Holiday modelling

Ho, Ho, Who?

The Embassy community tries to set up a normal set of events that celebrate U.S. holidays.  Here we have the Holiday party at the Deputy's house.  Miss S was quite excited to sit on Santa's knee, in part as she realized it resulted in a treat at the end.  Our dear 3 year old wouldn't sit still, and had no interest in getting a photo taken.  She is a smart cookie, and realized she'd get treats anyway (which she did.) 

And for the record, the requested toy was a Mermaid Barbie, which Santa managed to deliver, so well done, Miss S!

Moving from pre-school to Kindergarten (or Year 1 as they call it here) is quite a big deal, not least as the girls graduate to the uniform you see here. An idiosyncracy of New Zealand is that the kids move up to Year 1 the day after they turn 5, regardless of when it is during the year.  So we had our transition in September of 2012 to Ms Ongley's class, with a whopping 6 kids in it.  Girls who come in after June 30 complete the year and then do another full year, those before June 30 may end up only doing six or seven months of Year 1.  Got it?

And now on to the uniform: A full tie - with Windsor knot - for 5 year olds?  Still beyond my capabilities.  And what you are viewing is the summer form, with light blue Orphan-Annie-workhouse-drab as they key component.  We wear this from October to April, and then the winter uniform, which has a navy jumper and light blue button down, is actually quite a bit cuter.  Although the initial financial outlay is a bit steep, over time I figure the cost per use makes it a wise investment.  Not least because no one but me in the family is a morning person. I am typically dragging people into the car half-dressed and grumpy (me AND them.) 

Final (Sniff!) Embassy Playgroups

It was with great sadness that we started counting down our last Wendesday afternoon playgroups with the Embassy kids.  I managed to stop by Abby’s house for one in early May, and snapped some shots of the girls, well, running around.  Here’s a good one of Lyuda and her girls.

We love Lyuda!

Our first Bicycle

A direct outgrowth of the ANZAC lunch was the gifting to us of a child's bicycle that our friends are no longer using. Miss S was over the moon.  She's seen bicycles, and ridden on the back, but never had her own.  We tried to ride it in the park down the street, but the road was so bumpy that the training wheels kept getting stuck.  So she rides it in the apartment.  My favorite thing is when she wakes up in the morning, she hops on her bicycle to ride from her bedroom to the living room.  And lest you think we let the little kids have all the fun, here's photographic proof of "Mr. Hot Wheels" doing some tricks. 
And once I upload our current photos, there may or may not be a photo of GranDora riding the bicycle as well...

The Laleka April Fairy Tale Spectacular! (Video)

The performance are always extravagant.  We were chosen once again to be a frog, but of course I didn't really have a good costume (still.)  Thankfully the school was able to provide a great frog hat (where were they hiding it last time???)  There were three froggies, and all of their names started with "S."  My favorite part is near the end when they pretend to eat the flies.  Classic!

The Laleka April Fairy Tale Spectacular! (Pictures)

And once again, we are back at beautiful Laleka during a workday to view a perfomance by the "Younger Class."  My daughter, foe the second time in a row, played the role of "Frog."  This time, though, you'll notice that they managed to give her an awesome hat.  Excuse me - where was that last time??So in this "spectacle" they acted out the fairy tale "Happy Hut" or "Veselinka Khatinka."  All of the groups of animals come up and act out their song, and then knock on the door of the hut (which she's sitting next to in the bottom photo) and go inside - figuratively, since these are all 3 years old, and cramming them together, while fun to watch, wouldn't end well.  Finally, at the end a bear joins in, and something happened, but since I don't speak Ukrainian, it's still a bit of a cliff-hanger for me.  I guess I could watch all of the video if I cared to.

Bunnies, Mice, Frogs.

And then at the end the awesome nursery teacher who does the planning for these events came out dressed as something - a raincloud?  Regardless, she had a big bunch of blue balloons shaped like a raincloud, and each kid got to do a circuit with her.  They loved it.

And the obligatory gift was provided at the end - thankfully not edible.  It's a great workbook... in Ukrainian.  I can figure it out, though, as the concepts of matching and grouping transcend linguistic ability.

Best frog EVER!

Poster child for Phila Horticultural Society!

OK, so older sister isn't in a flower dress, but I thought it was a nice picture, and worthy of inclusion.  In the other photos, the little Miss G is modeling a great dress covered in what I consider "'80s puffy paint" with lady bugs, flowers and bees.  When she put it on, all I could think was that GranDora and PHS would appove.  So enjoy the photos of my uncooperative model in her cute, cute (free) dress!

Bath time

It's hard to find a tasteful picture of your kids in the bath, but hopefully this won't offend anyone's sensibillities.  We have a great kidney-bean shaped Jacuzzi bath here, with glass doors that when closed provide a completely waterproof environment.  I can already see how this could be a problem when we move to a shower/bath that does not allow copious amounts of splashing without soaking the surrounding environment.  I like the photo below, as our youngest looks a little bit like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining."  She's a Miss Chief, that one is....

