information), so I don't know exactly why it's here, but I can tell you it is little white fuzzy things in the air everywhere.

When I was a kid, according to my Dad, someone had a cottonwood tree (I don't know how he knew that, but he knows everything, so I believe him). And in the Spring, the cottonwood had these little white puffs that blew out into the air, and one year landed and planted in our backyard. The next year we had a little cottonwood sapling. I wonder if it's still there.

So that's what it reminds me of, only it is everywhere. In the entire city. Everywhere you go, and the fuzz just collects in corners, and when you open the door it floats into your house, and then collects in corners and behind the tv, and in the shower.

And I feel like it collects in my nose and my mouth and my ears. It's so crazy.

And this happens every Spring. It comes and it goes, like snow in June, and people just go on with their lives.

I kept trying to get pictures of it in the air (like taking pictures of rain), but I didn't try hard enough, because this is what you get.

pukh

Number 9

2011-07-31T08:20:00.000-04:00

So last month, Dave and I celebrated our 9th anniversary!

(it's okay, don't feel bad, nobody else remembered either)

(just kidding)

(i'm sorry. i'm a dork.)

Anyway, on our first anniversary, I thought it would be all sentimental and cute to get Dave the "traditional anniversary gift" of paper. Then, I did it again the next year, and now it's become a tradition for me to give him the "traditional anniversary gift". And can I tell you how nice it is? A few years were little difficult (something bronze? I almost bronzed his basketball shoes), but at the same time, it's nice, because I don't have to stress so much about getting him something he will want or appreciate.

I just realized how bad that sounds.

Hmmmm....

Anyway, these are the "traditional anniversary gifts" (according to wikipedia - sorry, its'a crutch), and the things I have gotten for him. And as a side note, I'm not trying to show how amazing I am. I definitely could have been more creative. I'm writing this also for my own records - nine years is a long time (to remember gifts)! So, without further adieu:

1st ~ paper ~ paper money, for buying basketball shoes

2nd ~ cotton ~ a few t-shirts

3rd ~ leather ~ a new wallet

4th ~ linen, silk ~ a linen pocket square (we ended up returning it, haha, but I couldn't afford pants, and linen shirts apparently weren't in at that time)

5th ~ wood ~ a wood frame with a family photo for his desk at work

6th ~ iron ~ a book called Iron Coffins (desperate much?) about submarines in World War II.

7th ~ wool, copper ~ wool pants. And for the record, our 7th anniversary was the only one where Dave bought me the "traditional" gift of wool socks, and it is my favorite gift that he has ever given me (except maybe when he got me something old, new, borrowed, and blue for a wedding gift.)

8th ~ bronze ~ a game that he loves - Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age in an ipod app.

9th ~ pottery ~ I figured out how to drive across Moscow and surprise him with a date to Kuskovo - an old summer estate which also happens to house the State Museum of Ceramics - dun duduh - pottery!

Now if I just stick with this, after our 15th anniversary, I only have to get him a gift every five years (just kidding, honey).

So here are a few (nine) pictures from our 9th anniversary...

We first came upon this little chapel (of course, every palace has to have it's own church - even if it's just a summer palace). We didn't go inside, because I didn't bring a scarf to cover my head, but we could hear the beautiful singing from outside.

Then the palace. All wood with plaster and paint to make it look like stone. This estate belonged to a wealthy family, the Sheremetevs (leader in an army or something). Built in 1769-75, apparently it is rare to find something in this condition (after multiple invasions and then Soviet rule), and it is furnished as it would have been when it was built. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it has not been organized in such a way to be able to avoid a lot of deterioration.

In Moscow they think it's fun to charge people to take pictures inside anywhere. This was my first experience with that, so I didn't pay = no pictures of the very interesting inside. Now I just consider it part of the admission.

A photo of the back of the palace, circa 1789.

(wow, they had some pretty hot guys back then too)

The Sheremetevs had about 200,000 serfs (peasants bound to the land and the owner of that land to provide labor and in return get protection and the privilege to farm the land they live on to provide for themselves, blah blah blah, you probably already know), including a couple of architects who collaborated in designing the estate including, but not limited to the Swiss House, the Dutch House, the Hermitage, the Orangerie (now housing the Ceramics Museum), the Grotto (I love grottoes), and the Italian House. There was also a serf theater, a managerie, an aviary, more more more...

We couldn't go inside most things, but we enjoyed wandering the gardens and looking around until...

Dave's sandal gave out on him

(sad day... those sandals have been all over the world - Hawaii, Africa, Asia, Dubai, France, Russia... maybe I'll bronze them)

I was very entertained by him dragging his foot around like a monster in a scary story, but he got tired of it, so eventually he just took them off. Hopefully he doesn't get any diseases.

(he put them back on when we went back out of the estate, so he wouldn't be yelled at by the babushkas)

The happy couple.

After we left Kuskovo, we went to find some lunch, and we found... dun dun dun... a cobbler! In a little booth on the side of the road. And he fixed Dave's sandal! Hooray!

(and please ignore our awesome parking job in the background)

Two things to love about Moscow:

1. You can always find random things on the side of the road. Usually not when you are looking for them.

2. You can park anywhere and everywhere.

We found this little Uzbeki restaurant, Samarkand that our friends recommended. (Uzbeki and Georgian food are big here). It was a huge menu, and we didn't branch out - we got a yummy fresh salad with radishes and some meat and vegetable skewers with three different sauces. Oh and khachapuri! Have you heard of this (pronounced kind of like hah-chuh-pour-ee), because it sounded vaguely familiar before we moved here, but I wasn't sure... it is a round bread with cheese in/on it, and it is so delicious! And this place has the best! I'm going back just for that.

And that's it. If you're still reading, let me apologize, because you are about to hear this:

Happy Anniversary, Babe! I love you!

(that was directed towards Dave)

These Are a Few of Barb's Favorite Things

2011-07-16T15:01:00.002-04:00

(pictures from February)

carrying bags around

seriously, she just picked this up one day and put it on her shoulder. she could barely walk.

most recently, she has been sneaking into my room to find some shiny gift bags I have, and carrying them all over the house.

talking on the phone.

this one especially cracks me up, because it's not like she sees us talking on the phone - there is no one to talk to! but she loves it.

she also loves skype, and for a while whenever dave or i would sit down at the computer, she would run over yelling "papa! papa!" looking for her grandparents.

fuzzy things around her neck. sometimes this scarf, but...

usually a pair of pajamas.

all the fuzzy pajamas are put away for summer. i wonder if she will do this again in the fall.

and climbing on the radiator.

all day

long.

they never get too hot to the touch, and she figured out that if it was uncomfortably warm, she could lean over it, and still climb up.

(sorry about all the snow in the pictures. if i thought there were more than two readers, i might think twice and try to post this somewhere near winter time.)

This is How We Go to Church

2011-07-15T05:30:00.002-04:00

These pictures were taken towards the end of March. The snow was starting to melt (don't worry, it snowed again. several times.) and the sun was out this day! Yay!

There are helpful signs like this all around. Well, sometimes helpful. Usually after you have been that way a couple of times and figured it out, then you get what the sign says.

And in meters? fuhgettaboutit.

Ahhh, Sunday morning - no traffic.

This means about a 30 minute drive to church.

I am dreading when we switch back to 1:00 church in January.

The drive will about double on a good day.

After you get on the third ring (Moscow has several "ring roads" - kind of like the 495 beltway in dc and the 695 in baltimore. then, a bunch of main roads that head outwards from the center like a wagon wheel - kind of like dc, which was rated the second most confusing city in the states to drive in. add to that a foreign language, people who don't follow the laws, cars parked anywhere and everywhere, and usually right in your way, one way streets, etc, etc, etc...)

Okay, sorry where was I?

After you get on the third ring...you go for a while, then you pass this red church (above)...

...go over the train tracks...

...under the tunnel...

...pass the turn around...

...and here's my exit.

Be sure not to hit the pedestrians who cross the street, without warning, from this little tunnel under the street. (I forget everytime)

Pass some babushkas...

(the weather was pretty warm this weekend, so they didn't have their fur coats. Next winter, I have a goal to get a good picture of a Russian lady in fur from head to toe.)

...make our way around the little back up at this corner...

...watch for the end of this little green and yellow rail, and turn right...

...and we are at church!

I'm getting a lot more comfortable driving around here, and things are more familiar, but when I first started driving to church by myself (Dave had meetings before church), these are literally the directions I followed.

And funny thing... I was giving a neighbor a ride, and I was feeling all confident and awesome as we chatted along the way, and then as I'm driving down the street looking for the green and yellow rail things, I totally missed my turn! They took them out! Who knows why. Probably because they knew I used them as part of my global positioning system, but I totally missed my turn. Thankfully, it was Sunday morning, so there was little traffic, and Dave and I had just been driving around that area the day before, so I was a little familiar. I went around the block, and looked for the green and yellow things, and missed my turn again! We did get to church on time and safely eventually. And you'll be happy to know that now I... "wait for the right lane to merge, and then make the first right." Try taking that out of the ground! Ha!

p.s. they do have street signs in Russian, which I can read, if I can find the sign, and get through the sounds of 20 letters before I pass them. not usually. the signs also have the words written in our alphabet, but it's really small underneath, and not any easier to find. big red churches are easier to see.

Hold on To Your Hats and Glasses...

2011-07-13T08:36:00.000-04:00

After subjecting the kids to all the touring I wanted to do in Paris, we wanted to do something fun just for them. We loved disney World so much, that we didn't want to miss a chance to check out Disneyland Paris (plus they had a couple of great promotions that we took advantage of to help make it all possible).

There are two parks here. The first day, we went to Disneyland Paris. It was a lot like Disneyland in California, with the exception of a few attractions added/missing. It was very nostalgic for me. No matterhorn mountain. Boo.

A couple of things to note about our first day:

I was very disappointed in the level of enthusiasm of the "cast members". They are supposed to make you feel good about all the money you are spending (as we forked over and over and over for every meal - the prices are higher than in the States and in Euros), like it's exciting and magical and the money doesn't matter. They made me feel like an annoying teenager. There was a lot of construction going on (scaffolding everywhere), and the greenery was either boring or overgrown - is this Disneyland or Six Flags?

On the plus side:

We stayed at a Disney hotel this time which meant 1)Extra Magic Hours. We got in an hour early. It was really nice to be able to go on all the rides that were open without a wait (unfortunately that was only like 6 rides, so we went on them all a couple of times) and 2)Proximity! A two minute walk to our hotel was a huge plus compared to a 20 minute drive. Since we have all been to Disney parks together before, I didn't feel like anyone was missing out if they went back to chill out at the hotel (Dave) while Barb could take a nap, and then it wasn't a big deal when one child threw a tantrum, to give them some time out. Or countless other reasons why it was just great to have our own little space, basically in the park.

The second day, we started out at Walt Disney Studios Park. This park was kind of a small collection of rides from around Disney World, a few shows, and then several new things that I had never seen, like a Toy Story area with some fun Toy Story themed rides (parachute drop - one of my favorites from Knott's Berry Farm). Evelynn even braved the Tower of Terror with me, and experienced fear induced nausea for the first time, and loved it.

We headed out in shorts, sandals, and hoodies first thing in the morning, and then quickly had to go back and change after numbing fingers and toes on the first couple of rides - another bonus of a close hotel room.

There wasn't much to Walt Disney Studios Park, so we were finished by late afternoon. After that, and on our third day, we just spent time exploring every corner of Disneyland and finding fun photo spots. By the time we left, Barbara was finally starting to enjoy the rides, and not grip me in fear whenever a character came close. I think the kids had a lot of fun. Goal achieved.

Dave and I were a little disenchanted, and I'm trying to look forward to another Disney experience to reacquaint me and restore the good Disney feelings I have always had. It wasn't totally miserable, but they definitely didn't make me want to recommend them or ever return, and that's kind of sad for me, because I love Disney.

Now I'm trying to find a happy note to end on...

...

...well, at least the kids had fun.

4th of July!

2011-07-04T09:22:00.003-04:00

Happy Fourth of July!

Oh wait, wrong picture.

Sorry.

Happy Fourth of July!

I only have one more France post. Yay!

(was that a collective sigh of relief that I heard?)

But I'm going to skip it today, and show you some pictures from our Independence Day barbeque on Saturday (we all had other plans for today).

The Embassy had a Chili Cook-Off, but we had other things planned, so Saturday worked perfectly for us.

Our neighbors are party people, and we have partied with them for Christmas Eve, St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo, a neighbor farewell, and now the 4th of July! And it's possible that I'm forgetting something. The girl has decorations for everything!

We had a bike parade!

A la streamers (sheets of crepe paper that I cut into strips), balloons, and silver curly stuff (not ribbon, more like confetti, but really long, for throwing at parties like new years. i haven't found curling ribbon here yet. ikea might have it at Christmas time.).

And now that I'm mentioning it, I realized that this is actually the first 4th of July bike parade that my kids have ever participated in.

We had some yummy food!

I made a recipe that we got from one of Dave's coworkers when we first got married.

Whisk together 2 (3.9-oz) packages of vanilla pudding with 3 cups of milk for two minutes. Fold in 16 ounces of cool whip (we couldn't find cool whip, so we just whipped some cream with sugar, and it worked out great!) and 3 bananas, sliced. Have you had this before? Do you know what's coming next? Break up a package of Keebler Fudge Shoppe shortbread cookies with chocolate ripples (you know the ones I'm talking about) into crumbs/pieces, and stir them in just before serving. Yu-um! We had to find the pudding and the cookies at the commissary, but everything else here.

