PHILLY TRIP!

Kids were excited weeks ago when Jimmy told them about this trip. He did a project at work and to reward him, his boss gave him tickets to see Phillies (Hall of Fame, nothing less) which cost $75/each. Plus free tickets to Philadelphia Zoo.

We packed early morning, kids all excited to use their new duffel bags that Nan and Pop got them for sleepovers. On the way there Brandon watched "Ну погоди!". 

Just about the enter the city.

Drive was not too bad but finding hotel was difficult :). GPS I have, was free, about 4-5 years old, and apparently, did not like where we were going because it kept taking us around and around, just a block before our hotel. We did find it in the end and made it perfect timing - 3.01 for 3.00 check-in time.

Here is just a block from the hotel. City Hall right in front.

Cool wall painting seen from our parking spot. 

Of course, the first thing kids did was... Jumping on the bed. Surprised? Nope. How else can you start your vacation? 

 View from our room on 15th floor. Double Tree Hotel. City Hall view.

 Mommy's loves.

Yes, yes, yes, that was the second thing we did. Kids changed into their swim suits and we hit the pool. It was on the 5th floor and had a deck. Academy of Music right in front of us. Sports area had a pool, sauna (yip, you heard it right), and gym. Pool was not too big but warm and with sun roof.

 Can't believe how grown up Brandon looks here.

Love Package

Candy, certainly, is the biggest hit with my children. :) Lot of other good goodies too :) Love hair piece for Kyra - with ladybug on it too. Orange socks for Brandon. Baba and Kolya know it all!

Girls' Day And Invitations

While Jimmy was at work and Brandon was away at camp, Kyra and I spent the day together. We drove to post office to get a package from my parents for her birthday. Brandon asked us to wait to open, so it was nice of Kyra to wait for him to come home first.

We stopped at Kmart to get new box of chalk because we used so much of it even yesterday after rain storm and them stopped at Dollar Store to pick up birthday decorations and lucky Kyra, she found decorations with unicorns!

When we got home, we ate lunch, played Ladybug and Jenga and colored.
I know. Lot of purple :)

Good day just for two of us :)

Here are hand made invitations for Nan and Pop.Best ever!

Cub Scout Camp For Brandon

Boys were so busy! Wish we knew ahead of time that Weblos were allowed to come to, we did know but no one else did, so when we shared this information, it was too late. 

Anyway, there were 6 of them - Brandon, Simon Mikhail, Alex Jones, Jayden Vogel, Owen Kissinger and Brayden. 

Each day they had sport time, they even played field hockey one day. They did crafts, did archery that Brandon was so excited to do, out of 3 shots he hit one right into bull's eye. They learned about nutrition (especially sugar content for, for example, apple (almost none), carrot (a lot) and marshmallow (even more). They had music day when they had to guess songs. Last day they had firemen from Hershey come in and spraying them with hoses and they used to much of water that they ran out of it. 

Brandon had a blast. He said each day was even better and he was happy he did it. Happy for him! 

Simple Pleasures of Summer

What else can you do but play in warm puddles after summer storm and then draw with the chalk? So fun! I have to say even being 34, I still enjoy doing both.

Berzinski's Summer Party

Just as a couple other times we came to Berzinski's to this party, it was so relaxing. Kids were running around, adults relaxing having drinks. There was a 8-year old girl who was standing behind Jim while he was mixing drinks. After Jim left to get more ice, she was making non-alcoholic drinks for the kids. She even got a few tips :) 

Brandon, Tucker and Brody playing together. 

Kyra, of course, is the biggest tomboy

Looks like the gang making plans.

Love this photo of two best friends!

Two Puppies..Or Monkeys Playing

Brandon always asks to "beat him up" and she, marvelling that he wants her attention, usually is happy to oblige. 

By Herself Nail Stylist

Oh yes, all by herself. She is getting to be quite an artist!

Olivia's Birthday Party

Both kids were to go and boy, were they excited! Hummelstown pool for the first time this year and with bunch of their friends. They had a lot - Olivia and Emily, Shannon, Valeria, Gabby, Carly, Kyra, Alexis, Brandon, Tanner, Elijah. I still feel like I forget someone. Was interesting to see how much all those kids grew over the summer. 

Kids swam together and jumped from high dive. They played tennis and basketball. There was, funny, a mystery of a lost shoe. I forgot who it was, may be Tanner, who happen to lost his shoe. I have no idea how but at the end all the kids went on scavenger hunt and still did not find it. 

