Lets paint the world ORANGE (or just a room)

Misha's room in the process of transformation.
And here is my favorite pic

Twilight casting, here is your perfect candidate!

Pale skin - check!

Crimson eyes - check!

Dreamy hair - check!

If Bella and Edward had a son, he would look just like Misha ;-)))

What-cha-did-this-long-weekend?

We had a mini-vacation!
What fun are those little not planned trips!
My cousin Maria came from Belarus and is now working on a cruise ship Carnivale Sensation. Yep! We went to visit her while she was on a break for few hours, and then took her on a little beach-n-subway-sandwich trip.
Later we just decided not to go back home and stay at a hotel in Cocoa Beach (we stopped at our honey-moon hotel, yep, the same one, and yes, we came to Cocoa Beach for our honey moon)

Me and Masha

Me, Masha and the kids (hiding)

Misha and Valentina with a painted shuttle

My little curly sue with Ron Jon in the background (surf store)

View from our hotel balcony

The LEGO age

WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD - Small parts. Not for children under 3 years.

Who hasn't seen this label? Cautious mommies and daddies patiently await the age of freedom - 3 years. By that time your precious child realizes that plastic has no nutritional value and is better looking put together in some fairy-tale town than in a slobbered goo. Of course, there is no absolute guarantee that "no plastic for food" moment magically occurs the minute your child turns 3. But at least now you have hope baby will use mouth technique only in rare occasions (like to pull those stubborn lego pieces apart).

I've always been a sit-down-and-watch parent and would let my kids explore the world on their own instead of guarding them every moment. I know there are different opinions on what's the best way of raising a child, and I am sure, even my mom might think I'm a careless parent. Regardless, the dangerous-under-3-age passed. Welcome LEGO! Can't wait for elaborate houses, castles, zoos, and whatever else kids' little hands create! Potential pain of stepping on those ouchie lego bricks can be minimized by this clever idea.

Bring on the bricks!

Mother's Day

I felt really great this Mother's Day. Thanks to my wonderful family that made me feel this way. Eric and the kids brought breakfast in bed for me with a fruit salad that I craved the night before. There were chocolates, flowers, cards and many "Happy Mother's Day" and "I love you, mommy". Those little cards with scribbles and "mommy and me" portraits made by Valentina are the cutest. Funny, they decorated a cake for mother's day in school, unfortunately it did not survive until the actual day, because Valentina kept asking if she can have a piece. I said let's wait till mother's day, but I guess she thought if she decorated it, I had little to say about when to eat it. So, it was gone long before. Misha kept repeating "Happy Mother's Day, mommy!" (really cute) It was his way of making it special.

These days make me pause and ponder and realize how happy my family makes me feel. It sounds so simple, but it is one of those truths that you only understand when you don't have it.

Make each day a mother's day by choosing to be happy and enjoying every moment.

Boys will be boys, or "marbles in my toes"

Misha came up with the idea of marbles in his toes, little did he know how his feet looked like.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold - the power of flat-iron!

My new hair-do.

I did not do it myself, had a hair-stylist working on me. The whole works - shampoo, conditioner, treatment, cut and straightening took about 2 hours. The stylist was very funny, talking, laughing and making jokes with everyone around. He said when he grows up he wants to be a hair-stylist (well, don't mention he has grown-up kids). The guy calls himself Hair Daddy. Maybe it is ok for hair people to be so funny and at ease with the clients, I don't know. I just never had an experience like this before, very "at home" atmosphere.

Loaded to the brim with compliments and a new do, me and my boys and headed home(Valentina was in school). Of course, the minute she saw my hair, she wanted straight hair too. However, hers will have to wait.