We also had some homemade ice cream. Thank you, Emily! Fresh raspberry and chocolate oreo. Yu-um again!

We had some cuteness.

And some more cuteness.

And we had some fireworks, but I think I'll write a little about that in a different post.

Let's just say I'm pretty sure the fireworks they sell here aren't legal in any state in America. At least not for general at home use.

And then to finish the night... Independence Day, of course. Outside with our neighbors' projector and screen.

Oh, and see that light over there in the trees? It's somewhere around 10:30 or 11pm.

We did the fireworks when it was still really light, so some of the kids could get to bed. Then, when we started the movie around 9:30ish, we couldn't see it very well, because it was too light outside. But it got better, and...

it was still fu-un!

Happy Fourth of July!

P.S. Do you realize that this movie was released this weekend fifteen years ago? Fifteen years! If that doesn't make you feel old, then I don't know what will, because it definitely worked for me!

Sunday Morning... in Paris

2011-07-03T08:19:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning, we took the metro over to Ile de la Cite. For some reason, I thought that Notre Dame took up most of the island, and we wouldn't be able to miss it. The island really isn't that big. But we couldn't see it, so we just wandered around a little bit. We ran into a little flower market selling fresh flowers and pets all along one of the streets. I've heard about places in some cities where locals (especially men) will gather in the evenings or on weekends to just sort of relax and chat. This seemed to be one of those places. It was fun wandering through and looking at all the little bunnies, hamsters, guinea pigs, birds (Dave has been in Russia too long, and wouldn't allow petting or holding), but I really liked watching all the locals. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures...

Here in Moscow, almost all of our neighbors leave the country for every school break (which is every six weeks during the school year, and then all summer). We knew at least two other families that would be in Paris at the same time that we would. We ran into one of them in front of Notre Dame this morning, and asked them to take our picture. Thanks Beth!

They were in the middle of a service as we wandered through with approximately 500 other people. I can't imagine sitting through a church service while tourists wandered all around the whole time. They won't let you in wearing shorts though, so everyone was dressed pretty respectfully, and everyone was quiet. Our kids were the only kids I saw. Thankfully they were quiet too.

They were singing prayers and scriptures the whole time we wandered through, peeking into tiny chapels and seeing all the beautifully carved confessionals. It made for a peaceful, reverent stroll.

After seeing the inside, we grabbed a little snack - crepes for the kids and croque monsieurs for Dave and me (French class special - had to have it! "Je voudrais un croque monsieur, s'il vous plait.").

And we wandered around to the back to get a different view.

We contemplated climbing the stairs to the top or taking a tour of the crypt, but decided against it this time, preferring a relaxing stroll over to Ile St. Louis.

We were there early in the morning (apparently 10:30 is relatively early for a Sunday morning), so a lot was closed, but Ile St. Louis is such a cute little quaint island. I originally wished I would have gone there first thing in town, but I think it was a sweet little finish after visiting all the crowded, more iconic tourist areas. I can't wait to go back there one day.

We had to pass several ice cream shops before we found this Berthillon (and it was open! what luck!) - the ice cream we had travelled hundreds of miles to eat! And it was so worth it! Ask Dave about it today, and he will melt just thinking about it.

The kids both stuck with chocolate, but to call it classic would be an insult. Yum! I had chocolate ice cream with sorbet orange sanguine - blood orange. It was delicious. Dave tried the raspberry and the white peach. Mmmmhhh, since a trip back to Paris isn't in our immediate plans, I think it's time to pull out the ice cream maker, and see what we can do. I don't know how long I can live without that ice cream.

The last thing on my to do list was a walk along the Seine, so we descended the stairs, and I'll just say this: for everyone who thinks Paris is a dirty city, I totally disagree. I thought it was just as clean as any big city in the United States. Unless you are walking along the lower level on the Seine. Maybe we were just in the wrong area, but it was disgusting. If you had to walk there for some reason, I would recommend wearing shoes and socks, and bringing along a tetanus shot. It was pretty disappointing.

So, we walked the rest of the way to the metro along these art vendors, picking up a few postcards for souvenirs along the way.

Then we headed back to our hotel to pack our bags and say au revoir to Paris, but not to France...

Le Louvre

2011-07-02T06:24:00.000-04:00

The most recommended strategy for visiting the Louvre with children is to get there early. Very early. Before it opens. I think the level of crowds is directly associated with the level of enjoyment children have. Anywhere. Well, directly related through the patience of the parents that is. Is this even correct English anymore?

Basically less crowd=happier parents=happier children

The end.

Just kidding. Since when have I written a post that short.

Anyway, another recommended strategy that I read about, specifically for the Louvre, is to go in the evening with kids. And since we only had three mornings in Paris, and approximately 367 "get there before it opens" things that we wanted to see, we decided to give the evening a go.

I wasn't sure about this, because I thought the kids would be tired and grumpy, so we ate right before we went, and we let the kids play around in the fountains for a little while before we went in. They were still a little short on patience, but I had only planned on seeing a few things on our first trip anyway.

Before our trip, I let the kids explore the Louvre's website. They've got a great interactive, educational kids thing. It starts on the main page with a pop-up of a tour guide (it still worked on our google chrome browser with pop-up blockers on). You can click on him and then on different pop-ups to be taken around to different artifacts, paintings, sculptures, etc and watch videos and learn history. It's really a great tool.

Since the Louvre is huge and has a bajillion things on display, there were a lot of things the kids learned about that we didn't see, but one thing we ran into (thanks to a trip to the bathroom) that they really wanted to see was this Sphinx.

The website also introduced them to a nude sculpture, which I appreciated, because we were able to discuss that casually before we even saw any at the museum (and there were plenty), but you may want to monitor that if it's something you want to avoid.

Winged Victory.

It's all it's cracked up to be (har har har).

Isn't this awesome?

This was just one little hall of which there are approximately 500,000, and huge rooms on the sides of each one full of more art. It's a very confusing place. From the outside it looks simple enough, but stairs, and odd levels, connecting rooms... I'm usually good with maps, and I had to ask where we were about five times.

And in this room:

That famous little lady.

I was surprised at how {synonym for extremely large} so many of the paintings were. I guess they can't make art books that are five feet tall by 8 feet wide (let alone two stories tall), so it's hard to get the scale of some of the more famous pieces of art. So big.

Except of course for this one:

a little underwhelming in size, if you ask me. Not at all what I was expecting.

Not at all underwhelming in beauty though. While it's hard to capture scale in an art book, it's probably equally difficult to capture beauty. All of the pieces that I was familiar with, surprised me with how beautiful they were in person. I suppose it's something I should have figured out, but why hasn't anyone told me that gap would be so large?

Anyway, beautiful building, miles of beautiful art, great atmosphere, manageable crowds around 5 in the evening... I loved the Louvre (shocking, I know).

Macarons II

2011-07-01T02:11:00.000-04:00

This is what Laduree looks like in case you are ever wandering up and down the Champs Elysees looking for it. I don't know what I was expecting, but I missed it the first time.

They have a cafe, and also a little retail patisserie. We were just looking for some macarons, so Evelynn and I hopped in the line at the patisserie. The line was long, so Dave waited outside.

Look at these cute little petit fours. They had so many yummy looking treats, I could have spent my life savings and probably not had one of everything.

(okay, so my life savings isn't very big, but still)

But I stuck with the macarons.

That wasn't easy either. There was a pretty good variety. I managed to keep it down to six. I tried to take a picture of the menu of flavors, but the girl said I wasn't allowed, so I had her write them down for me.

The only problem is, I can't read her writing, and it's in French, so I can't even guess.

Let me see if I can remember...

chocolate passion, violet black currant, salted caramel, green apple, raspberry, chocolate

(okay, it turns out the flavors are listed on Laduree's website)

And the survey says...

They were good.

All those fancy flavors, and raspberry and chocolate were the best.

And maybe would have been dreamy if I hadn't had Fauchon first.

So far, I've tried three different brands of macarons, and they've all been very different.

I kind of wonder if everyone's favorite are the first ones they try.

Or maybe I just really like Fauchon.

I guess I'll have to go back to Paris, so I can sample more.

And then there are the Swiss....

Sa Majeste au Bacon

2011-06-30T05:58:00.000-04:00

Most people we interacted with spoke English in Paris.

But a few didn't.

And even though it was difficult, I loved trying to speak with them in French.

I think my whole interest in French started in high school by the way. I had to choose a foreign language to speak, and I couldn't figure out why I would want to learn a language unless I was going to use it some day. I chose French and committed to need it someday (they did offer Russian, but I knew I would never need that, so...).

It finally happened.

I needed French to get to Versailles.

We had to take a metro, and then switch to the regional RER train.

The ticket situation was a little tricky for us, and we were low on euros.

But I figured it out.

Yay me!

On the metro heading downtown. This guy was actually really good on the clarinet. We also ran into a guy playing a violin really well under a tunnel, and heard a saxophone once, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Whenever I hear people playing good classical or jazz music with real instruments, I always tip them if I can. I'd much rather hear that all over my city than... than... well I can't think of anything right now, but I know I've been hit up for tips for worse things. So there.

"Aux Champs Elysees..."

McDonald's on the Champs Elysees in France.

Twice the price.

The same food.

Just mixed up a little.

Oh, and they did have macarons, which we had to try.

And they were yummy, but I liked the Fauchon macarons better.

Another afternoon in France. I love it.

Versailles in Pictures

2011-06-29T05:12:00.000-04:00

And just a few words...

It's ridiculous how big it is.

crowded. very crowded.

i actually love this painting.

imagine this as your backyard.

oh, the flowers.

Versailles was massive.

Very beautiful

and crowded

and just huge.

In the Neighborhood

2011-06-28T03:17:00.000-04:00

So, a little confession...

my rose-colored Parisian glasses still think this is so pretty, but you might not.

So, I'm admitting that everything in Paris might not be pretty.

It's the sunrise through the window of our hotel room. About a ten to fifteen minute metro ride from the center, in the Montparnasse area.

I still think it's pretty.

One of my favorite parts of our trip was exploring the neighborhood.

I loved just wandering around listening to the French, soaking up the culture (or maybe just soaking up the fact that I was wandering around in Paris!).

There were several little cafes, and a surprising number of pizzerias. What's up with that? I found a little fruit and vegetable market and a boucherie (high school French vocab - do people even still use that word in France?). There was a tabac! Why is that exciting to me? I found a couple of little grocery stores where I picked up some cute little strawberry yogurts for the kids and some la fermiere yogurt for Dave and me (after spending a fortune on croissants, brioches, and the best hot chocolate I've ever had at the hotel cafe our first morning in town).

The little terra cotta pots were rinsed and came home as my favorite French souvenir. I have since found some different colors and flavors in grocery stores here in Moscow.

Looking for a cheaper dinner, we found a boulangerie one night - yummy, yummy bread! The only thing missing was a fromagerie, so we skimmed the extensive offerings of cheese at the grocery store instead (seriously - a couple of long rows of just cheese), and picked up a few varieties. Bread, cheese, the rest of our strawberries, and some Orangina - still not cheap, but light and delicious.

It was such a fun adventure for me.

La Tour Eiffel

2011-06-23T00:56:00.006-04:00

I'm sorry that it's taking me two months to post about our trip to Paris.

But here's the best part: I still have some winterish photos from Moscow that I'm going to post. It's all a little unseasonable. But so are flip flops in January, and that never stopped me (well, not until I moved to Moscow).

After some down time at our hotel, we hopped back on the metro and headed west of the Eiffel Tower to Trocadero.

The Trocadero? Le Trocadero?

The Trocadero area of Paris.

Rick Steves recommended this approach for photographs, so I was hoping it would be a little "Rick Steves insider secret".

If it was, then Rick Steves has a lot of insiders.

Thankfully, it was not nearly as crowded as I expect it could be.

But with tourists wandering, local troublemakers coming out for the night, souvenir hawkers approaching relentlessly from every corner, street performers hip hop dancing all over the place, and my obsessive fear of pick pockets (to be fair there were signs - in english - everywhere from the metro to line queues to elevators reminding us to beware of pickpockets), it made photographs a little difficult to focus on.

Not impossible though.

And it was a pretty view, and a nice walk over the Seine.

We grabbed a little dinner before our timed tickets were valid.

And before I go on, I have to mention the tulips. At the time, there was still snow in Moscow. And I wanted to drink the tulips. I wanted to lay in them and roll all around and hug them and keep them with me forever. Did you even know that someone could feel that way about flowers? I bet you didn't even notice them.

Also, the food. Paris is expensive. We were trying to eat on the cheap, but it was impossible to find. I guess cheap is relative. We ate a lot of these sandwiches - meat and cheese on a baguette - that they sold everywhere. They weren't cheap, but at least they were good.

Everything is pretty.

All the food is good.

That should be Paris' slogan.

And this should be their photo.

(actually, I have to be honest. it's my family, but I got the idea from stephmodo. thank you stephmodo!)

So, the timed tickets we bought online were for 6:30pm. I forgot to buy them until about a week before we left. I was hoping to get tickets to the top first thing in the morning. All the morning tickets were sold out. So, I went for the next best thing, evening. It was perfect.

Our tickets were on the elevator to the second floor, and this was our view. So many pretty buildings. Can you spot the Arc de Triomphe?

