Shout out!

A quick shout out to Mikes & Sarah's mom out west! always Glad to have a fan out there!

Well, I think the kids dentist is from New Jersey.... she sent one of Christina's molars "to the tooth fairy" today. What a little trooper she is (with rotten teeth). More to follow...

Ahoy Matey!

So after Sasha and Christina's trips with Pa and Ma, Tanya was not feeling the Love. so Heidi came up with a clever solution. She took Tanya on a special half day escape to Annapolis and a Harbor Cruise to make her feel special too. Of course she dominated the scene.

Sanity Break for three please....

So, big kid sanity has been an objective in August. Masha took advantage of the tennis courts at Turkey Thicket rec center where the kids had their last summer camps to brush up her skills and challenge Heidi to a grudge match.

Well, Heidi and I snuck out this last weekend to go to a scooter rally in Harrisburg PA. So the responsible adult in the household (Masha) took the kids back to Baltimore to adventure at Port Discovery. The kids played with, in around ad in a world of carefully designed educational experiences.

Us grown ups rode 388 miles on our scooters and participated in age appropriate experiences like paint ball jousting and Heidi unsuccessfully defended her Gymkhana title from last year. She was quite a celebrity on the day of the big match. She did a great job and we had a great time. the kids where happy to see us when we puttered into the back yard on Sunday. thanks Masha, for the moments of sanity.

Erik

Bowling and Bolling for Happy Birthday-day

Wow, where did the summer go! The chips are working to an amusing degree. It was all funny funny 'till we counted out the chips at the end of the week and and passed out the awards and Tanya failed to have enough blue chips. What an early life crisis!

The Birthday weekend weekend was a great success, or Happy birthday-day as the kids say. Sasha and Christina had make up birthdays ( their American Birthdays have been adjusted to July). July was a bizzy month so we exercised a parental prerogative and picked a more convenient date for us big kids, in August.

We rounded up several kids of the their acquaintance and convoyed over to Bolling Air Force Base bowing center. We descended on them like locusts on wheat. Three lanes of ball rolling excitement. Chase and Christina pause between frames and Sasha and Tanya confer over balls with fellow revelers.

Let the chips fall where they may!

Well, when I looked it up, the line is actually referring to chopping wood, but...

We have started a little experiment, the poker chip game. Good job, the old ata boy/girl, you get a blue Chip. You can guess that the red chips serve as the Ahhh Sh*t chip. It amazes me what a 8 year old will do to get a blue chip or avoid the dreaded red chip.

We have already established a Monday change over on chores and seat assignments in the car. So Sunday night is the final tally for the week. Sasha and Tanya ended up with one more blue than red ones. Christina had her own economy going with Heidi, so we did not have a accurate exchange rate to compare. We shall see how this behavior modification/economics lesson will go.

And what a weekend it was. This weekend was Heidi's trip to the Minnesota with Christina for Gam's Birthday (Heidi's grandmother). A group photo shows the get together with Ben, Heidi's Brother Harry's son; Stephine, Heidi's Brother Jerry's Daughter; Dawn, Heidi's Mom; Mellisa, Heidi's late brother Ed's daughter; in the front row Ed (EJ) Mellisa's brother; Christina our Daughter; Gam, and Maxim Jerry and Karen's new son.

Christina and Maxim had a great time exploring the Minnesota at the lake shore with an afternoon of canoes, paddle boats, jet skis and party games. of course there was the cake part, always a plus. Their parting was a good one, their second time together since their arrival in the States. This was a great opportunity to meet more family than they have had in the last three years. maxim returned to his new home with Jerry and Karen. Christina returned with Mama to Minneapolis to her Grandmothers house (Not Babushka as much these days).

Now us here in DC, the rest of us have to keep ourselves busy, so it was off to the new "National Harbor" development. think a mall/hotel with a place to park your 50 foot yacht. Today we packed Masha into the car after church and headed off to Baltimore to explore Pory Discovery on Market street including a three story climbing playground. We wrapped up the day with a Dragon Paddle Cruise of the inner harbor. Pedal, pedal pedal (by the way, 30 min is plenty of time with kids aboard, matey)

In bed by 1000, and Heidi is due Monday night, thank God!

