Easter and our Seder Meal

This year, Easter was a bit off schedule. 

Indy had some clients in from Norway and we scheduled them before realizing it was Easter weekend. The kids and I took some Sabbath downtime and went to church on Sunday, but Indy has worked the last 3 weekends without a break and so I went ahead and protected Easter Monday and put on the family calendar, "Family Day - Celebrate Easter Together!" because I knew he (really a collective "we") needed it.

We went low key on gifts this year...when the kids were younger we did maps and scavenger hunts, dyed eggs, made Resurrection cookies and biscuits (they are hollow, so you can tell the story of Jesus' resurrection,) did the Family Life Easter Egg story, watched Veggie Tales...but, as they have grown up, we just sit and talk about it, because they know the reason we celebrate Easter and it means something to them personally.

This year, I saw these beautifully decorated chocolate eggs at Kylikovski and so got three of them; one for each child. We had chocolate chip pancakes and fruit for breakfast and then went to church. 

I also had to get something fun, of course, so when I was ordering our birthday and Christmas Disney pins on eBay, I saw these super cute Hong Kong Disneyland pins from Winnie the Pooh; all the characters in the shape of an egg. They are in a set of 5, so we each get one for our lanyards.

This egg is Gwangi's.

This is Sissi's egg.

Gwangi holding his egg. Realized I didn't get a close up of Krypto's....maybe next year.

Our Seder Meal set up.

We had to wait for Indy to be home, so it was a few days late.

Unleavened flat bread that I made, Matzah, charoset, bitter herbs, roasted egg, salt water...All things that represent the Israelites leaving Egypt through the deliverance of God.

Our meal at the completion of the Seder...roasted potatoes, some steak, charoset, flat bread, and matzo ball soup with apple juice. We had a lovely day and evening together and are thankful for all that the Lord has done in and through our lives this year.

Birthday #16 for the oldest

Our oldest turned 16 on the 6th of April!

We are finding it very hard to believe that this little guy in the picture below, in a Federation onesie, has grown into the amazing young man that he is!

Now, he writes novels, practices Sambo (a Russian self defense martial art,) is learning several languages, is laser focused in his studies, talks about having a wife and children some day, and dreams big dreams about what the Lord wants him to do with his future life.

Here he is with his friends for a party on his birthday.

They spent several hours creating characters using the "Prince Valiant" medieval role playing system and then working their way through a role play together.

The kids all had a great time with the system and said they wanted to do it again.

Krypto was the GM, or game master, for the evening.

There was much discussion and laughter in the room as they all worked through the scenario.

They also spent most of the day on Saturday playing the enormous board game, "Federation and Empire."

Again, fun was had by all and they said they would like to play it again.

A close up of the "Federation and Empire" board game set up.

We celebrated with cake...peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake!

Group shot after the requisite birthday song.

Gifts!

He got a new Wii U game that I had picked up last fall in a sale on eBay. I still have games for the other kids for their upcoming birthdays and next Christmas...you could say I am a planner.

I had also picked up some new characters for the Disney Infinity game. Knowing the game was being "discontinued," I was able to pick up some great characters at some incredible prices on eBay. Love that site!

And, of course, Disney pins are a thing in this house...so when Krypto recently said that Jafar was his favorite Disney villain, I found him a Jafar pin! Just in time, too, as I now realize there is a new "Aladdin" live action movie coming out later this year. The price of "Aladdin" pins may go up; but, that's ok, I got a few ;)!

Comics are a return favorite each year as well. We picked up a batch of about 50 of them the last time we were in the US (in 2017)...so we're good for a few more birthdays and Christmases!

His new favorite, that I had to order from Amazon and have shipped in via Express US, is Zelda. This  DS game was his combined gift from Gwangi and Sissi. They definitely know their brother.

And, his big surprise gift, from Mom and Dad, was a board game version of Fallout. We picked this up on a close out sale last fall and had some friends that went home over Christmas bring it back to Kyrgyzstan with them. We've been holding onto this secret for awhile!