Preschool Productions (TM)

One of the most fun (or funniest) aspects of S's nursery school is the production schedule. We showed you some highights from the Fall show, and in February they presented their winter cycle. All of the children were assigned an animal to represent. My daughter was a mouse. I dutifully sewed cute mouse ears and cut some felt to make a pink mouse tummy on a gray outfit. The play was scheduled for Wednesday February 9. On Monday morning I was informed that my daughter wanted to be a fox. Oohhh-kaaay. For those who know my well, you are aware that the Martha Stewart gene is strongly expressed in my mother, but apparently skips a generation. I can do the basics, but whipping up a fox costume on the fly while working full-time was not in my repetoire. So. Home Monday night, get some more felt, make some orange/pink ears (sadly set really awesome mouse ears aside.) Find orange dress and brown pants (we don't have orange pants on hand, sorry, it's not her style, you know.) Realize I have a faux-fur collar from a suit that I never wear. Get to school and get told by nanny, teachers that they even have a little costume with vest and tail (seen in the video.) Mumble under breath about time wasted stressing on costume when it could have been really simple.

I wanted to upload the video of the foxes doing their dance, but S only goes part-time to school, so she's not 100% on the choreography. And since she was training as a mouse until the week before... well, it's not her best work, and I would hate for it to haunt her later. So what I am uploading is the video of the middle of the production, where the woman dressed as a giant snowman (a lovely, lovely teacher, BTW) brings out the "snowballs" for the kids to throw. I thought it was brilliant and inspired. They are really great at this school at combining the whole production concept with the kinds of things that 3-4 year olds will actually do. It makes me feel better about the fact that we are shelling out the "big bucks" (for Kyiv) to send her here. $500 a month may be low in the US, but if I'd sent her to the local Ukrainian pre-school it's 130 Ukrainian Hryvnia, or about $15 month. I justify it quite easily, and she loves her classmates, her Russian is better (I don't know if she speaks Ukrainian, but she must understand some since they speak to her in it), her art skills are growing by leaps and bounds, and of course, most importantly, she now has a video repetoire in case I ever become a momager and send her to Hollywood! So enjoy the snowball fight:
Shortly on the heels of the February performance is the mandatory International Women's Day performance. In case you didn't know, it falls on March 8 and is celebrated in over 100 countries. So this was the "Mommy" performance. They have the most heartbreakingly adorable songs, all revolving around "Momatchka." This time we were assigned the role of "Frog." You can imagine my delight. We are awash is animal-type costumes, but seriously, who owns a frog costume for their kid? And again, I am too cheap to rent a costume (I do have the numbers of two places, though, in case my thriftiness is threatened by a short deadline.) So I put her in green, made her a stomach and made some eyes for our hat. Thank you Mr. Internet for the ideas. Being goofy with the camera. All of the kids were doing their pre-play psyche and wanted to have their photos taken right up close to the camera.Here she is with some classmates, so you can see her classroom, and her teacher Irina over at the right. She's standing in the doorway to the room where they sleep. They have little trundle beds three deep. This being the former Soviet Union, they keep the room about 100 degrees even in the winter, so the kids sleep in their underwear. I think it's so hot the kids have no choice but to pass out.

So the little boy to her right is Joseph, who is a Canadian, and speaks Russian, Ukrainian, and English. To his right (the bee) is Samuel, who is a Slovakian-American and speaks English, Slovak, and Russian. I am starting to develop a complex that my poor children are only bi-lingual. But enough of my parental insecurities. Here are the great kids of her class.

Daddies Have Birthdays, Too!

And two days after Mommy's birthday, we have Daddy's birthday (so convenient!) We really enjoy the season of cake and cupcakes, especially since it keeps us on our holiday kick. And in the dead of winter, who doesn't like sugary baked goods? Ready, set, go!And guess who really gets the enjoyment out of birthdays? Not the birthday parent, but the assistant candle blower and cupcake eaters!Delicious! Especially the few crumbs that got into my mouth and aren't spread all over my body. Good thing this was followed by birthday bath time.

Mommies have Birthdays, Too!

Happy birthday to me! (Guess who blew out the candles?) Kyiv is sometimes cold and far from family. Thankfully we have Cousins Cameron and Robert, and their two kids around the corner. My birthday was on a weekend, and we'd been meaning to get together, and they invited us over for lots of fun. The photos aren't the best, but William is 5 (6 in April) and Max is about 2 months younger than our littlest (they would have been four weeks apart, if SOMEONE hadn't come so early!) The chocolate cake was delicious, Cameron is a wonderful cook, and we really just enjoy their company. The two littlest get along beautifully, although our precocious girl was walking at this point, and poor Max wasn't quite yet, so the fight for toys was a little unfair. But they had two high chairs, so everyone was fed, cutting down on the competition. And just a shot for flavor - this is what the back seat looks like. Lots of warm clothes and car seats. I can't compete with my brother, but I don't know if car seats per capita is a fight that I want to win, to be honest!

Happy First Birthday!