Love to all,

Papa, pedal, Papa!

New and imporved weekend adventures

So. Heidi ran off to Dallas with our friend Jen for her preliminary Bridal Shower
festivities (kinda like preseason games I guess) and Masha and I took the
kids on for the weekend.

Life has its ups and downs, and so does ice skating. And in Tanya's case it had
a whole lot of them. The rink guard told me she never wanted any help every
time he checked on her ( I'm not a good enough skater to risk my neck and
theirs on center ice for this learning experience). Just like riding bikes, a
lot of falls and cussing but they where all happy at the end.

Masha and I worked on our fledgling moves as the kids gained mastery. By the
end, Christina had taken Masha under her now expert (her third time out) wing and
was coaching her to try something for two minutes and she would check on her.

One Sunday We attended church and then went to a community arts organization open house
that featured events like African story telling, flamenco dancing, making hip hop tee shirts and
the ever popular face painting. The high point was a kids theater presentation
of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by two very flexible Thespians.

After
a quick lunch and adult nap and we bundled them off to Potomac park for
scooter riding and play-grounding.

The real treat was on the ride back. The kids in their seats in the back on
the Mazda 5 were discussing something in Russian earnestly. Masha told me they
where talking about religion. Tanya, the seven year old, was holding her
belief that your soul goes to Heaven. Christina the eight year old held that
your Heart goes to heaven.

I have to say we adults were surprised by this. And at this point Papa
completely blew his big chance at discipling with his children by going for
the cheap shot.

Papa told them in English that in Sasha's case it is his "butt" that will go.
The kids started laughing very hard. I must of took them by surprise and it
sounded like my timing was perfect.

The real treat for Momma was when she returned from Dallas to sneak in to say goodnight, although all were racked out, Christina awoke and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek! Wow, that was big and very unexpected! Very Kool.

Love to all, a special shout out to our Dallas fans, best to J.R. ya'all!

Mama and Papa Bear

Sailing, sailing.....

"A capitol ship for an ocean trip ....Though it of'ten appeared, when the gale had cleared, that He'd been in his bunk below...."

So several things to consider over the last weekend. Mortality, ageing, mentorship, friendship, youth and red eyes.

Sasha and I went on a coast to coast dash over the weekend, last. Leaving Thursday evening we flew to California for my 30 year High School Reunion.

Sasha did so well, I was very proud of him. This is certainly the first time he has been away from his sisters since we met him in December, and possibly in his life. he listened well and overcame his shyness with time.

We saw my big bro Noel and Sheila in Los Angales coming and going in their above the Fog residence above Ladera Heights, pushing up the coast on Highway 1, we got to Santa Barbara in time for Friday lunch at Mobey Dicks on Sterns Wharf with my folks. Fish and chips with pelicans flying by the window. We farted around the harbor and Sasha Hijacked the harbor taxi on one of our trips, Toot toot!

The visit with my folks was nice, Sasha is still very shy around them, but he was able to play around the house pretty well. I don't think he broke anything important, that I found.

The Reunion has amusing but the keepers for the weekend was the time I spent with Newell Raxter, a fellow '79 grad but a fellow guardsman and ROTC classmate and two hours or so I had with my high school mentor Mr. Ken Larson.

Newell rode over from Phoenix on his BMW and we had a little time to catch up for the 19 years we have been shouting out to one another from different timezones. Mr L, or Ken was able to free up for a very nice chat on Sunday.

Sasha was able to visit with his Grand Parents, my folks, and caught his own Blue Belly Lizard (let PETA know no lizards were hard in the preparation of this blog entry).

And just to make it a full experience, we came back on a Red eye into Dulles, I just have to say I'm not feeling as young as I used to be after that sleeping in the seat thing.

The absolute best part of the trip was seeing the Heidi and the girls on Monday. Heidi survived her all girl weekend and Christina preceded to start a sentence that kept going and going. I just about fainted, since two or three words was good a month ago.

Now Heidi is packing out for her "Trip to Dallas" for a bridal shower weekend of one of our DC Buddies. My turn in the barrel for the all kid weekend.

Hay Ho and a way we go!

Erik, Pa pa on the road, have booster seat(s), will travel.