Snow Day(s)

It's common knowledge it barely ever snows in the South, but we still get our fair share of "cold weather". I am hesitant to say "COLD" because by so many other measurements it's not really cold here ever (compared to other places where we have lived--like Minnesota). We do have our snow gear on hand, and the boys never wear coats to school, but it's rare for us to make good use of it. 

This year we lucked out TWICE! The first time it snowed, we had maybe 2-3 inches of snow cover the ground. Not a big deal, you say? It is here! It was right after the New Year's holidays so the kids barely went back to school for one day and then had to stay home for four or five. The temperatures were very-very cold too, so that added time to when the roads were safe for the buses to travel on. Our school district is huge so if even one part of it still has ice--the whole district stays home. 

This is Katya being so happy it finally snowed! Our kids love snow and are not afraid to get cold, wet and tired after playing in it all day. At least it was sunny.

For the second snow storm--oh, we were so excited this time--we were well prepared with lots of yummy food. We knew it was going to be a good storm, but no one realized how good! We got around 7 inches of snow in our town, which happens maybe once in seven years. It was amazing! 

Of course, the kids spent days playing outside. Because of moisture, they could make awesome snowmen easily--first time in years!

And they could go sledding at the nature park near our house.

These were some pictures from the end of the snowy day. Everything was still and quiet...except this crazy lady with jazzy hands. 

Our famous snowman that went viral...just kidding...I just posted a picture of it on Facebook. 

This is Mark attempting to make his own humongous snowman...but it got too heavy to roll around.

Cute kid! Just like old times in Misawa. 

The kids made a whole family of snowmen, but I failed to take a picture of all of them.

And this is what our street looks like in the snow-haha. Lots and lots of golf carts as there was a street snow party going on down the road. 

And that is how snow is done in North Carolina. And I am okay with it. Maybe a couple more snow storms would have been nice but we'll take what we got.

Lyana. 

Showtime: The Pirates of Penzance and JTF

This year Alex had a great semester at the new middle school, partly because he was cast in the Middle School Musical Production! Moreover, he was one of the main characters in it! The musical was the Pirates of Penzance and Alex played Frederic!

After numerous after-school practices, lots and lots of memorizing (as he had a ton of lines), hours of singing at home and in the car, finally, Alex got to perform at the school on Nov 30th. They actually had four performances--Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday matinee and Saturday night. Robert and the other two kids were able to go to two of them! I, unfortunately, missed all those performances as it was exactly when I was still in India with Lyena, my sister. To make it all better, our wonderful friends from Charlottesville came to visit for that weekend and supported Alex by going to his play.

Alex did a fantastic job--it's not just acting, it's singing too! This was probably the last time he could perform as a soprano:)

Here is a snippet from their cast bio wall. 

Alex has been very happy to be part of the musical, especially, since he was new to the school. This gave him an excellent opportunity to meet a lot of kids! He is a bit sad because next school year he will be changing schools again as he is assigned to the new middle school being built for 8th grade. And who knows if they will even have a musical production that first year he attends it. We'll see.


Now let's switch gear for a moment! This November-December Katya participated in her Raleigh ACT theatre class called JTF. Basically, it's a group of kids who were preparing a 15 minute musical performance to present at the Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta in January. These kids worked really-really hard to be the best they could be! The parents and friends were able to see what they had prepared two nights before the kids departed for Atlanta. And it was amazing! Short but so professionally done! Oh, and it was a very abbreviated version of James and the Giant Peach.




Katya was one of the ensemble members so she got to dance and sing A LOT. Dancing was one of the areas she needed to grow in, so it was a very good experience for her.

I am writing this just a couple of days after Katya came back from the festival in Atlanta. She had an amazing time with her theatre mates! They performed, did an incredible job, were adjudicated, were able to watch multiple other performances of professional theatre groups from all over the states, played and partied together and just had a fantastic time! She wants to do it again next year.

I am happy our kids enjoy performing, particularly musical theatre! We love watching them and see how much they grow in confidence just from getting used to being on stage. Hope there will be more performances to come and for us to enjoy!

Lyana. 

Mark's Winter Piano Recital

Mark is our only kid who is continuing to take piano lessons. We squeeze in a lesson with miss Wendy on Wednesdays right before tennis, since we have to drive up that way anyway. 

He is not always keen on the idea of practicing, in fact, most of the time it's still torture to get him to practice but he does it. I see so much potential in him especially because I know how little time he spends playing the piano nowadays and how much he learns in that short time. This year the winter piano recital was in January. Here is a video of one of this performance pieces. 

Mark has to continue to practice one of his performance pieces, a sonatina, for his first piano competition in April. He hopes to perfect and memorize it and I wish him luck.

And here is Miss Wendy and Mark. She's been very good for him, encouraging him to keep going with piano even during weeks he feels like he wants to give up.

Lyana. 

Ukrainian Christmas 2018

Z Rizdvom! 

We had an extra special Ukrainian Christmas Eve this year as we had family visiting us! Robert's dad and stepmom made North Carolina one of their stops on a major month long journey around the states to visit their kids. We were very happy to have them stay with us for a few days and spend time with the kids!



I still had to prepare food for two days! Twelve dishes is not an easy task, even if I have a friend help me by making two dishes.

My kozaks.😆

We were also lucky enough to have our friends, the Woolstenhulmes (it took us awhile to learn how to pronounce that:)) join us for dinner! We always have so much food and it's always so fun to introduce our American friends to some traditional Ukrainian food.

Robert, as usual, gets something funny above his head. No, it's not floppy bunny ears.

You'd think after hundreds or thousands of family pictures our kids would cooperate better. 😊

But no, if not both of them, then at least one will do something quirky😁.

Look at this spread! We did it! I made shuba again (with salmon) and Oliv'ye and vareniki and kutia (everyone had to try it:) and two kinds of kanapki and mushrooms and cabbage and kompot.

And this was my favorite part! Oh my goodness! My friend, Katie, made these poppyseed creations and they were amazing! I LOVED them! I made my Napoleon, of course and it didn't take as long as I remember it usually taking. I made the real "zavarniy cream", according to my mom's recipe and it turned out just like I remember it turn out in my childhood. 

Hopefully next year, when my mom is here, she could help me with cooking as this is a lot of work and all from scratch. There is no way I could give up this tradition as even the kids really enjoy it! And finally, Katya got TWO lucky almonds this year--they were hidden inside vareniki and she found both of them.

Lyana.

Oh How Lovely Was The Morning!

We are blessed to have the temple so close to us! In fact, we go to church in the building that shares the parking lot with the temple. Last year when we lived in a smaller ward, Katya's youth group was able to go quite often to the temple. But this year, we have over 70 young men and young women in our ward which means they are able to go maybe every 4-5 months.

Oh, but the sad news is that the temple is going to be completely leveled and rebuilt this year. The last day of its operation was January 6th, so I had scheduled a special last visit for the older kids, Robert and his dad on that morning.

Alex really enjoyed having both his dad and his grandpa at the temple.

It was a very special early morning! 

Now that the temple will be closed for a year and a half or so, if we want to attend the temple, we'll need to go to Columbia, SC, about 3-3.5 hours away. Not as convenient as this, but doable!

Lyana.