New Jerusalem Monastery

When I scheduled family pictures, our photographer suggested taking them at New Jerusalem Monastery.  We had never even heard of it, so of course we said yes!  I'll post family pictures later, but here's a few shots we took while we were at the monastery.  It was devil cold, but the monastery was beautiful!  Plus we had a proper Russian lunch at the monastery cafe to sustain us: bread, apricot mors, schi soup, cucumber cabbage salad, potato pancakes, and vegetable ragu.  An extra side of potato-stuffed rolls and we were good to go!

Volgograd

Volgograd is another one of those cities that Brandon has been itching to visit and we finally got there.  If you're big into WWII stuff (which we're not) or Soviet-style sculptures (which we are), then this is the place for you! Famous for stopping the siege of the Nazis, you can't go far without seeing a monument to the millions that died in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Our first stop was--obviously--The Motherland Calls.  The monuments surrounding it and the Eternal Flame were fabulous, as well.

 

Then we took the trolley to the Panorama Museum (with a stop to see Lenin on the way).

Unfortunately, Brandon's stomach bug caught up to him by the time we got to the museum.  Luckily we had seen all the major sites already because he ended up spending the rest of our trip in bed at the hotel until it was time to fly home.

Bolshoi Ballet

We were on vacation during our anniversary, but Brandon was still able to surprise me with a present: tickets to Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theater!  We finally went and it lived up to all of my expectations!  The building was beautiful, the ballet was superb, and my date was fantastic!

Tsaritsyna Park

Catherine the Great built a palace and then, after seeing it, decided that it was too dark so she tore it down and had another built in its place.  But she died before the second palace was completed and it sat unfinished for the next 200 years.  Finally, about ten years ago, the palace and its accompanying buildings were restored and turned into museums and concert halls.

We happened to visit what is now known as Tsaritsyna on City Day (Happy 871st Birthday, Moscow!) so there was live opera and a chamber orchestra performing all afternoon.  Which may be the perfect way to explore a palace--with the sounds of "O Mio Babbino Caro" being sung nearby.

First Day of Mom School

G2 has been wanting to go to school ever since the kids started last month.  Actually when Kiddo and BG were G2's age, I did a joy school thing with other kids, but, well, G2 doesn't have any friends her age.  So we started Mom School!

G2 said I needed a teacher name, so she dubbed me Ms. Flower (I don't think that's going to stick, btw) and she found a pull-string bag that she is using as a backpack (which she filled up with 'school supplies'). We sing a welcome song, do the alphabet puzzle, read a book and a craft--it's pretty awesome stuff.  We're going through the alphabet one letter at a time, so letter A was talking a lot about alligators and eating a lot of apple crisp.