Long Weekend Fun

Memorial Day Road trip! Of course, the first thing we do upon arriving is get straight to work. Really, this is how we found them five minutes after getting to the hotel. Liam was writing out math equations (?!?) and Natalie was perusing the local city guide.

We got to see R2D2 and C3PO (not in Lego form this time).

Natalie avoided getting eaten by large cats or stung by stingrays...

And the kids loved the glamorous, if somewhat chilly, pool. I'm not sure the other guests in the hot tub appreciated Liam trying to "swim" in there with his goggles on, however. For some reason, he didn't seem to believe me that you don't swim in the hot tub. I had a confidence-crumbling moment as we were getting ready for the pool and Liam took one look at me in my swimsuit and said, "Oh Mom! You need to wear something over that!" Still not sure if he was looking out for my modesty, embarrassed by his mother's 40 y.o. body in a swimsuit, or what. Just to be sure, I will be wearing a t-shirt and sweats at the pool this year...

Couldn't ask for a better road trip weekend! We are trying to enjoy every moment like this now, as we tell constantly tell ourselves "think what it will be like with a 1 yr old here..."

Top 5 This Week

5. April showers bring May flowers.

4. Perfect weather. Not just good. Perfect. The light, the air, the warmth, the lush foliage. Even the abundance of bunnies to eat that foliage.

3. Having to stop 20 times on the walk to school to "test" if each roly-poly (potato bug) will curl into a ball when Liam touches it. Two of them did not. They were stubborn. And every single time we stopped, there was the same level of excitement. It never got old.

2. Natalie was sweet and funny and not cranky during the entire process of Jim and I getting re-fingerprinted for the THIRD time by CIS (Citizenship & Immigration Service), since our fingerprints were expiring yet again. Makes sense, since we all know our fingerprints change annually. (Gritting teeth here...) Anyway. We had an appointment. At a designated time. So of course it only took an hour and a half of waiting for our number to be called. But oh yes, this was a Top 5 good thing...Natalie was SO good!!

1. Marriott Rewards points! SO much nicer than airline mile programs. Easy to use, flexible, and simple reservation process. We can use our points in Moscow. They have 4 different Marriott hotels in downtown Moscow! Now, making reservations for all the "potential" dates, depending on the 10 Day Waiting period, was a little more complicated. But I think I have it covered. Much nicer than paying the $467/night summer rate. Much, much nicer.

Lego Fun

Yes, that is a Lego Indiana Jones standing behind Natalie and Liam. They were quite excited about the opening of a Lego store near us. So, apparently, was every other kid within at least a 100 mile radius. The wait to get in the store was about an hour and a half. We didn't even buy anything. Really. He has so many now...plus he had just won a large Star Wars ship kit outside of the store in a giveaway contest. Both kids got to help the Lego Master Builder (oh, to have such a job...) who was in the process of building an 8ft tall R2D2 out of Legos. This Master Builder then asked the entire group of kids to guess which Star Wars character he had in his mind right then. After several incorrect guesses from others, Liam (with prodding from Jim) guessed "right" by saying Lando Calrissian. Lando has always been one of Jim's favorite characters. Who knew that would come in handy when he was 41...

Top 5 Things This Week

5. Court date received!!!

4. Average temperature in Kemerovo region in July is 68!

3. Court date!!

2. Father's Day should include 3 children this year!

1. Did I mention our Court date?

I'm sure there are other things this week too, but it's all I can think of right now. The uncertainty around whether the 10 Day Waiting period will or will not be waived is making travel arrangements extremely difficult (and I'm probably thinking way too hard about the "what ifs" and making our very sweet travel agent go slightly insane), but it is a good problem to have to have to solve.

Court Date!

Woo-hoo!
We have a Court Date! We should be in front of a judge in Kemerovo in late June, and home with Owen in July. Still working on the travel details. There is a 10-Day Waiting Period after court that was being waived most of the time in this Region until about a month or so ago. Now they don't expect it to be waived. So if we try to fit everything into one trip it would mean a 27-day long trip to Russia. That is a looooong time. We were gone, what, six days on Trip 1, and I have to say it felt like we stepped into a time warp and came home about a year later. Or maybe that was just how much my body and mind aged in those six days. If I spent 27 days in a row there, I might just come back as a very, very old woman. We will probably do this in two trips. But...I know that coming home after Court will also be difficult. Leaving after Trip 1 was hard enough, but to be so close, so very close, and come home again without Owen will be painful.

But enough about pain and heartache. We have a date!! That is a very good thing. I was so worried about the judge going on vacation and leaving us hanging all summer. I wore the necklace I bought myself for Mother's Day that says "Mother" in Russian/Cyrillic for the first time yesterday as a good luck charm and it worked!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, mothers-to-be, and grandmothers out there!

Mine was very special. Liam and Natalie have been so sweet. This is the first year that Natalie has really understood the concept, and she must have told me Happy Mother's Day and "I love you" about 100 times this week. Liam has also been quite expressive about his love this week. Jim contributed by cleaning (even vacuuming!) today, and giving me time to do my computer stuff. Excellent.

Both of the kids had cards that they made at school for Mother's Day, where they answered questions about Mom. This is such a great idea, and something I will keep forever (yes, Jim, I'm adding to the paper piles with these).

Natalie's card said:

My Mom

by Natalie

What is your Mom's name? Tracy

What does she do? Cooks and goes to the mini golf store

How old is she? 3

What does Daddy call Mom? Tracy

What is her favorite color? Purple

What is her favorite food? Peaches

What is her favorite movie? Ariel

How many brothers or sisters does she have? No

Where does she like to take you for fun? To the mini golf store

What would you like to say to your Mom on Mother's Day? Happy Mother's Day!

