...Our Russian Angel: April 2015

Old Russian Easter Postcard

It may be my own way of excusing myself for not being able to post our Easter photos last week but since today, April 12, Easter is celebrated in Russia, I feel I'm on time! I love this holiday, not only for the true meaning that Christ is Risen, but because it is a holy holiday we spent in Yekaterinburg 6 years ago. It truly represented a new beginning for our life as a family!

This year, I simply didn't have the time to celebrate the holiday like I would (find special gifts, cook up a beautiful meal, etc.) so instead, we did little things.

We did decorate eggs like they do in Russia. It was the easiest thing to do....although I'll be honest, I couldn't read the directions on the package because they were in Cyrillic so we did it wrong...but still got the same result!

Kristina slid the matryoshka plastic sleeves over the eggs...

...and then we boiled the eggs. D'oh! Apparently, you're supposed to boil the eggs first and then after cooled, apply the sleeve and dunk in boiling water for a few seconds for the sleeves to shrinkwrap the egg.

I'm surprised they are still as colorful as they turned out considering my boiling method!

Cool, eh?

Kristina wanted to make sure I had a close-up shot!

For Orthodox Easter, I went to a local Russian Market (Rasputin) and picked up some chocolate, fruit, biscuits, and Kulich, a traditional sweet Easter Bread. I was *thrilled* when Kristina ate it and said she liked it!

The holidays seem to keep on coming around here....

Easter, April 5th

The preparations began the night before when we colored eggs. Yes, last minute but done!

My master egg-decorator takes this very serious.

OK....eggs are colored. Check that off the list!

And then later that night (or early, very early the next morning....), the Easter Bunny left some goodies!

The Easter Bunny always leaves a trail of chocolates from Kristina's bedroom to the basket.

Wow...even the Easter Bunny knows about See's Candy!

Hmm, the Easter Bunny knows that Kristina is a fan of Reese's!

Kristina left a letter to the Easter Bunny:
"Hi Easter Bunny. I gust want to tell you the paper hearts are mine but you can have one paper heart. Easter Bunny the one you can have is the blue one. Your welcome the Easter Bunny! From: Kristina"
She had made all the hearts herself out of colored paper.

Our angel woke up at 8am, saw the basket, came into our bed to tell us, and we all slept until 10:30! Seriously, this child is our daughter through and through!

Happy Easter!

It's hard to focus on K's gift when Jon is watching a Jesus program!

Such a dilemma: Which puppy tattoo to apply first?

The Hunt

I am one of those who LOVES tradition but sometimes life takes over and we can't do everything our heart desires. This year, my heart was elated when we were able to take part in our small family/friend Easter Hunt here in our little neighborhood.

It started out back in 2010 - Kristina's first Easter home with us. Every year, Kristina's girlfriends Gaby, Andrea and Kira have gotten together on this day and raced to collect goodies. Their families grew with the births of brothers and sisters and other close friends have joined in, too.

One notable difference is that we went from 4 little girls, 2 yards, and 40 eggs scattered throughout each yard (and probably took an hour to find) to now 10 kids, 4 yards and over 120 eggs in each yard ~ and finished within 25 minutes!

But the biggest and most exciting change this year......an unexpected visitor who brought not only the little kids joy but EVERYONE! But first...

A Stroll Down Memory Lane in 2010:

Gaby (2), Kristina (3), Kira (3) and Andrea (2) search for eggs during our First Family Egg Hunt!

On the go!

A job well done!

All done!!!

And Now in 2015!

Our neighbor's house is ready to go!

Jon and Uncle Marc took hiding the eggs very serious at our house.

Eggs were everywhere...

Look who's here!!! It's the Easter Bunny!!
(Kristina still asks "Who was the Easter Bunny? I saw a zipper!" I haven't divulged...yet...)

What an awesome group!
Left to Right: Daniela (4), Diego (3), Gaby (7), Andrea (7), John (4), Jasmine (7), Kristina (8), Elora (10), Kira (8) and Max (7)

Kristina gets the giggles and Elora laughs while Max gets smothered by the Easter Bunny!

And they're off at house #1 - our house!!

A momentary breather.

And the Easter Bunny signals "Go" at the 2nd house while the crowd cheers them on!

Diving for Easter Eggs -- whatever it takes. Oops...wardrobe malfunction in progress!

Going back to get the shoe (we have the same photo last year!!).

Oh, no! Kira's basket is full and there's still eggs to be found!

Kristina RUNNING in mid-air to house #3.

Thank you, Uncle Marc (neighbor/friend), for letting us invade your yard - house #3!

As thorough as these scavengers were, Uncle Marc found 4 Easter Eggs on his car after the hunt!

Even the Easter Bunny helped John get a few eggs.

Daniela and Kristina

Andrea gets a special escort across the street to house #4!

And the final leg to this Hunt is ON!

Remember the tree at the beginning of this blog post? Someone's a lot taller now!

Somehow defying gravity...

Kristina and Gaby. Wow, these girls have grown up beautifully!

One last check of every nook and cranny!

Jon photo bombing my moment with the Easter Bunny! (Note the bags Jon is carrying....we had to empty the baskets after each house because the baskets simply weren't big enough to hold the large amount of eggs!)

Never too old to have your picture taken with the Easter Bunny!

While Gaby and Daniela smile for the camera, their Grampa includes family in NY who were present for the Hunt via FaceTime on his cell phone!

The group at the end of the Hunt...patiently waiting to now open all their findings!

John and Kira

Kristina and Jasmine

Max and Elora

Kristina

Jasmine and her daddy, Zoltan

Andrea (her brother, Diego, was now camera shy)

Gaby and Daniela

And Uncle Marc didn't want to miss his chance!

The Easter Bunny handing out little parting gifts for participating! (I had to read off the names because the Easter Bunny doesn't talk, of course...)

A HUGE thank you to BC the Easter Bunny!! You made our day!
xoxoxo

We always stop at Our Lady of Guadalupe to say a prayer at church.

And the usual spot Kristina stops to say a wish or two.

Then Off to Nana & Grampa's!

After a few hours of downtime, we went to Nana & Grampa's house to wish them a Happy Easter. It was after dinner so we brought the ingredients to make dessert with Nana. I'm sure Nana was ready to just sit down and have a cup of tea....and then we roll up with ingredients and baking tins with plans to get to work!

I saw the recipe for "Resurrection Biscuits" online and just had to try them. It was one of the easiest things to make and sooooo delicious...and had meaning behind the baking results. Here is the recipe just in case you want to try, too: Resurrection Biscuits.

Crescent Rolls, Butter, Sugar, Cinnamon and Marshmallows...YUM!

After the dough is wrapped around the marshmallow and rolled into a ball, Nana and Kristina dunked the ball into melted butter and then rolled it around in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.