Here is another view with a little bit of the Champ de Mars and the big, tall Tour Montparnasse. If we had been in the city for more than three days, I would have loved to spend a sunset on the observation level of that skyscraper.

Sticking my camera out through the safety fence.

Imagine waiting in that line at 10:00am.

Our online tickets only got us up to the second level. We had planned on upgrading our tickets at the ticket office on the second level to go all the way to the top, but (my fear of heights kicked in and) we decided to head down to the much less crowded first floor where the kids could follow Gus' trail, learning random facts about the Eiffel Tower...

Barb could run around (and refuse to pose for pictures)...

... and we could take the stairs down through the crazy maze of metal.

And then of course, we had to have some ice cream.

Good night Eiffel Tower.

Locks, Parks, Treats, Metro!

2011-05-23T14:01:00.002-04:00

On the foot bridge connecting the Musee D'Orsay and the Tuileries, we found this:

locks of love. How sweet is that? I read that they have these at another bigger bridge in Paris, and that the Parisians aren't too thrilled about it. But of course, these are the same people who thought the Eiffel Tower was an eyesore. Anyway, apparently this phenomenon happens in other cities around the world too, like London and Moscow (I'll have to look for it). And in China, they throw their locks off a cliff.

Now go play trivial pursuit.

One thing I knew to look for in Paris (and I wasn't disappointed) were little playgrounds in parks all over the city.

After our Two-Art-Museum-Morning, we stopped at this one in the Tuileries to kill some time before lunch. The fun little off balance spinning disc was the kids' favorite thing. Owen got stuck up high in that rope thing, and would not move. There were about 20 girls behind him, so I couldn't get up there to help him. Eventually he figured it out.

The kids asked for ice cream at 9:00 in the morning, and Dave said yes. I convinced them to wait until after lunch. This place on the Place de la Concord just in front of the Tuileries was the best (and we would know - we had ice cream five times in three days), except, of course for Berthilon, but I'll tell you more about that later.

Dave and I had crepes, which the kids refused to call crepes. They call them blini, which is the Russian version, and to be honest, I was a little mad about it. They are not blini! They are crepes!

And then the metro back to our hotel for naps.

I loved the metro.

(I promise I did not ask my kids to pose this way, by the way.)

It was really the same as any other metro that I've ridden in any other big city, but to be honest, I like riding the metro in any big city. I guess I probably just don't ride it often enough (or during rush hour ever), but it makes me feel all big city and cool, so I like it.

Just keepin' it real folks.

Musee d'Orsay

2011-05-15T07:48:00.004-04:00

After a quick trip around the Musee d'Orangerie, we headed out for a walk across the Seine.

I really thought everything was so beautiful. Early on an April morning, it was quiet, calm, cool...

I thought these army guys were cool. I saw them all around town (or maybe just historic places) patrolling - two together, and then a third bringing up the rear. I hurried to take a picture.

We bought a Paris Museum Pass which gives you admission to a bunch of museums as well as other popular tourist sights (not the Eiffel Tower) in a set number of days. If you ever find yourself in Paris with a Museum Pass (and you don't read/watch Rick Steves), be sure to ask where your entrance is. There is usually a separate entrance with a significantly shorter line. Our pass was for two days, and I was definitely going to get my money out of it.

Which explains why at 10:30 in the morning we were heading into our second art museum for the day.

The Musee d'Orsay.

Pictures are not allowed inside.

There is some beautiful art here. And some other cool stuff, like a little miniature model of the city under a glass floor, or a cross section model of the Palais Garnier.

My kids only lasted about 30 minutes, which is about ten minutes longer than I expected, and about two or three hours less than I would have liked. We strolled around a little longer, soaking up as much art as we could, before moving on.

I would definitely recommend this as a stop on a Paris tour.

And as a side note, on recommendation from a friend in Maryland, last year, I ordered Babar's Museum of Art. I love this book! It's such a fantastic way to introduce art to young children. I pulled it out a few times to prepare our kids for the trip, showing them some of the art we would see, and then letting them guess which museum we saw in Paris that used to be an old train station, just like Babar's museum.

I recommend the book and the museum.

Musee d'Orangerie

2011-04-26T12:28:00.003-04:00

The first pictures I took in Paris were of Dave in the shower to show how small all the spaces in Paris are. They weren't graphic, but I still think he would not want it on the internet. And maybe you wouldn't want to see it, haha. Too much information already?

The second pictures I took were at the Musee d'Orangerie. If I could have photographed everything in between, I would have. If I could have brought you all to Paris with me, I would have. Well, maybe not with me, but at least to Paris at some point. Everyone should see Paris. It's beautiful.

(and I don't think that's the "coming from Moscow" perspective, although it is possible)

Anyway, up early, first stop:

Monet's Waterlilies.

They were impressive, simply by size.

There were two rooms, and if you start in the second room, everything is darker (by mood), and more gray, and then moving into the first room, things get lighter and brighter. The whole thing was fascinating.

In a nutshell:

Only visit the Musee d'Orangerie if you really want to see the Waterlilies. If you've got extra time in Paris, spend it at the Louvre and/or the Musee d'Orsay (you could spend weeks at the Louvre alone). You'll see what I thought were better paintings by many of the same artists (including Monet). Of course, if you are an art lover, then by all means, stop in (there are some great French paintings on the lower level), but if you are a tourist... go for a walk. Like I said, Paris is beautiful.

Cold Cereal People

2011-04-25T03:22:00.000-04:00

I know I mentioned before that Barb eats Quaker Maple and Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal for breakfast everyday. And occasionally my kids request something weird like eggs or toast. And every so often I get into ambitious baking mode and I bake something like baked oatmeal or baked french toast. But aside from all of that, we are cold cereal people.

When I was a kid, we loved going to my grandparents' house. Of course, we loved my grandparents, but we especially loved the rows and rows of cold sugar cereal stacked on top of the fridge that we were allowed to eat day and night.

I mostly ate cold cereal growing up, but I think it was my grandparents' house that sealed the deal.

So, in Russia, the first thing I looked for at the store was milk and cold cereal. I had lived on cold cereal in "college" and if Russia had only pelmeni and borsch to offer, cold cereal would be my saving grace.

Lo and behold, cold cereal. It appears to be from Germany, and has awesome giant dehydrated berries and apple slices, but I can get it at any store that carries groceries here. Wheetabix are also available, as well as several varieties of corn flakes (not Kellogg's).

And instant oatmeal. In yummy flavors too. There is a good brand from Norway, I think, but I'm not going to lie, I am drawn to the familiar. The grocery store I frequent doesn't usually have the Norwegian one. Once I run out of my ten year supply of Quaker Maple and Brown Sugar, maybe Barb will get to try some of these.

So those are my basic breakfast offerings here.

The kids don't really like them, they are expensive, and corn flakes get old even with giant apple slices, so...

I order cereal from home.

Did you know amazon sells groceries? It's usually in bulk (the cereal comes in four to six packs), but that totally works for us. AND for a lot of their products, they have a "subscribe and save" option where you can subscribe to the items. Crazy, huh? So, for example, I have subscribed to Cheerios that are automatically shipped once every two months, and I save 15%. I think it makes the prices comparable, if not better in some cases, to grocery stores back home.

(and it's not at all important, but I feel like I have to say that we normally just get Cheerios and Oatmeal Squares, but I quit eating treats in January, and I was craving something sweet to eat, so I went a little crazy in the "cereal aisle")

And now for the milk:

This is boxed milk. If I am correct (don't count on it), it is fresh milk that has been ultra-pasteurized by some heating method that makes it safe to keep it at room temperature. It doesn't have the best flavor, but it's not bad.

It's usually cheaper for Russia, but these are from our little convenience store where things are more expensive - 44 rubles for the Russian brand on the left, and 90 rubles for the imported Finnish brand on the right. That is about $1.50 and $3 respectively for little more than a quart.

Our dairy product of choice though is this fresh milk imported from Finland (red for whole milk, dark blue for 1.5%, and light blue for skim - funny how aside from some stores, that's sort of the same as the States. I wonder if it's international). The cheapest I can find it is about 55 rubles - about $2 for just over a quart. That's about $8 a gallon. A little pricey. But it's a convenience I am thankful for. And all of the big grocery stores carry it, but it's not uncommon for it to be sold out, so we usually try to keep some in the freezer. I don't mind though, because it's only been in the last couple of years that it's even become so widely available. I'm just glad to have it.

And that's it. That's our breakfast.

Cold cereal, people.

Easter Week

2011-04-24T08:41:00.002-04:00

Here are a few pictures from our Easter week:

dyeing eggs. we did the coloring in one night, and then planned to "decorate" the eggs another night, but the kids chose to play outside each night instead. i was afraid they wouldn't have egg decorating stuff here, so when i saw it, i bought it. again. and again. and again. i've definitely got enough for next year. and it's cool stuff too - sparkles, pom poms, little russian shrink wrap papers. maybe you'll see it next year. or maybe i'll use it for something besides eggs.

we also bought the little kolich (Easter cake) at Owen's request. either we are adjusting to Russian flavors or it really wasn't that bad, because it really wasn't that bad. i'm guessing that they really are kind of yummy (not like the Christmas spice cake), because they are everywhere this week, and the kids both had some at school. the letters on top are Хв for Khristos voskres - Christ is risen. for a country who was without religion for so long, and hasn't really revived all of their religious holidays, Easter is really big around here.

on Saturday mid-morning while the kids were watching a movie downstairs, the Easter bunny made a visit, and this is what it looked like:

a big trail of candy and hidden easter baskets.

owen got these asterix and obelix toys that we saw in paris. have you ever seen that cartoon? i remember liking it as a kid, but when i read the books/comics now, i can't imagine how i possibly understood what was going on. maybe the cartoons are different. in any case, owen likes it.

the kids played outside the rest of the day, and then in the late afternoon, we got together with some friends for an egg hunt, an egg roll (which is basically two seconds of rolling and then 10 minutes of fighting over who was first. at least no one got hit with a wooden spoon), and then a potluck. it was a lot of fun, and my highlight was finding liquid smoke at a store in Russia (it was not easy to find), so that I could make kalua pork! yum!

(and please excuse the growing-out-of-winter-clothes-played-outside-all-day-can't-believe-the-sun-is-shining-and-it's-60-degrees style)

my favorite part of the week though was reading the scriptures every night about what Jesus did during the week, finishing up with today:

"He is not here, for He is risen"

and eating our Easter feast today - flatbread, cheese, fresh fruit, dried fruit, hummus, grape juice - things we think that Jesus would have eaten.

Happy Easter!

World Thinking

2011-04-23T13:23:00.001-04:00

I know by the title of this post, you may think that I'm going to wax philosophical and educate you on matters of the world. Let me just set you straight.

This is about Girl Scouts.

In Girl Scouts, once a year they have a World Thinking Day. I believe that the intention is a good one, and hopefully in many troops around the world, young girls are being taught and learning to think a little bit more seriously about the world around them - near and far.

Our troop is run a little untraditionally, so we pretty much just had fun.

Our assigned country was Thailand. The girls got to wear cute costumes and glittery crowns to do a cute little "Thai" dance.

and they made glittery letters and had a sample of some chicken satay. Yum!

And when the guest speaker got up and waxed philosophical to a room full of impressionable young girls about how "you may think you want to stay home and not go to work, but you would not really enjoy it....going to work gets you money and respect from men", I about walked to the front of the room and punched her lights out and set everybody straight. But I thought that might show that staying at home and not going to work encourages violence and pent up anger, so I looked over at our little troop of girls, and then around at the other girl scouts who were just short of twiddling their thumbs as the lady droned on about girls in India who have to collect firewood and wash all their clothes by hand, and I bit my lip.

Those girls aren't going to learn about families from a crazy lady at a Girl Scout activity. They're going to learn about families in their own families. And I'm so thankful for mine. Every last bit of it.

Sorry, I guess this ended up being a little bit about Girl Scouts and families.

(and I really do mean "a little bit" because I could go on about both...)

Still-Winter-Even-Though-The-Calendar-Says-Spring Break

2011-04-21T04:11:00.005-04:00

We were out of town last week for Spring Break. I meant to be on top of things, and have a few blog posts scheduled for while I was out of town, but... well, that's just not me. As much as I may think that's me, I'm pretty sure the rest of the world knows it isn't. Am I right?

So, aside from all of the laundry, and other catching up I've been doing, I haven't felt much like blogging.

But we really did have a great time. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about it.

But not today (because that is me).

Here is a sneak peak:

Can you guess where we are?

How about now?

And I'll give you another hint: it's not in Las Vegas.

Homesick.

2011-04-05T12:44:00.002-04:00

This is my house in Maryland.

I miss it today.

And my family.

And my friends in Maryland.

And my friends in California.

And just good friends in general.

Chicken Wings

2011-04-04T04:32:00.001-04:00

Happy Monday!

(and for the record, they are Dave's pants, not mine)

Hi-Yah!

2011-04-01T03:19:00.001-04:00

Owen has started doing Tae Kwon Do.

And he loves it.

And he is awesome.

He had to earn the privilege to wear the uniform. (is that normal for martial arts maybe?)

And he was pumped when he brought it home for the first time.

He is really competitive, but isn't the first to go after something (like a ball for instance), so we thought something more individual would be a good fit for him. It was either golf or Tae Kwon Do, and since there is snow on the ground seven (eight? nine?) months out of the year here, we went for Tae Kwon Do.

