Friday finale.

Today we had the most amazing day of the camp. It was the last day of the dig, a "museum opening" and a Greek pot luck lunch.

Three long tables covered with real artifacts that kids had dug out in the course of four days. They sorted the artifacts according to the periods in history and were able to conclude that it was a battle site that they had discovered.

Every family brought a Greek dish to share for the lunch and, oh, boy, was a true feast!

Now we have jump started a new period in history to study for our next year. We'll be reading a lot of Greek myths and legends that I even had already purchased at the local library book sale a few weeks ago.

We'll also get some clay and do pottery, mosaics and drawing in Greek style. Well, and the Greek food is always the most favorite in our house. Leona insists on preparing a dandelion salad one day. I guess we'll have to use a lot of feta cheese, just to flavor it up! Stop by for lunch!

Day 2. More digging.

On a second day of digging things were coming up. The story the kids were creating started to make more sense.
And while everybody is busy down on their knees, Mimi is having a trampoline all for herself!
What could be better than a lunch of a fresh air. They all had voracious appetites!
Later she decided that the kids really need her help with the dig.
Leonka on a very high swing. She just loved it!
A closer look at the artifacts. After they are mapped, they will need to be washed and let dry on a sun to look nice for the Friday Museum Exhibit.

The Archaelogical Summer Day Camp.

It is the second summer that the kids are participating in a summer day camp program. It is a very special kind of summer camp where parents have to pay for the kids to dig in the dirt!!!

The Archaeological Prospective Summer program was created by a wonderful man, whose passion and living is digging in the dirt! His nick name is "Big Dog", as he is over 6 feet tall, and he is a Professor of Archaeology from Albany State University.

This year the kids were studying Classical Greece, 7th-5th centuries BC, in the region of Attica, as only archaeologists could study, by making their hands dirty. A true "hands on approach" to education!

The program was designed to excite and teach the children about the amazing culture of Classical Greece, explore this forgotten world from the archeological prospective, and to learn the connections between how and what we know about the people and their world from so long ago.

In the morning Big Dog would talk to the kids, give them a lot of wonderful information, show the places he was mentioning on the map, and finish the "talking part" of the camp with a slide show from real digging sites.

Then would come the more exciting part of the camp, the digging. The kids were such wonderful listeners and participants! By the end of the second day they knew exactly what was expected of them and what was the whole digging ritual. The site was divided into squares and the kids were paired up. Each team was responsible for their own squire and for the keeping the track of all discoveries. They were supposed to keep a map and try to record the position of the artifacts in the dirt before taking them out of the "ground context".

Then they would have lunch and a break for free play. Since the camp was held at one of the participating family's house, the backyard was very kids friendly. They had a blast jumping on a trampoline, having lunch together in a tree house, swinging on a rope swing that was all the way up on a tree brunch, playing with two dogs, feeding the chickens, playing with the parrot or a cat, catching the tadpoles and watching the pond life, playing board games and simply enjoying each others company.

Funny Mimi...

Today she was amazed with this tiny pill worm going up her chubby little hand. The older sisters have been playing with those creatures and Ivana even had attempted to adopt one as a pet. Well, it didn't work out too well. She kept on coming back to that glass jar, checking up on it, thinking it was still sleeping, and then finally realizing it was not...sign...
Milana was not afraid of a pill worm whatsoever. It kept on going up her arm and she was watching it very patiently. Today she also picked up a dried up worm to feed our pet, Yurtle, the snapping turtle. We all had to persuade her that our Yurtle would choke on it, that it needed a soft, fresh one. On the way home the girls spotted a worm and Milana bravely brought it home for the turtle.
What do you do if a kiddo gets a booboo on the mouth? That's what Milana demanded! Yep, a bandage! She even managed to say "cheese" for the photo shoot, but was a bit bewildered about what to do then...she was pretty hungry, it was lunch time. She decided to take it off as there was NO way she was skipping on having lunch!
A day spent in glasses! That is how she fell asleep, still in her glasses. Just hilariuos!

Yellow Iris.

