And so it begins....

Happy Halloween!

We actually carved pumpkins this year!  Well, Shane did it, and Adam and I watched.  I did have the job of "gutting" them (and then cooking and freezing the flesh for Thanksgiving pumpkin-pie...yummm).  No, you cannot find pumpkins like these in Sakhalin.  The Russian pumpkin is much smaller (about the size of a cantaloupe).  My friend brought the seeds back from California and her father grew them at his dacha (a Russian summer house).   I think our pumpkins turned out quite nicely....and Adam agrees!

Daddy and Adam showing off their carvings

 posing with his pumpkins

all lit up

my little Space Commander

Back to School

First day of school - Primary 2!

Catching up.....

Okay, my new project:  to update this blog.  It's pathetic, really.  I was so good about it for a long time, and then I got lazy.  In my last post, I was on a rant about our internet bill....yes, it's still the same....very expensive is an understatement.  Except now, we are not able to monitor it to see when we need to pay.  It makes things very exciting, which we need around here, I guess.

So what has been going on around here?  Just normal stuff, really....summer break, school starting back, holidays, work, etc.  Here are a few photos from the last several months to catch you up with our goings on.....:)

Getting ready for a school play last Spring

First lost tooth!

 Celebrating International Children's Day in June

 Testing out the bumper cars with Daddy this Summer

Riding the ferris wheel with Mom 

Enjoying the beautiful Sakhalin Summer weather

 In August, we took a quick trip to Korea to visit some Sakhalin friends

All the kids at the Dinosaur Park in Korea

The Great King Gaspar

Adam's class put on a nativity play for the end-of-term assembly before the Christmas break.  Adam played the part of King Gaspar, and he was very proud.  He even had a line to say, which he did twice in case we didn't get it the first time!  The play was really cute and the kids did a great job.

Adam as King Gaspar

The Three Kings

Sinterklaas

The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on December 6, which is Father Christmas' birthday.  Since Adam goes to a Shell School, this holiday is celebrated in a big way.  Father Christmas has these helpers called the Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) that go down the chimney for him to deliver gifts and candy (and are black because of the chimney soot).  They are mischievous and usually leave behind a mess, I guess so that the children will know that they were there.  Another Sinterklaas tradition is the children leave their shoes by the door so that the Black Pete will leave them a present inside.  Kind of like us leaving stockings hung on the chimney I suppose.  Anyway, there was a big Sinterklaas celebration at the school, which I found fascinating.  I don't remember seeing it last year, which is odd because I know we were here.  Adam spoke for weeks before the assembly about Sinterklaas and the Black Petes, and I had no idea what he was talking about until I asked the teacher.  For the Sinterklaas celebration, Adam's class performed the Macarena, which was hilarious.  Throughout the assembly, the Black Petes performed tricks and handed out papernotes (Dutch cookies that remind me of a cross between a snickerdoodle and a gingersnap).  Adam had a great time, and kept asking me when the Black Petes would visit our house...

Adam's class left out their shoes for the Black Petes

Father Christmas and the Black Petes at the Sinterklaas celebration at school

Black Pete giving out papernotes

Adam and his class getting ready to perform for Father Christmas

Doing the Macarena

Happy 5th Birthday, Adam!

Adam turned 5 this week!  He had a very eventful week.  He started off by getting a black eye two days before his birthday!  He was jumping on my neighbor's sofa and fell and hit his eye on a table behind the sofa.  By the next morning, it was completely swollen shut and black and blue.  Poor thing, and right before his birthday!  He had a party at school in his classroom, and we had a big party on Saturday at a mini-golf place near our house.  The kids ate pizza, cake and played golf....it was a great party!

He was very excited about taking cupcakes to school on his birthday

you can almost see his shiner

5 years old!

Shane and Adam playing mini-golf

Adam hitting some balls

Pizza party!

Adam's cake

Playing mini-golf

All the kids

Make a wish!

Adam at School

I chaperoned a school field trip to a market in town a few weeks ago.  I had about an hour to kill between morning drop-off and the departure time, so the teachers asked me to come in and watch the class.  The kids have circle time first and talk about the day of the week, that day's weather, and the day's activities.  After that, they had some free play, so I decided to take some pictures.  Here they are:

Halloween

This year, Halloween in Yuzhno came both early and late.  Our camp held a Halloween/Fall Carnival for the kids 2 weeks before Halloween.  We couldn't hold it on Halloween because there were many people that were going to be away from Sakhalin.  Halloween fell on the weekend before the mid-term break at the school, which is when many families take vacations.

Just like last year, we invited the kids from the Zima camp to join us in our celebrations.   Adam dressed up as an astronaut, or since we are in Russia, a cosmonaut!  Our little temporary community center was packed!  There were many games for the kids to play and there was also a HUGE bouncy house.  It took up almost 1/3 of the building!  After the carnival, the kids went around Olympia to trick-or-treat.

My little cosmonaut

The huge bouncy house

Playing games at the carnival

Playing a golf game

Costume parade

Sliding

My tired boys

The adults celebrated Hallween a few weeks late.  On Friday, November 13th (a good substitution for the Halloween party), we went to a costume party at on of our neighbor's houses.  Everyone was dressed up, and it was fun seeing our friends in their costumes.  Shane found a Zorro cape and mask, but couldn't find a hat, so he wore a bandana and Aerosmith shirt and called himself "Zorrosmith".  I went as his groupie....and yes, I know I look ridiculous in a black wig!

Posing for pictures with some of the girls

Shane with some of the guys

Pony Rides

A little girl in our compound turned 2 a few weekends ago, and she had pony rides at her birthday party.  Another woman that lives out here knows someone from the zoo or something, so they were able to get ponies out here for the kids to ride.  Much to our surprise, Adam agreed to ride on it....but only after a bit of coaxing.  He wasn't really keen on it when he found out I wasn't going with him, but he did just fine.

School Days

Adam is now in Primary 1 at the Sakhalin International School in Yuzhno.  This is the same thing as Pre-K in the USA.  He really enjoys school and loves his teachers.  This year, they are teaching the class to read with a phonics program.  He is learning sounds and letters in order of frequency (S, A, T, I, etc.) as apposed to A, B, C, D, etc.  From that, they are learning high frequency words and starting to make sentences with those words.  He knows about 20-30 words so far (documented by the school), but when we read at night or he sees something that he recognizes, he will let us know and show us how to sound it out.  It is really fascinating to watch him learn to read.  He is also learning Russian at school and now knows more than his Daddy!

Practicing his T's

Showing me one of his "high frequency" words

Some more of his school activities:

Self-portrait

Family portrait (does my hair really look like that?)

I also took a picture of a map that they had put up representing all nationalities of the students that attend the school.  I knew there were a lot of them, but I didn't realize just how many different cultures and countries that are represented there.  

Right side

Map with all the different ways to say "hello"

Left side