Alex Turns Twelve!

On another hot hot day in July, Alex was born in Minneapolis, MN twelve years ago. Being a big baby from the start (9 lbs 9 oz), he grew into a tall and chubby toddler:)) I laugh about it now but at age 12 months he was 32 lbs! Just look at this cute face! This picture was taken when he was one years old, in Arkansas. 

And then he continued to grow and I remember having a hard time finding a tricycle that could be tall enough for him and sturdy enough for his weight. Here is Alex at three years old, in front of our town home in Maple Grove, MN, days before we moved to Florida.

At five years old Alex was very fond of Star Wars. We had a joint party for him and for his friend Lorenzo at the Weasel's Den in Misawa, Japan. Still tall. 

And then we moved to England and Alex got into Nerf guns. This is Alex at 10 years old in Brampton, England. 

Finally, Twelve Years Old! A young man! And we are in North Carolina.

This year Alex fully embraced the fact that we are NOT moving (several years like in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2016 we were in the hotel or just about to move on his birthday). We organized a Pool Party, right in the middle of the morning just because we could and because it was summer in NC!

All we needed was kids and the pool. They made their own fun!

And corn hole.

We did have a guitar pinata, but somehow it was so weak that it broke almost immediately:) 

We had slow-cooked bbq pork sandwiches and veggies (hey, nothing wrong with cucumbers and carrots at a birthday party:)). 

And of course we had cake! Alex wanted an American flag cake from Costco. And I didn't mind skipping the baking (ahem...meaning asking Robert to bake a cake).



For dinner, we went to Alex's favorite place--"The Five Guys". This kid is pretty easy to please--very low maintenance and I like it.



Alex's biggest strength is his confidence. He is excited for life and is excited that he has so many friends now. He wants to be this boyish boy, but not a typical sports guy. He is not too much into sports, still loves to play the piano and sing his songs, go to skate parks with his scooter and watch movies with friends. Alex is still a very sensitive and cuddly kid which I love. He is still learning on how to handle his emotions and you can always know how he feels, and sometimes it's not a very pleasant thing:) Being a middle kid creates competition with the other two and we always cheer for him when he gets the attention he deserves. He is popular with girls because he is not afraid to talk to them and they appreciate that. We are excited to see how his middle school years play out.

Height: 5'7'' 

Favorite Sport: Basketball 

Favorite Book: Hunger Games

Favorite Movie right now: Hunger Games

Favorite Color: Purple

Hobby: Playing the piano and singing

Lyana.

Summer Swim Team 2017

This summer our two older kids did something that they had never done before. They joined a swim team! Although our neighborhood has a pool, we do not have our own swim team. A lot of neighborhoods around us have their own teams but those that do not have it, join some bigger general swim teams. We chose to go with the Apex Breakers, a team that is based in downtown Apex only 10 minutes drive from us. Also I signed Katya up at the very beginning, Alex took a lot of convincing, and finally on the last day before the deadline I signed him up as well. Mark did not want to do it at all and I decided not to push the issue.

Katya was in the 13-14 group and Alex in the 11-12.  Both of them are good swimmers, especially Katya since she was taught in Japan to have beautiful perfect strokes. Unfortunately, they were never taught how to swim fast so that was something they had to learn this season-hahaha, or should we say "try" to learn. Practices were twice a week with one meet a week on Tuesday night. So pretty much for a month and a half, our Tuesdays were super crazy busy with late nights watching the kids compete.

The kids' favorite part was waiting around with friends waiting for their turn. Neither Katya nor Alex ever swam on the A team which was the one that actually counted towards the score of the whole team, but otherwise they participated in many events. This was a wonderful way for them to learn that winning is not everything and that a lot comes from team effort and comradery.

We packed our dinners and snacks every Tuesday night and took turns watching the kids by the end of the season as it was really a looong time for Mark to sit around and wait for the big kids to compete.

















