Sunflower Roads to Freedom

Sunflowers are very much a symbol of Ukrainian culture. People plant them to line gardens, property, and around fences. The flowers are used and harvested for their seeds. They grow tall - it's not uncommon to see rows of sunflowers 8-feet tall growing wild along the side of the road ... like calla-lily's in California. Naturally, when I saw this painting at the bazzar this week, selling for what a poster would cost in the States, I couldn't pass it up. In addition, one of my favorite American literary quotes uses sunflowers as a symbol of freedom. Willa Cather's beautiful description in My Antonia: 

All the years that have passed have not dimmed my memory of that first glorious autumn. The new country lay open before me: there were no fences in those days, and I could choose my own way over the grass uplands, trusting the pony to get me home again. Sometimes I followed the sunflower-bordered roads. Fuchs told me that the sunflowers were introduced into that country by the Mormons; that at the time of the persecution, when they left Missouri and struck out into the wilderness to find a place where they could worship God in their own way, the members of the first exploring party, crossing the plains to Utah, scattered sunflower seed as they went. The next summer, when the long trains of wagons came through with all the women and children, they had the sunflower trail to follow. I believe that botanists do not confirm Fuchs's story, but insist that the sunflower was native to those plains. Nevertheless, that legend has stuck in my mind, and sunflower-bordered roads always seem to me the roads to freedom.

May we all find and follow our own sunflower-bordered roads that mark the way to freedom.

Ukrainian Princesses

For Halloween (even though it's not celebrated here), and everyday dress-up, we are Ukrainian princesses.

And this little princesses is getting cuter by the day. She is smiling more, giving passionate kisses where she grabs your head and lays in on strong, and continues to pat your back when you hold her. Yesterday she found a small item on the floor, picked it up, crawled over to the drawer it belongs in, and put it away - what a great little helper. 

A Whole Handful!

Our little Ella-Bear turned 5!
Daddy spent the morning with us which was a real treat - he made pink-princess-pancakes, then we opened presents, and played!





During the day we went to a nearby village where a local artist did a sketch of Ella ... it doesn't exactly resemble the subject ... and in the artists defense, Ella didn't exactly hold still the whole time. But, it
was a fun memory - being in a western Ukrainian village, and having a portrait done on Ella's 5th birthday.

Ella requested pizza for dinner, then the sister missionaries came over for cake and ice-cream. Coincidentally it was Sister Carpenter's birthday too.
Check out the candles Benj found - WOW!
Then we lit firecrackers and sparklers outside.

Happy "Whole-Handful" Birthday Ella! 

Birthday Eve

The night before Ella turned five, Igor (the driver/ right-hand-man of Bubbles) and his family invited us to dinner. 

We ate at a traditional Ukrainian restaurant - but they reserved the back room so it was  a bit more family-friendly. 

Dinner started at 5pm, and when we insisted on leaving at 10pm, we had not yet had dessert ... having an almost 5 year-old, 3 year-old, and 1 year-old makes us not the best dinner guest I guess. 

Anne's seat was directly in front of the stuffed whole fish ... and she lovingly stuffed lettuce into the fish's mouth all night long - fish need to eat too, right? 

Here are Ella and Anne watching yet another movie ... they watched two full-length movies during dinner ... 

While we were getting ready to go, I asked Ella what she wanted to wear: "My Paris dress," she said. "I might see boys."

What!? 

Where did that come from. She's turning 5 not 15! 

That was the first time (and hopefully the last for 20 years if Benj has anything to say about it:)) we've heard her make a comment like that.

Stand Tall

Mary Susan is now 13 months old ... and her new trick is standing and clapping all on her own.
Of course, right before I got the camera to video her, she stood radiantly on her own for over 20 seconds, while we cheered her on (the long stand was the reason I grabbed the camera, and of course the next time she stands - the one recorded for other to see - not quite as stable).

Hurrah for Mary!

Forts and Cottages

There are some inherent differences in raising little boys and girls ... or so we presume, since we only have little girls.

Tonight we made a fort ... or so we thought, until we were enlightened by the inhabitants.

"A fort? No, no, this is our little cottage," Ella explained as we joined the tea party.

Who knew - a 'little cottage' (not a fort) is what you get when you build a tent with blankets and chairs.

Mary Got Dadded!

As the process of opening up Bubbles consumes ever more time and energy ... Benj is rarely able to make it home before the girls go to bed (8pm for Mary, closer to 9pm for Ella and Anne). The other night, however, he came home before bed ... and Mary was more happy, thrilled, and excited than we've seen her in weeks.
Ella wisely observed ... "Mary got Dadded! That's why she's so happy!" 
Hopefully someday soon Mary will "get Dadded" on a regular basis.

LeoPark

Once a week we go to the King's Cross mall, I grocery shop at Ashan, and the girls play at LeoPark.
Thanks Dad for watching them while they play and I buy food.
Shopping without three under 5 is a bit of a luxury.

Don Quixote

We actually enjoyed two wonderful ballet performances this week. Swan Lake (a Lviv ballet company classic that plays each month), and Don Quixote (a ballet new to all our our viewing pleasure). In truth, it's a story I wish I were more familiar with - I've been going to read the text for several years now. In fact, when we first moved to San Francisco we had a church friend who is a Spanish professor at SFSU and actually teaches a course on Don Quixote ... even then I couldn't get it together enough to read the thing, and have them over for dinner to discuss. Maybe someday it will still happen (Erika?:)).
At any rate, we love the ballet performances here. The costumes, music, dancing ... it really is top-notch. Somehow we made it through all of August and most of September without attending a single show, so we plan to make up for missed time in October.
While I wish there were dance classes I could enroll the girls in here, I do think it is really beneficial for them to have so much exposure to the 'finished product' - or what all those dance classes can lead to, early on. It's so neat to watch them recreate, and dance the programs they see all week long.
We were spoiled with box seats for Don Quixote which made for added instrumental appreciation.




Fortunately, when we attended Swan Lake last, we sat in the furthermost seats, next to the door, on the main level. It was a good thing because Anne truly could not sit still ... she kept standing up in the aisle and pirouetting. At one point I grabbed her arm and in my softest, sternest, mommy voice said, "Anne, you have to sit down." She looked at me with a desire to listen, but with passion in her eyes, and said, "I know Mom, but I can't. I HAVE to dance!" And so she did. When she feels the music, she can't be restrained. As I said, our location was fortunate to allow her to dance because she didn't disturb anyone, and it was pretty darling.