Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Russia Day!

Happy "A" Day Charlie!
Yesterday we celebrated Charlie's adoption day, which he affectionately renamed "Russia Day". We started out by making Russian flag colored cupcakes for his school friends- red velvet, white icing and blue sprinkles. Mmmmmm.....
Then the party really got started. I made Cabbage, Potato and Cheese soup, Blinis with several fillings, Ant Hill cookies and hot tea. It was pretty darn good! I was so surprised :) The only "non-authentic" part was the ice in our drinks at dinner. I gotta have my ice!
We had some really special friends over to celebrate and everyone signed the tablecloth. My plans are to stitch the names of our guests every year and someday pass along to Charlie when he has a table of his own. We also gave him the first of 18 gifts we bought while in Russia, one for each year until his 21st birthday. This year was a tiny matroshka whistle we bought in the Kremlin in Pskov.
It was such a great night. We talked about our memories of Russia and our dear Russian friends. We talked about the little things we never felt the need to talk about (it always seemed before we only talked of the BIG important things...) But it was nice to talk about stopping at gas stations to have tea and the strange smell of the windshield washer fluid that defrosted the frozen windows as we drove along the crazy pothole filled road.
But most importantly we talked about Charlie and the day that started it all....
Our first "Russia Day" was exactly how I envisioned it to be- food, family, friends, and one happy little Russian guy to share it with.

The Russia table!
Cupcakes!

We decided to leave the menu in Russian so
our smaller "picky eaters" would at least
try everything! They did and they loved it!


Mama making some Blinis.

Papa and our littlest party goer- JACK!

Trying out the whistle. 

Charlie's place card with his little Pskov gift. 
Sidenote: After dinner as we were getting Charlie into the tub, he came running out of the bathroom, in his..ahemmmm..."birthday suit" and exclaimed "NOW IT'S NAKEY RUSSIAN DAY!!!" Oh my.

5 comments:

  1. Oh...I so wish I would have been there. Everything looks wonderful and you made HIS day special and the memories will last a life time. He is a blessing & he is bless to have a Mama & Papa that love him so much. Hugs & kisses to all of the loves of my life. Baba

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  2. What an awesome day! Everything looked so great! Happy Russia Day!

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  3. You've inspired me to go a little farther with our Family Day celebration this year! Would love if you would share the recipes you used. I'm always afraid of trying a recipe that hasn't been tested by someone first :)

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  4. Love it!!!! And just so excited to see you guys celebrating this special day! What a year will bring, wow!
    I'm hoping to round out our Russian gifts with a friend's trip back in a year or two. We only got about 12 gifts for Selah, but I love the idea, so we'll just have to make it work! Of course, the stress and whirl-wind of the trip, it wasn't until the last day there that I realized I had set out to get 17 presents and ran short. :o)

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  5. I am pretty much obsessed with you and your family. You are such an inspiration of what a wonderful mother should be! I know the Lord is using you and Chad and I know that He placed both of your boys in your lives for a reason. You two are the best parents they could ask for- I'm blessed to know you both. I can't wait to come visit and see these little bundles of joy soon!! love you all-please send my hugs (squeezes!)

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