Summer fun

This summer has been all about Zoe's 4th Birthday parties and a few things that happened in between.

In June Zoe finally went to Ukraine to visit her extended family. She loved spending time with her grandma & great-grandmas ( all three live in Ukraine) , her cousins and friends.

Here's Zoe with her 3 grandmas:

Zoe got to visit with her godfather Dima and her friend Katya who came to see her from Kiev:

Her godmother Alena came all the way from Moscow with Zoe's twin cousins to visit- the girls had tons of fun playing together (albeit not speaking the same language):

Zoe went to the park everyday and played with her cousin Solia:

She loved all the "bouncy castles" they have in our city park ( they are much bigger than the ones she has seen in the US!)

Climbing trees everywhere she could:

She especially loved picking fresh berries and vegetables out of her grandma's garden. Zoe was so surprised to find that "strawberries from grandma's garden have A LOT of juice in them, and the ones we buy from the store [ in the U.S.] don't" She also didn't know that cucumbers are prickly when they come off the vine:)

Here's a picture of Zoe and HER apple tree ( the apple tree we planted when Zoe was born back in the summer of 2006):

Finally- there was her first ["Small" FOURTH birthday party- as it came to be known]:

It started out with Zoe and her two little guests Katya & Solia going to see a puppet show at our local puppet theater, then going to the park:

And then having cake at Zoe's grandma's house:

Skipping [lots of HOT summer activities in between] straight to the BIG birthday party-this was Zoe's Fourth Birthday party now at home, in her back yard with lots of her little American friends.

It was so hot that day ( and the whole summer really) that she didn't even get to wear her pretty birthday party dress and spent the entire party in her bathing suit:

A 'must' for Zoe's party is 'Pin the Tail on a Donkey' game:

And a Water Balloon game!

Here's a funny of Zoe and her girl- friends that we call "The Gang":

And another birthday CAKE! ( this time it was a cheese cake/Ice cream cake)

See you later- we'll try to be better about posting new pics on the Blog!