Today is a Saturday and a Valentine's Day. I love it. I am spending it with my two favourite boys. We are hanging out at home. Hubby is baking fresh bread. Sashulia is practicing writing A and E letters, drawing circles and triangles. I am cruising the internet trying to find a nice restaurant for us to go to for a romantic threesome celebration. And there is a long weekend ahead. We are going snow-tubing tomorrow to Poconos mountaints in Pennsylvania. Is it possible to put such moments on hold, enjoy them thoroughly, before pushing play again? Not really, but cool thing is it's possible to save such moments by posting it on livejournal.

Кого же интересно выберут?
Вопрос конечно же реторический.

Более интересный вопрос - какой процент населения пойдет голосовать в реальности? Никто из моих друзей и знакомых идти не собирался.

Мне понравилось в последнем КВНе что Карлсон планировал голосовать за Богданова - вымышленные герои должны друг друга поддерживать...

The photos were taken recently at A.M. Zaretsky's 10th year Jubilee at AIG Life.

One year flew by. It seems that just yesterday Sashka was born - 3.5 kilograms, 54 centimeters. And last weekeend we were celebrating his 1st birthday. He was showered with beautiful gifts (note to self - how to give him everything and not spoil him at the same time - hmmm, tough one). Parents also enjoyed the gifts - turns out that when you have a child, you start having a birthday not once a year but as many times as you have the kids.

We are family!
One year old and very serious!
Mom baked the pie until 1 a.m. - was worth it of course.
Gifts unwrapping.

Current Location: Dacha in Tuchkovo
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Sashulia...

I love summer time! Especially I appreciate it in Moscow, or better said outside of Moscow. The different shades of green leaves, bright blue sky, sun sparkling in our son's eyes and overwhelming warmth outside and inside...

Current Location: Dacha in Tuchkovo
Current Mood: happy

Foie gras, oysters, Eiffel Tower, Museum D'Orsay, lots of wine and cheese, pain au chocolate, cafe au lait, hunting for a fashionable scarf for Serge and Russian visa por moi (both successful) - that's a brief summary of our short trip to Paris last weekend. Not to mention Sashulia enjoying himself tremendously taking a nice stroll in his stroller all around Paris, getting impressed by Impressionists Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Degas, Signac and eating baguettes for the first time. For the record, he had his first wine taste in Paris at the age of 7.5 monhts (apparently it's true that French think that red wine is very good for children as well).

"At the expense of sounding chauvenistic, everything is the best in France," said my French friend's mother. Hmmm, maybe we should move there...

Current Mood: contemplative

It has officially happened. On January 6, 2007 my best friend of many-many years Yana Hamir got married. The lucky man is Brad Thayer. We couldn't miss this unforgettable event for the world.




Next stop - honey moon in Hawaii. We wish the newlyweds lots of joy, love, kids and a happy life together.

For almost three years we sat in the same office in front of each other at AIG Life Russia. We got pregnant almost at the same time - me with my first one and Natasha with her third one. The surprise was great for both of us when we told each other about our pregnancies in January 2006.

But the bigger surprise was yet to come - my dear friend Natasha told me that she was leaving for California in June. It was very ironic - one Natasha moved from California to Moscow and the other Natasha moved from Moscow to California.

Reoutt/Sirotkin family visited Makhova/Volossky family in Los Gatos in January 2007. Wish we lived closer...

We had a wonderful trip to Napa Valley on Jan 3 2007 - Natulya Makhova, Sergey, Sashulia and myself. While the forecast promissed a sunny weather it was actually somewhat overcast and rain was drizzling. Nevertheless, we had a blast - visited 3 wineries (Tatinger, Peju and V. Sattui - tasted wines in all while became tipsy after the first one), had a gourmet lunch at Dean & Deluca, soaked in mineral spa at Calistoga Springs, and had creme brule and wam chocolate tart at Mustards.

While I have done this trip at least 20 times before, this one felt extra special. It was great to share my favorite places with my newly baked family and my dear friend Natulya. Also, when living in San Francisco I took a lot of things for granted and living in the past 3 years in Moscow gave me an opportunity to appreciate fine living in California so much more.

Napa Valley remains one of my favorite places. It always gives me a sense of tranquility. Green pastures with lots of cows, fary tale castles on top of hills, mineral spas, great wine and food - what more can one ask for?

Just yesterday we had a wonderful walk on the beach of San Francisco. It was about 20C, no wind, but the waves were pretty big. Sashka slept in the sun, happily inhaling fresh air coming from the Pacific Ocean. We had a very touristy seafood lunch in the Cliff House - freshy oysters, fried calamari, clam chowder and specialty dumplings - delicious!

Today we are back in Moscow. It's grey, about +8C (I have to specify that it is a + not a - that is is supposed to be).

We slept for about 15 hours - jet lag this way hit us all extra hard. Sashka and Sergey are still sleeping. And I am thinking how I should organize our trip pictures and thoughts while they are still fresh in my memory.

This is a test run, more will follow.

Current Mood: nostalgic