Summer Projects

Here is a blur of what we've been doing since the end of the school year and into June:

Sebby's preschool Easter egg hunt in a nearby park. :)

For a school project, Misha had to design his own city, determining what social services, living options, parks, and rules he would provide. He decided to focus his city on being "green;" his residents traveled by bike, by foot, or by zipline, as no cars are allowed in Kulaville. Also, most buildings have solar panels on top, and the city has four windmills on the edge to power it as well. We all had fun pitching in.

Building the city

Help from the parents

The finished city!

Since our kitchen table was buried in cardboard and construction paper and popsicle sticks, we ate supper that night on the floor on our picnic blanket.

Misha's report about his city.

As a 3rd grader, Misha was subjected to state testing at the end of the year. These are the notes he wrote for himself, a collection of advice from teachers - and us.

Sebby having fun in preschool with his buddies.

Sebby's preschool drawing. Me: Aw, how sweet, you want to be a scientist like Misha? Sebby: Yep, those are bombs!

An adorable bracelet Sebby made at school. The "Z" can be interpreted as an N.

We sent cookies to Sebby's preschool for his last day with his school-year teacher.

An art project of Sebby's that I particularly like.

In the final edition of Misha's school newsletter, he wrote about - what else? - cool summer experiments to do.

As far as fun outdoor creatures we have come across lately, we bring you:

a massive katydid Sebby discovered clinging to the front of our car

a baby katydid I discovered at work

a super-sized snail with serious slime

a very cool lizard on the fence ... not just an anole, but a bumpy, textured relative of ancient creatures.

a little possum in an outdoor trash can

... and a large gulf coast toad that Sebby found!

Holiday fun:

Father's Day gifts the kids made at school - a coffee mug from Misha

and Sebby's Special Sauce, a barbecue-ish concoction that looks much better than it tastes.

Misha's Mother's Day card to me

plus a breakfast of pancakes! Not pictured: a flower in a jar from Sebby.

And other random summery photos:

Beads on the balcony

Reading

Designing shirts

fire hair

Picnic in the Frankie Carter park

We recently bought a used Clavinova!

Another picnic, of which we have only horrific memories of mosquitos attacking

Yet another picnic, this time a grill-out

the grill master

Misha reunited with his robot

Pink-cheeked Sebby after a busy day

Sound-asleep Sebby in a chair

The fun of hair gel.

Sweet sleepers

Card players

One sock on and one sock off

Spirograph fun

Pool fun.

Sebby the swimmer!

Me and my long hair.

Boys and laptops

Blanket tents

A real tent we borrowed for our trip to San Antonio to see the bat cave... Stay tuned.

Just Fishin'

Since Misha was eager to try out his birthday fishing pole, and there is a great little pond in Challenger Park near us, we made two little fishing trips in May. The first time, I took the kids there on an impluse and told the boys it was "for practice," because we didn't have any worms. They practiced casting while I read in the shade, admired the unique black-and-white winged dragonflies, and watched the boys being brotherly. When we lost the hook in the top of the tree (how did that happen?), we went home. Misha was convinced that the trip was a failure, but I chalked it up to that "practice" I had mentioned.

The next time, we convinced Josh to brave the heat with us, and hot it was. The sun was relentless and opportunities for shade were few. Luckily, we did bing our umbrella. This time, we stopped to buy some worms as well as a little pole for Sebby as well, so both boys were super excited and undeterred by the heat. Misha even managed to catch three bass! He let them go, disappointed that they were not bigger, but we were all impressed with his success.

Misha turns 10!

Happy birthday, Misha! On April 6, our not-so-little boy turned 10. And we're pretty sure he's the best 10-year-old around. 

For his birthday, we decided on a classic party in our apartment park with hot dogs, cake, lemonade, and old-school games like a water-balloon toss, an egg race and a three-legged race. On the evening of the party, we were greeted with swarms of kids. Misha had invited several kids from school, but only two of them were able to make it (Allison and Denise). We could hardly turn away the eager faces of all the kids who watched us setting up, so we welcomed everyone. It was chaotic and loud and crazy - but it turned out quite well, especially considering we hadn't been counting on a group of 15-plus.

We started with an Easter egg hunt, and moved along to a water-balloon toss:

Then the egg and spoon race, using big soup spoons first, then normal spoons:

And then the three-legged race, thanks to some masking tape:

Bubble-blowing:

And onto the food! Hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and cake...

Somehow during the course of the all the events, someone had fallen into the cake and left their handprint. 

Singing, cake and presents!

By the time the party was over, it was already quite dark, and we went home to give Misha our own presents: a real Newton's Cradle and a plasma ball. He loved them.

A few other random pictures:

Owning a snake means we get to play with cute little mice, if only for a short time.

Like an ancient Greek play, I will show you only the effects of the violence, not the violence itself: Slither the snake, after fitting the mouse all the way into his mouth with only the tail sticking out.

Here are a few cute ukulele videos. We have really been enjoying it, and Misha has improved greatly since these first clips:

"Happy Birthday, Dear Grandpa" - the first song Misha learned so he could sing it for Grandpa's birthday.

Misha performing "May There Always Be Sunshine" in Russian and English.

Sebby knows some chords too!