For snacks they had pizzas and cub cakes and watermelon. Best part was Dora pinata. Olivia just wanted to hit her. I guess not only my kids dislike Dora at this age :) 

Brother And Sister

"Butt cheek poop head" or "Kyra smeels like poop", I can not believe what I am typing right now but oh boy.. That what happens when you have a boy in the house and he has a little sister. Not the attention she desires but that is the way he can now give her. I hope it will change at some point :)

Night Times - Best Times

It is interesting to see that even now, with Brandon being over 9 and Kyra almost 8, they both start argue early in the night on who I am laying with first. Brandon asks me every time and when I say "Of course, I will lay with you", he always says "Yay" like he was worried I would not.
I love rubbing their backs and play with their hair and tickle them with my eye lashes. They like it :) Then, tuck ups, hugs, kisses and finally, good night :)

Love them so much!

Russia Trip

Only 30 days left. Kids are already planning on talking on Skype with me. Kyra has been asking for this dog that used to be mine when I was 16. My first real stuffed animal. She wants me to bring it. I will and I will miss kiddoes.

PT

So I started working, doing those 5-6 exercises my PT gave me. I am not a fan of them. I do not really like structured exercises however, the other day when I came for my appt, I could do something I could not do at my first one. He checked my hip strength, when a leg is straight or half bent, to see if he could push on it and I would not let it go to the floor. First time he totally pushed it in a second. This time he could not at all. his eyes got big and he said he was impressed, seemed like I worked hard.

The last week I slacked. I did not even wanted to do my push ups or planks. I wanted to sleep more. I can only imagine I slided back. I got up once this past week, early in the morning and it felt so wonderful, I could not run much but walking to the school and back, running for a bit, listening to some music, it was wonderful1 I felt so alive! I gotta do my best to get back to doing my exercises.

My Fav Girl

I love how Kyra just comes to me for a hug and I touch her face or her hair and she snuggles into me or I give her a kiss on her cheek or nose. She is my favorite girl snuggle bug!

Love hearing her yell: "Mommy" :)

Love how she gives me run and jump hugs when I leave.

Love her to pieces!

This Is How She Rolls :)

When I was watching Brandon play, Kyra was working on activity book. She looks so grown up and serious on that picture. Love her!

My Shadow

I needed to go the store to get stuff for Berzinski's party. Guess who wanted to go with me? My little shadow. :)

I was on the way to the trail for a walk and may be run and guess who joined me? My shadow again. I told her that I walk fast, she said she could do it.

First, I attempted to walk fast and concentrate on my walk but then I thought. It is just one walk. But a time where my little girl wanted to go with me because she wanted to be with me.

I turned off my ipod and took her hand. We walked till Mill rd crossing. We stopped at the stream and saw a turtle under the water. We watched it for a minute, watched a bird that was crossing our path. We looked at so many trees that fell during the storm. Just little wonders and pleasures of the world.

Sport is sport..But bonding time.. is priceless. :) Love her some me!

Boy For Us

Kyra loves to tell Brandon that she loves him and give him hugs which he consistently pushes away. I always knew he cares for her but he, certainly, shows it in a different, boy kind of way. The other day we were watching Despicable me-2 and there was a scene that Kyra likes the most in the movie, called "In the summertime".

Kyra ran to the bathroom right before this song and when it started, Brandon jumped off the couch, paused it and yelled to Kyra that he stopped it for her.
Little thing? I think it is a big thing. He did the same for me when he was watching The Lego Movie and he scrolled to the part that I love the most when UniKitty tries to stay positive and says: "Bubble gum.. Butterflies..Cotton candy".

That is what kind of boy he is :)

I Love You Secret

I am not sure why but a few months ago Kyra stopped saying "I love you" completely. When I ask her, she says "Roar" which is "I love you" in dinosaur language. But a day or two ago, while eating a green bean at supper, she leaned to me and whispered:
- I love you!
She is so funny!

Kyra's Bloopers

We were walking in our neighbourhood and Kyra was making cart wheels. She saw the flock of birds flying and while making a cartwheel, she yelled to them:
- Fly away birdies, fly away to where it is safe!
So random! :)

We were getting ready to watch Frozen at Shank Park and they were advertising Hershey Outlets on the screen. Kyra looked at it and said, almost kind of singing:
- Outlets, wonderful, wonderful Outlets!
Again, so random! :)

Kyra did not like the grapes I gave her. She said:
- They look like dead brains!

"Frozen" Movie and Book Sale

I saw it being advertised and Kyra and I loved drive in movie last year, plus she really likes Frozen. We packed with all the board games (Uno, Beat the Parents, erase board for hang man), blankets and such. We saw Olivia, Emily and their Dad there so we found the spot next to them. We were sitting so close to the screen itself, so cool!

We played for 2 hours and got some snacks. It was so cute that all the kids around us were singing to any song that was played and then when Ana said to Hans that the only frozen heart around there was his and punched him, everyone got a big whoooo hooo!

