Who said fish can't wear a tutu?

Here it is!..

Just like Ivana had requested! It was taking me some time to figure it out, but I came across a page in a coloring book that helped a lot! Again, two long evenings and swollen eyes in the morning. But it was all worth it to see Ivana scream with excitement!

Now Leona wants seahorses on her shirt.

Am I ever gonna get a good night sleep?

A story of my "addiction"...

They say that talking about your problems makes it easier to handle them... Let's see if this is the case. So when next time I see "Rag Shop", "AC Moore" or "Michael's", I hope to just drive BY, not stop and spend a fortune. Yes, I am addicted ... to the craft stores! I can spend hours and hours going aisle through aisle, getting ideas right on the spot about what else I'd like to try to make. I get excited easily and then there is no stopping me, especially when the sale is on. I've stocked up on different kids of fabrics, lace, buttons, beads, cross stiching patterns, fabric paints, paintbrushes, modelling clay, numerous projects for woodburning, card making and stamping, scissors for scrapbooking, ink and fountain pens for calligraphy, etc...

I go through different phases in my addiciton. A couple of times I felt that I was going to recover and then, oops, I lost it again. At one time there was a "Rag Shop" just around the corner. I didn't have to drive, all I had to do was to stop by practically every day after coming back from the park to see what's on sale. All the sales girls knew me by my first and last name and stopped asking me if I had a coupon to use with the purchase (there was always one!). Mirek was asking me how I was I gonna find time to do all these projects and then even stopped asking. We had to buy a cupboard to store all my supplies. I think "overvisiting a craft store" could be a pretty solid reason for a divorce! But remember the vows... "in sickness and health"... Well, that store went out of business (I wonder why, with all that money I was spending!) and I slowed down a bit.

Photography was always a passion of mine. Over the years I've collected quite a collection of photo images and then one day decided to start a business venture. How idyllic it sounds : "my work is my hobby". I started making custom post cards with my photos. I made myself a business plan and was ready to launch. Even my "Images of Life" business cards were printed. I worked on a list of the stores and sent out samples of my cards and a contact letter. I'd sent them to the gifts sores, book stores, flower shops and craft boutiques. I asked my friends to distribute the cards for me. Eventually, it seemed that something positive started to happen. I got myself a spot in a craft boutique in Chester, NJ. I was on the cloud nine! Without even a slight hesitation I signed a six months lease and "moved in" two weeks later. Mirek had made a beautiful stand and I took care of the display. I also had a few woodburned pieces ready, so they were for sale as well... A $100 for rent in February and 2 cards sold... another $100 for rent in March and 3 cards sold... again $100 for rent and 4 cards sold. Well...you see what I'm trying to say here? The store owner was comforting me saying that since I'd missed the pre Christmas shopping spree, after was always the slowest season and that soon sales were gonna pick up.

To make a long story short, they never did for me! All the initial investment, $600 in rent fees went down the drain and all I was left with were memories of being an artisian and a huge amount of cards and woodburned gifts. I was upset, but I learnt to look at every experience in life as a lesson to mature, become wiser and laugh when it's hard to. I can humbly say that I'd tried a business and didn't succeed. Well, I guess a hobby should stay a hobby!?

Have you been to "Rag Shop"?

Donating feels good!

I was growing up in a land of "not plenty". When I was a little girl I had only one doll and I never thought that I needed more. It was a medium size doll named "Katja", initially with long hair that got trimmed shorter and shorter over the years. She was my companion, soulmate, friend that I could entrust with any secret! When I was learning to sew she was my first super model that got to wear custommade clothes. My Mom would get upset every now and then when she'd pull out one of her old dresses (that she didn't wear for years but was storing for the times of the fashion come back) and discover that it had a hole! I made a doll house for Katja out of a shoe box, with wall paper and curtains over the windows, and furniture made from the empty match boxes. She had a dresser full of clothes, ready for all kinds of weather. Having so little to play with made my imagination, creativity and resourcefulness skyrocket with unbelievable speed. I don't remember being bored or having nothing to do. I was collecting empty medicine bottles and later filled them up with water of different colors and it was my pharmacy. We played "doctor and the patient" for hours with my little sister. I had a chalkboard and occasionally some chalk, so we palyed "School" for hours, and guess who was the teacher! We made a throne with the sofa pillows and wore my Mom's dresses playing "Prince and Princess". My sister always had a short haircut , so her chances of being a Princess were very slim. My childhood was bountiful because I made it that way using my ability to see how to play with just about anything, even if it wasn't a toy.

