Random Stuff

For my birthday our kids gave me a selfie stick, so I could also be in the pictures. I am the photographer behind most of our pictures and rarely get into them, so they thought they could change it. I took it on our trip to Greece and as a consequence, I appeared in more pictures there than in any of our other trips. However, since that trip I forgot to take the stick with thus less of me for the world to see. Maybe it's not a bad thing after all! Either way, a mental note to myself: find my stick! The picture below was the first family photo taken with my selfie stick on my birthday!

And then some more pictures followed... my birthday dinner that Spencer cooked for me!

At the bus stop waiting for a bus to go to church, also on my birthday.

In October Spencer decided that he will shave off his beared for good. He would usually go beardless for the summer and then will grow one for the winter. I actually loved his winter bearded look and went through a complete grieving process when he announced his decision. I asked him to take a last picture with his beard, so here it is (he might reconsider in the future because shaving is hard on his skin).

And here he is - a new man on his birthday!

For Spencer's birthday, I took him on his lunch break to one of our favorite restaurants in town (and we only had to walk across the street from the university) - the Korean House. I can't remember what we had there, but it was yummy!

Completely unrelated to anything I posted earlier in this post (thus the name "Random stuff"), our dog Yuki is a cutie and I think she knows it!

She is very much loved especially by Sophie who can't pass by her without hugging her!

She is even cute when she is not so happy about the boots she has to wear in the -30C weather. She would walk in the door after being outside in those boots and stop and wait right there at the door until somebody would come to take them off.

She is even cute when she is doing something she is not supposed to (like laying on our bed) and trying to look like she is not even there! A side note: Spencer (who you partially see in this picture) was completely unaware of her presence! Good job, pup!

And this is when you put some pillows on the couch so your dog wouldn't make herself at home in your absence... Yeah, nice try, Mom!

This is one of my favorite pictures when Lina was practicing her song on the guitar. She needed a very grateful audience and she found one!

All five sisters together!

Sophie has took on learning different crafts. Here, she is learning how to crochet from her babushka, and she is very good at it. She also learned how to make some jewelry, and told us that she is going to open up her business!

Nika turned 14 in February, and we all seem to be still alive! In fact, we are doing pretty well, thank you for asking!

The girls had been asking all winter to try hot chocolate at Starbucks, so on one cold day in the early spring I took them on a date (first, Nika and Lina, and later the twins)  to have this glorious drink with our favorite German waffles. I have to admit, it was pretty good though judging by the price you would think you were having a hot chocolate only royals would be allowed to drink...

In March, one of the young volunteers (Haley Critchfield) who lived in Astana for almost a year and who we got to know very well was picked up from her mission by her parents and brother. She was finishing her service in Russia but came down to Astana for a day, so we met at the mall for a half an hour.

Spencer and I got to go to the annual NU Orchestra Concert which is our favorite event on campus (the kids were at the figure skating class). Our family also went to the NU Choir concert. To both events we get VIP tickets because one of the orchestra members is also a basketball player on Spencer's team, and the choir just likes us I think. It's good to know people!

Spencer and I at the Orchestra concert. Brandon (next to Spencer) is his assistent coach, so he and his wife also got VIP tickets!

The twins turned 11 at the end of April, and we had a quiet birthday for them. We tried not to buy big psresents this year because we thought we were moving this summer (we are not!). They asked for cinnamon rolls for breakfast with cream cheese frosting. Done!

In May winter decided it wasn't done with us, so we had a big blizzard. Not cool, Winter, not cool at all!

In May we also got a visit from Andee Waldie (now Soza), her husband and her parents. Andee was a young volunteer in Astana some 4 years ago (I realize we've been living here for a long time!), and now she took her family to revisit the areas she served in Kazakhstan. We had fun time going down the memory lane!

Andee and her husband Eric with our family.

Contests, festivals, tournaments

From November to April our girls had a lot of musical contests in which they participated. The twins were playing flutes with their group of girls and took second place in the international festival .

Here they are goofing around on the piano  in their classroom while waiting for the results.

With their group and their teacher, Bayan Beketovna.

On stage receiving the award.

 Veronika and Polina formed a duet which they called Americano and performed at a Russian Talent Festival where they also took second place in the string instruments category with a Sting's song "Shape of My Heart".