 

In addition to it being Krypto's birthday, it was also our 1 year anniversary with Vera, our Bernese Mountain Dog. We picked her out at the Osh Bazaar last year, on the weekend of Krypto's birthday. I just had to make her another batch of pupcakes, because I am that kind of "mom," and she of course loved them. I used a recipe that everyone could eat, so we all partook in her celebration.

Vera, sitting and waiting patiently to eat her pupcakes.

 

Our boy, 16 years old.

Love his personality.

He is such a great kid and we can't wait to see how he continues to grow in the coming years! So much change is ahead of us, but we know God has plans for Krypto's life that are far and above anything we could hope or dream of for him. We trust his life and future in the Father's hands.

Family game night...last week. Had to break out the birthday game and give it a try. It was definitely a family hit.

"You Can't Take It With You" and a visit from a friend

This year all three of the kids were involved in the drama production at Hope Academy. 

You might remember that last year Krypto was Lazar Wolf in "Fiddler on the Roof" (you can see pictures of that here.) Well this year, Gwangi and Sissi put in some serious hours building and painting the sets for the play "You Can't Take It With You" while Krypto was again on the stage, this time as fireworks building Mr. DePinna.

I mentioned at Christmas time that one of the hard things about living overseas is not having family or team members here to come and celebrate the big events and attend the kids' activities...and so Uncle Chris (we call friends that are like family here Aunt and Uncle) said he would come, all the way from Istanbul, to see the play! It was super awesome!

He arrived at 3 in the morning and Indy went to the airport to pick him up. They got back to the house at 4 am and got about 3.5-4 hours of sleep before starting the day. First up, after a breakfast of eggs and cinnamon rolls and COFFEE, was Mystery Science Theatre 3000....better known as MST3K.

Then, about 11ish, we went over to the mall and the kids got to bounce and play at Sky Park to get out some energy.

We enjoyed burgers and milk shakes for lunch at Rick's Diner.

Then, back to the house for a quick game of Super Fight before Indy had to take Krypto up to the Puppet Theatre to get ready for the first showing.

Ticket and program for the show tonight.

We got in early, so we'd be sure to get good seats.

The set before the play begins. The Sycamore family home.

I didn't take any pictures during the first production as I wasn't sure that pictures without a flash would work...but they did! This is the end of the play, when they all come out to grand applause.

It was an incredible production. They all did so great!

After the first show. Krypto with his friends (L-R) Ian, Chingiz, Asaph, and Josh.

Krypto with Uncle Chris

The boys

All the kids with Uncle Chris after the Wednesday night show. We then went home and got some sleep so Uncle Chris could get up early the next morning and return to Istanbul!

On Friday, we were back at the theatre for 2 more shows; a 2pm matinee and a 6pm evening show.

The kids walking into the theatre at 11:30 to start warm ups and getting costumes and makeup on.

Such a great group of students. 

I chanced taking some non-flash pictures tonight, and they didn't turn out half bad.

Mr. DePinna and Mr. Sycamore talking about their fireworks.

Showing Alice some of their new fireworks.

Talking with the family.

Convincing Mrs. Sycamore to finish the painting of Mr. DePinna that she started 8 years ago.

Modeling for the painting of a discus thrower.

Definitely a humorous scene.

Miss Wellington after waking up on the couch.

The dinner party.

The "Forget Me Not" game at the dinner party.

End of the final show.

Posing for pictures with some friends that came to see the show - Rakia, our friend and Kyrgyz language helper, and Dave and Debbie that have been like an extra set of grandparents to our kids while we've been living here in Bishkek.

The cast of "You Can't Take It With You"

After the final show, there was a cast and crew party and they all signed the painting used in the show of Mr. DePinna and gave it to Krypto. What a super cool keepsake for him. He loves it and is already super excited about next year. It has been the topic of conversation here today during breakfast and then again at lunch....what will next year's musical be?!? Stay tuned this October/November when it gets announced!