And now the kids these days have it all! Toys are being labelled "educational" and parents feel oblidged to buy them , because of course we want the best for our children. Plus with the busy lifestyles there is not enough time left to spend with the kids. And then even before you know it child's room and later the basement are filled with toys, that are rarely played with, but rather scattered around and stepped on.

That is hardly the case in our house, but still lately I felt that we've accumulated quite an amount of toys that was not necessary. And so we went through the toys with the girls. I don't think Leona had a clear picture of what was happening, but Ivana understood that the toys that were put in a sack were ment to be donated. We had a talk about how other kids don't have toys, and she had no problem sharing! Now last time we were passing by the containers where we'd dropped off the toys, Ivana happily announced "I hope those kids have something to play with now!" And for sure it's easier clean up time in the evenings!

Painting

We went to the library yesterday and there was no way Ivana was ready to give up that book about the sea creatures. We've been reading it religiously for the last 2 weeks and have renewed it for another term. She remembers most of the names of the sharks and other fish, but it's just that recently she has started a new thing. She looks at the picture in the book and tries to copy it on a piece of paper. Her drawings of sharks were not coming up the way she wanted them to be, so she said she still needed that book. I'm so happy that Ivana likes to draw, she takes after me. She gets so excited when her drawing resembles the original one, even only slightly. Her perseverance amazes me! Her hand is pretty steady for her age, she pays attention to details and different shades of colors, and is eager to try to draw new images.

I was working on a birthday gift for my niece Lydia. This time I decided it was going to be a hand painted shirt with the sea world theme as she likes Nemo as well. It took me two evenings, I'd rather say nights, as I was finishing it till 2 am. Ivana and Leona saw me starting this project and were so surprised to see it completed in the morning. All I could hear was "Wow, Mommy. That looks great! Wow...wow...wow!" Of course they wanted to have the fish shirts, so I promised them. But not everything comes easy. Ivana's request is to have a ballerina fish that's wearing a tutu and ballet shoes! Hmmm... Let's see if this dream of hers comes true!

Ivana's first graduation party!

We are surely going to miss ice skating! Since I've started babysitting Alisa, it's not feasible for me to take all of them to the arena.

Ivana would take a 30 minutes class with the instructor, and Leona would be on double blades with me. And then we'd have the whole rink to basically ourselves for as long as we wanted! There were just a couple of very talkative senior citizens that were sharing their life stories with me, and trying to feed Ivana and Leona with jelly beans candy! Paradise on ice, if one can say that!

It was our last lesson and Ivana had to pass the test to graduate and be awarded a "Tot Ice Skating" badge. She successfully waked the straight line, got up from the ice, and smiled for the camera!

I guess it'll be her first badge on the girl scout vest!

Busy weekend.

And sure it was...

On Saturday we went to the Newark Museum with Ivana. I've been taking her to the Junior Art Studio there for about a months now and she absolutely loves it. I signed her up for the claygroup this semester. She gets to spend two hours with the teacher and the kids and I get two hours for myself. I've been exploring the museum exhibits and every time I learn something new.

This Saturday they were having a "Members only workshop for adults", and as I am one of these people, I was invited to participate. They had demostrations of various workshops that are being offered in the spring. I'm considering taking one or two, haven't decided which ones yet, but inclining towards calligraphy and beading. So, this Saturday when my little girl was working with clay and learning about glazing process, her mommy got to weave a basket! He-he-he ... it was so much fun! I would've never taken a weaving baskets class, but I am glad that I've got a chance to try! Happy we were going home! Ivana proudly holding her golden beetle and the mini bird nest, and her mommy pink mini basket!

I was looking forward to Sunday as I had so many plans to do my crafts. I have started a woodburning project that was supposed to be a gift for Mirek for our 5th wedding anniversary, and I have been planning on starting to sew summer dresses for my girls. But... I guess it was not meant to be, just yet.

