Chapman update

Hi, if you've been following our life in Ukraine over the past four years...thank you.  The adventure there has come to an end.  We are now living in Hamburg, Germany and expecting our third bambino any day now.

 Our new site is www.swappingshoesandstories.wordpress.com

We hope that you'll continue to follow us as our adventures continue!

~ZARK + 1

It's getting hot, hot, hot!

So it's been a little while since I've written in bloglandia.  Our last pictures have snow and I'm now sitting in front of a fan.  We've sure been keeping ourselves busy.  In April we flew back to Greece; this time to Thesioniki and stayed in a small town a few hours south on one of the peninsulas.  Let's just say that Greeks are the super friendliest of people, and that off seasons are wonderful.  Our experience has been in April and October--the only substantial difference is that the sea is still warm in October, whereas in April, it's a bit frigid!   This time we stayed in what was almost a ghost town...there were probably 100+ residents (I am not joking) and just a few open markets and restaurants.

This year I've really realized my true love for party planning, but mostly the food planning.  I've already mentioned Ken's welcome home/Pi Day party where the theme was obviously circular and/or pie-related...I'm still hoping to come across my grandma's apple pie recipe that Uncle Jimmy L makes from time to time (add that to the mental list of things to do this summer!)

Then some friends and I threw a surprise baby shower the last day of April...well, a surprise "You're not Pregnant Non-Baby Shower Shower" for a dear friend who has helped with our two showers and those of many of her friends here.  This one was great because she really had no idea that it was coming and she was shocked out of her socks.  We had some fun babyesque games, some gag gifts, some great food, and of course reassured them that if they ever change their minds and decide to have kids, we'll gladly accept that decision too!  She has similar tastes to mine so I knew that she would love the goat cheese/date spread and caramelized pears/onions and blue cheese filled crepes, plus veggies, a cream cheese dip and a picante/cashew dip, crackers and of course, more cheese!

May 5th marked both Ukrainian Easter and Cinco de Mayo, so we threw our last annual KIS Cinco de Pascua fiesta out doors.  We had quite the turn out with over 40 people.  I ran out of time and energy to make a giant pyanska (Ukrainian decorated egg) piñata, but I only had one complaint from an ornery guy (but that was to be expected!)  There was an egg hunt for the little ones and then after they were done, we turned the big kids loose (no I don't mean adults:) and I think that most of the 100+ eggs were found.  I made tres leches as usual, but used coconut milk instead of regular...it was a hit, although I must admit, just a tinnie, tiny piece is enough for me since it is so dense.  I had wanted to write "Cinco de Pascua" in kewis, bananas, and strawberries...but the 10 min walk to the store wasn't enticing enough.  So I left it as was and actually made it out of the house by 4:30.  I'm trying to get ready for German time--which apparently is 1/2 before said time!  Unfortunately I'd taken the camera out of my purse to snap some shots of the kids, so I didn't have my camera for the event.

In the classroom  I love to fuse  food culture into my lessons here and there...usually I end the year with a big  food unit 1) because food is awesome and 2) because it's easy to plan for, though it takes a lot of outside time too.  Well, we still have five weeks or so left, but my Spanish 2 classes have been studying celebrations and we had a reading about Three Kings's Day (when kids in Latin America/Spain get their gifts) and another one about El Roscón, a special bread eaten with hot chocolate on January 6.  You can get the recipe here.  Well, it's one thing to read about something, and another to experience it.  So last Monday morning the kids and I were super productive and baked two yeast-free Rascas for my classes.  The fun part about eating the bread is that there is a little plastic toy hidden inside, so the person who has the slice with the doll is king or queen for the day.  Another tradition is that they have to buy dinner or another Rasca for the group...so I made construction paper and glitter crowns and the "winner" had to bring in food from his/her favorite celebration.  Honestly I'd forgotten about the kids bringing food in, but was ecstatic yesterday when I came home with two heaping plates of hummus!  Food, it's the gift that keeps on giving!  R and Z had also helped me make enchiladas de manzana.  We made our own apple filling and used less butter and more white sugar--they still don't sell brown sugar here :(  I made them for a student moving to Canada, but had leftovers which worked out perfectly for my class of 8 year olds who are studying the five senses.  I keep forgeting to make their "taste" lesson, but at least I had sweet and salty.  I played Julio's song first and then made them all close their eyes, passed out the sweets to all except one who just got a plain tortilla (I couldn't help but see if my psychology classes were really correct about group pressure!)  So I asked them if what they were tasting was salty or sweet...they all said sweet ;) No worries, I did end up giving the tortilla girl a sweet enchilada too.

