Round Robin Photo Challenge ~ In Flight!

Welcome to the Round Robin Photo Challenge for April 18th. This challenge was submitted by Carly and the theme is “In Flight”. These are the choices I made for the challenge. These photos were all taken in Ventura and Santa Barbara, California.

 

Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California.

 

 

Our daughter Katie who looks like she’ll take off and fly and all the Seagulls she made fly!!

 

This last photo was taken in Santa Barbara, California.

Happy Photo Challenge all you Robins!

To see more “In Flight photos click over to the official Round Robin Challenge Blog!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Seattle

 

So it’s time for Friday’s Fave Five and all of mine come to your from the State of Washington this week. Dear and I will be heading back to Southern California on Sunday. Boohoo.

1. Spending some one on one and one on four time with our children in Washington! Our oldest son took me to a soccer game last Saturday which was so much fun. Katie and I did some shopping on Monday and she found her strappy gold shoes she needed for an upcoming wedding she’s in. Working around the house with our son Dan. Having Easter Brunch together and Taco Night. Good times.

2. Easter Tradtions! I love Easter and it’s always fun to do the traditional things each year. This year my sister Lana G! and I even made the traditional Russian Easter Bread and Cheese topping. Ok, I keep mentioning that but it was a big accomplishment for us and now we know we can do it and we’re so excited we can have fresh Kulich every year if we want it! Coloring Easter Eggs…it’s so much fun to watch Katie get creative with the colors on the eggs. Going to Easter Service. There’s something special about Easter Sunday at church. We go to church most every Sunday but Easter Sunday always stands out to me. Repeating the traditional Easter greeting to everyone we see on Easter…Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

3. Spending time in Downtown Seattle with Dear. We had a hair appointment together and then headed downtown to have lunch at the Pink Door. It happened to be one of the sunny days in Western Washington so it was nice to walk around and enjoy Downtown! The Market and all the fresh flowers, the tall buildings, our yummy lunch and buying dessert for the taco dinner we were having later that night with our kids.

4. Fresh mowed grass! I really enjoy mowing the lawn at our home here. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a freshly mowed neat looking yard! Dear does the weed-wacking and I do the mowing. The first Spring mow is always a bit time consuming and I had to empty the bag more often…

5. Flowers! It was great to see flowers blooming in the yard when we arrived. My Lenten Rose was full of blooms which made me smile. I love the shape and colors of this plant. Seeing all the fresh cut flowers at Pike Place Market was great, too. So many beautiful varieties of tulips and daffodils. I bought a bunch of yellow with orange daffodils to bring home for Taco Night!

Thanks to Susanne at Living to Tell the Story was hosting this weekly event. It’s good to look back and think about the good times and blessings we enjoy each week.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Easter Brunch

My tablescape this week is from my home in Washington State. We had brunch with our children after church on Easter Sunday.

Our traditional Russian Easter Bread ~ Kulich. My sister Lana G! and I baked this by ourselves for the first time this year.

We also made the traditional sweet cheese topping for the bread called Seerney Paska in Russian. The X is the first letter in Russian for Christ and the B is pronounced V in Russian and it stands for Arose. Christ Arose…

Our little bunnies are holding the signs for the reason we celebrate Easter. Again this is written in Russian Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

 

Here are our children after our yummy brunch of Swedish Pancakes which Dear made for all of us. We had to get the Swedish heritage in there, too.

To see more Tablescapes please visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

WFW ~ Mark 10: 13-16

Mark 10:13-16 (New International Version)

 The Little Children and Jesus

 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

For more Word Filled Wednesday please visit Amydeanne at the 160 Acres Woods.

Outdoor Wednesday ~ Spring in Washington

Welcome to another Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan at A Southern DayDreamer. My Outdoor photos this week were all taken in the Puget Sound Area of Washington. I’m here till Sunday enjoying my kids and home. We fly back to Southern Cali on Sunday.

 

One of our most recognizable landmarks the Space Needle. The rest of the photos are from my yard to show you what’s blooming and budding here in Western Washington.

 

 

 To see more Outdoor Wednesday Posts be sure to visit Susan at A Southern DayDreamer.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Target Birds on Holiday!

