Thursday, September 18, 2008

Creativity is flourishing

The boys continue to amaze me with the things they do. I used to think they just hadn't ever have many things to play with so they just didn't play with things the way they were intended. While they still use things in different ways, I have come to realize that they are all just very creative. They are always wanting to build a "house" with blankets and whatever else they can find and they LOVE to dress up as super heroes, police, doctors, etc.. But this one really caught me by surprise......

Yuri and Victor went into the plastic bag collection and created an outfit from them! When they informed me what they had dressed up as I about fell over laughing. They dressed up as the lunch guys! They had the hats and everything. Take a look! Yuri had used the handles on his bag as suspenders and made 2 holes in the bottom to put his legs through. They both tied a bag around their head for a hat. Victor looked a little more like Aunt Jamima and Yuri like Mario on the video game Super Mario Brothers. What a pair! Meanwhile, little brother was creating a new kitchen floor. He thought it would be more colorful with some pink tiles and was highly offended that I made him clean it up.

(don't know why this picture won't load correctly so you will have to turn your head, sorry)

They have had a ball with the light sticks you can get from the dollar store too. Those light sticks held their attention for quite a long time and then they wanted to put them in the freezer to use again another time. After showing them how we could take a picture in the dark they came up with some different ways to move them. Here are a few.

Of course there was still the fussing over who created the coolest looking shape but they all had a blast and mama enjoyed watching them discover how they could use these for something other than light saber weapons. Yuri was not still long enough to get a flash picture of him creating a shape so I'll have to be quicker next time before he moves on to his next creation.



Even papa got a little creative and went out and got all of us Steeler jerseys to wear for the Pittsburgh Steelers season opener. We even wore them to church just to kid our pastor who is a Cowboys fan and has outfitted most of his 10 children (yep, that wasn't a typo, he has 10 kids and no we are not mormon or catholic) with Dallas apparel. The boys thought that was pretty cool and asked if we were going to get more shirts for the games that were on the next week! Papa made sure that he explained that this is a Steelers household and they could like other teams but that the Steelers would have to be their favorite and that is why they got to have a Steelers shirt. Nope, no democracy in the football front. I am still a Redskin fan AND have a jersey but I will let Papa have his fun with the boys and don my Steelers jersey proudly.
Another few things that I just hadn't written down in the past year are all the funny words the kids have come up with. I thought I had better do that before I forget so really the list is for me but thought others might enjoy seeing it too.
Waterlemons for watermelon
pink pinks for pancakes
puncuter for computer
white egg for hard boiled egg and yellow egg for scrambled
zero's for cherrios
"the sit down lady" for the aid on the school bus
mykraine for ukraine
I'll have to add to the list as I remember or hear other ones. At least have a spot to write them down now. I know babushka will be happy I have finally done that.
The boys have started soccer for the fall and Yuri's team is the Eagles and Victor's is the Tigers. Vanya is still just chomping at the bit to play on a team of his own but will have to wait one more season. Tball equipment for the spring will be under the tree this Christmas for him (shhhh, don't tell him). Since he can't read yet it's safe to put it here. Speaking of reading, here is Yuri reading one of his poems for school this year.


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Travis turns 20!

Boy, I can't believe Travis is turning 20 today. This is the first year for a long time that we haven't spent his birthday or a day close to his birthday with him. I guess we will have to get used that as he is continues to become more nad more independent and grown up. I remember taking him to kindergarten and now he isnt even a teenager anymore. Time sure does fly. I wish we had blogs back hten so I could have recounted all the cute and funny things he did as a child. We do have quite few bribery pictures to be used at some time in the future but for now we just wish him a Happy Birthday!

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

First Day of School



As always, I have taken pictures of the first days of school for all our kids. One day I will actually have to do something with those! Ha Ha! Fortunately all of the boys love school and they were excited about going. Yuri will be in 1st grade this year and Victor in Kindergarten and Vanya in preschool.


When they got back from Ukraine and adjusted quickly to the time change and back to being Americans. "I want" "I need" "Mama mama mama". I was veryhappy and also relieved that they had a great time on the trip and didn't have any doubts about us leaving them there and it didn't bring up any bad memories. I'm hoping that means that they really didn't have many traumatic experiences in their early life there. They enjoyed looking at all the pictures and are now ready to head back to school for another great year of learning. Mama is ready for a few hours of peace and quite again too.