Now the next big party we're planning for is an engagement party for a close friend who is engaged to a man from Tajikistan.  They are working though the visa/marriage process with getting back to the states, so don't know when their wedding will be.  We all want to celebrate with them, so we're having a fancy party with a surprise theme on Monday night...can't wait to celebrate life with such a great couple!

And last but certainly not least, today is my momechka's big 6-0...which means one thing...my big 3-0 is just around the corner!  It is always hard being overseas, because there's nothing that I'd love more that throwing her a big 60th bash...but such is life...I guess we'll celebrate together this summer.  And thanks to my helpful sister-in-law, Mom'll have a little something from us to keep her busy until her grandchildren arrive this summer!  Happy birthday Mom, I wish you health, faith, and joy as your life's journey continues.  ¡Te quiero mamita!

I just went to add pictures, and there are none on my computer...deep breath...they're hiding somewhere, right?  We had some computer problems, but everything was restored, or so I thought.  So no pics for now, let's hope that they truly are somewhere!

Easter, ¿de veras?

Our first Sneak Baba (Snow Grandma), early February 

It seems like it has been the eternal winter around these parts.  Currently, it's snowing yet again.  Until today, the sun has been out and working at melting away the last blizzard's debris (over 24 inches of snow in 24 hours!)  We were ready to prepare for flooding, until it started again today, ughh.  With few signs of spring, it's been hard to even imagine that Easter is already tomorrow.  My friend Holly and I thought that we might wait to really celebrate in May with the Ukrainians (their Christmas and Easter are on the Eastern Orthodox calendar which is slightly different.)  The thought of Lent really never had time to cross my mind this year, so I figure if I start on "our" Easter, I'll just come a few days short of 40 days...there are also some more selfish reasons I have.  I bought myself a cute raspberry skirt a little while back, unfortunately I can't quite pull it off with my snow boots, and Zoya does have two Easter dresses after all :) Why not?
Below are pictures from February and March, outside it looks pretty much the same :(  CAN'T WAIT TO BE ON THE BEACH IN GREECE IN A WEEK!

Yes, this kid has too many clothes
(thank you grandmas and aunties!),
but look how neatly Oksana organizes them

Now look at Zoya's favorite game!

Our first snowman

View from the kid's room

Our Baba Zoya trying to play with the light up zippy fly, she laughed a lot as she figured it out!

First grocery shipment
delivered directly to our door!

 Although my tone is quite depressing, we've also really enjoyed ourselves these past couple of months.  As many of you know, we came back from break and then Ken left a week later to go to Phuket, Thailand.  He was gone a total of nine days.  Thankfully, I was the kids were on their best behavior, and though we missed Dad terribly, we managed.  Day seven was tough, but we worked through it and Dad came home to a door full of balloons.  And then we celebrated his homecoming with a "Pi Day" par-tay.  Rawly and I had so much fun planning the menu: Curry Pumpkin Empanadas (half-circles) with mint cilantro chutney, hand pie shaped as the Pi symbol filled with a date-goat cheese spread, nutella coconut Italian goodness (pictured below) and berry cobbler also pictured below.  Oksana and Rawly made a huge stack of crepes that we filled with caramelized pears and onions and blue cheese...so scrumptious.  I'm such a nerd.  I would spend all day in the kitchen planning themed menus if I could (and someone would do the dishes for me, ha!)

Bunk beds

Only Nya is able to get out, our kiddos have too round of a middle :)

Don't mess with this!