One of the highlights of this swim season was Katya's opportunity to perform the American National Anthem at one of our home meets. It was beautiful as she did a great job

Apex Breakers were fourth in our division at the beginning of the swim season. By the end we were competing hard for the first place. During our last swim meet, which was a home meet, the weather kept interrupting the swimming events. There was no rain at all, but there was a lot of thunder. We had to keep clearing the pool area and then waiting.  Finally, the other team and our team decided that we would just call it a tie, which would ultimately make us the winner in their whole division. So we all went home thinking then that was it. But then got a message from our head coach who said that the TSA did not accept  this sort of way to decide on scores. And that our only choice was to forfeit. Or Swim. So the team decided to swim and we did, although our numbers were few because it was a last notice kind of swim meet on an irregular night.  Nevertheless, our team swim great and we ended up winning the whole Devision!

Lyana.

A Cow Day Experience

Ladies and Gentlemen! And this is what you do when you live in the states near a Chick-Fil-A and it is COW DAY! What? Yeah, I am sure my friends have been doing this for years (I did see them on FB) but this was a first for us. What a fun day! Something to break up our summer routine.

It all started at 7 am when I had to drop Katya off at the church as she was leaving for girls' camp that morning. We went to Chick-Fil-A to get her free breakfast. At first Katya was not quite sure if this was going to work. She was embarrassed to even get out of the car, let alone order wearing her "cow". 

But then it actually worked! She got her food and no one said she looked out of place or anything;)

For lunch, I took the boys to another Chick-Fil-A because I was wearing my cow shirt now. They thought it was the best thing EVER! 

It was quite funny to see some awesome crazy "cows" all around. The most common was exactly what we did--cut out spots, taped to a white shirt. I kept ours for next year:)

Finally, at dinnertime, we were running super late with Mark's tennis practice and swim meet, so I grabbed my "extra" cow magnet and took Mark wearing his cow shirt to get another sandwich. I didn't see a rule that said we could only get one per day, but let me know if there is such a rule. 

So I can tell you, the kids thought this was AWESOME! And we'll definitely have to participate next year again. We'll just feel more like we know what we are doing then:)

Lyana. Co

Katya Turns FOURTEEN!

On July 6th we celebrate our beautiful Katya's birthday.  She is the one that fourteen years ago made us a mother and a father. It's unbelievable that now she is a self sufficient young woman, feeling like she is ready to conquer the world of high school. Turning fourteen is so exciting and so scary at the same time. In our church, turning fourteen means being able to go to church dances (something Katya has been looking forward to) and moving up to Mia Miads class in the Young Women's organization (14-15 year olds). 

This year Katya kept her birthday celebration low key. Robert and Alex were away at Boy Scout camp the whole week of July 4th, so it was just Mark and I to entertain Katya. We tried to copy our friend Bridget and "taped" Katya's door so she woke up and had to "get out" of her room. Mark thought it was the coolest thing ever that I woke him up at 11 pm on the night before to help me decorate. But he went back to sleep after the first three minutes.

We also had Katya's good friend, Geoffrey join us for dinner. Katya chose Carrabba's as the place for dinner as she loves pasta.

Since Katya doesn't love regular cake, I made an ice cream cake for her--delicious brownies with frozen Oreo cookies ice cream on top. I KNOW! It looks like it's straight out of Pinterest! I agree!

On Saturday after her birthday, she had a little get together with some girls from church  She invited six or seven girls but many couldn't come or had to leave after a short time. 

Katya also made sure to spend a whole day with Sophie on one of the days of her birthday week.

We love so many things about Katya! She's had a sparkle in her eye since day one:) People always commented on how happy of a baby and later a little girl she was.

She is growing up to be a beautiful young woman, confident and smart. Don't get me wrong, she is very stubborn and, as any teenager, sometimes forgets she lives on the same planet as other members of her family. She is a good friend and a very good leader. I love that she is kind to both boys and girls who need it most, although sometimes it's hard. Katya's passion is singing and performing on stage (and eating pasta). 

Just to have a solid record of her changing personality here:

Height: 5'7''(well, maybe 5' 6.5'')

Favorite Sport: Rowing

Favorite Book: Book Thief

Favorite Movie right now: Thor Ragnorak

Favorite Color: Pastel shades

Hobby: Theatre

Happy 14th Birthday, beautiful Katrusia!! We love you!:)