Our spring family life

We had a few family events this spring. First of all, at the end of April our twins, our youngest, turned big 1-0! From now on they will be in double digits for the rest of their lives! We spread out the celebration over three days due to some scheduling issues. Spencer cooked a birthday dinner for them the night before (deep-fried chicken and buiscuits). Then we had a birthday cake and presents on the morning of their birthday. And finally, the following day we went to our big mall across the street for some fun and dinner. The twins picked to go Everikum (an interactive science museum), so we bought all of them tickets and sent them on their way. They had a lot of fun going through a mirror maze, a haunted maze, playing a variation of paintball and doing some science experiments. Happy birthday, Sophie and Lexa!

The twins asked for a lemon cake with a lemon cream-cheese frosting. Yummy! 

Making a wish.

Going through a mirror maze at the science museum. 

May 9 was a big holiday here – a Victory Day to commemorate a victory in WWII. In the morning I took Lina to pierce her years. A long time ago we told our kids that when they turn 12, they can decide if they want to pierce their ears, and ears only (one hole in each). Lina was turning 12 in June and wanted to do it but she wanted her ears to be healed by the time her birthday rolled around, so I took her in to a beauty salon for her early birthday present. Everything went very well and was painless. A side note: Lina’s birthday rolled in and out but her ears are still going through the healing process. It wasn’t as easy as she imagined!

That afternoon we went to an Ice Show which had a famous Russian figure skater Adelina Sotnikova as a main character (the show was Snow White) who was also an Olympian Champion in 2014 but got hurt the following year and left the sport. Since our kids take figure skating, I thought it would be good for them to see one of the famous stars of this sport. The show was great. Afterwards we walked to our big mall which is just a couple of bus stops from the Hockey Arena where the show was, and we had a celebratory dinner at the Ocean Basket (one of a very few restaurants in our part of Kazakhstan where they serve sea food). We all ordered different kinds of sea food which was pretty good.

Took our seats and now waiting for the show to start.

Snow White with her prince.

Family dinner.

I normally don't post pictures of just food but this plate of squid made in three different ways  from Ocean Basket was pretty delicious.

In May we also had a church activity for Mother's Day where the women of our branch (a small church unit) got together and cooked some tacos and brownies, and had a nice time together.

Here we have Americans, Kazakhs, a Mongolian, a South African and a  couple of Russians if you include me, who is taking this picture.

At the end of May the girls had their end of the year recitals. The guitar one was a concert for just the kids in their class followed by a tea party but the flute one was for the parents, so Spencer and I went to see that one. It was Sophie’s first recital (Lexa had experienced one in her guitar class already), and both of them were very excited. An amazing thing happened: their teacher started the recital right on time! A side note: nothing in Kazakhstan ever starts on time! Ever! We loved their teacher even more for that! The girls did great, and we were very proud of their accomplishments!

Sophie is on the left and Lexa is on the right.

Kids with their teacher whom we absolutely LOVE!!!

Afterwards we called the older girls and asked them to meet us at the … big mall across the street! It seems like the place where our entertainment takes place. We had a little dinner to celebrate the end of the school year and all of the kids’ accomplishments. 

Goodbye school year, hello summer!!!

Our spring university life.

One-third of the summer is gone, and I was sure we just barely stepped into it. Trying to catch up on our blogging is a bit overwhelming, so in this post I will try to hit some highlights from our spring 2018 at NU campus (I decided to do a separate post on our spring as a family).

In March and April, we attended end of the year concerts for the NU Orchestra and NU Choir. Somehow, we got on their VIP lists, so we had very nice seats reserved for us. Yay! Both events are always very well-attended, and it is almost impossible to get the tickets. Both Orchestra and the Choir did an amazing job as always. Spencer and I were talking about how it would be great for them to do a tour in America, showing Kazakh culture. One of my favorite pieces from orchestra was the Believer (Imagine Dragons) played on national Kazakh instruments. The choir did songs from famous musicals which was a lot of fun!

Waiting for the show to start (NU Orchestra)

NU Orchestra (some of the national instruments they play are very cool)

They even had a base guitar! If you want to see some of their pieces, just search on YouTube for NU Orchestra) 

NU Choir had in my opinion their best performance in all of the years we've been here!

Spencer was nominated for Professor of the Year Award (in total only 5 professors from the entire university were nominated), so we went to that fancy Award Ceremony where the students, clubs, and one professor get an award for being awesome. I mean they even rolled out the red carpet, how fancy is that?! And even though Spencer didn’t win the award, the students cheered the loudest for him when his name was read! Another positive outcome of this event was that I got myself a new dress and new shoes! 😊

 

Who are these two handsome people?

At the ceremony we had a front row seats!

We also had our annual award ceremony for our basketball team. As always it was held at our house with a lunch, laughter, and some tears (tears from saying goodbye to our two graduating basketball players). We love our basketball family!

Some of our second year girls

Aigerym  and Ayim, our two graduates this year.

Our basketball family minus Nika who is taking this picture.

NU does a year book (kind of like in any US high school), but this is the first year Spencer decided to get one. Maybe it was because this year was the first year his students that he led from the very first year, graduated. I don’t know, I should ask. But we made it into this year book (besides his picture on the list of the faculty). I think students like him!