Showing off their certificate

 Later they played and sang the same song at the National Contest for young guitarists and won "Judges' Choice" award.

Polina and Sophia took a carving class for the last two years, and this spring their work ended up at some contest as well.

Polina's spoon in the shape of a parrot.

Sophie's spoon with a tree branch and a ladybug.

 At the beginning of March our figure skating coach texted me that all of our girls are urgently needed for the Opening Ceremony of the International Youth Hockey Tournament. So, our girls and a few others from their synchronized figure skating team went. Some girls were leading teams out on the ice, and others were carrying flags of the countries of the participating teams (there were teams from Belorussia, Slovakia, China, Kazakhstan, and two teams from Russia). The girls only had two practices (just like about everything in Kazakhstan, it was a last minute deal) but did very well.

Waiting for the practice to start.

Getting instructions from the tournament organizers in the biggest hockey areana in the country.

Before the Opening Ceremony. The girls in purple t-shirts were the ones leading the hockey teams on the ice (Sophie is second from the left, Lina is fith, and Lexa is last), and the ones in national costumes were carrying the flags.

Flag bearers. Nika is in the national Slovak costume.

The teams were coming out of this big snow lepard (a mascot for the national hockey team).  You can see Lexa there in a purple shirt who was the first one out with her team from Russia who ended up taking the first place in the tournament.

There is Sophie with her team from Slovakia (in blue) and Nika carrying their flag.

Nika

Lina with her team from Kazakhstan (also in blue)

In front of Barys Hockey Arena

Family Holidays 2018

Half of this year is over but I still had a lot of pictures from 2018 that I wanted to share first, so the next couple of posts will be a sort of collage of things and activities we had going at the end of last year. 

Halloween was just as exciting this year as it was in the years to pass. I do not know what it is about kids, monsters, and candy but ... I love this holiday. This year the kids went all out in decorating our front door (in our apartment building, people who want to receive trick-or-treaters have to put some sort of Halloween decoration on their door). This is our front door from the outside.

Think twice before ringing our door bell!!!

And here is our front door from the inside. So, if you did dare to come in... you might never come out!

 This year the twins invited two of their friends, April and Angelina, to join them for trick-or-treating in our apartment complex. I planned a few "mostreous" snacks before they would go out to scare the poor inhabitants of our building. Thank you, Pinterest, for some great ideas!

Our scary crew! Yuki wanted to join them but didn't have any costume to wear, so she had to stay home and enjoy the festivities from the inside.

Counting their loot!

Judging by the amount of candy, Lina was the first one to hit every apartment in the building!

 Our next big family holiday was Thanksgiving but here in Kazakhstan we celebrate it on a small scale. Since it is not a Kazakh holiday, Spencer has to work every Thanksgiving but since we homeschool, we have this day off. To find a whole turkey is near to impossible here, and then it costs about $50 but we still manage to get one almost every year. This is our traditional Thanksgiving dinner - roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, 24-hour salad (Spencer's grandma's recipe), coleslaw, and homemade rolls. Yumm!

Winter comes in early here; usually we would have some snow by the first week in October. I love winter, I love all the snow, and cold, and sweaters I can wear, and all the comfort food that comes with winter season. But most of all I love the family holidays!

I snapped this picture on our campus during one of our evening walks with Yuki. To some it might be just an ordinary tree but to me it is magical!

Ahh, ... snow, pine tree, and my beautiful daughter!

Since we moved here, babushka came to visit us every winter (and most of summers). Babushka means a lot of hugs and kisses as well as tons of candy, pancakes, cheese bread, and pelmeni and varenniki (Russian and Ukrainian dumplings). Here the girls and she are making a supply of pelmeni and varenniki for the winter.

 
We usually spend our Christmas and New Year in Kazakhstan. Only once we went to America during the winter holidays. It is usually very quite on campus because all of the students and faculty go home for the holidays. It is very ... peaceful. We love it!

Our Christmas Tree on New Year's Eve (here the biggest holiday of the year with all of the presents and festivities is New Year's Celebration; we do celebrate Christmas but all of the presents come on New Year). That peanut butter jar is for Lina who is a true peanut butter lover!

Opening presents on New Year's morning.

One of our beloved New Year's traditions is that we have cake for breakfast!

Kids are working on their craft kits that they got for New Year.

Sophie and Lina are working on their project - picture by numbers done with beads.