I cannot believe that I forgot to take a single picture although I took the camera with me. The next day Kyra drew a picture for me. How sweet!

What was interesting that the next day after Frozen, while we were in the car on the way to the swimming pool, Kyra asked me how it happens that when you meet someone, they are so nice and then they get nasty. I had the whole lesson about how it is important to really take time to choose the right person.

Never too late for a life lesson! 

Next morning Kyra and I headed to Palmyra library for their annual book sale. I love this fair. Every year I find some great books to buy. This year I got 24 books for me for $28 and 23 books for $11 for kids. Best deals ever! So happy!

PSSA Results

I completely forgot about the fact that we should get the results of PSSA sometime in July. Here is what I found in the mailbox today. I am so proud of Brandon's results. Advance in both, reading and math with excellent results in each category.

Hair-Nail Stuff

Lots of stuff we are doing with Kyra's nails and hair this summer (except the times they are simply in pony tail or loose). She got this nail designs and loves doing different stuff with them. Beth did her nails for 4th of July. I did hair like this:

And this:

All Star Baseball

Brandon was VERY proud and he should be about him being picked for in house.
Caught in action

 Not sure why but he looks annoyed here

 Ready to run

Kyra, You Are

What we were doing while waiting for All Star game starting:

Fireworks in Hershey

How could I possibly forget to write about them??? We were excited to go to Sunset Park to watch them because we liked them more but I did not realize they are the day after Hershey, so this year I would not make it because it falls on Saturday. We had to go with whatever we could do.

This year we decided to find a different place to park. It was so hard to get out the last two years when we parked at Catherine Hall. We found an easy parking spot at the end of Outlets (with idea of getting out fast and going to Hersheypark Dr and then to Derry Rd)

We would have sat right there but Kyra forgot to use the bathroom before we left so we had to walk all the way to Wendy's for her to use one. It was so sweet when Brandon was holding her entire load of stuff (glowing pillow pet, her chair and two backpacks).

We ended up sitting at the road just across from Lightning Racer right where Wendy's was. We had Beat the Parents game and Uno and erase board to guess the words. One of the words Brandon had me guess was his name in Russian :)

Fireworks were okay. There certainly were a few that impressed us but overall we thought they were quite average. Brandon and I were on the blanket with him laying his head on my arm and Kyra hugging my hand tightly. I did not want THAT part to end :)
Great bonding time! :) (Happy Momma)
Kyra filmed something and was showing to Brandon. See Kyra's nails?

 Her glow pet. We thought it was a neat pic :)

 Looks like we were having fun :)

Comparisons of 7 and 9-year olds

I am not sure how we got to that subject but we were talking about why we like our friends. Brandon about Brody:

- I like him because it's fun to be around him, we never argue and we have a lot in common. 

Kyra about Alexia (she did not want to talk about Emma):

- Well, she likes sandals, she is pretty and she has hair like me just longer. 

I can see how different and interesting thinking both of them have. :) 

HP, Hike, Meet With Sarah

Another super busy day of summer. Kids went to HP with cousins, Brandon left at noon to go to hike with cub scouts and Kyra stayed there until 6pm. She certainly liked it, but complained she did not play any games. Sigh.. It is never enough???

Brandon and I were excited for the hike in Chickes. I did not realize how up the hill the way to overlook would be. Many rocks on the side of the path.

We did three trails. This one was the first one. It overlooked Susquehanna river. Amazing view. Love pine cones in the background.

 Beautiful!

 Another side

 Hi there!

All the boys (and Sarah Jones)
Alex Jones, Austin Little, Avery Book, Brandon, two new tiger boys and Simon. Miles, Dr. Book and Steph are behind.

 Looking over the railroad

 Again, love the pine cones

 How in the world do those trees get all the water to have green leaves when they grow in the rocks??

 Second trail. It was ridiculously steep. Unbelievably steep.

 I am glad I had Brandon's hiking stick that he gave me to go up. With my lil man.

After that we did third trail which was straight and over the creek. Younger cubs were done and tired, so we turned back to have fresh cookies and punch. So fun!

We picked up Kyra at HP and drove to see Sarah and the crew in Gelder park. Was so nice to see everyone and remember good times of being new mommies. I remember how much I benefited from this Mom's group. Just to know that you are not alone was a bid deal.

What was also interesting that Kyra kept talking about this trip to HP with her cousins for weeks to come. Who said what and what they rode and that she did not like Wild Mouse. So many impressions!

Jenn with Adam, Becky, Sarah, Anneli, me and Katie.

Joey, Eddie, Grant, not sure who, Kyra, Brandon, Juliana, Lauren, LeAnn and Morgan in front