On Saturday evening Mirek's sister, Jana, called and asked us to watch the kids. She had to work and Brian was down with flu. So at 7am on Sunday we suddenly had not 2, but 4 kids! Yeeppeee... Zeekie, he's 3 years old, and Lydia, turning 2 in a week. As it was a bit chilly outside, we stayed in. That's what I call "a full house" in one bedroom apartment! Kids played very nicely, except for a couple of episodes when 2 umbrella strollers were not enough for 4 wishful players. Or, when a red color marker was a much desired one for all of them. And don't even try to offer other shades of red! To have some quiet time for a while was crucial for my sanity , so "A Bug's Life" came on handy! And then Mirek was palying "Picnic" with them and was forced to eat plastic pizza and french fries, almost knocking his teeth out on a plastic orange, while I was busy in the kitchen cooking dinner. Kids were laughing so hard that I couldn't even hear myself think!

As the time was approaching for Mirek to take the kids home, I didn't want them to go. Sure I was exhausted, but since we don't see our niece and nephew too often, Mirek and I were very glad that we got to spend the whole day with them. Well... woodburning can wait and they won't wear summer dresses for a while yet!

Nemo, where are you?

Lats weekend we got to watch "Finding Nemo".

It was our 5th anniversary and this time there was no restaurant outing, but rather a stay at home family celebration. Mirek cooked the dinner, it was absolutely delicious. We opened a bottle of red wine and later all four of us got comfortable on the sofa under one blanket and watched "Finding Nemo". It was so wonderful! The movie was hilariuos and we really enjoyed it!

So this week girls' interest in our fishtank rose dramatically. They were tapping on the glass in search for Nemo, in vain. Ivana remembered poor fish being scared in the movie when the dentist's niece was just coming closer to the tank. So she didn't want to cause our fish any trauma, and was teaching Alisa and Leona to be quiet when next to the fishtank. That didn't go too well... Alisa even managed to drop a piece of rag, that she was washing the floor with earlier, into the the tank.

Ivana said she'd like to learn more about the sea world. So, we got the book "Sharks and other Sea Creatures from A-Z". We are becoming quite experts on different types of sharks and fish. She was really amazed with the Japanese Spider Crab, Narwhal, Porcupine Fish and Goblin Shark. But her favourite was Cookiecutter Shark!
I guess next visit to the aquarium she'll try to look for them!

Pink is Ivana's color!

I love all the colors! Some of my favourite are lavender, all shades of green and other earthy colors. But since Ivana was a baby, whenever I dressed her in pink , she would always get more attention.

Well, I think that can be easily explained. Pink IS her color!

Snowman was a must!

As quick and sudden the snow came, it disappeared even quicker!

And since we didn't get to make a snowman on the weekend, the girls were begging to build one! So we still had plenty of snow in the backyard, and everywhere else it was almost gone! The snow was just perfect! Wet, heavy and very sticky! I didn't realise how heavy until I had to pick up that second ball to put up. I had to remind myself not to use my back, but rather my legs. On the third attempt the ball was on its place. Patching up here and there, it was time to make a face. Well... here we needed some creativity. There was nothing around us, but the snow. So, Ivana remembered the place under the snow where she used to hide her pebbles. She dug out two, just enough for the eyes. We took the carrot with us before we left the house. That, of course, was for the nose. A flexible stick from a nearby bush we turned into the mouth. The girls were so happy that we had a smiling snowman! There happened to be a bucket in the shed, just perfect to put on the head. And now the hands... The brunches worked well.

Hurray! Our first, and probably last, snowman this winter. While building it we got soooo hot! The sun was out to the fullest, plus all that running around! It was time to go home and change, before everybody got sick.

In the afternoon when I was taking the laundry down from the line, there was not much of our "man" left. Just the bottom part... I felt a bit sad, because it reminded me again that nothing lasts forever.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today's the day we have started a new tradition in our family!

When I was growing up we didn't have many traditions. My parents were always busy trying to provide for our basic needs. Rasing 3 kids in the times of Communism in the former Soviet Union wasn't a piece of cake. And when the time would come to celebrate, they did the best they could. But being a kid many times I felt that other kids had it better then us. Since I remember myself I always thought that when I get to have a family of my own I'd do many things differently. And so I'm trying...

I got this idea from the web and decided to "adopt" it into our family! As I love to bake, and Ivana plus now Leona are always eager to help, today we baked a giant heartshaped chocolate chip cookie. They were so cute! They took turns adding the ingredients and holding the hand mixer. Ivana wanted to lick the spoon after mixing the raw dough (didn't happen!) , but it took only a split second before my measuring spoon for pure vanilla extract ended up in Leona's mouth. Well, for a while her tiny sweet lips smelled like vanilla!

