Happy Easter! (but only far away from here...)

Since Easter is celebrated in the US on 27 March, we invited the other Americans to join us, in this case, all the missionaries serving in the city of Perm. 

The repast: (this was the table in the kitchen, no room to seat everyone, so they all sat on their chairs in the living room (see above) for eating on their laps.  Not too much au gratin ended up on the floor...

Dress Up...

We invited some friends from church to come over after church on Sunday for dinner.  They amused themselves by playing dress up.   

Here are two friends (ages 11 and 5), splitting our Anna costume between them -- 

And though this could have been an Elsa costume, E was more inspired, as you can tell, by the Tolkien she has been reading. (She is being an elf...)

School Concert (Testing testing)

This was a concert by the older choir in the music school our kids go to.  The choir is singing a song in honor of the city of Perm.  Mostly this is a test to see whether I can upload videos which work. 

Our little leprechauns.... "Happy" St Patricks Day

Presenting -- Sewing Machine!

The new addition -- Janome "Top 12" -- front loading bobbin, manual stitch selector, semi-automatic button holes, and (surprising in the price class) -- a (semi-automatic) needle-threader!

Price 11700 R, or something like $180.  Would've been cheaper in December...

First project -- repurposed a long sleeve shirt with torn elbow into a short sleeve shirt.  Did one of my shirts and one of his.

And, found a use for the ends of the sleeves -- use the existing button hole and make one on the other side, and voila, Barbie has a "cape."

Love Snickerdoodles...

Maslenitsa...

Otherwise known as "Butter Week", Maslenitsa is held 40 days before Easter (like MardiGras).  Only in the Russian version, there are pagan spring-invoking traditions, and there are Blini! (Russian crepes). 

These pictures are from an outdoor festival the university held for its students.  The blue backdrop is the university logo, and our two little ones are holding signs that someone made.  In the first photo, K has a sign that says "where there are blini, there we are" and A has a sign that says "we cooked blini all morning, so that there would be a mountain (of them)"  [both of these rhyme in Russian.] 

In the second photo, K and A are enjoying traditional Russian lollipops in the shape of a golden rooster (brings good luck), and K is holding a sign that says "Blini, like kisses, do not like to be counted."

 This is some (unknown) college kids about to sit down to a "who can eat fastest" contest of piles of blini.

I don't know who won.  We didn't stay to watch.  We went home and made our own pile of blini...

They are not hard to make, just time consuming, and they do really disappear....

Celebrating March 8th!

In honor of International Women's Day, the men at church organized an activity at church.  

Games, some food, and flowers and chocolates... Food was steak fries and chicken kiev cutlets. 

Women's Day celebrates all women, not just mothers... Very nice and nondiscriminatory... 

Front Row Seats

Date Night -- Romeo and Juliet