Just Beat It!

Here is a video to bring some good energy to your day. 

While on our cruise, kids decided to sign up for a talent show that was organized by the kids club. One afternoon, half a dozen kids from our group of friends joined the kids club so they could do a quick concert for us. A few of them also signed up for solo parts. Katya sang Annie's "Tomorrow" and did a great job! Alex decided to surprise everyone as we had no idea what he'd prepared. When he came out on stage looking very serious at first, we thought he was nervous or unsure of what he was going to do. But as soon as it was time to sing, he went for it! I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard!

Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Love you, Alex!!!

Lyana.

Colors Of The Wind

I wanted to share this video of Katya singing at our Middle School/High School Showstoppers fundraising show last Thursday. Katya is part of the Theater Club at her school that is preparing for their play in May ("Charlie And The Chocolate Factory"). She loves to sing and sings all the time! It also looks like she is getting more and more confident with being on stage:). We just love watching her and so proud when she succeeds. Enjoy!

Lyana.

The Cleansing Ceremony

This ceremony took place on the morning of the wedding day.

 

Lyana.

A Glimpse From Our Bus-Indian Traffic

This video is a bit lengthy, but it gives you an idea what it was like to be riding a bus in India.

Good night,

Lyana.

The Wedding Day In Motion

I finally got to uploading a few of our videos from India. Although watching this footage sort of gives you an idea of what it was like, it still shows only fraction of what it was truly to be there.

February 14, 2014. The bride and groom are getting ready for their cleansing ceremony.

Dancing before the Cleansing ceremony.

 

February 14, 2014. Around 6 in the evening.

I love watching people’s faces in this one. This is a foreign experience to all of us!

Hope you enjoyed these.

Katya and Her Piano

Last year Katya had a friend at her British School who was originally Chinese. Her parents immigrated to Britain ten years prior, and “Chigao” (this is horrible of me, but I do not remember how to spell her name….it had a “q” in it for sure) was the only child. She also excelled in piano, amazing everyone at their school assembly with a brilliant performance of Mozart’s Turkish March. Ever since then, Katya has been dreaming to play that piece, so in September, when we started our piano lessons again, she begged her teacher to let her work on it. And Mrs. Eldred did.

Katya has been working hard at this piece (and a few others) but there is still so much to be done. This was definitely well above her level of ability, so she has to stretch herself. I don’t mean to sound negative or pushy, but, as a piano player myself, I can also see how she has the potential to be a lot better if she practices better…sigh…Sometimes I simply have to pick my battles, but practicing piano every day is not in question. Both Robert and I believe that this is not only about how to play the piano, but it’s about teaching discipline, patience, persistence, delayed gratification, priorities and simply hard work. I know it’s so hard for Katya to tell her friends, “No, I cannot go play outside right now, I have to practice my piano firs”.  And believe me, it’s much harder for US, as parents, to keep having her practice the piano. I am simply convinced it’s all worth it at the end, and the deal is that we won’t give up till she is fourteen…after that the choice is hers.
Let’s see if this video works. This is not a finished product…

Just A Few Videos

Sometimes we remember to videotape some glimpses of our adventures.  I am not good at editing videos (well, mostly I am short on time), so I have to post them just the way they are.

Here is Mark and I on the boat ride at Krka Nataional Park.

Here are the waterfalls we are talking about in the first video…and some crazy kids.

 

And this is in Trogir.

Cheers!

Dr. Watson Working After Hours

If you want to know how the Watsons spend their dark winter evenings in England, take a look at this video.  It has everything—foreign film (my accent that is), drama and comedy (mostly drama by Alex), inconsistent parenting (again presented by me), and a visual “how to” (by Robert).  Well, see for yourself.

 

Alex and his tooth

Lyana.

Video: Castle Rising

Oh, this is just for fun, so you kind of remember what we sound like:

I am working on our pictures from Ukraine in the meantime, hope to get at least one blog post out soon.

Snowy afternoon

Due to technical difficulties, I couldn’t upload these videos to our blog yesterday.

This is one of my favorite videos ever:)

Enjoy!

Video is worth TEN thousand words

I wish I could have posted these while we were in Australia, but we didn’t have access to fast internet so it would have taken forever to upload the videos.

These are just for fun. The first video was taken on our way to the Great Barrier Reef. It goes along this story.

Boat ride to the Great Barrier Reef

It’s okay to laugh at this second video. Yes, I know I look like a professional throwing the boomerang. Read more about our visit to Tjapukai here.

Lyana’s throwing boomerang

The next two videos are from probably one of the most fun days of our lives Read more here.

Brave Robert

Josephine Falls Fun

I hope by watching these short videos you’ll get a feel of what it was really like there. I’ll say it again--best trip ever!

Videos from Seoul

We took quite a bit of videos for our memories. Here are just a few for your entertainment. 

Mark on the “Treeble Hopper”. So much fun:)! I remember Katya going for the first time on the same kind of ride, “Frog Hopper” at the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

At Lotte World, Mark and I wondered around amazed at the enormous size of that Amusement Park. In this video, you get a glimpse of what it was like….plus my very Ukrainian accent (sheesh, I better learn how to say the word  “tired” properly-hahaha)

Video showcase:)

It was snowy yesterday, so I decided to go through some of our videos taken last summer.

This is "Summer end bash" at the beach on base. I just thought this was kind of funny.

Everyone calls this park where this slide is Horse Park. It's very fun. And beautiful! These slides are really cool. Kids absolutely love them. If you are going to go down one, you should wear shoes, not flip-flops.
That's all for now.