Day 1 in DC - Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

We arrived in DC on August 2nd, 2013.  Beautiful day!

First stop was the Museum of Natural History.  

All museums in DC are totally free and they are all located on one street by the National Mall.  Museum overload!  You need days to visit them all!

Nedoceratops

Diplodocus.

Madagascar hissing cockroach!  

Annika and I were not impressed.

Butterflies in progress.

Working on the DNA sequencing of the flesh eating bacteria.  It took a while, but then they both memorized the sequence and recited it to us the next day.

We were at this museum for hours, yet we still didn't get to see everything.  The kids were getting hungry, so we decided it was time to move on.

Philadelphia, Pensylvania

This summer we stopped by Philadelphia, PA on our way to DC to spend the night and see a couple of things around town.
It was such a beautiful summer evening!  The sky was blue with purple undertones.

Of course, we had to get some famous Philadelphia cheesesteak.  Thankfully, all of the cheese-stake places in Philadelphia are open 24/7.  We picked one with good reviews on Yelp and went there around midnight.  It was delicious!!!

2014, videos and little tidbits.

2013 wasn't exactly a great year.  Hoping for things to be better in 2014.

We celebrated the New Year with a couple of friends, where we all ate too much.
Before going to my friend's house, the kids popped crackers with prizes.

They also decorated the walkway and a tree with Silly String:

The next day, the kids found some New Year presents outside.

Annika is obsessed with Elsa from "Frozen".  We already saw the movie twice, once in 2D, then in 3D.  It is definitely one of the best Disney movies, loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" (Prince Hans, Kristoff, Anna = Hans Christian Andersen) :)

Kai & Gerda from Frozen.

(source: http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Kai_and_Gerda)

We had to return one of Annika's gifts, light-up shoes, to the Disney Store, because they were way too big, so she got an Elsa dress instead.  She has been wearing it ever since.  For New Year, she got Elsa accessories (necklace, ear clips, ring and a crown). 

This week, Joseph and G went tubing at N*ashoba V*alley. The snow you see is mostly fake.
They have 2 tube lifts, so you actually ride up the slope, which is also fun!  G likes going down the most, obviously.
Annika is too little for tubing this year, but she can go next year.

We use the Swedish rear facing car seat approach, which is the safest.
Children are rear-faced until age 4 (or maximum car seat rf weight limit).  Forward facing is a bad choice for kids under 4, due to their weak neck muscles and underdeveloped bones).
Annika wanted to face forward for a looooooong time now, but she always knew that we will turn her around at 4.  So, she finally turned 4 and here is her reaction:

Annika: WOW!  MY SEAT!  It's turned around and it is UP, like G's.  Now I can see where I am going!

♦ Kids sometimes say the funniest things.  Today we went to "Pier 1" to get some sale items.  G says: "Let's forget about Pier 1.  Let's go to Pier 2, where there are toys and you can TOUCH things!"

♦ Annika can now swim with no bubbles or noodles.   Membership to the pool is totally worth it!  She is starting group lessons next week.

♦ I registered G for private piano lessons.  We will have a 4 week trial period with his piano teacher and can switch if we don't like her.  We asked for a teacher with specific qualities and I hope the school will give a good match for G on the first try.

Happy New Year!!!

The one with lots of Christmas pictures.

Santa brought a kitten for G!

Christmas morning. from Ksenia on Vimeo.

G was pretty overwhelmed with the gift.  He didn't want to open any other gifts for a while until the excitement wore off.  

You might not see it well, but he has tears in his eyes!  He was SO happy!!!

G named him Figaro!

It was time to unwrap presents now.

G doesn't like remote controlled cars for some reason, but he is in love with the remote controlled rover that he built himself.  

G got a microscope from his granddad and his family.

A dress with leggings and a hair clip from granddad and family.

Princess tent from grandmom.

Playing with Figaro and G's new car that he wanted.

Later that day, we had a pretty large gathering at our house.  We had salad, brown sugar roasted ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, roasted cauliflower with saffron, and spiced apple cider with rum.  We also had plenty of wine, Tres leches cake and Tiramisu, and lots more food and snacks.

At the end of the day, the kids opened Christmas crackers with prizes and paper hats inside.  I will only post one picture, because I don't want to post pictures of other people's kids.

I'm helping M to crack her cracker.

We got more presents from our friends, but I was too tired to take pictures...  It was a great Christmas this year!  

Wearing her fairy dress from Santa.