Half-naked guys beating each other to the punch or our TNA Wrestling experience

I was really debating on what to write about in this post. Well, Eric happened to work with a bell-ringer for TNA Wrestling in Universal. So, we got the VIP seating at the match. Never have I thought in my life I would visit such a place. Even watching this on TV just had me rolling my eyes and shaking my head. WHAT DO YOU, WRESTLING FANS, FIND SO EXCITING? So, skipping to the match or series of matches, to be correct. It started out as a bunch of wrestlers came to the ring and pronounced their rehearsed speeches. Raving fans with painted faces and their posters and fingers up (I am not talking middle fingers here) screamed with hope of getting their 5-seconds fame on TV. Every wrestler came out with fanfare, fireworks, show, working mostly for the cameras. Most of them didn't even turn their faces to where we were sitting (since there was no camera there), surprise, surprise... There even was a little incident there. One of the wrestlers apparently muslim (or again, just a show-off muslim) came out dressed like one of the Taliban extremists would and pronounced some Allah akbars. That act got one of the fans upset, so he decided to punch the wrestler. Dumb idea... In an instant he was pushed away and then escorted off the premises.
One of the wrestlers played clown punching cardboard cut-out of Stallone's Rocky Balboa. I still have to ask, people pay money to watch this on "pay per view"? Are you kidding me?
OK, the rest is just boring to me, so Ill spare you my description of the half-naked guys beating each other to the punch (and girls, too - at least they were funny) and just show some pics.

Do you see my face here? I am really "excited"!

One of the (yawn) wrestling moments.

My little wrestling fan with a... (wish I remembered his name)

Ok, I have to say to this guy right here. Stop your career right now, or your cute face will turn into something out of a horror movie!

Friends

This is a little tribute to all the people in my life who matter. Sometimes in an instant you know who your real friend might be the moment you meet. Do we want our friend to be exactly like us, same interests, hobbies, beliefs, thoughts or do we look for a soulmate, for a spirit talking to a spirit? Embrace the differences in each other and enjoy the time together.
How great our knowledge will be when we meet on the other side knowing each other, and realizing that we have already MET! We knew each other before! How great is it?
So, enjoy your time with your friends! Laugh together! Talk seriously! Do something you both like! Share something! Create together! Help and uplift! Ask for help! Dream! Pause to think! Shake it all off! Laugh some more!

Here is something to make you smile:

A mother and a baby camel were talking one day when the baby camel asked, "Mom, why do we have these huge three-toed feet?"
The mother replied, "Well son, when we trek across the desert, our toes will help us stay on top of the soft sand."
Two minutes later the young camel asked, "Mom, why do we have these long eyelashes?"
"They are there to keep the sand out of our eyes on the trips through the desert," the mother said.
"Mom, why have we got these great big humps on our back?"
"They are there to help us store water for our long treks across the desert, so we can go without drinking for long periods of time."
"So we have huge feet to stop us from sinking, long eyelashes to keep the sand out of our eyes, and these humps to store water."
"Yes dear," said the mother.
"So why are we in the San Diego Zoo?"

Back to the Beginning, I mean birds and butterflies, well, mostly birds

I'll dedicate this post to our little feathered friends. Oh, please, don't think I fell in love with the birds all of a sudden, because I still have a panic fear of their crooked, scaly claws. And besides, some of them birds aren't attractive no matter how much you look at them or try to like them (take black vultures, for example, eew!)
Despite all said, there were some interesting bird encounters lately, so I'll talk about them. I never really was a bird fan in decorating or anywhere and would much rather prefer butterflies, flowers and things cute. However, I found this yard decor bird and instantly fell in love with it. It is big and plump :-) and it has pieces of glass embedded in its side, which sparkle when sun shines on them. What funny is that one night Eric was coming home from work and didn't know I put the bird in the front yard. Unfortunately, I didn't see the original reaction on his face, but have to say the night before we had a mysterious creature dig a half-foot hole in our yard. So, this being said, what would you look like seing this huge bird sitting there not moving in the dark?
But, in the light of the day it looks like this

Maybe I should get up early every day just to listen to birds sing? They save the prettiest songs for the morning. We had a beautiful red cardinal sitting outside on top of the street light singing songs two mornings in a row. So beautiful! I dedicated this little applique craft to it.

