Bryce turns 9

We celebrated Bryce's birthday party with a party at the park near our house. He had some of his school friends to help him celebrate. They played a soccer game and then on the playground. Ryan made an ice cream cake for his cake. We had birthday waffles and Mexican food. Summer and mom came to help with all the birthday festivities!! Thanks so much!

Lyuba working on Sydney Katya's "crown braid"

I love this one with the dolls in the background.

Gayla and I enjoyed seeing each other.

Vera gave me a beautiful calendar of Sochi, Russia.

It is a beautiful city on the Black Sea and the town

where she lives.

Nickoli wanted me to try the salted fish. I didn't though

it is still a little raw for me.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a chance to visit with some good friends from Ukraine and Russia ;) Gayla, Viktor, Nickoli and Vera were in Gainesville and so we drove down to see them. The kids had never met them although I have spent 4 summers with all of them. It was such a dream come true for the kids to meet them and them to meet the kids. Bryce enjoyed playing soccer. Parker Reid rode on Viktor's shoulders. Katya played with everyone. Landon enjoyed playing with everyone too!

Finally, an update

Landon was passing out the blini (I made 100 of them and cut them into 4's)

Landon by his "booth"

Ryan made this to look like a passport.

It was wonderful!

Mr. Davis, the principal, comes by to learn

about Russia.

So it has been more than a month since I have updated, sorry. My sister is about to drive me nuts about updating. Things are very busy and blogger takes forever to upload my pictures. I will start with Landon's country study. He learned about Russia and did a poster and told about his country to hundreds of other students from his elementary school. His whole class told about different countries. They all did very well. Here are a few pictures....