So far, it's been a good choice.

Evelynn keeps asking to do it too, but I think we'll let Owen own it for a while first.

And, by the way, I'm pretty sure he learned this pose from a cartoon, not from Tae Kwon Do, although it looks pretty impressive.

Guess How Much I Love You

2011-03-31T03:16:00.001-04:00

right up to the moon and back

Evening With the Arts

2011-03-30T02:37:00.001-04:00

Evelynn's school had an Evening With the Arts last month. It was really fun. Even wrestling a one-year-old was worth it. Owen watched almost the whole thing. Some of the arts programs at this school are seriously impressive.

One of my favorite pieces (acts? parts?) was a middle school group that came out and laid on their backs on the stage all in a row with their heads towards the audience. Then they turned off all the lights in the theater and turned on the William Tell Overture (Lone Ranger). Each of the kids had flashlights that were either green, blue, yellow, or red, and they all had different parts, making the flashlights dance along with the music on a huge screen. I don't know how that sounds, but it was really cool.

I was also impressed with this drumming group. I didn't get a program, because I was wrestling a one-year-old, so I don't know who they were, but it was an awesome performance.

And I guess this isn't a school program, but this is a third grade concert pianist (sorry about the lighting). I'm not a concert pianist, so I can't tell you about technique, but he could rival any concert pianist I've ever heard.

But my favorite act closed

out the night:

U Can't Touch This

Evelynn's ballet class has really focused on the hip hop this year. I guess now that we're half way through the year, I can stop calling it ballet, because let's be honest, they don't do much ballet. (And I don't do much English) They've performed this hip hop dance twice, which means a lot of practicing this hip hop dance. And the girls love it. And it's actually been really good for Evelynn, who has always done ballet, to loosen up and learn some other dance styles.

She's front right. I forgot to find her something "funky" to wear until the last minute, and I hadn't done laundry, so... hers is maybe another type of funky. She's really good at remembering dances and doesn't get stage fright at all. She did a fantastic job.

Now I think she is learning a Russian dance, so I look forward to the end of the year when I can hopefully see that and maybe even some ballet. I thought about seeing if she wants to try a Russian ballet studio next year, but she has a lot of fun in this class, and I'm not sure if I'm ready for all the work that transportation and communication would be. We'll see.

Our First Casualty

2011-03-29T12:50:00.002-04:00

A little while ago, we got this package through the mail.

I knew it wasn't good when Dave said there were sprinkles leaking out of the box.

(Dave picks up the mail)

So, let's guess what was inside.

Nevermind, I'll just show you.

A little thing of sprinkles and a couple big things of air.

Call me crazy, but

I think the air bubble things were meant to protect the sprinkles.

No such luck.

With all the broken pieces of plastic, I was able to salvage only 1/2 of one of the seven different types of sprinkles. Sad.

But that's okay. Valentine's day was great without all the sprinkles.

What, don't look at me like that. I said it was a little while ago, didn't I?

And, with all the packages we get, I'm thankful that so far this is the only one that has been damaged. Even our hot chocolate that sat on the tarmac in the rain for a while survived.

And mostly, I'm just thankful that we get packages.

The end.

mas-luh-NEE-tsuh

2011-03-22T07:59:00.002-04:00

or Maslenitsa.

or Масленица.

The coming of Spring! A few weeks ago. Celebrated a little early, if you ask me.

Actually, I think the real celebration is supposed to be "the last week before Lent". Then, the Soviets came and abolished religion, so people had to use the pagan reasoning, and celebrate "the imminent end of winter" (I'm getting this from wikipedia, by the way).

Now, it's just like any other holiday - an excuse for a party!

And a party we had!

Complete with a clown, an accordian, singing and dancing babushkas,

the Snow Maiden (who is technically Father Frost's helper to deliver the presents on New Year's Eve - I guess I forgot to tell you about how they don't really celebrate Christmas here...), sledding, blini (similar to crepes - round and golden, like the sun), and a scarecrow!

It's a tradition to burn the scarecrow at the end of the festival, but we left before they may or may not have done that.

And here are our kids with their friends. What are they watching? The fire. Completely uninterested in any of the Russian singing and dancing going on around them.

Dave was singing though. And I had some yummy blini.

And I have yet to see the end of winter. Maybe their definition is a little different...

Incarceration

2011-03-21T07:29:00.000-04:00

Up and Running

2011-03-19T04:20:00.000-04:00

So, as we were kneeling down for prayer one night, everyone being reverent, Dave about to say the prayer, Barb, who had crawled into the center of the circle, stood up and took her first couple of steps. What does this timing mean?

She had a few more practice sessions with Mom and Dad, and now she's up and running. Literally. But I can still run faster.

Look Who's Home!

2011-03-18T04:09:00.000-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T06:59:00.003-04:00

From this kid:

(who woke up at 5:45 this morning and helped himself to some games on the computer until the rest of us woke up approximately an hour later)

And from this kid:

(who asked her teacher if she could have St. Patrick's Day off from school)

Snow in Moscow

2011-03-17T03:40:00.001-04:00

It really is so pretty here when it snows, and everything is covered in white. But they shovel it so fast, I can never get a picture of it! So this, through my window screen, is as close as it gets. :)

Also, I couldn't figure out why, even though it snows every day, it only looks like there is a couple feet of snow. It's too cold to melt, so that's not it. They don't shovel it away from the middle of the field, so that's not it. But then I went out to walk on it the other day (I can't believe I spent almost the entire winter here without having walked on the snow), and it was totally compact. Where I feel like my feet would sink straight to the grass in the Maryland snow, my feet don't sink more than an inch or two. So now I know. And now you know too. It must be the structure of the snowflakes or something technical like that.

And last... see that dog in the picture? There are a lot of dogs here. A lot of people have dogs. And lets just do that math really quick:

a lot of dogs + snow = a lot of yellow snow

(and occasionally some frozen poop)

I'll leave you with that.

Breakfast for Barb

2011-03-17T03:33:00.000-04:00

Barb eats instant oatmeal for breakfast every morning.

Quaker, maple and brown sugar.

We order it in the mail.

Even though they have some yummy instant oatmeal here. For some reason, this is just easier for me.

Anyway, Dave fed her the other morning, and she didn't finish the whole bowl.

At least not while he was feeding her.

Off To School...

2011-03-16T03:24:00.000-04:00

This is how Evie goes off to school every morning.

Snow boots, snow pants, coat, scarf, gloves, hat, earmuffs. And backpack.

At school they have inside shoes that they change into, but if they want to play outside at recess (which they all do! I would stay inside in a heartbeat!), they have to have the snow gear.

And normally I would have lightened this picture up, but I wanted to show how gray it is in the mornings. Well, was. It's getting much lighter now, and the sun is even out most days when she leaves! For a long time it was dark when she left, so this is the sort of in between. I remember leaving for seminary before school in the mornings in the dark, and I felt like I was the only one in the whole world who was awake. I hated it. Thankfully first grade in the dark doesn't seem to bother Ev too much. (the orangeish/pink snow is from our porch light)

Remember This?

2011-03-15T03:15:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it's the same place?

Worst Job Ever.

2011-03-14T02:29:00.001-04:00

Okay, so maybe not the worst job ever. I have a tendency to exaggerate all the time. Okay, so maybe not all the time. Sometimes. That's where I am all the time. Right in the middle of the road. Right on the middle of the fence. Sometimes.

Alright, that's enough. Back to the Worst Job Ever. Let's take a look at some of these:

Can you even see him? The steeplejack, scraping snow and ice off the roof in temperatures below zero? Can you see him up there?

I would hate that job.

This guy drives this little tractor around scooping all the piles of snow that he just plowed into this big dumpster. And then it snows again, and he plows and scoops again. And again. And again. At least he doesn't drive the dumpster (which is actually a strange cross between a dumpster and a dump truck. I should have gotten a picture of the thing in action). And you would like to think that it's a little warmer inside that little thing than outside in the minus 10's.

I would hate that job.

And finally this guy. This guy shovels snow. All. Day. Long. When my face is freezing off on the walk to school, and the only thing keeping me going is that I only have to be outside for as long as it takes me to get from the house to the school, he's out shoveling. He shovels until all the snow is shoveled. And then my kids climb on those lovely piles of snow lining all of the walks and spill all that lovely snow all over the freshly shoveled walks, and he shovels it again. And when it's all shoveled he takes the spade thing that he's using in the picture above and breaks up all the ice that's under those big piles of snow, and shovels that away. And occasionally, he (and the rest of the crew) will throw ice melt all over all the streets and then crack and bang at the ice covering the whole street until it's all broken up. Can you imagine shoveling snow all day? Or breaking up ice all day? (the ice breaking must be especially hard, because the guy in these pictures was taking frequent breaks) AND being freezing? I would hate that job.

I am always intrigued by things like this though. Do these people like their jobs? Or just appreciate them? Or neither? How about the sixty year old man working the parking booth with a smile at Disney World? Why is he there?

Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this post to be so long. But then again, I never do. I'm always like that.

Great Expectations

2011-03-12T04:42:00.000-05:00

So there is this place here in Moscow called Starlite Diner. They have burgers, fries, milkshakes, etc. - you know, like a diner. I was a little hesitant to try it, but then I heard they also serve breakfast. How can you mess up pancakes? So, we went to check it out on a Saturday morning.

(there are a lot of forested park-like areas around Moscow. we live near one of them.)

Looks like a diner.

Feels like a diner.

Even coloring for the kids.

When I saw omelets, french toast, pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, etc, etc, etc.... I was so excited! They really did have American food! And we also looked at the lunch menu, which had similar choices as Denny's, with a little Applebee's, Chili's, TGIFridays thrown in. Woohoo!

Then the food came, and I was so absolutely disappointed that I forgot about my camera and didn't even take any more pictures until we were on our way home.

Yup, still Russia.

I guess I shouldn't say absolutely disappointed. The kids pancakes were good, and Evie's not picky about her bacon.

The thing is, it wasn't that bad. Russia really isn't bad. It's actually great. And really pretty. And the food is good too. As long as you're not expecting America.

It's all about expectations.

Whoo Whoo

2011-03-11T04:28:00.000-05:00

One of the adorable hats my friend Amy made for Barb with her mad knitting skillz.

She won't keep it on unless we are going outside (see her hand about to tear it off), and I haven't been taking my camera outside (too cold), so it took forever to get this picture to show you, blah blah blah.

If I Tweeted...

2011-03-11T01:40:00.002-05:00

If I was on Twitter, and I tweeted, I would tweet this right now...

"Birds chirping outside! Spring really will come to Moscow! Oh, wait, that's the game Owen left running in the background on the computer."

I'm sorry I wasted a blog post on that.

I'm a twit.

Les Macarons

2011-03-10T03:49:00.000-05:00

While we were on vacation (in Dubai - I'm sorry! this is my last post about Dubai!!), we went to the mall. A lot. That is where the American food was. And I miss American food.

So, on our first trip to the mall, when I first looked up after getting off the shuttle, the first thing I saw was PF Changs. And I almost melted from pure joy (and probably from all the extra salivation). I realized I had been hungry for four months.

The second thing I saw was Fauchon. A real, true, authentic French bakery(/candy/gift shop). I can't even describe the bliss. I felt light as a feather. I'm getting lightheaded just thinking about it.

After dinner one day, Dave bought us (the term us being used loosely here) this box of macarons. Also known to many as macaroons, these are not related to the American coconut macaroon, so according to wikipedia, some people (but not all people) have changed the spelling to macaron to clarify the difference. I've always been confused about that, so hopefully now you have some clarity. If you were also confused.

Potato Pototoe.

So, anyway, now I have my very own pictures of macarons.

As you can see, I couldn't wait to eat some before I had the chance to take pictures.

They were divine.

By the way.

I've always wanted my own picture like this.

And now, I want to see if I can make my own macarons.

Good bye cupcakes, hello macarons.

Also, I'm looking forward even more to going to Paris one day. Oh, to eat at Laduree!

Okay, I've gotta go. I'm getting hungry.

Baby Turns One

2011-03-09T03:15:00.005-05:00

Sitting in our hotel room one afternoon in Dubai, (our very nice, too expensive hotel room) a few guys came to freshen up the room. And while they were working, the doorbell rang, and in comes this guys with a rose and a little cake, smiling all big, and greets me with a big

"Happy Birthday!"

"No no no. You've got the wrong room. It's not us. It's not anyone's birthday." I said, trying to rush him out before he loses his job or something (it was that kind of very nice, too expensive hotel).

He looked crestfallen, and turned to walk out, only to return a minute later and say that it was the right room, showing me the little card, printed on the front, "Ms. Barbara"

Okay, so the thought had crossed my mind, but I didn't really think they would be bringing a rose and a decadent chocolate cake to a baby the day before we were checking out and two days before her birthday.

I guess I was wrong (it was that kind of very nice, too expensive hotel).

So, we did our best to make amends with the cute man who brought the gifts, accepted them, and then gave Baby

her first bite of cake!

Or maybe she took her first bite of cake.

A couple of days later, at home, we had some presents and more cake!

Now the notes:

1. Dave wrapped the presents. Good job, Honey!

2. We bought the presents second hand at a baby sale before we left the States, thinking we would use them for Christmas and Birthday. Well, we didn't use them for Christmas. And it was a lot of little people. Plus the ball track. She didn't know what to do with it all.

