Violet’s birthday
Our big girl turned 3 years old yesterday!! Every day she is talking so much more in big long sentences and paragraphs and sometimes just surprises me with how much she knows! She is such a joy and a blessing to our whole family and we love her so much!
We decided to have a small birthday party for her on Sunday night, with two Russian couples. We had lots of food and then she had a fun time opening presents from them and playing with her friend Andrei. And of course we sang to her and had some chocolate cake!
Keira and Angelina playing together
She was so excited about chocolate cake
Yesterday the 23rd was her actual birthday, so last night we had some presents from family that she opened up. Thank you family for giving her a special day! She loves opening presents, so she really enjoyed it.
The Zoo
We were invited by some friends to go to the zoo yesterday, so even though it was only 0 degrees Celsius (32F) I decided to go. Micah needed to get some things done, so it was just me and the girls. They also had a little girl about a month before us, so if they could do it with their baby, so can we, right? Yes, we were all bundled up nice and warm. Violet was really excited about seeing the animals and her friend Andrei. Even though it was a little chilly, we had such a fun day with our friends.
After finding a parking spot it's just a short walk into the zoo
This tiger was walking all around in his area and every time he would come really close to the glass, Violet would back away from the glass.
These two are just so cute together!
Fish liver for breakfast
Last night I, Katrina, was invited by a girl, Tanya, about my age from our Sunday group and 3 other girls to come to her apartment to get to know each other and talk about requests we have. I was a little nervous because I had really only talked with Tanya once before. She speaks very little English and I speak very little Russian, so our conversation was interesting. Thankfully I was able to meet up with another girl, Anya, who was also going, who speaks English well and I know a little better. Tanya lives in different city right outside of Moscow, so I took the metro to the end of one of the lines and then Anya and I took a маршрутка (marshrutka-it’s basically a van taxi) to this other smaller city. The total time it took to get there was about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
So we got there and we ate some food then talked in Russian and English for a while, sang a few songs in Russian and English and then talked about different requests we had that we could be thinking about for each other. It was a really encouraging time for me and I hope it was for them too.
Oh yeah! I stayed overnight. We have heard this is a common thing to do here. If you are visiting someone who lives pretty far away from your home, it is normal to spend the night at the person’s apartment who you are visiting.
And I also wanted to mention about the metro on the way back in the morning. So after taking the marshrutka again to get back to the metro, it was just crazy busy with people who live outside the city getting on the metro at that first stop on the line. This line is the busiest metro line and this stop is the busiest metro stop. There was literally hundreds on people on the platform waiting for the next train. So we get behind everyone and while we are waiting Anya says to me, “Don’t be scared, it’s normal if we get separated.” I was thinking… k, thanks. Then when the train arrived everyone, at once, moves forward and starts pushing their way into the open doors. If you don’t move you will get pushed and shoved! Imagine standing in a huge crowd with people everywhere around you, touching you on all sides, and then the crowd decides to move forward, that means you are moving too whether you want to or not. No personal space at all. That thought goes out the window in these situations. It was just crazy and I wish I could describe it better. Maybe next time I will try to get a video or at least a picture.
Here are some pictures of Tanya and Anya and myself from last night:
Oh by the way… about the title of the blog. Yes, I did have fish liver for breakfast. It tasted about like beef liver, but not as strong of a liver taste and it wasn’t fishy tasting either. Sound appetizing?
Six Sandowiches 