There were two narrators and they called up several children for audience participation. They played charades, and had a race to see which pair of kids could get the other person dressed into a costume the fastest, and had a snowflake blowing contest with paper snowflakes. Everyone had a good time!
All the younger kids arrived in costumes. Dennis and 4 other boys about his age wore pink pig costumes. I guess they don't have the gender/color issues that we have in the US! They were all quite adorable and as you can see Dennis is as happy as a clam!
Snezhana played the part of Princessa Lubova. I don't know if that is someone famous, or part of the Grandfather Frost story, or just someone made up for the play. She had a speaking role with a boy named Valera (see photo above) and then did a song and slow waltz type of dance (see photo below).
The rest of the photos from the show are posted in my facebook album http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1276629484&aid=102528
After the play S left to get changed and I took D upstairs to our usual play area. S joined us about 20 minutes later. I gave her the chocolate bar I had brought for her the day before but didn't get to see her that day. We shared the rest of the snacks and then she started whining about something. I asked her what was wrong and she told me her phone didn't have any minutes.
If you care to read my rantings, this is what has been going on with S for a couple of days now and I can't quite figure it out ...
We had known for at least 24 hours that one of the two SIM cards we have given her was out of minutes. Brian didn't think she would ask me for more, but she did. In fact she asked me to just give her the money so she could go do it herself. I told her that I would buy a pre-paid phone card and bring it to her tomorrow. She still whined about it, but I stood my ground.
See, she's been using up her minutes very quickly and we assumed it was to talk to Gma and maybe Aunt. Today it was confirmed that she has also been talking to her bio-mom, so I am not really in the mood to keep giving this child money to spend talking to the people who convinced her to say no and are still convincing her to not go with us. I don't think she had made this connection yet.
She has not answered my phone calls since the 30th, and now when I call neither of the SIM cards we gave her is in her phone. When I asked her why she wasn't answering my calls or text message she patted herself down as if she didn't know where her phone was. Yeah RIGHT?! What teenage girl doesn't know where her cell is!
Anyway, the school is actually closed for this entire week for their holiday, but some of the kids/teachers were around for a while after the play. At about 4:30pm one of the teachers handed S the keys and left. About 15 minutes later S told me "school closed" and motioned for us to leave. I followed her downstairs, but I had another hour left with D before my taxi arrived, so I wasn't about to let her take that away from us.
I had her ask the last teacher in the building if we could go play over in Dennis' dormitory like I had done the previous day. S acted like she was going to take him away, but I refused to let her and so I asked the teacher myself, motioning towards Dennis' dorm. S finally translated what I actually wanted and the teacher told her to take us.
Dennis showing off his goods -we made wreaths for the yulka (tree)
S took us over to his dorm and then hung out in the hall while we played in the room. Other kids went in and out and everyone stopped to see what we were doing and tried to talk to me in Russian. I told them I didn't understand (nyet panemyu) but they just kept talking anyway! A teacher had to come collect them, as they were all huddled around us watching Dennis try to learn the English alphabet on flashcards.
At 5:30 S said she had to leave and again tried to get me to leave. I told her my taxi was coming at 6pm, so I was going to stay with Dennis. She shrugged and left. All the kids and teacher left as well, so at 6pm I was in the building alone with Dennis ... what to do as my taxi driver was waiting for me?
I bundled up Dennis and tied his shoes for him and went outside, figuring I'd run into someone who could help us ... albiet it was pitch black outside! A saw a teenage boy I recognized ... don't know why he was there, but he wasn't smoking so I figured I could trust him. I asked him to take Dennis to dinner. He told Dennis (in Russian) to give mama and hug and he did!
I will blog about Tuesday on Wednesday morning ... it is after midnight here and I must get to bed.
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At 5:30 S said she had to leave and again tried to get me to leave. I told her my taxi was coming at 6pm, so I was going to stay with Dennis. She shrugged and left. All the kids and teacher left as well, so at 6pm I was in the building alone with Dennis ... what to do as my taxi driver was waiting for me?
I bundled up Dennis and tied his shoes for him and went outside, figuring I'd run into someone who could help us ... albiet it was pitch black outside! A saw a teenage boy I recognized ... don't know why he was there, but he wasn't smoking so I figured I could trust him. I asked him to take Dennis to dinner. He told Dennis (in Russian) to give mama and hug and he did!
I will blog about Tuesday on Wednesday morning ... it is after midnight here and I must get to bed.
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Honey, you need some rest and I hope you feel better. Only 6 days (4 business days) until Dennis is officially our son by court decree!!! Great job taking care of him, it sounds like he's enjoying the time with you... he probably hasn't had that much attention and love if many years (if ever).
ReplyDeleteDon't stress too much over Snezhana's behavior -- I worry enough about her for the both of us and a few dozen others -- just remember she's had more placed on her than most any of us have had to deal with at her age and she has NO family to actually support her through it.