3. Before leaving for Dubai, I forgot that we would be coming back in the middle of a bunch of holidays (Russian and American), and that a lot of stores would be closed, so I had to make the cupcakes with what I had on hand. They weren't as "fun" as I could have made them, but I still think they turned out cute. Poor third child.

4. We haven't taught her how to blow yet, so she had to put the candle out by waving her arms really fast. Poor third child. (or maybe she's just dancing to the musical candle that Dave found).

5. Happy Birthday, Baby!!!

How Do You Know You're In Russia?

2011-02-15T11:41:00.002-05:00

In a nutshell.

Remember Last Week

2011-02-15T01:09:00.002-05:00

Remember how I said that we had been having a mild winter. And that it was warming up and all the snow was melting...

	Today	Tonight	Tomorrow

Fair	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	AM Snow Showers
-9°F	3°	-8°	6°
Feels Like: -29°

I take it back. I take it all back.

"Do You Guys Have Snow?"

2011-02-08T01:50:00.002-05:00

So, my friend Amy, in Kenya asked me the other day if we had any snow.

Is the world round? Is the sky blue? (well, technically, if winter lasts much longer here, I may begin to question that second one)

It snows here everyday. And the kids play outside every day.

If it's below 15 degrees (fahrenheit), I usually limit it to about an hour.

But it's been a pretty mild winter, from what I'm told, and it's hung around mostly in the 15-25 range.

This week it's been over 30 a few days! So exciting!

And the snow is melting everywhere! Which is kind of sad.

Because underneath the snow is just so dirty.

(both of the kids hats were made by Amy, by the way. As you can probably guess, her kids don't need hats in Kenya. And just wait until you see Barb's)

There are "green men" who are out all day every day in our neighborhood clearing snow and ice (and steeplejacks who climb up and scrape the roofs!). They plow the snow from the street into big piles that the kids love to play on/in. This pile got a lot bigger before they came with a dumpster and cleared it all out. And repeat it again every few weeks.

I'm not sure if you can even see it, but this is a picture of the ice that we came home to after our trip to Dubai. It was from two ice storms. One of which shut down the power of one entire airport and cancelled flights out of two big airports for over 48 hours. We pulled sheets of ice off of our car. Thank goodness for the green men. As you can see, they cracked and banged and scraped all the ice away while we were gone (they finished our driveway after we got back).

This is what Barb does inside the house.

Even with all the cold and snow and ice outside, it stays toasty warm inside. Sometimes too warm, and we have to crack a window for a little bit. We use radiators, and they are hard to regulate.

And this is what Barb does outside.

The green men do a good job of keeping everything clear, so we can usually just use the stroller. But it snows every day, and sometimes multiple times a day, so when the snow comes faster than the green men can work, we have this little sled.

And Barb sleds around saying "wheeeee".

(nearly everyone in our little neighborhood has some form of a sled with a rope like this, but out in the town I mostly see sleds with a big metal handle on the back that can be used like strollers. AND fun fact: Russian doctors tell mothers of babies that they have to walk their babies outside for a minimum of an hour every day, no matter the temperature. you should see these things bundled up)

So, to answer your question Amy: Yes. We have snow.

Do you have sun in Kenya? :)

Babs on the Beach

2011-02-02T04:32:00.005-05:00

We went to the beach on all but one day of our trip, and the first thing Barbara wanted to do each time was hunt around for good eating sand.

She tried a lot of varieties. I think she preferred the chunkier rock/gravel version the best.

She also found several other treasures. A lot of shells, an old popsicle stick, and even a cigarette butt! (and she was very good about trying to smile for the camera even though her little eyes weren't used to the bright sun)

Eventually, she noticed the water, and decided to make an attempt to get there. After a little ways, the beach got a little steeper, and the best course of action appeared to be a backwards scoot.

"I learned this in the army."

After never finding solid ground (like on the stairs), she eventually abandoned her attempt, and came crawling back to us.

These guys were here, too. Playing in the water (the sun was really bright)...

and playing in the sand.

On the beach.

And after we got bored on the beach this day, we went to the pool. And my plan was that after we got bored at the pool, we would go to the kids center, and the kids could play in the water features there, but I neglected to inform my family of this plan, and they (read:Dave) thought it would be better to go inside and rest after the pool. I couldn't get enough of the sun! Because...

then we returned to this.

But let's not end on that.

We'll end back here.

On the beach.

I Went to Dubai.

2011-01-30T08:09:00.004-05:00

I knew when I married someone who had served a mission in Russia, that whether I liked it or not, there was a slight possibility that I may one day go to Russia. Live there, probably not. But go there, maybe.

When, in my adult, life I heard about this foreign place called Dubai, I never expected to go there. But I live in Russia now. And the interesting thing about Russia is that it's a different place, very far away from the United States, culturally and geographically. And all of the sudden Hawaii and the Caribbean, as vacation destinations, don't make as much sense anymore.

A trip to Dubai was the perfect family Christmas gift for us, because it is close (relatively - about a 5.5 hour flight), it is warm (relatively - about 75 degrees),

and there is nothing to do (relatively - there is actually a TON to do, but nothing so pressing that I would feel like we missed out if we did nothing).

So we left at midnight on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, and got in early Christmas morning.

We stayed in a fantastic hotel that found us a room within an hour of our arrival.

We were exhausted (they served a full meal on the plane, and everybody ate it!!! well, not us - we were trying to sleep while everyone else was messing around opening their plastic bags with rolls and silverware, and crumpling their foil, and offering more tea and more coffee at 2:30 in the morning!!! we didn't get much sleep), so it was great to rest and begin our relaxing vacation.

Then we got hungry, so we went downstairs and found...

Santa in the lounge! With presents for everyone!

And we took the shuttle over to the mall to eat lunch. And I'm sorry, but my first meal out of Russia was at McDonald's. But I got a McArabia if that makes a difference. We don't have those in Russia.

After some grocery shopping we went straight out to the beach.

And Barbara got to feel the sand. And the water. For the first time.

She was very curious, and I think she just wanted to get down and play in it.

(But we had just bought the dress, because she spilled her drink all over her at the mall, so we didn't let her get it dirty.)

So, this is the Persian Gulf.

And in the background is the Burj Al Arab. Shaped like a boat, it is the "world's only seven star hotel," according to our Ladies Taxi driver (there is a whole fleet of pink and white little suv taxis driven by ladies. a lady at the airport recommended them. they are so cute.). You can pay to go inside and maybe tour or something. We didn't do that.

Let me remind you before viewing the next picture that in the hours preceding the photo, we: sat in a car for two hours, waited at the airport for an hour and a half, waited on the airplane some more, flew for five and a half hours, waited through a few passport lines at the airport, took a taxi, took a nap, took a shuttle, wandered the mall, and walked to the beach.

If you need to put some sunglasses on to tone down the glare from my skin, I'm not offended. I live in Russia. I haven't seen the sun in two months.

Incidentally, does anyone know a good brand of self tanner?

That's my baby.

Sunset from our hotel room. Sorry about the glare. I tried shooting it through the balcony door. Because I'm lazy.

The buildings that the sun is setting behind are on one of the manmade Palm Islands. If you look down at it from above, it is shaped like a palm tree.

We mostly relaxed at the beach and the pool and the mall, but in order to fit some culture into our trip, we headed down to some souqs (what's the plural on that? souq? souqs? souqi?) one day.

We first went looking for the textile souq, because I wanted to get some cheap scarves. On the way, we found a sort of souvenir souq. It was crazy. Men coming at us as we passed each little shop offering whatever we wanted in the best quality, in every color, for the best price - just come in and look, and try it on. We ended up with a skirt, a t-shirt, and about five pashmina scarves of varying quality. (we did not buy this ghutra. i was tempted though)

We took an abra (the little, very unsafe looking one) across the "creek".

I didn't really think twice about it until we got on and out into the middle of the water, and then I feared for my life for a minute.

Or really more for my baby's life. I couldn't decide if I should keep her buckled in the stroller or not, in case she fell overboard.

Look they have under the street crosswalks here, too!

This was at the gold souq. I almost bought Evelynn a little white gold camel pendant and chain, but Dave didn't think $140 was a good idea.

At the gold souq, there were men holding little old cardboard boxes full of drinks and shoving them unapologetically and repeatedly in our faces offering us drinks (there were also "nonchalant" men walking about every ten feet offering "louis vuitton" and "rolex"). We didn't want a drink, but when it came time for lunch, we couldn't find any food, so we asked one of the men where we could get a shawarma (of course), and he said he would go get it and bring it back. Twenty minutes later, as we were about to give up and leave, he showed up with a couple of shawarmas, and man were they good!!! (much better than the Russian ones, I'm sorry to say). Then, when a man came and held a tray in Owen's face for five minutes as Owen whined about how thirsty he was. We finally bought some drinks.

Later we found this fruit drink place in the spice souq.

I am not a chef. So, I can't tell you anything about these spices. Are they exotic? No idea. Are they exquisite? No idea. Do they look cool? Yes! I can tell you that.

We bought some cinnamon, because we were almost out, and then threw in a bunch of vanilla beans, because they were cheap. I might use them to make homemade vanilla extract. I'll let you know how it goes.

So, that's it.

Relaxing. Sunbathing. Swimming (in the cold water!). Shopping there was a Carrefour grocery store that had a lot of American things I can't get in Russia, so I stocked up). Eating American food (California Pizza Kitchen, Chilis, Subway, Dairy Queen, Hardee's/Carl's Junior, Pizza Hut - the challenge was "how much American food can we eat in a week?").

It was great!

If you are ever living in Russia, I highly recommend a trip to Dubai.

I do have some beach pictures to still post and an Orange Fanta in Arabic (it was really cool to see everything written in Arabic - even the label on the Neutrogena face wash I stocked up on was in Arabic!), but I wanted to give you at least a day to work your way through this post. You're welcome.

Early Christmas.

2011-01-23T03:37:00.003-05:00

It's my goal to finish blogging the things I want to blog about December before the end of January. I think that's a pretty good goal, what do you think?

And collages to save time!

On Christmas morning, the kids always have to wait for me to get downstairs first so I can take a picture of them coming in and seeing their presents. It turned into a tradition somewhere.

So, Barb's first Christmas. Owen and Evelynn read the names and pass out the gifts. Evelynn got the classics - Little House on the Prairie - that I never read as a child, and she's already through one and a half of them. "What's a Grrruuufffalllo?" "Hurry Barb so we can open more presents!" (We usually let the kids just kind of go through and open whatever they find, but all the excitement was distracting Barb, so we had them take little breaks to watch her open presents. )

Evelynn was genuinely shocked (and excited) to get an American Girl doll. She was confidently opening the wrapping looking for more accessories for her doll house. Owen was as happy as expected about his new Wii game. Barb loves her new little Potsy almost as much as she loved crawling around and finding all the little things the kids left out. And I love Potsy. And now I want a little kitchen for Barb to put it in. But I think maybe we should work on walking before playing in little kitchens.

Oh, and the reason we had Christmas early...

Drum roll please...

"A Family Trip To...

...Dubai?...

And flip flops!!!"

And we left at midnight.

December and "Christmas Eve"

2011-01-16T07:00:00.004-05:00

I almost called this post something else, because I'm embarrassed to have "Christmas Eve" show up on people's blog readers on January 16th. But I didn't.

December.

My birthday.

We drove through McDonald's for dinner and baked a chocolate sheet cake together.

It was exactly what I wanted to do.

We decorated our Christmas tree.

We went to a Branch Christmas party.

We baked. And baked.

And baked some more.

(always new recipes though, which takes longer. I think I'm ready to pick a few and make them regulars.)

We made gingerbread houses.

We played with friends.

In lots and lots and lots of snow.

We exchanged names with each other and shopped for Christmas gifts.

We listened to Christmas music.

It always seems so hectic and stressful, December, but in memory it's all happiness and love.

During December we always promise that next year we will skip all the traditions that require all the work, and just relax and spend time together.

Then, we change our minds.

What would it be like without all the traditions?

What would our children remember?

What would bring them back together when they were all grown up and gone?

Anyway, we've got another eleven months to think about that.

So, for Christmas Eve, we were invited to our neighbors' for their traditional fondue party (which was awesome and delicious).

We still wanted to have our own Christmas Eve traditions, so we decided to do them on Christmas Eve Day Eve. Or the night before Christmas Eve.

We ate our ham from the commissary, some potatoes, some corn, some orange rolls, and some slush.

We read from Luke and acted out the Nativity.

We didn't feel up to the Moscow traffic to see what few lights we could, so we went for a walk and went sledding instead. Finding a few lights in the process. And when we came home...

New pajamas under the tree!!!

But this wasn't real Christmas Eve.

I wonder if there will be presents in the morning... we better leave some cookies and milk, just in case...

And what do you know!...

there were! Early Christmas!

This is our 1) something we want, 2) something we need, 3) something we can do together as a family. Oh, and a couple of years ago we also started adding 4) something to read.

And I always take a picture of all our presents under the tree. Do you do that? I think I do it because it's obvious that someone spent a lot of time thinking about and coordinating the gift wrapping for those things. I can't imagine who it could be...

And besides...

Check out the wrapping paper. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't red and green, but it's pretty darn cute (and from Ikea. Did your Ikea have this wrapping paper? Or is this Russian style?).

So early Christmas.

Find out more next time.

Same bat... well, I don't know what time, but same bat channel.

