Happy Birthday

We had two celebrations... one on the weekend with friends and

one the very night with family and brownies.

Happy Birthday big girl!!

Golden Ring Hotel Winter Garden- AFOSA luncheon

Brazil, Canada, Austria, Venezuela, Netherlands, US, Egypt, Britain,

Estonia, Finland, and Belgium are all represented here.

Hosted by the Canadian ladies we were treated to lunch at the top of the

Golden Ring Hotel in the Winter Garden.

It was a beautiful day so we enjoyed each other company as well as the view.

Basketball Champs

Warming up for the big game!

Getting the tip off! Who says white boys can't jump?

Taking home the trophy - 1st place for the Moscow League Championship!

lunchdate

A friend and I arriving at the restaurant for a lunch date with

the US Secretary of Defense's wife.... a highlight for our tour here!

St Petersburg Day 2

Joey was suppose to work this morning but his commitment was delayed 24 hrs so we got to tour a little together before I was headed to the airport and back to Moscow. We took a walk to see The Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christor what I call the "St Basil look alike"

It sits on this canal and has been totally renovated inside. On the outside the two look similar in architecture, but on the inside they are very different. St Basil's is a bit of a maze with 9 separate chapels. This is one large cathedral inside with many beautiful paintings.

On our way home I took this picture of St Isaac's and you can see how the weather changed and we were thankful we had gone up for the view yesterday!

You can kinda see the staircase from the small tower on the right that leads up to the second columns around the circular part. This is the colonnade and where you go to see a spectacular view of the city. And we were so glad to have done it when it was clear!

A Beautiful Day in St Petersburg

It was such a beautiful day to take a stroll! And without the kids in tow Joey didn't mind me stopping constantly to take pictures. I got some great ones, but will only post some. Enjoy!

A block from where we stayed ... the Neva River.

We made it to The State Hermitage Museum for the afternoon

which we thoroughly enjoyed... first museum

in many years without kids... amazing!

My favorite pieces were the ones that I remember studying-

Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso, Rousseau

This is taken outside the Hermitage at

Palace Square, with Alexander Column.

On our way back to our hotel (Renaissance St Petersburg Baltic Hotel) we decided to go up into the Collonade of St Isaacs Cathedral (see room with a view for the cathedral) for a spectacular view of the city.

This building above with all the glass is our hotel.

We were on the top floor, last window on the left.

The hotel on the left of the circles in this picture is the historical

Astoria Hotel and is where Joey stayed his first trip here.

proof we were there... together.

And a nice view of St Isaacs cathedral from the street level.

A Room with a View

Joey headed to St Petersburg to work a DV visit and last minute it worked out for me to go as well. M was a great sport and took over caring for her two youngest siblings and S got himself out the door to his school trip to Finland and Reuben got himself to basketball and then a friend's house for the rest of the weekend. What a difference just a few years can make! Unbelievable! But what was more unbelievable was the view from our room!! I walked in and immediately said to my husband... "you go on to work, and don't worry about me! I don't have to go anywhere for the entire two days. I'll just sit here and enjoy the view!" I was absolutely serious! Of course I didn't stay in the room for two days... but I sure could have!

This is St Isaac's Cathedral and you can click on the link to learn more about it.

Out Little Leprauchan

John has had the opportunity to learn Irish Dance after school this year. Although he is the only boy, he is OK with that and looks forward to it and has enjoyed learning. We enjoyed this little performance on St Patrick's Day!

The first video is John. He is on the end closest to the camera here.

The second video is of his teachers! Not sure why we can't hear their shoes.

16 years and counting!

Happy 16th!!!! Sorry, this is as close to a car as your gonna get for a long time.

Enjoy the trip skiing ... and the Ripstik!

Ode to the Irish - St Patrick's Day dinner

Some of our appetizers.

A pretty table,

and a pretty plate. Those clover napkins are not easy to fold, btw.

Hopefully next year I will have green napkins.

and a sweet couple! Judy and Rico. I love so see them work together under stress.

Basketball Boy

His team had a great season 8-2, setting them up pretty good for the championship playoffs to come. Reuben still towers above most of the players at this level and we keep warning him they WILL catch up, so don't get lazy. He realizes what we are talking about when he goes downstairs here at the compound and gets into a pickup game with the local marines! All of them are full grown and really make him hone his basketball handling skills! It is too bad swimming and basketball are played in the same season... always a tough choice for this athlete!

Kitty in a Cubby

If ever there is a cubby or a box or an open drawer the kitties are in it!

Attack kitty

she is hiding, ever so small, as small as she can make herself...

so she cannot be seen until the right moment of attack!

Let's go for a sled

This beautiful day my hotblooded son didn't even wear a coat, hat or gloves! And they run around so much they really don't need them. This is J and his friend Oliver. This little hill is manmade in the middle of the compound by the maintenance men just for the kids to have fun. And they have. Behind it is a little square ice rink which some use on their lunch breaks. And the kids, especially Seth practiced hockey on. Behind that is the main building here on the compound where Joey works.

Reuben turns 14

...and big sister wanted to make him a special cake. It is a swimming lane... and the orange "ball" you see is his head with his orange swim cap on! Happy Birthday Reuben!

Homemade Flowbie Fun

Joey picked up a pair of hair clippers on the "free table" and the boys badly needed haircuts so he decided he could solve our problem.

When finished he got the 'ol vacuum out and they had fun!

"

Its hard to see the vacuum hose next to J's hand but it is there.

Not too bad a job... and he got R and S done too! Yipee!

CEESA Swim and Stream Team Penguins Live

Central and Eastern European Schools Association Tournament

Reuben has been preparing for this meet all year! 7 International School Swim teams gathered : students from Moscow, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Albania, and Czech Republic.

Swimmers from literally all over the world. We hosted a young man from Poland and another from Canada in our home for three nights. The meet began on Friday and continued into Saturday finishing with a swimmers and coaches spaghetti dinner. It was a really great time for everyone.

And was even made more special because of a new student initiated idea (Thanks so much Oscar!) of streaming the meet LIVE on the Internet for parents, grandparents and friends to watch from their very own homes! It really brought many people so far away, very close together. Mary was asked to be a part of that Stream Team (7 students) and had a wonderful time interviewing swimmers and coaches, principals, the director of AAS and even an Russian Olympic Swimmer,Vladislav Kulikov,

(she actually held his silver and bronze medals) who was on hand as a stroke judge/referee and to award medals.

But back to Reuben.

He was pumped... coach had fired the team up and challenged all the boys to shave their arms and legs. I never thought I would be helping my son

shave his legs! But those hairy legs and armpits were a challenge!

Reu's results - 50 free - 1st, 27.66 (missing the school record by .06 seconds -oh well)

100 IM - 2nd place, 19.57

100 free - 1st, 1.05

200 Medley relay (where he swam the butterfly) - 1st place

200 Free relay (High School- they pulled him up to

the HS team for this one) - 1st place