Cady Day!

Happy 8th Birthday, Cadence!

Cady decided the day before her birthday to have all the neighborhood kids over for a party.She got the 14 year old girl, Diana, who lives behind us, to help her invite all the other kids (10 of them in all).

They played Bop Em' and Twister. We introduced them to Jenga and some balloon games. They all brought Cady stuffed animals (her favorite toy!) and enjoyed cake that was made by the mother of one of the girls. Actually, that is a funny story...
We had a few families from the neighborhood over the other day in order to give them their first taste of Mexican/American food. One of the women is a baker at a fancy restaurant downtown. She makes the BEST cakes in all of Russia. She also makes the BIGGEST cakes in all of Russia! So, I couldn't bring myself to make Cady a cake when we had this huge yummy cake left over...

Yes, I served half a birthday cake. I am not proud of it, but you can't say I am not practical!
So, to finish the saga of the cake, it was set a little too close to the edge of the table and our dog licked a full inch of the cream off the back. Brooklyn helped destroy it from above.
The girls have had such a good time getting to know their neighbors. They could not have asked for a nicer bunch of kids to teach them a new culture and language.

We did masks instead of party hats. It added an atmosphere of mystery...

Registration Renewal!

Every 6 months we have to leave the country. Six months ago we renewed our one year visa, which required at least a week in a country other than Russia. This time we just had to cross the Russian border and get a stamp from another country in our passport.

We chose to save the time and money and drive 5 hours to the Ukrainian border. As we drove north, we watched the rain turn to snow. By the time we got to the border it was covering the ground and the girls just wanted to be turned loose to play in it!
Getting into Ukraine took a good hour, but when we wanted to turn right around and go back into Russia, they told us the law says we have to stay in Ukraine for three days... or go find another border station by which to enter Russia. Since we had left our little dog back at home, we figured we had better do what needed to be done.
We drove about 100 kilometers farther north to another city, and after asking directions of about four different people, found the border once again. We had left home at 6am and by 6pm we were sitting in a McDonalds in Rostov-on-Don (Russia) so grateful to have the ordeal behind us... for another 6 months...
India was VERY glad to see us when we returned home that night at 12:30 am!

Happy Birthday, Brooklyn!

Brooklyn Mildred Jean turned 2!

Her love of the "Happy Birthday" song began over a month before her first birthday when we were singing to Aubrie. It is still one of her all time favorite songs and she likes to sing it in English and Russian... at the same time...

"Happy Birthday, tebya!"



Aubrie took it upon herself to find out what kind of cake Brookie wanted for her birthday. She named a myriad of cake flavors and ended with lemon, so, of course, Brooke chose lemon. Then she named just as many frosting flavors and she ended with, you guessed it... chocolate. It was pretty yummy, if I do say so myself.

Well, all she really wanted was the chocolate. She is her father's daughter! Maybe she will be a surgeon...