We’re joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for a fun little adventure called Target Birds on Holiday! Here’s our story that began in Norwalk, California a suburb of Los Angeles.

 

Well I found out just because the plane has Alaska written on it doesn’t mean all these big aluminum birds fly to Alaska. Our plane took us to Seattle, Washington.

Sheesh, she finally took us out of the box and here we are at the doorstep of our new home. Ellen b. advised us we would not be returning with her to California on Sunday but that we would be staying here with her two kids Dan and Katie and keeping an eye on the house while they are off hither and yon…

She took us on a little tour of the grounds of our new home. Yikes, I just realized she hasn’t named me yet! She named my friend here next to me Jack Sparrow. Such a strong name with adventurous possibilities. Oh I hope she doesn’t intend to name me Salty! How lame would that be! Well she says she’s still considering what to name me…

 

Hmmm…nice digs but that apple tree can sure use some pruning! Hard to land on branches growing straight up to heaven!

Now here’s a pretty bush to have a rest in. Hey lady! I still don’t have a name!!

We’re inside now looking out. She sure has some nice big windows and big trees around here. She informs me that we will have many more high perch possibilities here than at the condo in California. The only trees around that place are the palm variety…

So she says since we are on holiday we should get a little reading in. Reading is an activity humans enjoy when they are trying to relax and escape the everyday mundane world. I wasn’t too excited about sitting and listening to her read outloud but this story is so exciting! This Redwall book by Brian Jacques is all about animals and they talk and they hunt and they cook and travel and “save the day”! I love this book and the best thing about it is that there are Sparrows in it and she finally found the name she’s giving me!! In this book the sparrows are called Sparra and she thinks that the best name for me is Sparra Queen Warbeak! Can you believe how strong and cool that name is? Queen Warbeak…I just want to keep saying it out loud!  She says that Jack Sparrow and I will have the responsibility of protecting her home while she’s away. We will keep those pesky crows from moving in and thinking this is their territory. We’ll report to her any strange things that might be happening around the house while she’s in Cali. Even though she’s old, this is one cool lady that saved us from that Target shelf!

Boy I just hope the rest of our Target bird friends are having a good adventure and have found a good home. Hope they ended up with some good names, too. Oh and I must apologize for Jack Sparrow and his lack of words. He just likes to leave all the talking to me, Queen Warbeak!

Thank you Susan human lady over at Between Naps on the Porch for thinking of this great idea to liberate us birds from the Target shelf! I bet if you click on her name later this evening or tomorrow you’ll see more of our friends on Holiday!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Blue Monday Recap~

The word of the day is slow. I’m waking up slow, moving slow, and my brain is a bit slow. So much fun activity for the last 3 days has taken its toll on this good ole girl. So here’s a little blue and a little recap of some of our wonderful Easter…

 

My son Josh took me to the Seattle Sounders FC soccer game against the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday night. It was so much fun to join in on the parade to the stadium with the Sounders marching band and experience the excitement in the air. Josh has Season Tickets and usually my son Dan attends with him but Dan let me go in his place and gave me his scarf to wear with the instructions not to lose it! Fun times. I’m a big soccer fan and it was fun to see the Sounders in person even though they suffered their first loss of the season…

 

We had a wonderful Resurrection Day. We all went to the 9:00 am service together and heard and felt the power of the gospel. Afterwards we came home for brunch. Dear made his famous Swedish Pancakes which are a favorite at our house. We had our traditional Russian Easter Bread (Kulich) with Seerney Paska (a sweet yummy cheese spread). I used a plastic flower pot to form the cheese this year and I liked the result. Our Russian Easter greeting was repeated the traditional 3 times! Then on to the present day tradition…a little rock band family fun!

I’m going slow and easy today recuperating and getting back on my usual track. Hope all of you had a good weekend.

To see more “Blue” visit Sally at Smiling Sally!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

He Is Risen Indeed!

Christos Voskress! Voistina Voskress!

Христос Воскрес!

Воистину воскрес!

This is one of my favorite Easter Hymns that we used to sing every Easter at Bethany Baptist Russian Church in Los Angeles!

Low in the Grave He Lay

Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Death cannot keep its Prey, Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain