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.
We got back from our
trip to Tbilisi on the morning of Christmas Eve and were planning to
have a nice evening with the family but instead we got a message from
the girls' figure skating coach that they were needed for the last
practice before the show that was taking place the next day. Our life
got busy once again. Since we moved here two and a half years ago we
became quite flexible in our expectations! :) So, on Christmas Eve we
had to go to the figure skating practice, on Christmas Day we went to
church in the morning, and then I dropped Nika and Lina off at a
place where they had their guitar recital. Then as soon as they came
home from that we all got dressed and went to the Children's Palace
where our girls were participating in the big Ice Show.
Last year it was a
fairy tale. This year the kids were divided into groups, and each
group prepared a synchronized dance. Even the little kids who could
barely stand on the ice, got a part, and it was fun watching them!
All of the kids did great and even though I might be slightly biased
(may be just a little bit), I think our group was the best. The
common theme for the show was the fairytale of the Snow Queen. Our
group played special forces, AKA the Snow Queen's guards. Nika and
Lina had the leading parts. It was fun watching them! Afterward, all
kids got a bag of candy, which is a standard present for kids during
the winter holidays.
Snow Queen
I think they were playing flowers in the winter garden.
Raven
I think they were supposed to be crows but they look more like magpies.
Snow Queen's guards (special forces) are getting ready to perform.
I don't know who is who, I just know the one with the glasses is Lina!
I unfortunately pushed the wrong button while filming their performance and only recorded the second half of it (the second video). One of the other moms recorded the first part but not the second (the first video), so you would need to watch both videos to see the whole dance. Nika and Lina are the ones who are doing "swallows" (skate on one foot while the other one is extended in the air) at the very beginning
Gangsters
Kay and Gerda
Little mice
Trees
Snowflakes
Shamans (medicine men)
I am not sure who they were playing but they did the best jumps.
Blizzard
Special Forces all together after they got their presents
They can take on any task!
Going home. This is right outside of the Children's Palace.
A train with presents!
I love this time of the year! Everything is so festive! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
One day in December
the girls came home from their sculpting class at the Children's
Palace with very mysterious looks on their faces. They ran into some
Kazakh celebrities! Apparently, when they were at their class, a
group that were filming a movie came in. They wanted to use their
pottery shop as a place for one of the scenes in the movie called
“The Secret of the Museum” (working title), so the girls got to
witness how it is all done. At the end Polina asked her little sister
Sophie to ask the main character for an autograph. Sophie went right up to them and did it! That kid isn't afraid of anything! Well, maybe
flue shots… Anyway, her other sisters wanted an autograph as well,
so Sophie obtained one for each of them. The only person she forgot
about was herself! :) Our adventures of living in Kazakhstan
continue!
The proud owners of celebrity autographs and Sophie without whom it wouldn't be possible The only thing they had with them to sign were their sketch books.
Speaking of the sculpting class, the girls love it. They get to be creative and make all kinds of things and even try their hand at pottery wheel. It also provides them with endless amount of things to give to each other and us as birthday presents.
Here is Lina who made this flower pot and tray all by herself
Nika has being doing
track. At the beginning of the school year I asked the girls what
they wanted to do for their extra curricular activities. They all
wanted to try different things but since there are only 24 hours in a
day, I told them that the oldest two can pick two activities, and the
twins can pick one (and if they can keep up with their school work,
then the next year they can pick a second activity). I wanted all
girls to do some sort of sport, and they all picked figure skating.
It has been really good for them. They have a great coach and they
improved dramatically in their skating skills in the last few months.
Then Nika and Lina
picked guitar classes as their second activity (the twins really
wanted to do violin but we decided to wait until the next year).
Those have been awesome! Again they ended up with a great teacher,
and they love it!
All of the
activities are done in the Children's Palace which is kind of like a
huge rec center with all kinds of sports, art, science, music,
linguistic, craft and many, many more activities. And here is how
Nika ended up with the third one, absolutely by accident. She and
Lina were at their figure skating class which consists of one hour on
the ice and a half an hour in the gym every time they come to
practice. During their first gym practice their coach had them run a
couple of laps on the indoor track. Then all of a sudden Nika
shows up in the waiting room and says that the coach wants to
talk to me. It turns out that it was the track and field coach who
wanted to talk to me. She saw Veronika running on the track and went
to beg her figure skating coach to let her go, so she could come and
do track with her team. She is a 7-time national champion for
Kazakhstan in track and said that Nika was born to run. Nika decided
to give it a try and after the first day she fell in love with it. But she didn't want to
give up figure skating, so she is doing all three now. Her track
coach is super excited to train her, which is nice.
Nika is a little too
young to go to track meets, but her coach wanted her to get a feel
for it, so she sent her to a couple of meets already. The second time
Nika took 6th place in a 300 meters event, which is great!
She is really enjoying it, and we are proud of her for not being
afraid of trying new things in a foreign country.
The following
pictures are from the two track meets that Nika participated in.