The chef at work filling mini pumpkin pies,
baking with mom remains one of his favorite things!

Heart melting, I had stepped out of the room and came back to
Rawly reading Zoya's prayer book, aka singing
"Buenas Noches" over and over again.

We finished just in time, literally 10 minutes before Dad was home!

So excited for his new soccer uniform from Thailand

All's right with the world when we're together

Pi's a crowd 

There's a reason why she's "Anty #1"

Well, that and she has a bright orange coat

First year tradition of ice cream on breakfast  for no school snow days!

Dulces sueños bella 

Travel Tales: Dead Sea/Masada

Enjoying that sun, sure glad we took the cable car up with the two wee ones.

 We knew that we wanted to get to the Dead Sea, so decided to drive there on our first full day staying in Jerusalem.  We kept wanting to stop at places, but the kids had zonked out on the way and it was nice to just drive a talk to each other.  We hadn't done much pre-trip research and were using Lonely Planet to guide us day by day. To our delight, we kind of just stumbled upon Masada our original destination had been the Nature Reserve at Ein Gedi.   That's about the time when Ken realized that he didn't have his wallet with him, we decided to press on to Masada instead, it's also about the time when Rawly was playing with the change in the center console and the 20 shekels turned up missing--hope it made someone's day!

Blue skies

Once we arrived at Masada, I went to purchase entrance tickets.  The journey up was supposed to take 45 minutes.  We had kind of abandoned Ein Gedi due to the easy, but somewhat long with children hike.  I completely misunderstood Ken and thought that he wanted to do the hike.   So I mentally prepared myself and bought the tickets.  It wasn't until we had exited the intro-video and were looking at the cable car that we realized the major mis-communication, luckily they were able to sell us the difference and we took the high (cable) road--what a relief!

Just like his pops

 

inside the church at Masada

dirt=sheer contentment

the descent

Turkey crossing or STOP sign?

 Elat will have to wait for our return 

More roadside attractions 

There's not much life around the Dead Sea--go figure, but we had been silly and hadn't thought of how to get milk for Zoya.   We endeavored to pull into one of the little villages or spa spots; there was a guard and gate and we tried to explain (at first in English, then with gestures) that we need to get some baby milk.  He said something that we understood as, "Just a minute," and returned to our car carrying a very cold bag of what we assumed to be milk. He told us to take the whole thing and wouldn't take money.  What a sweet man.

Zoya found joy in neither the mud nor the salty water

A real beauty

Soothing Zoya...apparently, this was one of the nicest beaches, Ken's feet thought otherwise, Rawly like Zoya was less than entrawled with actually entering the Sea, though he found it hilarious watching others do so.

Her hair is a bit shorter than Rawly's was at this age, but it's starting to curl, though snow caps in Kyiv cancel out all curl factor.

The belly flop float

Add caption

Absolutely stunning! Dead Sea at sunset

Good thing we turned around!

The Good Samaritan Inn was closed.

All tuckered out after a full day of sun, salt, and sand.

Mom wasn't hungry, but opted for three scoops--too many choices!

These weary travelers were thankful for such good dinner.  Yippee, yippee yea-yea!  WE LOVED dinner at La Boca and icecream at Aldo (gracias Lonely Planet!)  La Boca is a Latin Restaurant with the best represented menu I've seen.  Plus we discovered our favorite combo--hummus and salsa!

Travel Tales: Tel Aviv

Lots of places for  kiddos to play

Fun on the wavy boardwalk

The morning of our departure was running smoothly, we had a few things to finalize before heading out the door until we got a call a half an hour before our planned departure.  I hate how fifteen and fifty sound like the same number in Russian (well English too, but I've had a few years to figure those out!)

Oh mesmerizing sand, like snow, with out the cold sting

Great adventures on the beach

More motivation to purge (In Camel Market area, wish we'd had time to explore--looked like a cool part of town,  even if this photo doesn't reflect it!)

Like biting into a cloud--the best ever falafel sandwich