Pool tile

We now have some pool tile.

And pool pumps and stuff!

Ally, my trusty buddy, went to check it out with me today.  She ventured down to the deep to have a look around.  

Of course I can't forget about my trusty helpers.  Always there to help me water the concrete!

Pool takes Shape

It's 6:45am and I hear loud trucks.

No, it couldn't be.  Are those people in my backyard when it's still dark outside?

Yes, yes it is.  

They did the gunite/concrete today so it actually looks a bit more like a pool.

Now I get to water it 3 times a day.  Can I water my trees?  No.  Only between the hours of 10pm-6am on Mondays and Thursdays but it's cool to water cement at noon any day of the week!  

Side of Chalk, Please.

Our kitchen table has its top painted with chalkboard paint.

The main reason I did it was for spelling word practice or math fact practice in future years.  

In the mean time we use it for letters, drawing and telling stories.

I wish I could remember...

Scott drew quite a picture the other day and asked if I could write down his story.  That doesn't happen very often so of course I was excited.  I love little kids' stories!  Below is the story that goes with the picture.

Tonight we had pizza.  

This is big for these children.  They like Russia pizza but we have not been very successful in the US.    They both asked for it so I decided to try it.  Sydney wanted cheese and Scott wanted plain.  He still does not know that his pizza has cheese on it.  Dinner was a success!  Yea for liking American pizza!

Well anyways Sydney was in one of her moods--too hungry so wouldn't eat--so out came the chalk to distract her so she would start to eat.  She's learning how to draw trees with Scott but she eventually turned her tree into a lollipop.  She chose her facial expression for her pictures :o)

Sleeping Beauties

Sydney curled up next to Ally tonight and fell asleep.  

They are the same length!  I guess Ally can raid Sydney's closet :o)

Just so you know Ally wears clothes so she will leave her skin alone.  Right now she's sporting Scott's old turtle neck.  Fits her well and she doesn't complain.  Sweet girls.

Future set at age 8

I've been going through old boxes of stuff here and I came across a paper I wrote when I was 8. 

So instead of a gray station wagon it's a gray jeep.  Ok so I didn't get it all right.

Is it ready yet?

Pool building has begun in the Maier backyard.

The most common questions are, "Is it done?"  "Can we swim today?"  "When is the water going in?"

Sunday they staked it out...

Today they dug...

And dug...for about 6 hours.  

I is for Indian

This week in preschool they learned about the letter Ii.  Scott came home yesterday with an Indian head band and I knew I needed a sad Indian picture to compare with Eric's :o)

Eric as a sad Indian.

Crafty girls

Now that Scott is at school 3 mornings a week, Sydney and I get to spend some girl time together.  She is a girl after my own heart--she loves her crafts!

I've been painting random walls and objects around the house and so has Sydney.  

My next big project will be her room.  She wants pink.  It's not my first choice but then again it's not my room so I guess I'll help her paint it pink.

We stamped apples onto fabric.  She actually got the idea from a magazine she found at the library.  Not sure what I'll do with the finished product but I'm sure it'll turn into something.

She made some glittery pumpkins which I helped her hang in her room.  

Oh and it took her 3 years to finally like stickers.  Scott doesn't care for them much but she might finally do something with the massive collection of stickers I have managed to acquire.

Picture link

Sorry, the link to the picture changed after I set the view settings. This one should work:

New link to St. Petersburg pics

St. Petersburg

I got the chance to get away for the weekend and finally got up to St. Petersburg. Amazing city. I took tons of pictures and wont try and pick 5 favorites here, but here is the link and you can see them all.

Link to Pictures

The city is part Moscow, part Venice, part Florence, but entirely unique. The palaces are unlike anything I have ever seen. Dont know that I have more words to describe it, but the pictures probably speak for themselves.

Also a weekend of firsts for me. First time on a train (took an overnight 7 hour train to St. Petersburg) sleeping in a train car with 3 strangers. Then my first hostel experiance, add 7 more strangers to the shared sleeping quarters list. It was a fun trip but lonely, would have had more fun with Jen and the kids but maybe a Baltic cruise lies in our future and we can get back someday. It was a good weekend though and now to polish off the last 5 weeks in Moscow and get back home.

Beat the Heat

So in order to beat the heat yesterday we headed to the beach where it was cooler, breezy and just wonderful.

There was no sea weed, no people, lots of birds fishing and a break from the sweltering heat.

I've never seen such diverse birds at the Galveston beach.  We saw several catch fish.

What started as a small pool...

turned into so much more!

Success!  The pool is protected!

Slowly, slowly the water creeps in and disaster soon follows.

I ask them to pose for a picture...

On your mark, get set...

GO!

farewells

I debated posting this airport picture because it was such an emotional farewell but this little boy is just happy to give his daddy a hug.  Such a sweet little guy.

65th Anniversary

I was invited to attend the 65th Anniversary celebration for Energia (the rocket corporation that is responsible for the Russian Space Program). It was pretty interesting. They rented out a hockey arena and had a bunch of former cosmonauts and famous Russian singers come in and perform.


Complete with military band playing such patriotic Soviet classics as 1812 Overture and "Tale as Old as Time" from Disney's Beauty and the Beast...?..

Talking with some of my Russian friends they said the event was just like the former Soviet era celebrations with the famous singers and the patriotic songs. There lots of speachs and poems and dancing, quite a display.

Daybreak Donut Date

Scott reminded me at breakfast this morning that I promised we would get donuts today so since I backed out yesterday I knew we had to go today.  It's really a shame Scott couldn't go with us since he was the one that reminded me and all.  So it was just me, Sydney and Optimus Prime.  

Like the outfits--all orange for Optimus, star PJ shorts under Sydney's dress?  They selected their own clothes and BOTH put them on by themselves.  Sydney even ran back up stairs to brush her hair.  I'm impressed.  I've seen worse combos :o)

Dancing Days

I wanted to know just how old I was when I took ballet so I dug out an old photo.

Here's the ballet costume back in 1986.  

Yes, my 2 year old daughter can wear what I wore when I was 6!!

Oh to think I actually took 3 years of ballet.  I hope my daughter has more dancing bones in her body than I do because my dancing days are over.