My Mom

by Liam

(he filled in the sections that I put in bold)

My mother is wonderful. She's pretty as a heart.

She is 61 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds. She really likes to cook.

Her favorite color is purple, and her favorite food is salad. In her spare time she likes to play. We have fun going on a walk together.

OK...I'm not really sure where this mini golf store is...perhaps she has me confused with Daddy, who likes to go to PGA Superstore? I am glad to see that both of my kids think I like to cook. I really don't enjoy it, but I do it quite a bit. I am going to have to start liking purple more now, I see. And no wonder I only weigh 100 pounds, if my favorite food is salad! ha ha These really were too cute. It makes me want to interview them myself, with other questions. I think it would be a good idea for every birthday to ask them a series of questions and record them.

Natalie also painted and be-jeweled a jewelry box for me at preschool. This was the thing that she couldn't keep a secret. One day she came home with blue arms (seriously, all the way up to her armpits) and when I asked why her arms were blue she told me "Because I made you a box for Mother's Day!" She was soooooooo proud of this box. She has it filled with my jewelry now, and every day she finds it and makes me put on jewelry. It is very, very sweet. She makes me want to wear jewelry.

Top 5 Things This Week

5. The teenagers at Pump It Up whose job it is to play with kids all day. They really do play hard, too. The kids love chasing them around.

4. Four cases of Coke products and a 24-pack of water for $3. Thank you, Grocery Game! OK, I don't really think it was that cheap - I really don't remember what the price was. But it was Buy 2, Get 2 Free on the Coke, and then the 24-pack of water was FREE. Awesome.

3. Thursday preschool had no tears. Yeah! We've had a rough week or so, with preschool and gymnastics (similar to the phase we had in February).

2. Preschoolers who can't keep a secret about the Mother's Day present they are making in school. Too cute. More tomorrow on the present itself...

1. Only 19 more days of school left! (OK, not sure if this one is good or bad...but I'll say it's good. And hard to believe.)

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

Six short years ago, Liam entered the world. He charmed us from the very beginning.

Liam, there are so many things I love about you, that it is hard to list them all.

I love your sweet, compassionate spirit. The way your eyes light up when you see babies or animals, and the way you treat your sister like a princess.

I love watching you construct complex Lego structures with the patience of a saint, then watching you take it all apart again just for the fun of it.

I love the way you laugh with such abandon when you watch clowns, slapstick humor of any kind, and movies with talking animals. I love that you are thrilled by rollercoasters, ferris wheels, and things that go fast, but will put your hands over your ears if you watch anything sad in a movie or cartoon.

I love that you are the best snuggler in the history of snuggling.

I'm so proud of all you have learned in Kindergarten this year, and how your reading skills have taken off like crazy. You can read, you can write, and you love science experiments. You have an impressive vocabulary, and a huge imagination. You love dancing with wild abandon, and putting on puppet shows.

Happy Birthday! I loved Year 5 with you, and I think Year 6 will be even better!

Six...Almost!

It's not quite Liam's birthday yet, but we had the party with his friends this past weekend so that we wouldn't bump into Mother's Day. Thanks to the inflatable party place, Pump It Up, a good time was had by all. At least, I think that's what it means when a large group of children this age end up dripping with sweat and totally exhausted.

One shocking development this year was that I actually baked cupcakes myself. From scratch. Yes. From scratch. I had seen an idea for making Star Wars lightsabers out of cupcakes, and it looked so easy. Well...I see now that I should have baked them the night before and then simply iced them the day of the party instead of spending the entire day of the party in the kitchen. And I should have just used store-bought icing. Still, all in all, they were okay. Okay is great when it comes from my kitchen. An even bigger hit were the lightsaber pretzels (dipped in chocolate). And those were really simple. I could make pretzel lightsabers all day.

At the party, one of the boys commented that he had to eat one red and one green lightsaber because then he could be good sometimes and bad sometimes (the red sabers are used by the dark side; the green by the Jedi knights).

May the Force be with you.

Last Week's Top 5

I decided to start a weekly Top 5 of Good Things for the week, in order to encourage positive thinking. Of course, I meant to post it last Friday, but hey, better late than never.

5. No More Adoption Paperwork is Due Right Now!

4. I don't own a swine, and the cat looks perfectly healthy.

3. Jim was home for t-ball practice! (He missed a practice and a game last week because he was out of town all week, and t-ball is SO much harder without him! We really were glad to have him home this week.)

2. I remembered to use my reusable cloth bags at every store I went into this week. It is a first! Training myself has been hard. Grandma Helen can be proud that I'm trying not to kill the environment quite as quickly, by reducing my 2-zillion bags a week trend. (G'ma Helen bought us some cloth bags when she visited, no doubt shocked when she opened a cupboard and found herself buried to the neck in plastic bags I've been stuffing in there for years.

1. $.31 scoop night at Baskin-Robbins was Wednesday night!! Woo-hoo! Was it worth wading through a flooded parking lot during the exact middle of a humdinger of a thunder storm, just to stand shoulder to shoulder with every other drenched, sticky (from ice cream?) person in town also out for cheap ice cream, most likely putting ourselves in grave danger of being infected by the swine flu? Well, it WAS $.31 a scoop. And the kids loved it. So, yes.

Let's Get Physical...

Hi, I'm Natalie. I like to fix my hair myself these days, particularly when we go out to eat in a restaurant. I am fond of the Olivia Newton-John look from her Let's Get Physical album. My Mom lets me do what I want with it, because she knows she can't fix it any better than I can. Maybe next I will help Mom fix hers. I'm thinking maybe a Madonna look from the 80s for her...