Gingerbread Houses

2011-01-16T06:48:00.001-05:00

The past couple of years, we have bought kits for various gingerbread houses or trains at Target or Costco or something. Without Target or Costco, this year I thought we would just have to go old school and use graham crackers. I have some graham crackers that I bought from someone who was moving back to the States (can't get those here). I was kind of looking forward to the creativity that it would spark in my children.

Then someone told me that Ikea had kits. And I got some. I couldn't help it. It looked so easy. And it was like home too. Kind of like McDonald's. Whenever I see one, I have this overwhelming urge that I have to eat there, because it's so familiar.

But anyway candy wasn't included. So, I got some gummy things from Ikea and went to the little convenience store here in my neighborhood (that seems to have a pretty good stock of cheap candy due to the abundance of children with money in their pockets), and found some m&m's, tic tacs, and a few other random gummy things.

They also sell a pretty good selection of holiday candy (reese's!!!) at the commissary, and I had Dave grab a bunch as soon as they put it out, but we didn't use that on our gingerbread houses. Only the mini candy canes. We ate the good stuff.

And even Barb participated.

(sorry, no pictures of the finished product. oops)

Just Because

2011-01-11T13:08:00.002-05:00

Because I want to say hi, but i don't want to take the time to string together the other thousand pictures that I want to post from December yet.

The Real Thanksgiving (and 16 pictures)

2011-01-10T03:08:00.004-05:00

This post is about Thanksgiving and our trip to Germany.

And it has sixteen pictures.

Germany is amazing.

It all just looks so...

German.

This is for real. This isn't Disneyland.

I think visiting Germany any time would be fun. But I think coming from Russia was especially enjoyable. For one thing, people smile. And everyone I spoke to spoke English (I did try German first!). Oh, and the roads! The driving! So orderly, so neat, and uncrowded. I love driving, and in Russia, if I drive, the roads are dirty, bumpy, and crowded. You can't go more than 10 feet without having to use your breaks. It felt so good to get into the car at the airport in Germany (a manual transmission too!), and just go! (What does this mean? Am I am a control freak?).

To be fair, I do have to say that we were outside the big city almost the entire time, and we were only there for a couple of days, but it was a great couple of days.

And to be funny, I have to say that in the airport before we left Germany, we were waiting for an elevator, and when it opened a couple came off, and the lady looked and Barb and then kind of gave a dirty look. After being around people who were so happy and friendly all weekend, I was a little confused. I thought something might be wrong. But then, the lady turned to the man and started speaking Russian. And it all made sense.

Now on with the pictures...

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to take a trip to the temple, and were lucky enough to visit some good friends who we haven't seen for several years.

They were fantastic hosts and tour guides! And the food! Oh, the food!

How lucky are we to have such good friends!

(they even had another friend visiting from out of town, and they still made room for us!)

They have a boy Evelynn's age and a boy Owen's age. The kids had so much fun together. Playing with toys, hide and seek and sardines in their awesome old house, sharing what we were thankful for, watching German cartoons and Christmas movies. Definitely a Thanksgiving to remember.

One day, we drove out to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the oldest complete wall around a walled city, or most complete oldest wall around a city, or oldest walled city, or something like that. Anyway, it's a little town famous for it's wall and it's German-ness. It's very German.

As for me, before this, city walls only existed in fairy tales, so I thought it was especially cool to see. It was like I was in a fairy tale.

Okay, sorry, now on with the pictures...

Here we all are.

And we may not be all smiling, because:

1. We walked all the way up here to take a picture of the castle gate, and we couldn't even get a picture of it, because there were too many cars driving by.

2. One of the kids just hit another one in the face with a snowball (I don't remember which was which)

and 3. We were in kind of a hurry, due to commitments later in the day, which caused the adults to be a little short on patience.

See?

So much for Christmas card photos. :)

We visited the world famous huge Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas store.

"Just the girls" went out to a Christmas market the night before where they had a small Kathe Wohlfahrt shop set up, but I waited until the mother store to purchase our souvenirs.

The kids rode on this little carousel. Vintage or German? or both?

They were the only ones on it, and I thought it was cute that they sat together in these little fish. They loved it.

Dave impressed me with his high school/college German to buy...

...wait for it...

That's right ladies and gentlemen, a 1/2 meter long sausage.

And these little guys for me and the kids.

I'm usually not a fan of sausage, spicy mustard, or crusty bread.

So, why was this so good?!

(oh, and Dave actually impressed me with his German during the whole trip. His high school German is way better than my high school French. He must have studied harder.)

We also got some hot chocolate in souvenir mugs (that you can return and get your deposit back, but we kept them). This picture shows the people in the background drinking hot chocolate (or more likely the alcoholic "spiced cider" that draws crowds to the markets) and Owen making his Bowser face. Because I think it's been a while since I posted a picture of Owen making his Bowser face.

The drive to Rothenburg (and anywhere else, really) was beautiful and dotted with these cute little German towns. I'm telling you this stuff is straight out of fairy tales. Do people still really live like this?

And of course the reason we made the trip.

We had planned on taking turns waiting with the kids and going in the temple, but our friends graciously offered to watch our kids outside while we went together. We really appreciated it, and I'm sure the kids did, too (if you guys are reading this, the money for lunch is coming in the mail!).

We had such a great trip!

And now we want to live in Germany.

While We're On the Subject of Thanksgiving...

2011-01-07T06:04:00.001-05:00

These are a few things we were thankful for this year:

(I'm really sort of embarrassed that I'm posting about Thanksgiving in January, by the way, but not embarrassed enough to not do it. :)

Scenes from a Family Photo Shoot

2011-01-07T05:57:00.002-05:00

Modern Pilgrims

2011-01-07T03:54:00.002-05:00

I realize this is a bit unseasonal, but look at these kids.

This is what they did when I told them we were cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

The commissary at the Embassy, where we get American food that we can't live without sent out a call for orders on turkeys and hams before the holidays. I would guess that they have turkeys and pigs somewhere in Russia, and that it may be possible to get something similar to what we normally eat for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but hey, if the commissary was going to make it easy to get a Butterball turkey and a Smithfield ham, then I was all over it.

Then we made plans to go to Germany over Thanksgiving.

So, the turkey, it seemed would live (in the freezer) to see another day.

Then we found out Dave's family was getting together for Thanksgiving the week before actual Thanksgiving.

Sorry, turkey.

So, we scrambled around getting ingredients for a small Thanksgiving dinner, and celebrated with Dave's family. Well, technically about 10 hours before they did.

And before our kids went to bed, we were able to talk to them and see them on skype as they were getting up.

And... will someone please call Project Runway? I think we've got a style star on our hands over here...

Don't let the tie and the belt fool you. Those pants are actually gray, lined, cargo/warmup pants.

Thanksgiving dinner sources:

turkey, canned yams, and canned pumpkin from the commissary

everything else locally, including ingredients for mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and slush (bananas, pineapple juice, orange juice, lemonade, and sprite) - we had to get a little creative with this one though

i looked high and low for fresh green beans to no avail. i ended up getting ingredients for salad, which i forgot to make. fresh rosemary was a lucky find at the produce market down the street.

i think you can buy frozen pie crust at the commissary, but i forgot to check, so i bought some dough for pie crust from the cafeteria at the kids school. it turned out well. i've never made a pie crust, and i wasn't going to start this year.

Any questions?

Manatee.

2011-01-06T09:50:00.001-05:00

We have this little girl.

We love her to pieces.

She has a friend named Manatee.

(reference to Veggie Tales "Endangered Love")

She loves Manatee.

When she was about 10 months old, her first words?

"Babop Mayee"

(Barbara Manatee)

That's one for the history books.

Oh Barbara Manatee... You are the one for me...

From Sun-Up to Sun-Down or Happy Winter Solstice!

2011-01-04T05:53:00.003-05:00

So, when we moved here, I was mostly afraid of the cold. I figured anything else I could handle, but the cold, that might get me.

Well, the cold has been manageable.

It's the dark I underestimated.

I took these pictures in the middle of November, and I had planned on taking more in December, but holiday plans kept me from it. Now, just remember this was over a month before December 21st, the shortest day/longest night of the year.

8:42am

11:18am

1:25pm

3:42pm

4:58pm

By the middle of December, it was dark until after 9am, and the sun set before 4pm. And I would say on average, we probably only see the sun about once in 10 days.

I got myself a little happy lamp, that seemed to make a little bit of a difference (even if it was just a placebo effect) in having more energy, and I looked forward to December 21st, like it was Christmas. I almost had a party.

And now, the darkest days are over. It gets light a little longer every day, and in fact, the sun has been shining all {seven hours of the} day the last couple of days.

And, of course now the temperatures are really dropping. The highs are down below 20.

Still manageable though.

And don't think I'm not looking forward to white nights in the summer. I'm dreaming of it.

Daddy Totem Pole

2011-01-04T05:32:00.002-05:00

Totem poles are found in Native American culture, and are used to tell stories or represent family lineage.

Tikis are found in Polynesia, and are used to mark the boundaries of sacred sights (I also thought tikis were made scary to guard the sights, but I couldn't find that anywhere).

So, which is it...

A tiki or a totem pole?

The Great Furniture Swap

2011-01-04T05:15:00.002-05:00

Because Dave works for the State Department, we live in Embassy housing, with Embassy furniture.

It's not bad.

It's a different style than I would choose, but overall it's nice looking, good quality furniture.

Once after you arrive, you can request certain items of furniture that are not in your house, that you would like in your house. And they can take anything you're not using also.

The furniture guys came on a day with one of our first snows.

This guy had been standing smoking a cigarette, and I thought it looked very Russian, so I went to take a picture. I think he got scared that he might get in trouble, because when he saw the camera, he hurried and threw away the cigarette.

Also, I thought he looked like Ashton Kutcher. They spoke a little English, so I tried to tell them that. They mostly looked confused, but then one of the guys brightened up, nodded, and said, "MTV".

Back in October...

2011-01-04T05:10:00.002-05:00

Evie started walking herself home from school. Just in time for winter. And can I tell you how nice it is? Really most days, I still walk over and meet her, because she has some after school activity or another, but when she can walk herself home, I don't have to get the other kids bundled up to go get her, and I can just be home ready and waiting for her when she gets here. It makes for such a nice, smooth transition in the afternoon.

Can anyone say longest run-on sentence ever?

In Russia

2010-12-15T07:39:00.003-05:00

In Russia...

there are a lot of signs that have random English on them (this one is a name, so maybe not so random, but still). I think it's very interesting, and it makes me think of signs in the United States that that have random Chinese characters on them. And phone numbers are the same length, but spaced differently, which is confusing to me. (Also, no one wears sweatshirts or baseball caps - in the rest of the world, pretty much - so I don't recommend it, unless you are trying to make a statement or possibly risk your safety. or unless you are Dave, who may or may not be exhibiting one or both of the aforementioned tactics to communicate.)

*update: I just noticed that there's another guy in the picture wearing a hoodie under his coat, haha I guess some people wear sweatshirts.

You can buy all kinds of matroshka dolls. There are Russian ones - new and traditional, Disney princesses, famous athletes, Santas, bunnies, astronauts, even unfinished ones that you can paint yourself (any requests?)

You can buy fur. Isn't it interesting that in America if people wear fur, they get flour or red paint thrown on them, but here people are covered from head to toe in it. I haven't bought one yet, but I plan to get a hat. Please don't throw red paint on me.

Instead of cross walks at most major roads and intersections, they have perekhods that go under the street. There are also a lot of babushkas dragging carts full of stuff behind them all over the city, so to accommodate them (and our little monkeys), they have these little tracks on the stairs. They are convenient for strollers, if your stroller fits (they are not standard sizes). But not all stairs have them. You never know.

In Russia...

You just never know.

*these pictures were taken in September

Back In The Day...

2010-12-15T03:17:00.003-05:00

Before we left the country...

We took a trip to New York!

It was just a quick couple of nights, and it was so much fun!

We had already moved out of our house and were staying in a hotel anyway, so we decided that hotel could be the Marriott Marquis in Times Square for a couple of nights. The view was awesome!

We took the kids to the "top of the Rock", played and shopped at the Nintendo store, went to FAO Schwartz (where Evelynn designed her own Barbie and watched it take a turn on the runway), rode the ferris wheel inside the huge Toys R Us store, and took a local's recommendation to eat lunch at Mars 2112. Do not eat at Mars 2112. (Unless you plan on taking a time machine back to 1982 when I'm sure it was an awesome, happening place) We thought it would be fun for the kids. It wasn't fun for the kids. Why do local recommendations never work for us? Tour books. That's what works for us.

We took the ferry to see Lady Liberty and Ellis Island, and then hightailed it on the New York subway back to check out of our hotel. I thought the subway would be a fun thing to do with the kids, and it was.

We asked a police officer in Times Square for a recommendation for lunch, and he suggested TGIFridays (do we never learn our lesson?), so we looked at the crowd outside Junior's across the street, and decided to head there instead (if there is a crowd, it's probably good right? plus, I think my Dad maybe used to eat there when he visited New York). It was delicious! And we picked up some cupcakes (of course) to-go before hopping in the car for the long drive back to our Maryland hotel (and note that the cupcakes got a little smashed on the ride, but don't they still look delicious?! they were! it's making my mouth water just thinking about it. will someone please open a cupcake shop in moscow!)