We have spent an afternoon fishing today. The girls went with Tata and Elvin (our friend from Honduras) on a boat all excited in anticipation for a big catch.
And the boy kept Mama a company ashore. He had his dinner and then was kind enough to snooze away a bit. Really, just a bit, but it was all I needed to play with my camera and write a few lines into my" new" (Mirek got it for me from a garage sale this morning) beautiful, hand made leather bound note book.
As I was sitting feeding Evan, I was looking at this Yellow Iris and trying to think as if I was it, the flower. What would flower's thoughts be? I drew a small sketch of this iris into my notebook...
Then I decided to take a few pictures. Here my focus was on the iris against the sky. But the flower itself was not a focal point, I kind of wanted to embrace the whole natural setting and point out the harmony in nature.
Then I decided to change the layout of the photograph , still keeping the iris and the surroundings in the picture. But this time the "wet cloud" was my point of interest. I just loved that fluffy reflection in the water.
I threw my head up and the sky became the thing I wanted to enjoy for some time.
Just walking a few steps along the lake shore I discovered another family of Yellow Irises. This time it feels that they are stronger together, kind of like a big happy family.
And micro feature is my favorite! Unfortunately my camera does not do a good job in this department and I really miss taking the photos of the micro world of insects, tiny flowers, morning dew, etc... The Sun just seems to go through the petals of the flower.
And this is not against the blue sky... It is my Iris (by then it did become mine, with all the time I was spending around it) against the water in the lake. Kind of, sort of blue, but not that sky blue. I found the background color interesting.
Then rocks came into focus on my next picture. This time it is unmistakably lake water. Just how close the iris is growing to the lake.
Oooops... Something else caught my attention. And a second later after I took this photo, a gostly beaver was gone. Thanks for the visit! And that was the end of my time when I could use both hands to hold my camera. Yes... that's rignt. Evan decided it was enough of napping, the day was too gorgeous to waste, and the scenery was captivating. So, we started taking pictures together. I put him in a sling and we ventured out a bit away from the "My Yellow Iris spot".
We took a mini hike and right behind the curve that was what we saw. I asked him if he thought it was worth taking a picture of and he happily agreed with me by enthuziastically jerking his little chubby arms and legs.
Here we decided to change to position and the photo looks even better than the previous one.
Looved the reflection of the trees in the water and the front row of yellow blubs is adding another color and changing the simplicity of the picture a bit.
Next Evan tried to grab the leaves of the tree we were passing by and it gave me an idea to try to incorporate the foilage into the photo. Ta-da. A new image.
Someting just made me look back and my jaw dropped. I am a super model with the legs up to my neck! Mirek said we should name this picture "Shadow Madonna". I had to put the camera on timer, but I am still holding it with my left hand, while supporting the baby in the sling with my right one.
And the two hours were gone so quickly, my fishermen and fishergirls were coming back with some dinner, it was time to pack up.
My Yellow Iris had kept me a good company and I couldn't wait to see my pictures on a PC screen. I will be using these lovely photos for my next family photo book. Can you ever be bored in nature? Don't think so....

Russian Club "Teremok".

I have submitted this letter to a local newspaper...

Some times all you need to do is ask. If you want your dream to come true you need to do something about it. Things just don't happen overnight, or at least that's the rule of thumb, with a few exceptions. Sometimes it's somebody's kitchen before it becomes a popular bakery or a restaurant. Sometimes it's somebody's basement before the business grows and you can afford to have an office or a show room. Sometimes an idea comes up, but never grows into anything and stays to be a dream...

In our case it was an idea, a living room, and a determination of two excited families. And that's how we started the first in the Poconos Russian Speaking Club. Getting together every other Sunday and switching between the houses for a meeting place, our mission was to encourage our children to learn Russian, the language of their heritage, to establish a circle of Russian speaking friends and to build an ethnic Russian community in the Poconos.

And that's when a Holy Trinity Orthodox Church has become such a blessing. We approached Fr. Nicholas in November 2008 and introduced our idea and simply asked for help. And even though Fr. Nicholas didn't know us that well at the time he still agreed to provide a meeting place for our growing group, and the fellowship hall of the church has become a new home for our Russian Club "Teremok".

Since December we've been getting together every Sunday for a few hours. And during those few months we were able to not only establish friendships, but to teach our children about the beauty and uniqueness of the Russian language, literature and culture and to appreciate a life long gift of being able to speak, read and write in another language.

Children (ages 4-9_ had a Russian class where they would learn the Cyrillic alphabet, hear poetry, prose, fables and tales from classical Russian writers, play Russian games, sing songs and participate in a children's theater.

The adults, meanwhile, would have an opportunity to socialize and have a cup of tea or coffee with some home baked goodies.

Last Sunday we had our first annual spring concert where children were able to show to their families and friends all the wonderful poems they'd memorized, tongue twisters they'd practiced, and songs they'd learned. Everybody's favorite was singing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes", "Mary had a little lamb", and "The wheels on the car" in Russian. And the culmination of the program was the play we put up with the kids. Our young actors were so excited about their hand made costumes, acted very naturally and did a fantastic job saying their lines in Russian.

Our vision for the Russian speaking club is to grow and attract more interested families and create a Russian Sunday school with a few levels of learning. We are planning to provide translation services and help families with adopted children from Russia and other Russian speaking republics of the former Soviet Union to overcome the language barrier and be able to connect with their children faster.

Celebrating cultural holidays, having an annual picnic, organizing a choir with Russian folk music as a repertoire are other things we have in mind for the Russian Club.

Therefore, we would like to thank Fr. Nicholas and the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church for supporting us in our endeavor of establishing a strong Russian ethnic community in the Pocono region.

Julia V.

Head Teacher

Founder of the Russian Club "Teremok"

Baby zebra.

That's what happens when your have older sisters!
The girls are so wonderful with their baby brother and he just loves them! They are already including him into their games and today he was made to be a zebra.
Can't you tell he thinks it was a great idea?