Maybe I'm weird, but I really think if the places attract living creatures, it has a positive energy and it is good to be there (it can be an outside place or inside). Thus proving my theory, when Valentina was little, some birds built a nest on the tree opposite our balcony in Minnesota, laid their eggs and had their birdlings. They were so nice to watch when I took my own first little one to the balcony for some fresh air.
When Misha was baby, the same happened here in Florida: birds, nest, eggs.
When we were looking at this house one day this huge gray crane bird came to our door. It was not frightened at all. When we went inside, the bird wandered off, but the minute Misha came out, the bird came running to him hoping for some food.
Call me cuckoo, but it was my sign its a good place to be.

The long awaited post

I should probably be posting like crazy right now because of so many things happening lately, however, I'm just looking through other people's posts, commenting and... just forgetting my own blog. But, some wise woman said "set time each day for yourself", so I might as well do it right now.
Anyway, to the subject of being busy lately.

April was an extremely busy and happy month for me and our family. We bought our first home (yay!) and were moving, painting, cleaning, fixing, gardening, watering, unpacking, and a whole bunch of other -ing. It is by far not close to being done, but right now I can tell I'm happy with what our kitchen and my teeny garden up front look like.

There is still ton of work with the lawn, bedrooms, living-room, but, as another wise woman told me "work on one area at a time".

Besides, my mother-in-law came to visit us for 2 weeks during spring break. It was really nice to have her over. Dianne really is a great grandma to my kids, she would get down to play games with them, like slip-n-slide, build sand castles on the beach, teach them how to play Farkle and how to play out "Three Little Pigs" with the voices and personalization. When she was here, we also went places.

The trip to the Kennedy Space Center was great - we almost got to touch the shuttle (well, not really, but we saw it on the pad ready for the next mission).

By the way, the little side note, shuttle program is coming to an end soon, and they will be retired by 2010 I believe. Put it on your list of places to visit and come witness history-in-making. Being russian, I feel a certain pride for Soviet Union putting first man in space and everything. However, I bow my head for United States' ability to make an amusement park out of government's space science and research technologies.

Alright, back to grandma.

We went to the beach twice. The first time she wanted to drive on Hwy 1 in hopes of finding the pretty beach scenery. Little did we know, Hwy 1 is not great for that, however A1A is better. Sorry for Florida road technicatities. I discovered that I actually love maps and can read them pretty decently accompanied by mapquest. While driving on one of those roads, we found this really nice beach - Jensen Beach. They had all the amenities, little food place and the parking was free. So, if you're a fan of ocean side beaches, it is a great place. However, us being a family with little kids, we prefer calmer gulf side beaches. We found a really nice one in Anna Maria island.

The water was greenish-blue and clear, the sand was pleasant, the waves - almost non-existent, and you can walk a mile untill it gets actually deep. While exploring the deeper side Eric and I stepped on some flat rocks. But only close observation let us conclude they weren't rocks at all, but sand dollars (they are actual living creatures). Well, I have to confess, we brought some home with us, and now they almost look like this. I love this little legend/story about sand dollar:

THERE'S A PRETTY LITTLE LEGEND
THAT I WOULD LIKE TO TELL
OF THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF JESUS
FOUND IN THIS LOWLY SHELL

IF YOU EXAMINE CLOSELY
YOU'LL SEE THAT YOU FIND HERE
FOUR NAIL HOLES AND A FIFTH ONE
MADE BY A ROMAN'S SPEAR

ON ONE SIDE THE EASTER LILY
ITS CENTER IS THE STAR
THAT APPEARED UNTO THE SHEPHERDS
AND LED THEM FROM AFAR

THE CHRISTMAS POINSETTIA
ETCHED ON THE OTHER SIDE
REMINDS US OF HIS BIRTHDAY
OUR HAPPY CHRISTMASTIDE

NOW BREAK THE CENTER OPEN
AND HERE YOU WILL RELEASE
THE FIVE WHITE DOVES AWAITING
TO SPREAD GOOD WILL AND PEACE

THIS SIMPLE LITTLE SYMBOL
CHRIST LEFT FOR YOU AND ME
TO HELP US SPREAD HIS GOSPEL
THROUGH ALL ETERNITY

On this note, I shall conclude this post and write back hopefully soon.