After School

2010-11-03T12:55:00.002-04:00

I love to provide my children with great experiences. Because of that, if there are convenient opportunities, I usually try to take them. Well, this time I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Evelynn's school offers plenty of convenient, fun, affordable activities. Combine that with the worry that I may go crazy stuck inside all winter in Moscow, and I signed up for everything under the sun. Or under the cloud cover as the case may be.

First, there are after school clubs. Jewelry Making, Cooking, Irish Dance, Roller Blading, Sports, Computers, Adventure Club, Under Water Basket Weaving (just kidding). They are all free, and they run in sessions, so your kids can try out several different ones. It's great.

Girl Scouts. Evie has been asking to do Girl Scouts for a few years. We sort of wandered into this one, and it has ended up being more of a hassle than it was worth. They wanted me to be the leader. I'm not the leader. I'll leave it at that. But I will say that Evelynn still loves it, which is the only reason she's still doing it.

Of course Evelynn has to do ballet. Especially with a Russian teacher. Check him out. :) And they get to do 15 minutes of hip hop at the end, which is hilarious to me. Especially when she comes out of ballet singing MC Hammer's Can't Touch This.

And flex... and point... and flex... and point...

She also does swimming. Which this is not a picture of. I forgot my camera on the swimming day. She has swimming as part of her regular school week, but I wanted her (and Owen) to get some more practice, so we are doing after school once a week too. Ask me how I like that when the air is cold enough to turn their hair into icicles in less than a minute.

And we usually try to make it to the library once a week after school too. (also not pictured)

I have in my mind that the only thing that will keep me sane in the dark, cold winter is getting out. And if I don't commit to something now, then there's nothing that will convince me to go outside below freezing. So, if it doesn't kill me first then, the craziness of these after school activities may just be what saves me.

I'll let you know sometime in May.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T11:21:00.003-04:00

The school here has an Autumn Break (no Thanksgiving) that falls on Halloween. There are a lot of North Americans and others wishing to celebrate Halloween in our neighborhood (who doesn't want free candy? Okay, technically it's not free when you have to spend $50 to pass it out). Many of these families are out of town on Halloween due to the fall break, so traditionally, they celebrate it the week before. So, we had a primary Halloween party and went trick-or-treating/passed out candy last Saturday. And for the record, we gave out about 350 pieces of candy in about an hour and a half (one to two pieces of candy per kid).

Evelynn was Princess Peach, Owen was going to be Luigi, and Barb was going to be Toad. Then, last minute Owen decided he could not live if he could not be Toad for Halloween (maybe a slight exaggeration), so I searched for a plan B for Barb (haha, get it, plan B? Barb?). I happened upon this Toadette hat on ebay, decided it was really the only option, and paid way too much for it. Then, I was going to make some alterations to it, and have her wear all pink.

She would have none of it. She wouldn't keep it on for more than half a second. So, she hung out at home while the other kids participated in Halloween festivities. We'll see if she tries that again next year...

The kids decorated the front window with some window markers I brought. (oh, and I helped)

Then, we turned on some spooky music and had our traditional family Halloween party. The tradition that I created, so that the kids wouldn't feel bad about not going out trick-or-treating, which they ended up doing this year anyway (usually I let them go to only the houses of people we know - well, we've never lived in a neighborhood where we know more that five people, so it got a little complicated this year, and I just threw in the towel).

And we had a yummy Halloween feast!

sources:

plates- oriental trading company, glasses- mother-in-law, fruit- one of the little old ladies in sort of wooden booths outside the metro on Dave's way home from work (I was going to make fruit kebabs like last year, but I guess I didn't bring my skewers. oops.), pizza crust for "cheesy candy corn"- this recipe (all ingredients procured locally), cheese on top- locally, hot dogs- commissary (although you can find some locally, this was just most convenient this time... and I am a little afraid of unfamiliar brands of hot dogs), dough for wrapping the "mummy dogs"- locally (the dough is called tyesta. it comes frozen in one giant roll, and it's similar to pillsbury crescent roll dough, but not as buttery), apple fanta, ketchup (or kyetchoop), and nasty mustard- local stores, regular mustard- commissary, oreos for dirt cups- commissary, chocolate pudding mix- I bought it from someone who is moving, milk for the pudding mix- commissary, gummy snakes- locally.

That's it.

Happy Halloween!!!

We Live in A Super Mario World

2010-10-30T10:06:00.003-04:00

100% store bought. It was a sad sad day for me.

But if you think they are not 100% happy... well, you'd be wrong.

And if you think they aren't totally posing... well, you'd be wrong about that too.

Just kidding about all the you'd be wrong stuff. But they really are totally happy, and totally posing.

We love Halloween!

"Pumpkin Patch"

2010-10-29T09:19:00.001-04:00

No Halloween in Russia = no pumpkin patch in Russia.

That's one thing I love about our time in Maryland - a fall family photo at the pumpkin patch every year. And when I say pumpkin patch, I guess I really mean farm, because the "pumpkin patches" that I grew up with were more like a bunch of hay bales piled with pumpkins in the corner parking lot.

So, the Girl Scouts do a pumpkin sale here at the school every year, and that, my friends, was our pumpkin patch this year.

Technically, I think it should have been called a squash sale, because while the shape and size of some of the products may have resembled pumpkins... the color was a little off.

Is there a rule that says orange pumpkins can only be grown in the United States?

Everyone adhered to the family rule - you have to be able to carry it.

(But I think Barb cheated a little, because she was in the stroller. I could carry a pumpkin - or squash - bigger than me if I could be pushed around in a stroller, too!)

Ready for Halloween!

(and if you think I'm going to try to carve those things... well you're wrong. although several of our neighbors have done an admirable job with theirs.)

Our community also hosted a "pumpkin patch" but not at a time when we could all go. And also it was super windy and raining, so Owen and I ran and grabbed a mini little pumpkin and some cold food, and ran home.

We'll have to find somewhere else to take pictures this year.

Transportation

2010-10-25T06:23:00.002-04:00

This is the Moscow Metro.

I take it everywhere.

Okay, well I take it to the embassy.

And that's about it.

On weekends, we take it around town - sightseeing, shopping for ballet shoes, to District Conference. To McDonalds. :)

No one smiles.

And always someone gives me their seat (I usually have Barb in the Baby Bjorn).

Always.

And if I don't take their seat (like if my stop is next, and I say no thank you), sometimes they get mad.

Or sometimes, other people who are standing will get mad at people who are sitting and tell them to move, so I can sit down.

One time this lady got one person to move, and then three people to slide down, so I could sit down.

People are always very nice about helping when you have children around here.

But they still don't smile.

These are the biiiiggg, loooonnng escalators they have going down into the metro stations (some are shorter). They are very steep, and give me vertigo, and make me freak out about my kids falling down on them every time we go on them. People always stand to the right, and those who are walking can walk up the left. If only they could figure that out on the street.

This is Moscow traffic:

And see that white van straight ahead? It's an ambulance. No one moves for ambulances. But I don't really blame them, because the rumor is that some ambulances will take money to give people rides, like a taxi. We just pray that we will never need an ambulance in Moscow.

And traffic really isn't like this all the time.

But I'm probably not a good judge, because I don't get out in the car very much.

At least not yet.

Because this:

This is our car!!! And, after a long boat ride, it's somewhere in this country!

Hopefully, we will be getting it this week! and then....

Well, I don't know what then, because I still don't speak Russian, but at least then I'll have my car!

Oh, I know! Then, we won't have to try to find a ride to church every week!

And we'll have our car!

Lest We Think She Be Forgotten

2010-10-25T04:20:00.003-04:00

We asked Evie if she wanted to "celebrate" her birthday (read: open her presents) before we moved or after. She decided she wanted to celebrate together on her Dad's birthday.

So, we did our traditional treasure/present hunt for them, and they opened their gifts before Dave had to go to work. Then after Evie's favorite dinner, macaroni and cheese, we had some cake and ice cream. Evie picked the ice cream, and Dave picked the cake, because he had to have his traditional pineapple upside down cake (which we bought instead of made, because it was less than a week before the movers came). Evie had wanted some Costco cupcakes, but she made the sacrifice for Dave :) (okay, let's be honest, I was the one who was really disappointed about the Costco cupcakes. I've been wanting to buy them for years, and now I won't get a chance for at least two more years!!!).

Then...

Evie's Birthday, Round Two came in our very first package after getting here!

Dave's parents sent her present and a few things for the family.

And that's not all...

Round Three: these yummy cookies I baked to send to school on her actual birthday (I had to buy a pan from Ikea, because our stuff wasn't here, and Dave got most of the ingredients from the commissary).

And, finally, Round Four: Calling Grandparents so they could wish her a Happy Birthday!, her favorite macaroni and cheese again (from the commissary), and this gorgeous cake from the French bakery we found!!!

She also got to choose a Ken doll on our trip to New York (a gift from Grandma), got a birthday card with money from Great-Grandma, and a gift and a treat from some cute neighbors here. Lucky girl had a two and a half month long birthday!

Happy Birthday, Ev! Thanks for being awesome!

P.S. She walked herself to school today. Sniff, sniff.

She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain...

2010-10-25T03:42:00.002-04:00

I tried to get her crawling, but I got this instead.

(and sorry about the title... it's just been in my head!)

A Few Pictures For The Previous Post...

2010-10-25T01:58:00.005-04:00

I found a few pictures to go along with my lists...

The honey festival was crazy. Rows and rows of tent/booths and everyone selling pretty much the same thing... honey! And you could try all their different types (all with different healing properties). We bought a few types of honey, some honeycomb, some bee pollen, some "linament" (this was Dave's translation), and some other little balls of stuff that the lady tried to explain to Dave, but he didn't really understand. Later he looked it up online, and figured it was probably this propolis stuff.

No one around here uses training wheels. I'm talking, even the three-year-olds are riding two wheelers. Apparently it's because they all get these little "pre-bikes" and toddle around on them until they are basically riding without the pedals. Once our bikes got here, Evelynn went out with a couple of girls one day, and came in saying she knew how to ride a bike now. I didn't believe her, but the next day we went out, and sure enough... she had joined the gang of kids looping and zooming around the street. Okay, maybe not that proficient yet, but pretty good!

Ahhhh, dear, sweet, Papa John's... how I love you....

We tried to order Papa John's for delivery here THREE TIMES!!! Three times after we SAW the Papa John's delivery car around the corner! And they won't come. Three times after our neighbors ordered it, and they delivered! Two doors down! And they won't come. So, one Saturday morning when Dave was going by their metro stop, he got off and picked some up and brought it home (sorry, if you are reading this neighbors, when we finally get some delivery, we'll share!). Russia is funny.

We got our stuff! Yay! Now, we just need to switch out some of our furniture (things we aren't using, for things we need, and hopefully get a new sleeper sofa, for an old stinky one) and hang our pictures on the wall...

(and Owen's hat is from Land's End, not Russia, in case you were wondering.)

Lists.

2010-10-19T04:00:00.004-04:00

I am trying to get to the point where I can blog just a little each day, so you can sort of see in real time what my life is like here in the Russian Federation.

Getting to that point is harder than I thought.

Especially when your baby gets four teeth in one week. And then another four teeth in another week. Getting anything done in that case is difficult really.

So, in the meantime I am going to just throw a couple of lists up here. Because I keep wanting to mention these things, and if I post them, then they will be off my mind. And I'm really sorry. This post will probably not contain any pictures.

First:

Dave's Favorite Things About Being Here

(not in any particular order)

1. The skylight over our stairs.

2. Shawarmas from the street vendors. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'm not kidding.

3. Trash day is... are you ready for this.... drum roll please... Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. and Friday. And maybe even Saturday.

4. I think there was one more thing, but I can't remember.

We shipped our stuff in two shipments - a smaller, quicker shipment that we got before I got here with clothes, a few toys, some diapers, a couple kitchen appliances, and a few other things, and then the rest of our stuff. We got the rest of our stuff this week, so in honor of that, our second list:

Things I Was Most Excited to See in Unpacking:

1. the vacuum! Next time that one's going in the first shipment!

2. My one bottle of Mrs. Myers basil scented liquid hand soap (I wish I had packed more of that!)

3. Costco garbage bags

4. Costco toilet paper (I wish I had packed more of that!)

5. My mousepad/desk accessories

6. My shoe basket. One step closer to organizing the bottomless pile of winter wear in our entryway!

7. Our Ikea stool. We will be purchasing at least one more of these. Thank goodness for Ikea!

8. Gerber Graduates puff finger foods for Barb.

9. Fall/Halloween decoration

10. A 13x9 Pyrex.

11. Vitamin C!!!

Dave was most excited about his board games, Evelynn about her bike, and Owen about the Wii. He told me a few weeks ago that he wanted to move back to our old house in Maryland. Because he wanted to play Wii and the boat was taking too long to get here.

Things That Were Broken in Shipping

1. The Crock Pot. boooo!!! It has yet to be replaced.

2. A piano leg. A little glue and we can live with that.

Not bad considering how some of the things were packed.

Fourth:

Since We've Been Here...

1. Barb has gotten eight teeth.

2. Evie has learned to ride a bike.

3. Dave and I have both lost 10 pounds.

4. I have been sick THREE times!!! It feels like I've had a cold for six weeks!

5. We have met three other little boys named Owen - two of them go to Owen's preschool.

6. We have been to see Red Square with the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral, the old Arbat, Tsaritsino and a nearby honey festival, and the Izmailovo market.

