8 of March - International Women's Day

The girls' guitar teacher, Danira Amanbayevna, along with her husband who is also a guitar and a vocal teacher, organized another concert for the parents, this time for moms in  honor of International Women's Day that is widly celebrated here. Here are a few pictures from the concert: 

Lexa with her class of 1st year students. 

Our little lady!

Nika and Lina

Lexa, Sophie, and Dariya (who's also a guitar player like Lexa and she also has a twin sister who is sitting right behind her with a guitar).

On the morning of 8 of March we watched Utah Jazz win a game and then Spencer surprised us, the ladies of his household, with a beautiful bouquet of tulips, some candy and a cake, and also a delectable breakfast  of biscuits and eggs. Yumm! We love our man!

Spencer cooking breakfast

Yummy breakfast!

And then he really excited the kids (and mostly shocked me) with a classical video game system (the Super NES from Nintendo) that he found at our local bookstore a few months ago and had been eyeing it ever since.

The day couldn't have started any better!

Trying out the new video games.

Later in the afternoon we went to our favorite Uzbek restaurant (their dishes are very similar to the Kazakh ones) and then to the Opera and Ballet Theater to see the famous Swan Lake. Now the kids have seen all three ballets composed by Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake!
 

Enjoying the dinner

Our newly evolved teenager. She does look so grown up here.

Babushka is having fun

On our way to the Theater which is in the background.

Inside of the Astana Opera and Ballet Theater

We love to sit in these special balconies that usually have somewhere between 6 and 9 seats - perfect for our family!

Excited for the show? At least that is what I am telling myself.

It was a very memorable day brought to us by our true and only man in our family! We love you!

Guitar Recital

In March Nika and Lina had a guitar recital in lieu of the International Women’s Day celebrated widely in this part of the world. It was a combined recital for both guitar teachers who are also a husband and wife. All of the kids did great, and I was amazed at how far Nika and Lina progressed since they first started taking guitar lessons two years ago. We are so happy that they decided to learn to play and that they ended up with a great teacher! Here are some pictures and a video from the event.  

Nika and Lina getting ready to play their duet.

I think this was the theme song from "Titanic"

The final song. Nika and Lina's teacher, Danira, is the girl with a guitar.

Here is a little video clip of Nika and Lina's duet.

8 March

March 8 was International Women's Day which is a federal holiday and a big deal here. I wrote a post about it last year which you can see here: http://kazakhstandingtall.blogspot.com/2015/03/international-womens-day.html. This year our girls' classes put together concerts for moms, and of course our kids participated. I think the twins volunteered to do every single number there was to do! They were so excited! All three classes had their concerts on the same day but at different times, so I ended up spending all day at the school.

First it was Lina's class. Here are some pictures from their concert. Lina recited a poem in Russian, and every mom was amazed at her Russian! She came a long way since last year!

The hosts

Lina reciting her poem

These two girls sang a beautiful Kazakh song about grandma's. I'll try to add a video clip later.

There were lots of games for moms. This one was when blindfolded mothers tried to figure out which was their kid.

Walts

Cute girls!

The next celebration was in Nika's class. There it was the boys who prepared a little program, and then they had a tea party afterwards.

Boys will always be boys

Nika with her friends

And then it was the twin's class. Their class put up a great program! They also had a tea party afterwards.

First each mom got a heart with a her child's hand print, made out of napkins (I got two!)

Waiting for the program to start.

Little hosts!

A song for moms

These girls are just so cute!

A skit about a daughter, a mother, and a grandmother.

Tea party

Twins with their "8 of March" gifts.

Here are some videos from the parties. The first one is of the two girls from Lina's class singing a Kazakh song about grandmothers. The second one is of the kids in the twins' class dancing.

Polina's Miss Ocharovashka - School Contest 2016

Lina won her classroom Miss Ocharovashka (Miss Enchanting) contest and went on to the school one which they did in honor of the International Women's Day. It is a pretty big deal because it is turned into a big show, and so they spent two hours at school after their classes ended every day for the next two weeks just practicing for the event. It was really crazy at times but Lina did it, and we were very proud of her. It was amazing to me how much talent the kids have. We had singers, dancers, gymnastics, a guitar player, a flute player, magic show, puppet show. It was fun! Lina didn't win the contest but she got the title “Miss Elegance”, which is the exact title Nika got last year! Sisters!

Lina waiting for her turn to go on stage.

On stage

All of the contestants did a little dance together.

Doing her introductions.

She was pretty pleased that high school kids were serving her!

Playing her piece on the guitar

Getting ready for the talent show.

Happy Kid

About to go on a stage again

Doing the fashion run

These are some of the costumes that other contestants made. These two are out of crepe paper and plastic cups.

Wrapping paper and foil

More crepe paper

Garbage bags and napkins on the left and groceries bags and napkins on the right 

Lina had the loudest cheering group! Those are her classmates that came to cheer for her.

She got her title of Miss Elegance

A few of the contestants.