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....