7. We have eaten at McDonald's three times (they are everywhere) and Papa John's once.

8. I have figured out how to do THIS:

by myself.

8. I also ordered Стардог!s by myself from a street vendor! Booyah!

9. I have not learned Russian.

That's it for today ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for helping me take a load off.

Ode to Target

2010-10-10T04:31:00.005-04:00

I love you Target,

Oh, yes I do.

I love the things you sell,

And I'll be true.

When you're not near to me,

I'm blue.

Oh, Target,

I love you.

*note to Heatherlyn: this song was taken from mail call at your girl's camp one year when someone had to sing to get her letter from Kenny. For some reason I've always remembered it.

Owen-isms

2010-10-10T01:06:00.002-04:00

We've had an interesting evolution in Owen's prayers recently.

It seems like we've been trying to teach him for a long time to really think about his prayers, rather than just repeating what we say or quickly spitting a couple of things out and ending the prayer as soon as possible.

A few weeks ago one of his grandfathers had surgery, and for some reason that seemed to hit home with him. Every prayer for over a week (meal prayers included), he would ask that Grandpa get better from his surgery and not get any more kidney stones.

And now.... we've entered a whole new world of prayers from Owen.

Owen's family prayer the other night included such gems as:

"...please bless everyone in our family, I mean everyone in the world to get better in three days like (what's His name? Jesus?) after he died...."

and

"...please bless everything twice and thank triple...."

So if you need any special blessings, just let us know.

We'll pass it on to Owen.

The First Day of School

2010-10-03T05:10:00.003-04:00

Okay, so technically it was the first Thursday of the third week of school, but who's counting?

First grade.

And for the record, this is the only time she has ever worn this outfit. I'm not sure what that means, but it's just for the record.

We got school supplies before we left the States, and I'm so glad we did! (see previous post) It took a long time to finally decide on this back pack, so I wanted to make sure to get a picture of it.

The school is about a five to ten minute walk (depending on Owen's shoes), so twice a day each day, we all get packed up and trek down there. If it's dry, Barb gets a ride in the stroller. If it's wet, she gets a ride on my hip or in the Baby Bjorn (at least until the weather shield I ordered for the stroller gets here).

So far, we love the school! It's a little more relaxed than our last school (two recesses! yay!), and has tons of extra curricular opportunities, so where Evelynn may not be getting the same "classroom" learning she was getting last year, she is getting a lot of social (and cultural!) education.

The school also has a middle school and high school, and with all of the parents all over the place all of the time has an interesting community feel to it - almost like a small college (and out of 18 kids in Evelynn's class, they speak at least 12 different languages!). We use the cafeteria and the libraries regularly.

Owen is at a preschool that is also a five to ten minute walk (no pictures of his first day of school either - it all happened so quickly!). I don't know exactly why it's so perfect - whether the teachers, the fact that it's Montessori, Owen's age, I'm not sure, but it all seems to be working out so well, that I'm inclined to give equal credit to all. Right now he only goes three mornings a week, but I may add some time... if I could just... let... go....

A Sunday Stroll

2010-09-26T09:22:00.005-04:00

Our first Sunday in town was also our first full day in town. We had jetlag pretty bad, and it was gloomy and rainy, so we mostly just hung out around home and tried to stay awake. Our second Sunday, the weather was much nicer, so we decided to go out exploring (well, it was more of Dave showing us around than exploring, since he had done all of the exploring before the kids and I got here).

Walking through our neighborhood (which we LOVE!).

My girls with some cool Russian sidewalk behind them.

Owen's Bowser face. He loves to do this in pictures.

We walked over this bridge that has a pretty view. There were several couples kind of cuddling, and Dave says he thinks it's a popular date spot. So, we joined them.

We asked Evie to take the picture, and then sneaked a kiss while she took it.

"Ew, gross. I can not believe I just did that. I can't believe I took a picture of you guys kissing!"

And home through a Russian neighborhood.

(this picture is actually of the dog in the dead center, but I waited too long to take the picture, and now it's too far away. I wanted a picture of it, because it's a wild dog, and they are pretty much everywhere here.)

Welcome to a little of our Moscow. :)

Packages

2010-09-25T11:36:00.002-04:00

Please ignore the tired, haggard looking lady in the photo. it wasn't the best picture of her, but she took a hit, because... well just look at the little munchkin next to her.

She's helping me open our package from Land's End. So far, I've been able to find pretty much anything I need here at local stores, BUT there is definitely something to be said about brands (and the language) you are familiar with. Hence the winter clothes from Land's End. And aside from that, we don't have a car yet, so it takes a lot of effort to get anywhere, and I don't speak or read the language here, so it takes a lot of effort to find what I am looking for, and then I have to get it home. With free shipping to our DPO, it's just a lot more convenient to order things online. Even if it does take a couple of extra weeks.

Baby

2010-09-23T04:09:00.002-04:00

Barb has adjusted really well to our new home.

She's been busy clapping, and waving to everyone we walk past everywhere (even though only half the people know she's actually waving and not just wiggling her cute little arm). Being one of very few babies out and about, she attracts a lot of attention. My favorite are the random babushkas who speak like five minutes of straight Russian to her (I'm told they are saying she isn't dressed properly for the weather, but I just smile and nod - I'm such a good foreigner).

She's doing the best she can to try to figure out how to get anything and everything into her mouth....

...because now she has some teeth! What a big girl!

And, some of you may find it hard to believe, but she's also doing some of this:

and would you believe how cute it is?!

This one is never growing up. I won't let her. I've already done that twice. The world doesn't need another grown up, anyway.

Little Man

2010-09-23T03:06:00.005-04:00

Okay, so at Owen's school, they are doing some thing where they asked for pictures of him growing up, and while I was gathering these (and loving them), I decided to throw them up here on the blog, and see if I can't ease my way back into this thing.

So, without further adieu (or would that be ado?)...

Owen!:

Baltimore, Maryland 2005

Provo, Utah 2006

Waialae, Hawaii 2007

Corona Del Mar, California 2008

Kapolei, Hawaii 2009

Newport Beach, California 2010

I think I really thought he would be my baby forever. I don't know why he thinks he can just grow up on me, crazy kid. At least he still needs me to wipe his nose (sorry, should have edited that out).

And while I'm on the subject... his new preschool is AWESOME! It has been the perfect school for him, and combined with the independence he has gained from our move (great neighborhood, neighbors, playground = much more freedom), we are loving life!

Stay tuned for Beach Picture 2011, it's going to be somewhere awesome! (I think)

P.S. We did go to the beach in 2006, but I didn't take any pictures, dang it!

P.P.S. Photos and boy copyright Me. All modeling and advertising agencies please contact me directly for terms of use.

Well Hullo There...

2010-07-25T22:01:00.004-04:00

Fancy meeting you here. Do you come here often? I am hardly ever here...

Okay, sorry.

Here's the deal:

We're moving to Russia.

That's right. You heard me.

Russia.

Here's the skinny: My husband (Dave - in case you weren't clear on that) works for the State Department, aaannddd... they are moving us to Russia. Moscow.

I'm not kidding.

We are flying out in about three weeks, and we'll be there for two years.

Yikes! and Yay! describe my feelings the best. Sometimes more one than the other.

My life has been a huge whirlwind of cleaning, packing, sorting, stocking, throwing out, et cetera over the past couple of months. Ideally, things will slow down here in a couple of weeks, and I'll be able to keep you apprised of our adventures, but we won't know until that happens, so stay tuned!

And for the photo hungry masses:

She had a white bow in her hair, but it got soiled.

Don't ask.

P.S. I disallowed comments as part of my new simplification of life, so if you're looking for a link (like I know you all are), you won't find it. Besides I already know you all think my baby's blue eyes are amazing and my new haircut is super cute. Right? right? I can't hear you?

A Blog Post

2010-05-08T01:15:00.001-04:00

It's 1 o'clock in the morning.
Dave is out of town, so I am still up.
Because I wait up for him.
Not on purpose,
but
it's just what I do.
And I never realize it,
and will in fact deny it
until he is out of town.
And then I realize it.
He'll be back tomorrow.
And then I won't wait up for him anymore.
Owen is asleep on the couch.
He had a bad dream about bugs.
I just finished three episodes of
The Donna Reed Show.
On Hulu.
And I've decided I really, really need a haircut.
I just needed to tell someone those things, and who else can I tell these things
at 1 o'clock in the morning?
And here are some pictures,
because I think I've figured out

that I do the blog for the writing,
and you read the blog for the pictures.
Right?

Today's To-Do List

2010-04-20T09:28:00.002-04:00

Here's a sample of my to-do list:

clean the kitchen
figure out what's wrong with the vacuum
vacuum
schedule owen's dr appointment
post something on my blog
post the back up of pictures on the morning blog
take owen to gym class
go to the gym
finish disney photo books!
email photos to dad
put family reunion photos on cds
mail stuff to cher
wash towels
wash sheets
call dr about hospital bill
etc...

But guess what?
I'm not going to do it. Any of it. Do you know why? Because Owen is sick. Only sort of sick, but sick enough that I don't feel bad letting him chill out and watch netflix shows all morning. And it's 9:30 and my baby is still sleeping. And I'm tired. So, Im taking the day off. And I'm going to eat some of those cookies we made last night. And hang out with my baby. And my buddy. And read that book for book group on Thursday.

Well, at least until later this afternoon when not getting anything done might drive me crazy, and I might at least do something on the list.

Maybe.

Evie-isms

2010-04-20T09:22:00.002-04:00

Me (or Dave, I can't remember exactly - we were both there):

Well, we're hoping to go visit our cousins in Texas.

Evelynn (in a panic):

I don't want to go to Texas!! Ms. G went to Texas and her son got a DRAWL!!!
(complete with wide eyes and her own little southern drawl)

Snapshots

2010-03-11T12:17:00.001-05:00

America's next top model.

Last week, the kids were up to something in the kitchen...

Coloring on scotch tape and turning Owen into a Native American.

And in case you were wondering, it wasn't just any Native American...

Samuel the Lamanite

Barbara, one month old.

I may be wrong on the brown eye thing. They are getting more and more blue. The red hair is more of a reflection from my blanket, but her hair does have a red tint to it. And please excuse her hairline. Again with the lighting. In any case, she is adorable.

Getting into her snow gear. The girl loves playing in the snow!

If it weren't so cold, I would never put clothes on her! I love naked babies! (well, naked babies in diapers)

Here, Can You Pat My Back

2010-03-10T20:23:00.000-05:00

We don't really do Valentine's Day. Fortunately for Dave, I'm not into waiting four hours to get into a restaurant or paying double for flowers. And I pretty much eat chocolate every day, so what's the point of more? We both believe (queue violins) that every day should be Valentine's Day. Well, not exactly, but you know what I mean.

The only thing is... now we have kids. Older kids that are starting to hear more about Valentine's Day and get what it's all about. And while I feel that there is enough romance in my relationship, I don't know that my kids see or know that. And I think they should.

So, I decided to surprise Dave with a little date and let the kids in on it (they have proven worthy to keep surprises on the down-low in the past).

It was a lot of fun for me and the kids, and I think Dave enjoyed it to.

We got a babysitter for the older two, took the baby to the kid zone at the gym, so we could have a little baby free time, and went upstairs to play video games (the gym has a game room with exercise oriented/interactive video games). Then we grabbed some burgers and perused the bookstore. So romantic, I know. Hey, we have to be us.

Oh yeah, and I got this:

The whole date was pretty much planned around this shirt. I love it!

Now, somebody give Dave a hint. It's my turn for a surprise.

(but make sure I get enough notice to clean the house, take care of the baby, shower, and get ready. :) I wonder why he doesn't try to surprise me. :)

Did I Mention The Snow?

2010-03-10T14:10:00.000-05:00

The historic back to back blizzards of twenty ten?

Did I mention that?

Good thing it hardly snows of any consequence in Maryland, so their management is a little lacking (we're talking tractors shoveling snow off the freeway and dump trucks packing snow out of the cul-de-sac behind us), and the kids and Dave got an entire week out of school and work to enjoy it! I think it was a good year for snow clothes.

Yay for snow!

Resident Artist

2010-03-09T19:47:00.000-05:00

We may be biased, but we think that Evelynn is a gifted artist. We love her art. And she loves to create art, so it's really a win-win situation around here. Art art art!

I think Owen could definitely be a good artist too, but he hasn't really shown a lot of interest, and so we don't end up encouraging it, and it just kind of spirals downward from there. And on top of that, he has an older sister who likes to tell him that she can also do what he is doing and do it better. Well, usually she can, because she is older, but he doesn't see it that way, and I think he feels a little competitive about it, and so in general he doesn't show much interest. I've been working on it though, so hopefully he will become more artistic. I think art is a fantastic form of self-expression and a great way to feel a sense of accomplishment. I really like art.

Anyway...

A piece of Evelynn's art was chosen (I have no idea what the requirements were) by her art teacher at school for a local art exhibit for elementary and middle school students! Yay, Evelynn!

They had a reception last week while Dave was in class, so I took the kids. We had cookies and apple juice and checked out some art.

Here's Evelynn's piece:

And the artist:

(I wish they would have hung the Kindergarten stuff a little lower)

She was pretty happy about it.

And so were we. In fact, it could be that her art was chosen simply because her parents express an interest in it, but even if that's the case, it gets her excited about art, and I'm excited about that!

But I'm wondering... do your older kids make your younger kids feel insecure about things? How do you deal with it?