Halloween 2016

For Halloween this year the kids decided to be truly wicked. Veronika dressed up in the Baba Yaga costume (Baba Yaga is a witch from Russian fairy tales who eats children and lives in a house with chicken legs deep, deep in the forest). Lina couldn't decide what she was going to be but finally made up her mind to be a little devil. The twins were pirates. As with every Halloween here in Kazakhstan, the kids go trick-or-treating around the apartments in our building, and then one of the professors puts up a celebration for the kids in the big atrium of our building. Just like last year, the twins had their best friend from school, Dariya, come join them for the fun of it all. Here are some pictures from the event.  

Veronika as Baba Yaga (Babushka helped her put together her costume)

Polina was a little devil. A very cute one too!

Lexa and Sophie are really into being true pirates!

Some of the trick-or-treaters we got that night

Some of those were our own children!

Trick-or-treaters walking the hallways of our apartment building

The party downstairs

Some of the families really got into Halloween spirit! 

Girls with their friend, Dariya

Playing some Halloween games

Knocking out the peniatas...

As always they had a lot of fun, and we survived yet another Halloween!

The end of school year

We haven't been writing lately mostly because our life got super busy, and we were traveling but we'll try to catch up on our adventures.

The kids finished school at the end of May. All of them did awesome and overcame the challenges that came their way. Nika had to pass two final exams (math and Russian), and she got 5 (A) in both. She also participated in the National math competition among the 5^th and 6^th graders and she took 2^nd place. Somehow I didn't take any pictures of Nika at the end of her school year.

The twins finished the school year with flying colors and were ready for the summer break. 

The last day of school. Lexa and Sophie.

The last day of school. Sophie and Lexa.

Lina graduated from the 4^th grade and from the elementary school. This post is mostly about her graduation.

Last year Nika graduated from the elementary school and had a big graduation ceremony. This year it was Lina's turn. It was a bit of a pain in the lower regions for the parents to say the least. We had to pay for decorations, the flowers for the administration that didn't even show up to the event, for the choreographer who was supposed to teach the kids two kinds of dances including waltz but only practiced once with them, for the certificates of achievement and other things. They also give teachers big presents at the end of the year (and a few times during the year), and of course the parents had to pay for those as well. With all of that they allowed only 10 parents from each class (there were seven 4^th grade classes with 30 kids in each) to come to the graduation. Ridiculous! After all the money they asked us to put into this thing, they wouldn't even allow the parents to see their own kids in the program! They were afraid that too many people would show up, and they didn't want their VIP visitors to have a bad impression. Well, it turned out that none of the VIP visitors came, and 2/3 of the hall was empty because the parents thought they weren't allowed to come. Things like that happen all the time here, and it makes me really frustrated.

The kids though put up a good graduation program, and those that came enjoyed it. I am really proud of their accomplishments. Here are some pictures.   

"Good bye, Elementary School"

Lina in her ball gown, all ready for the graduation.

Lina with her 4th grade teacher, Kseniya Viktorovna

4 "V" class

Dancing waltz

Dancing flash mob dance

Our little graduate

Looking at her school pictures

Good bye, 4th grade!

Lina with both of her teachers (Aizhan Alpysovna taught her last year, and Kseniya Viktorovna  taught her this year)

Last day!

New Year 2016

It is hard to believe that it is already 2016 and that it is our second winter here in Kazakhstan. Everything is so quiet here on campus: students are gone for the holidays, and most of the professors and their families are also gone home. We are just about the only ones left here.

We spent New Years at home celebrating it the Russian style: having a big feast, watching Russian classic New Year's movies and lighting up some sparklers at midnight. At midnight the whole city erupted in fireworks but this year we couldn't see much because the built two new buildings that obstruct our view of the city. We did have a very nice celebration with my mom, and we also called Spencer's mom to wish her a Happy New Year in America.

Girls are making peppermint sugar cookies for Ded Moroz on New Year's Eve

New Year's Feast

 In the morning the kids didn't get up until 7:30 am or so and were so polite that they patiently waited for another 30 minutes to come and wake us up. 

