Tag Archives: Lena

Adoption, Everyday Life, Photography, Project 365

Rushnyk and the Chicken Thief

December 20, 2013 Molly Leave a comment

We had some beautiful weather today. It was around 50 degrees at 8am, so I packed up the dogs and Gus and headed out for a quick walk.

Gus rocked his Christmas PJs, sweater and boots. He’s cool like that.

He saw some birds, which are super exciting when you are 2.

More after school shots. It seem so ordinary, but I don’t think seeing her strong and happy will ever get old to me.

I got to talk with Andrei, our Ukrainian guest, a bit more today. The kids simply adore him, and he is great with them. He spent part of his evening playing legos with Reed. Lena announced that he is her “friend”. And he can get Gus to giggle with a single look. He spent a good deal of his day on the phone with his kids– both those who came here with him on the hosting program and those back in Ukraine. He seems to care a great deal about “his children”, as he calls them.

He also presented me with this gift today, which I think is a Rushnyk. I will have to take more pictures of the whole thing tomorrow. If you know me at all, you know that I don’t place much value on most gifts, but I already adore this one. Hand-embroidered by his mother. Uniquely Ukrainian with so much history behind it. Beautiful!

After the kids spent some time with Andrei tonight, we had some fun conversations. Reed had to ask him if he was Russian or Ukrainian. This is very confusing to them and Lena also announced that she is Russian. I think partly because they spoke the Russian language, but are Ukrainian. And then, littlest brother being Russian doesn’t help. Reed did not believe me that he used to speak Russian, so I showed the kids some old videos.

When Lena saw herself in the video, she instantly said, “Oh… my hair… was…” and then just shook her head.

Reed came into the kitchen as I was doing dishes tonight. “Mama, Lena… Lena told me to cover my eyes like this (hands over his eyes)… Then she… she stole the rest of the chicken off of my plate!” Sneaky little sister steals chicken right out from under her big brother. Too clever, that one.

Adoption, Everyday Life, Orphan Care, Project 365

I’m so, I’m so tired

December 18, 2013 Molly Leave a comment

I’m singing “I’m so, I’m so tired” to the tune of Yo Gabba Gabba’s “I’m so, I’m so sorry.” Because, I didn’t get home until 3am last night. Doing what you ask?

Well, you have probably heard about the programs where you can host an orphan for the holidays or during the summer. The children also need adults to travel with them and the adults need a place to stay, so we are hosting one of them. He is from Ukraine and will be with us for at least two and a half weeks.

Waiting…

All of these families have hosted these children before, so there were lots of teary reunions.

Our Ukrainian guest was exhausted today, so we did not see much of him. After all of that travel with many kids and all of that way, I can’t blame him!

Lena brought this adorable, neatly wrapped present home from school today. It was wrapped in a paper she painted, and on the ribbon around the package was this adorable little ornament that she had made. Because a 6 year old cannot wait a week to open a present, we opened it today. So cute!

If you enjoyed Monday’s post of Gus faces, here’s another photo for you:

Like many toddlers, Gus has a clear preference on which parent gets him seconds. You can see the disappointment in his face when Aaron gets up from the table.

Everyday Life, Photography, Project 365

Deck the Halls

December 15, 2013 Molly Leave a comment

This finally happened…

My poor husband, testing all of the lights. And finding that less than half of our lights worked.

They got to open their first presents of the season. Inside was their Christmas pajamas and a “movie ticket”. The back of the movie ticket explained that each ticket was good for one night of staying up late, for all 3 of them, a bowl of popcorn, and a Christmas movie of the ticket holder’s choice. Not valid on school nights. My mom had also sent them a Veggie Tales Christmas movie, so this was the perfect time to open that, too.

Everyday Life, Photography, Project 365

3 Little Monkeys and One Old Schoolhouse

December 13, 2013 Molly Leave a comment

I have a new toy. An external flash. I was going to wait until I mastered my camera more, but I felt like I was missing out on capturing a lot of fun moments with the very short days. So, I bought a cheap flash and I’m seeing what I can do with it.

My kids, Lena, especially, love to go play and jump on my bed right now. Our bed is huge, and it can be one of the only outlets for burning off some energy.

So, they jumped and I got to play with my flash. I am learning to “bounce” it, meaning have the light hit the ceiling, wall, or reflector to have the light diffuse back more gently. It’s a lot of trial and error at this point.

But, I love what I captured, because it reflects how much fun they were having.

Do you think she was enjoying herself?

Reed joined in on the fun…

And, I played a game where I got all 3 of them to jump together.

Yup, we had fun.

I also had the opportunity to take a friend out with me on another star photography adventure.

My friend made a comment about this looking like an older photograph. I really liked that idea, for a historic location, so I had fun with the post processing. On the left is the original, only lightened a bit and a plane trail removed. On the right is the edited version, made black and white, grain added, and the tone curve adjusted.

Everyday Life, Photography, Project 365

Evening Entertainment

December 11, 2013 Molly Leave a comment

When we went camping back in September, I took Reed and Lena out with me to do some long exposure night photography. It wasn’t quite dark enough for the stars, so we did some long exposures with the flashlight, where they could try to draw in the air. They had a blast.

I thought it would be fun to try that again. I had never done it inside, until last night when I realized there was really no reason why you couldn’t do it inside in a decent sized room with all the lights out. So, I set up my tripod and gave them a flashlight. I was making dinner while they did it, so I had to come in every 30 seconds to press the shutter. I actually could have given them the camera remote, as well, but I wanted to keep an eye on them, since the camera could be knocked over if they got too close and too wild.

The first ones in each set, with their name on them, are all of the images merged together.