The job to form a heart out of the dough I took upon myself, even though they were both ready to help. I had to keep them busy with a couple of M&Ms that later we used to decorate our cookie. 20 minutes in the oven seemed like an eternity for them. Then another 20 min for the cookie to cool. And, finally, they were ready to decorate. I gave them the spatulas, the icing, full freedom ... and watched! Pure joy!

I wrote on the cookie "Happy Valentine's Day", and Ivana kept on spelling it while placing the pink, red and white M&Ms around it. Well... at that point Leona just immersed into the bag with M&Ms!

Chocolate lovers! Hey, there are 3 of us in the family now!

I'm sure next year we'll have fun baking it again!

Finally it felt like winter!

This year's winter disappointed me, to say the least. I love all four seasons and don't have a favourite one. But I'm always looking forward to the seasonal changes as it is so refreshing for me. I love winter for the joy of skiing, crisp cold air and hot cocoa. Well...not much this year! It's mid February and we haven't gone skiing yet, one can't call air "crisp" when it's 50F and for the same reason I wasn't in the mood for a cup of hot cocoa.

This weekend we went to our vacation house in the Pocono mountains. And what a treat it was to wake up in the morning to a beautiful, eye soothing scenery! Snow!!! Hurray!!!! The girls were so excited and couldn't wait to go outside to build a snowman. I wasn't sure about building a snowman, but for sure Mirek needed extra help with all that snow shovelling.

A truck came by and the guy asked us if we wanted our driveway cleaned. As he was charging $40 for it, we politely refused. We are young and healthy, have plenty of volunteers to help, plus we've been waiting to paly with the snow for a couple of months! In about 2 hours, a lot of sweating and $40 still in our pocket, the driveway was clean! Ivana and Leona didn't want to come home, but the little bodies needed some good warm up.

I haven't had such a pleasure drinking a cup of hot cocoa for a long time!

Leona, Alisa, Ivana

Here is the picture of the three of them. We were playing dressing up, and they were "babushki". Later the same scarfs were changed into the veils, and they were the brides. After, they started swaddling their animals into the scarfs and playing "mommy and baby".
Who needs all that expensive toys that make so much noise! A little creativity can go a loooong way. I really believe that "less is more"!

We had a fun week

It's just scares me how fast the time flies! One week goes after another, and all we are left with are our memories. So with this blog I'm going to try to keep our memories "crispy" for a little bit longer.
As I think about our last week , we had a good one! On Monday we went to Ivana's dance lesson. How she loooooves going there! And in spring , sometime in May, she is having a recital. So last time the girls got to try the costumes on. They looked so beautiful! This year's theme for the recital is "Travelling". And how funny that Ivana's group is dancing to the music from the movie "Anastasia" (it's about a real Russian princess!). We are really looking forward to the concert.
On Tuesday we went to the library. Ideally I would like to go there every week, but with the 3 of them in the tow it's a bit challenging right now! Once in 2 weeks works for us at the moment! We stay in the library for 45 minutes. While I'm choosing the books to take home, Ivana and Leona go through the piles of books. It's so cute to see them sitting on the floor and flipping the pages... This time we had a warning from the librarian. Alisa started running and playing hide and seek between those book shelves...Of course, Leona couldn't miss the opportunity to join in, and Ivana was trying to calm both of them trying to catch them and bring them to me. So, as you can imagine it was quite a mess. And since no one can speak in a voice louder then a wisper in that sacrid place of learning (even though in was 11am and we were the only visitors!) the librarian was very strict. Well... the little ones could care less and ,therefore, we had to retreat ASAP.
And the rest of the week , we hang out at home. The weather was great , so we would go to the local park in the morning. It was a real blessing for me to find a double stroller. We have those containers near our house where people get to donate stuff they don't need anymore. And one day there was a double stroller! One of the fasteners was broken, and after replacing it and giving a stroller a very thorough cleaning I had what I needed, for free. Now we can go to the park and do our shopping. These days it feels that I've always had the three of them!

After lunch when I put Alisa for a nap, we got to sit down and did some learning. It was such a music to my heart the other day when Ivana said to me : "Mommy, you are my teacher. I like that you are my teacher!"

So...today IS the day! I have finally decided to create myself a blog! I've been reading other people blogs for quite some time and got encouraged to have one of my own! We are sending hello from our family into the world!