January 23rd weekend.

Another dreary weekend is behind us. Although Saturday looked somewhat promising, it turned into a constant flow of rain and went all the way through Sunday.

On Saturday kids started their swimming classes again. It's been a little while since their last session, so I had a hard time getting everything ready. When we got to the pool I realized what I forgot... A change of dry clothes! Good thing we only live a mile away...

Before the classes everyone were so excited. Larissa was a little nervous though. She said she really didn't want to dive off a deep end. I reassure her that she is not likely to have to do it on the first day of classes. She went to class with a giant smile on her face, only to find out that I was wrong! Very wrong! They did go to deep end... You can literally see the smile disappearing off Larissa's face. She was NOT happy (with me).

After the class Larissa and I went to a Gem Fair. Not the greatest prices, but sheer selection of product was overwhelming. We bought a few things and headed to the demo table.
I nice person there not only taught is how to make jewelry out of split ring, but Larissa got a pretty set of earrings to keep! She wore them all afternoon:
When we stepped outside, it finally stopped raining for a bit and we could clearly see the snowy tip of the mountain. I tried capturing it in the background, but no luck...

After the fair we went to the OR Asian store. At last, a long anticipation was over. OR Asian market is finally re-open in it's new location! We got some snacks and a couple of "bubble teas". They were delish! (note the pinkie)

Rest of the day was nice and relaxing.

On Sunday I made an apple crisp, which was gone by noon. Even the apple peel was well received and totally consumed!

Larissa's friends came over to play some video games. Tim and I were laughing, because of how different girls' and boys' gaming attitude is. If you get a bunch of boys, all you will hear is "Kill them! Follow me! Blow this up!". Whereas with the girls all we heard was: "OK, I am going to put this wall here, and this box there. Who wants to help me? Can you see it? Does it look nice?". And that's playing THE SAME game!

January 16th weelend

What a crazy windy weekend! I thought for sure a tree will get ripped out of the ground and fall on our house. Alas, I was mistaken. Other than a few items blown around the backyard, nothing detrimental happened. All is good

On Saturday we finally decided to do our Harry Potter movie marathon. All we were able to handle is the first three movies (not because we didn't like it, but we had a few other things to do). Which was perfect, because Sunday was just as gray and depressing as Saturday. A great day to stay home and watch movies.

Earlier on Saturday I took Jon and Larissa to a Russian (a.k.a European) food store. As usual, I got taken over by a nostalgia and (as always) bought a bunch of "souvenir" food. Hee hee!

Often before going to bed kids ask me to tell them another story "about the Russian girl", and I always start with "when I was little". This time I had something to actually show then when I said the phrase. It was a "Rooster" sucker! Boy, that brought back some memories. I got a few Roosters for kids to share, and they actually liked it. But who doesn't like sugar on a stick?..

It wasn't exactly the way I had it when I was little. Mine didn't have a food coloring, or added flavors, but never the less, this was a very good memory

Sunday was rather uneventful, other than my cleaning out and removal of a Christmas tree. How did we ever get it into the house?.. It was twice as wide as the front door.

Oh, and the last three Harry Potter movies ware a nice finish to my weekend. I think I like #6 the best, but I also think they are getting longer and longer... Last one was 2 1/2 hours!

Monday was a day off from school. I decided to let kids go skating in the afternoon. Unsupervised!! Well, with an older sister, her friend and a cell phone. I felt pretty safe, yet worried.

Girls played a cute practical joke on Gabe. They purchased a little rose that was delivered to Gabe over the intercom with a heartfelt message. Ahem...

"To Gabey: The bestest brother ever. Lots of love, Larissa & Miranda"
Awwww....

Gabe was not as wise with his allowance... He spent all of his $5 for a lousy (<$1 looking) snake! And I was worried about his safety? It's his $$ I need to worry about.

Lights out! Now!

Wednesday night, just as I was getting ready to watch second episode of Season 9, American Idol, followed by a movie "Fame" (rental), the house went black.

We just finished out dinner and everything was going just right. After I missed the first episode, I thought for sure nothing will get on my way of watching the second one... Apparently, just when you say that to yourself, SOMETHING will get on the way.

At first kids were a little scared, but once we found our flashlights, it became an exciting game.

We looked outside and it looked like only our block was without the light. As we drove around the block to see where the darkness ends, Gabe pointed out to me: "Look, Mom, that family is watching American Idol. I can see Simon!" GRRRR!

Once back at the house we called PGE (Portland General Electric) and found out that "crew is on the way, no known cause, and expect electricity back around 10:30pm"... sigh, the show ends at 10pm!Thank goodness for modern technology! Kids were still able entertain themselves by playing Nintendo DS and Jon watched (again) Star Wars, episode 5 on a portable DVD player.

All in all, it was pretty exciting. Kids want to do this more often now. I am leaving the schedule up to PGE...

Well, hello 2010

We are back into our busy weekly schedules with kids' classes in boxing, chess, music, swimming, etc. It feels like we are back to "normal".

It was, however, incredibly hard for the kids to get their morning routine going. It is hard to get up before 7am when you got to sleep in till 9am (and in some cases till 1pm...) for two straight weeks.

Started off our week with presents from Mary. Thank you! Kids really liked the games and all the candies:

Saturday started with a previously cancelled chess tournament. Nothing fancy, no prizes, awards or recognitions. This was strictly a practice run to make kids comfortable in their future "real" tournaments.

Well, some parents needed to be reminded of that. Just like in golf, in chess, silence is golden. Not only a few parents were yapping loudly, some wouldn't leave their kids alone. Hovering over them, taking pictures, while poor kids are trying to concentrate.

Not us, we just told them that the rules were to give it your best, have fun , and if at all possible not to play against each other (you know that would cause some friction later on).

Looks like Larissa took a "thinker" approach and finished 6 games, and Gabe did the "speed chess" and completed 8 or 9. Most were "loss" or "tie", but there were a couple of "wins".

Saturday night was a dance night at Miranda's school. We went out and picked a new dress just for that. She was very much looking forward to the dance and even managed to find time to go to the moves with her friend earlier in the day.

The rest of the weekend was very relaxed. Larissa was so bored, she was making "cereal faces" at breakfast:

Happy New Year, 2010!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Right before midnight we remembered that we had some sparklers left over from the Fourth of July celebration. We put them to good use. Right as Larissa started panicking "we only have 9 minutes left!!"

We all laughed "do you think we can make it back into the house in time?"

We had a blast, literally. Boys created some sort of a ritual dance, while blowing party blowers and dancing around the kitchen. Everyone, but Jon, joined in. Jon thought we looked ridiculous. He was probably right!
He then smiled for the camera, and left the room...