Projects and Packages

Let's see, what have we been up to the last few days? Normal stuff I guess.

School has been going well. The kids can say the days of the week, and are working hard at learning their letters and sounds. They all LOVE to cut, so I've been capitalizing on that. We've been making alphabet placemats. They have been picking a letter and scrounging through magazines looking for that letter, cutting them out, and gluing them on the placemats. Then I laminate them. All the while they are cutting out "their" letter, they also find themselves looking for the letter the other one is looking for, plus if I make one too, they look for that letter as well. (They LOVE to help each other out). Fine with me! I haven't found a better way yet of realllllly getting them to learn the letters. They are 100% "with it" on this project, and they can't wait to finish the one they are working on so they can do another one. It takes them a few days of working on them to finish, so they are really proud of their accomplishments, and what they've learned. (And Mama is too!)

We got a care package yesterday from one of my Blog Groupie Friends! I got some really wonderful Ukrainian cookbooks, a cd with Ukrainian Christmas carols, workbooks for the kids all about Ukraine, and an 800 piece puzzle of a map of Ukraine. HOW COOL IS THAT? I've been taking the cookbooks to the bathroom with me to study. (I can't believe I just confessed that to I-don't-know-how-many-people). Anyway! I'm dying to try making some babka bread. I think that's going to happen before the end of the week. Stay tuned folks! ;O)

When I popped in the cd with the Ukie carols, once Adam realized it was in Ukrainian, he declared that he knew all of those songs (hadn't even finished listening to the first one yet!) Aleksa pulled up a chair and stared into the speaker again until the cd finished. Pretty neat stuff. Just a bit of trivia for you, but did you know the Carol of the Bells is actually a Ukrainian song? (It also happens to be my favorite Christmas song - even long before I ever knew it was Ukrainian. Pretty cool co-ink-y-dink.)

Lets see, what else? Oh, we raked my dad's yard today. Well, partly. The kids LOVED the leaf-blower! Adam and Liana enjoyed taking turns with it, and Aleksa got smart. She went inside, grabbed her little mini-chair that Grandpa has for her, dragged it outside on the deck, and just watched everyone else work. Smart girl. ;O)

I'm pretty sure we are not meant to have a family picture taken of us this year. First Aleksa's hair, then Liana's nose, then Liana's cold sore, and now I have a humdinger of a cold sore on my lip. I surrender. I'm just going to send out our "first family photo" from Ukraine in our Christmas cards this year. The kids have grown like weeds since then, but that's the best I can do! *sigh*

Speaking of growing, we measured the kids a week ago Monday, and yesterday I measured again because it just seemed like everyone was bigger. I was right. Aleksa has grown 3/4" since Oct. 25. Liana and Adam grew 1/2" each. In ONE week. I had John double-check. Yep. Can't believe that is even possible! I've been teasing the kids that they can't have any more pickles since they are growing too fast and that must be what is "doing it." They giggle and tell me that YES they can have them and that Mama is silly and that they are going to grow up fast, fast, fast. *sigh* Not too fast, I hope!

The dresses are coming along. All I have to do are the bottom hems, put some buttons on them, and then I really need to rig up some bows for them or something or other. The dresses are really full, and they *really* need to be tied back somehow. Mom Fisher says that's pretty do-able. I suppose it is much easier to just go shopping and buy them dresses, but once you start looking at all the adorable patterns that Grandma has at her house just waiting to be sewn up for some little girls, and then look at all the stacks of fabric just waiting to be used up, it is hard to resist not wanting to at least give it a shot. Plus, having two girls that are the age that you can get away with dressing them alike is such a cool window of opportunity, that I figure now's my chance! Two girls! I still cannot believe we came home with two little girls. I was just thinking today of what a package deal the kids were. Without any one of them, we wouldn't have taken the set. Two girls without a boy would never have flown. (John had to have a son in there somehow!) But then, Adam without the girls wouldn't have flown either. Had to be everyone! And boy, are we blessed.