Summer's all gone

It was the first day of school yesterday. Much time has passed since I last wrote… the whole summer.


The Girls got to go swimming in early June and went to camp at the town camp and hated it. They went horseback riding, ice skating, and finally got to the beach the last week of August, just before a hurricane and the waves were really rough.

Elena celebrated her tenth birthday and she got a lot of presents from everyone. It was just like Nastia’s. We had a little party with just the immediate family, Tony and my Mom and we went to Nanuet restaurant because Elena wanted pizza. She and her sister then got gift certificates to go to toys r us and spend which they did. We didn’t have time to go out for cake so we had it at Nanuet restaurant. On the weekend we had a party for everyone in the family.
  A couple of weeks later  she invited a few kids to Dave and Busters, which didn’t work out because it was August and everyone was on vacation, so a few family members went to Dave and Busters and we all had a good time. We ate some lunch and it was nice. We ended the day at my mom’s at a little get together to see off my sister and her two kid who left to go to Florida the next day.
  At the end of August we went to Seaside heights and stayed for two nights at the Cranberry Inn. It was funny listening to the two girls being so impressed by a simple motel room. "Oh wow, this is so nice, I love it". We went right away to the beach even though it was four in the afternoon and we stayed until about seven, had a late dinner at the Outback in Tom's River and went home.

 The next day we went to the beach about eleven and stayed until six or so. The weather was perfect, warm but not to hot. We looked around for something to eat and settled for Boadwalk food at Spicy's. It was good, but it was a little expensive for boardwalk food. The girls then spent their own money on the rides at one of the piers and had to decide what rides to go on with the amont of money they had to spend. It was interesting watching the two of them get the other one to go on a ride the other didn't want to go on.
 The final day, saturday we stayed only until 4pm and we went to island beach which has no boardwalk and that was the day the waves were huge and rough. It was a good time and everyone had fun.

School is going to be a little rougher for the two of them. More is expected of them this year and they have a greater comand of English.

At the Orphanage September 2009

  It was one year ago today that we were over in Russia. I can't believe we ever went. I think one year ago we were introduced to our apartment and were reunited with the girls. hard to believe.