Kiev Temple

Unfortunately, Jeff didn't have enough time in Ukraine to go visit the temple in Kiev that is being built. It was definitely a must for me - it is such a blessing for the people in Ukraine. The temple construction is scheduled to be completed around April 2010, and they anticipate it to begin functioning some time at the end of the year.

Max helping Andre look at the temple

The meeting house. It is the only stand alone building, most wards meet in the rented spaces in commercial buildings.

Andre and my friends' son Mark

Bowling

For the first time in my life I bowled over a hundred! I am so proud of my accomplishment!

My score is the middle one - whooping 125! (don't mind the warm up game of 65 :)

Yulia and I
My bowling buddies - Yulia and Ira

Dacha

A couple of times we got a chance to go to my Aunt's and Uncle's dacha - a house about an hour outside of Kiev. They have a little garden there with a few fruit trees and berry bushes. They also have a little pool for the kids to play in. The kids loved it there and here are a few pictures to prove it:Grandma with Harper-boy
Kirill - my cousin's son. He was very excited to meet Andre and Harper and loves playing with them, he calls them both 'brothers'

The boys having fun in the pool

Kirill - he is 8 months older than Andre

A very focused boy - he spent most of the time in the pool, and didn't want to get out

The boys' favorite 'toy' was my brother Vanya. I think he went to bed around 6 pm that day because those 2 (and sometimes 3) monsters wore him out

Kisses

My cousin's wife -Julia

My cousin Alex cooking up some shishkabobs (sp?)

Beautiful lilies in my Aunt Zhanna's garden

Andre loved picking his own strawberries, carrots and apples (and about everything else - green or ripe)

Poor dog Grada tried to escape the kids - ain't such easy task

Plums - yum!

When my Aunt offered Andre a plum, he took it and came up to me. I said -"Andre, try it, it's yummy". To which Andre replied: "Stop it, Mom! We first have to pay for it!"

That's what you get from living in LA - no gardens there, in our concreted common 'backyard' of our apartment.

We miss home

Though we are having so much fun in Ukraine - we also miss Jeff very much and are getting ready to come home.

Andre is definitely homesick (though he is having a lot of fun here, but there are a few thing he lacks here) and talks about home in California every day. Here is his tonight's prayer: "Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for home, that we can see Papa, go to the beach, and to Disneyland. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

He also mentions during the day that he wants to go in the tent camping with Jeff.

Another drawback here, is that Church lacks Nursery, I guess supposedly they do have it, but it is in no way structured. The only time I tried to bring Andre in, there was a 5- and a 4-year-old (definitely not a Nursery age) and there was no lesson,no singing,no snacks, nothing. Just unstructured play, so it wasn't a big surprise to me when they brought Andre to me only after 5-20 minutes into it. From then on I have been taking him with me to the Sacrament meeting and then my Dad picks him up and takes him home, while I stay for the other 2 hours. This whole Nursery problem aslo lead to another thing on Andre's 'miss' list. He says: "Mom, there's no Nursery. The Nursery and friends are in California."

Swimming in Dnipro

We took the boys swimming in the river this Tuesday. Andre as always was ready to run into the water before he changed his clothes, and I had to hold him back, until I did so, put the sunscreen on as well as floaties. Harper was hesitant at first, but he got braver, and at the ent he wasn't all too happy to leave the water.

Grandpa is teaching Andre the proper swimming technique
Harper made up a game for himself, where he would throw the shovel into the water and then would go and get it. Gradually he got braver, and was throwing it further in. My parents' apartment building in the background and a close up: