Pictures taken in our home, or close by---Snowy Days!!

Christmas Program

A teacher gift is used! Happy New Years---CNovom Godom!

Can you tell me which of these pictures show a teacher's gift being used?  The sparklers were gifted to Melissa and her 2nd and 3rd grade class mates--along with a fire cracker:)   It's one of those, you know you are in Russia, when....  Fire crackers are in grocery stores here around New Years and oh so popular!  It's very common to give sparklers and these pop fire crackers that spray out confetti--after they have a mini fire explosion when you pull the cord!  We hung out with friends from Ohio on New Years and we had such a nice time with them.  We had sloppy joes that were absolutely delicious!  They have two kids and our kids just love theirs!  Melissa is in the same class with them at school.  We thank God for the whole family being here in Russia with us.

Fun pics!

My friends Megan and Nelly!!














Megan, Matthew and Nelly

















The girls after we cut bangs or as they say in Brittish English--fringes!

Cookie Fun!

Cookie--time---this happened before Christmas---sorry about my slowness.  My friend Sue is such a home maker and great mom who is full of ideas---so---I have to get all my cute ideas from her!  She is so innovative and I like to follow her ideas...so this was one of them.  No, I don't usually make Christmas cookies---but I think I will add it to our traditions!  The kids had a blast!

Sledding

Sledding is such a past time over here.  Some kids have real sleds, some just use wooden boards and sometimes they break apart a couch sitting outside for ways to slide even faster.(yes, we witnessed this one happening...wish I had a before and after picture, but I don't.  The couch was demolished by the end and yes, it was just sitting outside in the snow---someone didn't need it anymore???)

Christmas Morning Photos--2009

All the kids were esctatic with excitment...but they actually slept til 7am!  It helps that the sun doesn't come up til 9:30 or so.  Mimer and Papa had sent legos and purses for the kids with other friends who came over from the states---it was nice to have the extra personal touch.  Matthew is already asking when is Christmas?

The girls' school--Christmas Program

Katie's choir group signing....Katie has really grown up in her ability to keep a note!  So fun to see that she has a great teacher!                  

The second pic was of Melissa's class and the 1st graders(I think) singing Meleke leke Maka---Merry Christmas in Hawaiian.  The last picture is of the higher choir---they were amazing!!

December Snow fun

These are pictures of just snow fun right outside our apartment building.  The kids where all tackling daddy in the first picture.  This is when snow was white!  Back in December.

Christmas Fajita night

We went over to our friend's house for Fajitas in December---and we just had to take the photos just to show how smoky we got the apartment.  We had to disalarm the fire alarm.  No fire, just smoke.
Olga made homemade tortillas and we brought chips and homemade salsa.  One fine Mexican night!  The kids watched a movie while we worked on dinner(John and I really didn't do much other than watch the masters!).

The Whitehouse in Legos!

We thought this deserved a post of it's own...my brother, Stephen, and his wife, Cristina, live in DC and they gave the kids this perfect gift----something of them, something the kids love to do...they all sat down and put this together.