Kyiv trip re-cap part 6

Once again, these re-cap posts are not flowing as I'd like them to. I can't get Blogger to let me load a picture, comment, load another picture, comment, etc. It just stacks all the pictures on top of each other. So here are explanations of the pictures:

1) Darling Baby Girl's 3rd birthday was the next to the last day I was in Kyiv. For more (and better) pics, please go to Tara's (Mama) blog and see them here. Tara is an expert on parties - all the decorations and games and treat bags and EVERYTHING matches the theme. She makes and decorates the cakes herself and they are UNBELIEVABLE. Be sure to click on the link to her post to see everything. Not only are the parties wonderful, but what is most important, the kids have a ton of fun and I'm certain they will remember with fondness their birthday parties as they grow up.

2) Tara's 3 kids (The Boy, Big Girl and Baby Girl) with me. My trip to Kyiv was not a sight-seeing/tourist trip. The main purpose of the trip was to visit Tara & her husband and her beautiful kids. It was great to hang out and play legos, Woody & Buzz, horses and read, draw and do puzzles together. Tara and her husband are GREAT parents, and as a result, the children are sweet, kind, well-behaved and thoughtful.

3) Wednesday Tara and the kids and I went to the Kyiv Botanical Gardens. At the top of the hill, after you wind through lots of gorgeous lilacs, you can see this church. It is really an amazing view.

4) and 5) The lilacs and trees and rest of the Gardens were very pretty. Despite the heat and my lack of being in shape climbing all the little hills, it was a delight and pleasure to see God's handiwork. Lilac is my favorite scent and, in case you couldn't tell from the blog color scheme, purple is my favorite color...so seeing the lilacs in bloom was a special treat for me.

6) Before we looked at the gardens, the kids played on very nice, newish-looking playground equipment. We did this first because it was all-metal and the day was soon going to be hot enough so the playground equipment would burn their little legs.

Stay-tuned: more re-caps to follow.