Overdue: Sleepover Report

The Stroll Home: Not An Excited Group

OK, so I was going to do a blog about Russian foods for a while now but I don't have all the pictures for this. Instead, I've decided I'll just write about something I've been meaning to write for a while, and let J post about our out-of-town trip from last weekend next post.

Anyway, several weeks ago, before one of our coworker families headed East, I hosted a spend the night party at our apartment. Three girls attended altogether: Emma, who is 6 years old; Carina, who is 5 years old; and Sonja, who is 9 years old. All in all, we had a good time (considering the potential obstacles).

We spent the evening making carmel balls, which was a disaster but still tasted good. Then we decorated our own face masks, which didn't work because the glue wouldn't stick. We still gave it a good try, and had fun doing it. We also made our own indoors tent out of chairs and sheets. That actually turned out pretty good. Once we finished with the crafts, the girls laid down in their tent and watched a movie. I thought they would go to sleep afterwards considering it was so late, but as you probably have guessed they were wide awake. So I put another movie in and told them to turn the TV off when it was over and go to sleep and then I went to bed thinking it was over for the night.


Well, if anyone has ever had young girls over for a sleepover you know that it is never over. Three o'clock in the morning, as I was sleeping away, I was awakened by high voices saying "Mrs. B, we can't sleep". So, I thought "Another movie should do it". So I put in the last movie (each girl had brought a movie). Luckily, by the time it was over (it was about 5:30 am), all three girls were asleep but not for long. They woke up a few hours later. We made mickey mouse pancakes and then went to the park.


By this time the girls (and needless to say, me) were exhausted and sleep-deprived. What do you get when you combine 5-6 year-old girls who have been away from their parents all night and who have only slept for a few hours? Not a very cheerful group, I assure you (can you blame them?). It was about 5:00 pm when I got the last girl to her house (we had to take public transportation) and she fell asleep within an hour of getting home. So the lesson here is if you have a girls sleep over, make sure they sleep or don't plan a full day of activity.

To me, it just confirmed what I already knew. I don't think I could raise any girls. I'm emotional enough without having another girl in the house. If we do have another child, and it is a girl, she might end up being a tomboy. I raise my hat to all those mothers who have little girls. And to my mom to raised three girls. How did you do it?

We (and this is J now) don't have another cute picture of Steven this week, but he's doing well. He takes two steps now before falling, but still hasn't really "walked" anywhere. [EDIT: Steven just walked! Hip, Hip, Hoo... OK, so it's not the biggest deal in the world, but he just took 5 steps in a row, so I thought I would update.] He's been a little fussy lately with a bunch more teeth coming in, and he's added "Mama" and "Ba-Ba" (which we generously interpret as Bye-Bye) to his list of words. He won't say any of them when the camera is running, though, so it might be a while before we get a nice video of it to post on her as some have requested. As for other news regarding us, it's just language study day after day. Oh, and it's starting to get really cold here. This week we had a high of 8° one day (I think that's in the low 40's F), which means it's starting to creep into the range of "uncomfortably chilly" on occasion.

OK, on to this week's What Is It For™? contest. We were starting to run low on these in Moscow, what with the fact that a lot of stuff just doesn't stand out to us anymore and especially the fact that Moscow is a very modern city and doesn't have a lot in it that would make a Western European or American think twice. However, our trip to the country gave us lots of new pictures to throw out as we got to see a different side of Russian culture. Anyway, this one should intrigue you agricultural types.

Here you can see one of the many fields of this particular crop, and below a closeup of one plant. Hints: a different variety of this is grown in the Midwestern US, and it's the main ingredient in Russia's national dish.

So there you go. Standard rules apply - a point to the first responder with the correct answer, and this week there's a bonus: three bonus points if you know it in Russian (only one bonus point if you had to look it up). Answers, as always, in the comments section.

Coming next week (hopefully): a full report on the trip!