Thanksgiving

Since Ryan, kids and I spent the whole day before Thanksgiving at Disneyland, I did not have time to prepare some of the food for the feast a.k.a. pieы. I did happen to wake up around 5 am and got to working on everything. I don't think I ever left the kitchen until the actual time we sat down to eat.

Ryan came to devour our Thanksgiving feast with us. My friends from Ukraine who were going to come unfortunately got sick and couldn't make it, so the last minute we invited our friend from church, Sam.

Поскольку за день благодарения мы провели в Диснейленде, у меня абсолютно не было не времени ни энергии заранне приготовит пироги. Весь пир пришлось готовить с раннего утра, точнее 5 часов. Я провела весь день на кухне, и только присела за стол в районе 5-и вечера.
Джефа брат Раян прияхал из Юты к нам на пиршество. Мои друзья из Украины, которые собирались приехать, к сожалению заболели и не смогли приехать. В последнюю минуту мы пригласили друга из церкви - Сэма.

Unfortunately, or luckily Andre zonked out right before the food was ready.

К сожалению, или к счастью, Андрей заснул перед тем как мы сели за стол.

We had the traditional stuff: turkey, homemade stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans. It all turned out really good.

Еда была традиционная: индюшка, хлебная заправка, булочки, картофельное пюре, подливка, и зеленая фасоль. Все удалось и было очень вкусно. I made 3 pies - pecan (which somehow didn't set, but still tasted good), banana cream and my favorite was key lime.

Я приготовила 3 пирога - ореховый, банановый с заварным кремом и самым вкусным получился ки лайм (как лимонный).

Two super eventfull days took their toll on me and I think I was out around 7:30.

Так как времени у муня оттохнуть не было в предыдущий день ни в день благодарения, я отключилась в районе 7:30 вечера.

Pledge of Allegiance

In preschool Andre gets to say the Pledge of Allegiance and he has it memorized. (pardon the underwear).

В школе Андрея они говорят клятву верности флагу - он ее знает наизусть. Вот что он говорит по-английски: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." А вот перевод - "Я даю клятву верности флагу Соединенных Штатов Америки и Республике, которую он символизирует: одной нации под Богом, неделимой, со свободой и справедливостью для всех".

My birthday and Disneyland

I had a really fun birthday. My friend Ashleigh threw me a fun birthday part on the 14th, I wish I had pictures from it (maybe I can get some from her). I had a blast hanging out with all of our friends! Thanks Ash!!!

On my actual birthday the boys are I (and uncle Ryan who was visiting us) went to Disneyland. We spent 15 hours there!!! We all had a blast.Needless to say that I was absolutely exhausted the next day. Here are a few pictures of the boys from that day.

Я провела свой день рождения очень весело. Моя подружка Эшли устроила мне вечеринку со всеми нашими друзьями (к сожалению с собой фотоаппарат я не взяла, но если найду фото того дня, обязательно выставлю).

В день моего рождения я с малыми и дядей Раяном (Джеффа братом) поехали в Диснейлэнд. Мы там провели 15 часов!!! На следующее утро у нас было ноль энергии, но зато было очень весело. Вот несколько фото с нашей поездки:

Andre with Pluto (nowadays Andre loves to meet the characters, give them hugs and especially high fives)

Андрей обажает всех диснеевских персонажей, и очень любит их обнимать, а особенно давать пять. На этлй фотографии он с Плуто.

We got to see Santa and take a picture with him, unlike last year, Andre was not at all scared, and Harper followed his brother, and sat calmly on Santa's lap.

Нам удалось увидить Санту. В этом году Андрюша повзрослел и совсем его не боялся, а Харпер вел себя по примеру брата, спокойно сидя на коленке Санты.

Halloween

So here it is - Harper's Captain Hook costume! It was quite a bit more elaborate than Andre's so it took me a little longer to sew it. To our surprise Harper kept his wig and hat on!!! Who would have thought!

I am being attacked by Peter Pan armored with Captain Hook's sword and hook! Oh no!

My cute guys. I really wanted to have our whole family dressed as 'Peter Pan' characters, but I got burned out making the kids costumes - maybe next year (I will have to start early :)
We got to go to two Halloween parties. On Friday the boys and I drove out to Claremont to visit our old friends. Unfortunatelly Jeff had to work and couldn't go with us.

Andre and his friend Crson. Those two were pretty inseparable the whole night. They kept trading their hat and helmet, their swords, and were really cute playing with each other.

Happy captain Hook
(this picture makes me wish I had a better camera)

Andre playing one of the games (notice he got one of the rings onto a pumkin, not too easy of a task if you ask me)

Trunk-or-treating
Checking out the goodies

The joy of candy

Since it was hard to find time during the week to carve our pumpkins, we did it on the morning of Halloween. Here are the boys hard at work.

Jeff and Andre made a little Jack Skellington pumpkin (Andre is totally obsessed with Jack Skellington, and already picked him to be a theme for his birthday party in 8 months!!!)

I carved a dragon, but wasn't able to take a good picture of it lit.

Walking to our ward's Halloween Party

Andre rolling the pumpkin
Bean bag throwing

Real trick-or-treating. Andre love it (as was anticipated) and as soon as he got the candy he would say "Okay, let's go to the next house!". Harper caught on to the whole thing rather quickly and would say "tick-o-tee"

Too bad Jeff's head got in the way, but still a cute picture

The loot

real Peter Pan

Andre requested to wear his Peter Pan costume to Disneyland. He was so proud of it, especially when we were in line for the Peter Pan ride, he made sure everyone we passed would know that he was Peter Pan. He would point to himself and tell them "Look, I am Peter Pan". I am glad we got more than one wear out of the costume.