Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving pictures

Tiny Tulip Ballerina Kira

Kira started taking ballet classes for little girls. I so enjoy watching her there and at home when she puts on ballerina outfit.

Aaron's 1st Week at Kindergarten

 Aaron was very excited to start school for big kids. On the first day the whole family walked him to his new classroom and kissed him good-bye. And of course, we could not wait until he was done to tell us all about his first day experience. When asked about his teacher, Mrs. Bowers, he said: "She's good but pretty strict".
In the middle of the last week I received their class schedule. It had "Fun Friday" marked on each Friday of the month. When Aaron came home from school on Friday I asked him if they did anything special that day and he said no, it was a usual day. Then he asked me: "Why does it say Fun Friday if we did not do anything fun?" I said: "Well, on Monday when you go back to school you can ask your teacher why it was called Fun Friday and you did not do anything fun." He thought for a second and said: "No, I am not going to ask like that. What if the teacher tried hard to make it fun but it wasn't. She will be hurt if I ask her this way. I will just ask: "Why is it called "Fun Friday"?

Mackinac Island 2013

Click on the link below to see the pictures from our beautiful vacation.
Mackinac 2013

Aaron, 5, riding his bike!

It was so exciting to see Aaron holding his balance and pedaling his bike for the first time today. We have not practiced for a couple of weeks but he was especially motivated and determined to do it today. I told him if he learned to ride his bike today we could make a surprise for papa and send him a video. So he pressed on and did it!

As we went for a bike ride/walk we met Aaron's favorite playmate, Michael, who as of August 4 is no longer our neighbor.  But I was glad he and his parents were there to see Aaron riding his bike for the first time and having their phone camera to videotape this milestone for me.

Adrian's Visit and Hershey Park

We spent past Saturday at Hershey Park in PA with cousin Adrian. It was a great time. Here are a few pictures:

June 2013

I uploaded some pictures from our trip to the water park with Susie and Mark as well as our trip to Indianapolis. Enjoy!
June 2013 pictures

Memorial Day Weekend. Busch Gardens 2013

Please, click on the link to see the pictures Busch Gardens Trip 2013

Happy Holidays 2012-2013

Here is a link to our pictures from the trip to Indianapolis and Pittsburgh during Christmas and New Year holidays. We had a great time and lots of good memories. The kids loved playing in the snow. Especially Aaron. So here are the pictures Holidays 2012-2013

Happy 2nd Birthday to Kira!

Thank you all for the warm wishes. She's such a joy!
The swimsuit on top of her leggings and dress was not my idea:)

Just a few pictures

The kids are enjoying the warm weather.

So thankful for these...

Aaron has been very sick lately. The past two weeks have been quite an emotional roller coaster for us. We dug into and over analyzed any possible diagnosis that would match his symptoms. Thankfully he's getting better. The Dr. believes it was a bad case of an acute viral stomach infection. He will be undergoing some more testing but so far he's feeling better. And I hope and pray he keeps it up. God has taught me some things through these trials in the past couple of weeks. And I think the most important for me was to learn to focus on what is really important and see how trivial other "problems" are.
So happy to see his smile.

Susie's visit and Cox Farms

The kids had a great time with their Great Aunt Susie in the past couple of days. And they were sad to say good bye.

And today we visited Cox farms. The kids had so much fun and we didn't even have enough time to try all the rides and activities. Kira and Aaron fell asleep instantly tonight.
Here are the pictures
Cox Farm

Fun times in Chicago

Scarlatina

4 days ago Kira was running high fever for 3 days. At the end she broke out in rash. I took her to the doctor and it turned out she had strep throat. She was put on antibiotic but the next day I noticed her rash became worse and covered more areas on her body. I took her back to a pediatrician thinking it might be an allergic reaction to the antibiotic, and she was diagnosed with scarlatina.

Sweet scarlatina face

 Tea party

 Aaron and his knights

Tea party with her friends in a tent

A week in Pittsburgh

Last week I and the kids spent time in Evans City with the cousins and Seriy and Jules. We also got to celebrate Nikolai's Birthday with him. Pictures will say more than words, I think:)

The kids were always on the go, at least one of them. So this is the only good picture of all four of them sitting still, watching TV.

Pictures are here.



More videos

Fun in Pittsburgh

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Cliff is working late, I am not hungry, the kids are enjoying their favorite dinner (pasta, meat sticks, fresh tomato from our garden) in front of TV watchin Dora the Explorer. Why not?:)

Mama, tell me a story...

Today, Aaron asked me:

-Mama, tell me a story where a boy was crying "Wolf! Wolf" and people ran to help him, but he was just kidding. And the second time he was crying "Wolf!  Wolf!", and people ran again to help him but he was kidding again. And the thrid time he was crying "Wolf! Wolf!" and there was a wolf but nobody came to rescue and then he took a stick and made a bow and arrow with it and chased the wolf away.
-I don't know what else to add, you just told me the whole story:)