Our 1 year old star, complete with birthday dress made by GranDora, food all over her face, crazy Elmo socks and shockingly silver shoes. (I did change her into more appropriate tights for the party. But that's our girl, no slave to fashion, setting her own style pace and going for it! Oh, and showing off her great new chompers, as well - all the better to get at that birthday cake! Being a working mother is a struggle, with me constantly feeling that both work and family don't get 100% of my true capabilities. And let's not even mention "me" time! So it took me a while to organize an official first birthday party for our baby girl. We had it on January 8 (less than a month late!), which was a long weekend for Embassy folks, but since most of us are not Orthodox Christians, not really a holiday weekend. This meant that folks were free to come over and party! I limited the guest list this year to friends who have little ones under a year (and then our good buddies the Millers, just because we like them!) The Playgroup set here at Post is numbering well over 30, so it just isn't practical to invite everyone under 5 without getting out the riot gear and the emergency soporific music. Oh, and no matter when you have a party, it's someone's naptime, so there's always a bit of crankiness. Not exactly a restful recipe. So with all of this working against us, I still managed to get both girls dressed up, the place cleaned up and a cute, simple, yummy cake made up. We even had bruch for everyone!

And now for the exhilarating action sequence - here Mom brings out the birthday cake, to the delight of the few children old enough to have figured out that birthdays mean sugary treats (I invlude the adults in that group, as well.) And now big sister is fended off as she tries to "assist" by blowing out all of the candles. I love our friends' face at the end of the table - she is a wonderful little girl, and I can just tell that she's thinking - "enough pageantry, let's get to the good stuff!"Blow. Blow wind. Blow wind blow. All we want is a tug on the mainsail... no, that's another song for another day. Here we have the singing and the looking and posing and, ultimately, the blowing out of the small candles in the shape of her name (ooohhh, aaaahhh!)And the happy birthday girl - isn't she beautiful?

Happy Birthday to our big 1 Year Old!

Bring on the brownies!

When your birthday is in the middle of the week, the celebration tends to be subdued. However, we did have a special dinner with a special dessert and a candle for our newest arrival on her birthday. I opted for brownies instead of cake, just for something different, and also because I don't have any cake mixes left and little time to work from scratch in the middle of the week! I don't think the kids minded, they were all happy to have some chocolate. I did eventually get around to having a party, but in my tricky fashion, I held it on her original expected due date in January. At least that was my excuse for having it late. As I've mentioned before, it is really frowned upon here to celebrate before an event, it's considered bad luck since in theory you may not make it to the big date, so really I was just following local custom!

The Pageantry of Nursery School

The second in our series of performances at the Laleka nursery school. This one was on December 20 (remember, their Christmas is in January, so this is early for them.) In the holiday tradition here, you have fancy dress (costume) parties, so the girls would typically dress like a snowflake, hence the white, or the snow princess. Not my kid! Chose her own clothes - can you tell? Thankfully the dress resembles the Ukrainian flag, so I figured it sort of went with the theme. She likes to dress herself, and soon enough she'll be concerned about her appearance, so I let her run with it!

I should mention here that my husband is really the ace photographer and vidorgrapher. I had a hard time capturing the chaos. And this one wasn't as child-heavy as the previous performance, since it was only a few weeks later, so they hadn't learned as much, and S was in Florence and then sick for a week, so she wasn't up on the songs. In short, I will not subject you to video!

There was sort of a play, the Snow Princess (Shegurotchka) came out and wished the kids Merry Chrstimas. Then a man dressed as a polar bear came with his trunk of goodies. They left, and two men dressed as bandits came, and took the trunk (at which point one of the kids - keep in mind they are 3) burst into tears. So Snow Princess and polar bear return, and notice stolen trunk. The kids all have to call for Father Frost (Ded Moroz) who comes out and makes it all right, returns the trunk and brings them all presents.

Now Ded Moroz shouldn't be confused with Saint Nicholas, who they also have here, and who looks familiar in his red and white. Father Frost is less religious, and here Saint Nicholas' Day is December 19, and kids get some treats in their shoes, so he's not really a Christmas icon, more of a seasonal one. Confused yet? All you need to know is that here we celebrate from December 20 through January 13 (the "Old" New Year by the Julian calendar.)

Our budding star!

There are about 20 different videos of the 2 hour production, but I chose this one since she is singing in English here. The song is "Autumn is rainy, autumn is wet. Autumn is yellow, Autumn is red." Not surprisingly, she is a star at this song, since she is one of only two native English speakers. For weeks until the performance, she would sing this song to herself quietly. I think that that's why she applauds at the end, so excited to finally perform it live!

First Nursery School Performance

G loved the whole thing - she is so into music. And so proud of her big sister.

Waving the autumn leaves around.

The girls had to dress like berries and the boys like rabbits. I have no idea why, since it seemed to have no correlation to the songs they sang. But here the kids are running in a circle, although it looks like S is being chased by a rouge rabbit.

Don't Make Me Angry

You Won't Like Me When I'm Angry!

Mashed Potatoes

If there is one thing this baby loves, it is mashed potatoes. Preferrably as a facemask.

Our artist

Just a photo of our budding artist using her birthday gift, a nice easel and paints. Personally, I think the nanny enjoys using it more than our daughter, since when we come home the paintings we find are often more adult than I would expect from a 3 year old.