They found the presents!

Even the dogs got presents!

Lina was very excited to receive her own magic set

Nika is opening her presents

Lexa is trying to figure out what she is getting

Babushka is happy with her sweater

Spencer got a present from his mom.

Everybody was happy with the presents, and the day was spent playing with the new toys and watching more movies. It was nice to just stay home because outside was pretty cold!

Spencer is helping Sophie to put together her Lego race car

And now testing them out in the hallways right outside of our apartment.

Kids' Ice Show

This school year we decided to enroll kids into extra curricular activities of their choice. We didn't do it last year because everything was new to them: new country, new home, new school, new friends, new language. It was already hard enough. But then the girls really took off and did a great job with everything we asked of them, so we decided to give it a try. Nika and Lina both are taking guitar lessons, Nika is also doing track and field (that is a story for another post), and all four of the girls are in figure skating.

Today I want to tell about their figure skating. The girls love it. They go twice a week for an hour and a half each time. Here it is ridiculously cheap. We are paying 7000 tenge/month which is about $22/month for each kid. They have a really good coach who is also a hockey player, snowboarder, and into many other different sports. He is a no-nonsense guy who is at the same time very respectful to kids: a great combination in my opinion. Our girls took figure skating when we lived in Iowa but here they are really making big progress.

On Christmas Day they had a big Ice Show which they were preparing for a whole month. It was a musical fairytale about a witch trying to stop Ded Moroz (cousin of Santa Claus) from delivering presents to the kids but at the end she could not succeed. Our coach trains a lot of kids in many different classes and levels, and all of them were participating in the show. Our twins got to play bandits who were lead by Baba Yaga (the witch) in kidnapping Ded Moroz and his friend the Snowman. Nika and Lina were playing blizzard that froze the bandits and freed Ded Moroz and his friend. We had to come up with our own costumes. My mom was coming right before the show to stay with us for a couple of months, so I asked her to sew Nika's and Lina's blizzard costumes. I just described to her my vision, and she made it happen! She is just awesome! We ordered bandit costumes for the twins in America, and our friend brought them to us when he came here to Astana on a business trip. The girls were so excited!

Getting ready for the show.

Twins are ready to roll! 

On the morning of the show we took the kids to the Children's Palace (it is like a HUGE rec center) where the show was talking place. There were lots of other performances going on at the same time so the place was packed. The parents and guests could watch from the upper level of ice arena. All kids did a great job, and should be proud of their accomplishments! The show was really fun!

This was a practice run. Ded Moroz is the coach.

Coach is giving the last instructions before the show.

Village kids are bringing Christmas tree

A snowball fight

Snowman is bringing a bag with letters to Ded Moroz

Village kids are sending letters to Ded Moroz

A snowflake dance

The wind

The wind is blowing the bag with the letters away, and it gets lost

Bunnies

Polar bears find the bag

...and returned it to Ded Moroz and Snowman

Dance of Ded Moroz and Snowman

Elves are filling up a bag with toys

Ded Moroz and Snowman are living in their reindeer sleigh

Baba Yaga, the wicked witch

Baba Yaga calls the bandits

The bandits kidnapped Ded Moroz

...and Snowman

their victory dance

Try to find twins here!

but the blizzard comes to help

Blizzard Dance

Lina

Blizzard

Blizzard freezes the bandits and saves Ded Moroz and Snowman

Snegurochka's Dance

At the end everyone got a present (a bag with candy) from Ded Moroz

Lina was swinging her bag, and it broke spraying candy everywhere around her. Most kids thought it was like a pinata game, so Lina ended up with just half of her candy back. 

Our cutie pies!

After the show we went to Keruen Mall for lunch at KFC (I have to say that KFC is much better here than in America and is one of our favorite places to go out to).

At the Keruen Mall waiting for the order. This tree with the muhomor (fly-agaric, a very poisonous mushroom) on top is very... interesting