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| Easter eggs and meringue peeps. |
May was a month of celebrations. The first one was a very late Orthodox Easter. I tried out new recipes for
meringue peeps and secondary colors for the eggs. I was psyched that the meringue held its shape (egg whites at room temperature is the secret), but was disappointed that only the green dye (red cabbage and turmeric) worked well. Next time, I'll just try mixing primary colors instead of using red onion skins (orange) and blueberries (purple). Because Igor couldn't make kulich (Nikita had a fencing tournament the day before Easter), I tried my hand at it, using a different
recipe; it was decent enough for Igor to say, "I thought it would
be worse." But the roasted lamb for lunch was perfect.
The next celebration was Mother's Day. I woke up to got cards from the boys and later got flowers from Igor; Ivan asked why Papa is always late in his gifts. I do think that the boys' school makes mothers work for their cards. I was at the school multiple times the week before Mother's Day, watching Ivan's play and helping him make his Schultüte (school cone) for 1st grade, and volunteering during Health Day (you can't beat wheelchairs and crutches as props). Thankfully, I only organized the food for Teacher Appreciation Day, which also happened that week.
Finally, there was Nikita's birthday, which I belatedly learned falls on
National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. We celebrated at home with Cook's Illustrated lasagne and store-bought Napoleon cake, and a birthday party with his classmates at the bowling alley. I had fun taking photos of the kids, who eagerly awaited bowling balls "fresh from the machine." They also teased each other by saying, "You got owned by a bowling ball," and peppered the "Happy Birthday" song with the phrase "chocolate fudge."
(I'll also remember this month as the one when Nikita dropped Japanese and started checking his math without prompting.)
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| Future Easter basket? |
In addition to preparing for the celebrations, I followed up the end of MIT classes with more essay grading at Harvard (for which we try to achieve a mind meld instead of a mind melt), resumed knitting (sweater and a Mobius basket), read a bunch of noir (
Gone Girl,
The Dinner,
The Big Sleep) plus a children's book (
Half Magic), and played Go Fish and watch superhero movies (The Dark Knight and individual Avengers) with Ivan (who got a new catchphrase from Thor: "I need a horse!"). Meanwhile, Igor was in NYC nearly every week, taking Nikita to chess or fencing tournaments, and helping his mother (unsuccessfully) apply for a new Russian passport.
Indeed, this was a good month to try out a
7-minute workout.
