Pascal and Pi

The Jacklins came to visit. Well, we did visit, but the main event was Greg's ride from Seattle to Portland. The Seattle/Portland bike race has been going on for 30 years--it is a 1-2 day, 200 mile ride that almost 10,000 people participate in each year. Greg made it in 10 hours! Yeah, Greg.

While Greg was doing his little bike trip (he will like that I said it that way...) we were playing and having a good time in beautiful Portland with Tanya and the kids.Here are the boys. Niki, 4 months, Pi 2.5 years, Pascal 4 years, Luka 2.5 years and Alyosha 5 years

Pi, Pascal and Luka are fishing in our 'backyard'.

I think that the kids could swing for hours. It is no wonder that Alyosha doesn't want to learn to pump and swing himself, it is really relaxing to just sit and be pushed back and forth. I could sit there for hours too.

Well, this trip isn't so relaxing-if you let Greg push you on the tire swing, then hold on tight and prepare to be dizzy when you get off.

Luka LOVES baby brother. He is a really good big brother for Nikolai. Niko is very lucky.

We went to the Rose Garden--Niki's first view of the roses on top of Portland

We are famous

The neighborhood news descided to do a nice little story on families that live in downtown Portland. It was fun to have Michalea and Ken over for the interview and photos. We didn't know that it was going to be the main story though! They did a good job, I think.

Nature School Tuesdays

Sellwood park again for Tuesday Nature School. This past Tuesday was the most beautiful Tuesday of the year. Roma studied in the park while everyone else attended their own duties, then we had a picnic lunch and stayed the rest of the day, lured in by the sun to forget any other responsibilites we may have.

Luka likes the see-saw, but I get a work out doing squats so he can go up and down. I noticed that in all newer parks that have see-saws, they have springs so the kids can do it themselves--I'm not sure which ones I like better.

Alyosha is a good tree-climber. We will work on this all summer so we can go apple pickng in the fall. Now he just climbs to shake the flowers down from the tree. Thank goodness it wasn't an apple tree--even the flowers fall pretty hard. That's gravity for ya.

The boys climb on Papa whenever they get a chance. It is great that he has the chance to spend so much time with them--but, even school takes up a lot of time so they take advantage of every minute.

Papa running with 2 boys. Look how long their hair is--tomorrow it will be all gone. :-(

A day at the Park

Saturday marked the first day of beautiful, beautiful warm sunny weather. We went to the farmers market (see video) and played at the park. It feels a little like we have been living in a cave, really hibernating for the past few months. It's great!

Alyosha can do the entire length of the monkeybars now..that means he is ready for kindergarden.

Even Niki enjoys the sun.

Family picture.

Keri Russel is in town filming a movie...Crowley. She spent her beautiful Saturday with her family at the farmers market and playground too. Luka and her son were staring each other down on the slide at the playground.

Baby boy

On February 19th, at 2:22pm the Kultajev Family in Portland grew in size by one.
... to be continued (the story, not growth) ...

Kids and School

Our neighborhood has a pretty new children's community center. One woman got a grant from some place and now she has organized a community of over 200 people who have families in the Pearl District and we do all kinds of activities. Sometimes Roma takes them, sometimes I do. Roma has school on Monday afternoons and I take the kids to open gym play. Usually there are about 20 kids, 10 mom's and 1 Dad. The older kids swarm the dad because he is the only one kicking the soccer ball or shooting the basketball. Luka stays between me and the big kids because he wants to be with them, but can't quite keep up. Alyosha is so good at trying to include him--only until he forgets to because Jack (a 6 year old) wants to race him across the gym.

Between bobo's and potty breaks, I get a chance to talk to the other Moms because the kids are so occupied. The Pearl District was built with diversity in mind. There are million dollar condos alongside income restricted apartments and private organic grocerers down the street from the regular grocery store. Families idea of how to best educate your kid is just as diverse as the economics--except for one thing, all of these families are doing everything they think they should to make their kids outstanding. Some of the parents have their kids in $1,000 a month preschools where they are learning to speak Chinese. Others pay $700 for a child led preschool where the kid, individually, chooses what he wants to learn and the teacher facilitates. There are a few parents who do home preschooling like we do; OMSI, Nature and Music School, Zoo Scope and other activities that are going on around the city. We are lucky to have a great community to work with in Portland.

However, I definitely don't think that my kids are at a disadvantage because we don't send them to $1,000 preschools (or can't afford to!!) It is up to Roma and I and how creative we can be as parents. The most important thing I want my kids education to give is to have passion in their minds; who cares what they can or cant have or how many different private lessons they go to. If your children suffer because of what you financially cannot give them, then they will always suffer because money can't buy the most important things.