You may remember that not long ago we had the pleasure of meeting a new family at the library. They were newly arrived from Russia and excited to enjoy all of the freedoms in America. Last week we had the Matreshka family over for a playdate to get to know them better.
They arrived early Thursday morning. How they rang the doorbell I’ll never know. Mrs. Matreshka and her children were as self sufficient as ever, arriving on foot.
When asked if the heat bothered them Mrs. Matreshka replied boisterously, “Oh no,no, Missus Klay…the freedom here in America is like a kold breese on our cheeks!”
The children began to explore in the back yard while I showed Mrs. Matreshka several of my favorite home-school catalogs.
M. and Masha rejoined their conversation about books. They discovered that both loved The Lord of the Rings series and immediately became engrossed in discussing the finer points of Hobbit society.
Given the diminutive size of our company, our small toddler pool was perfect for the younger children to splash around in. Svetlana was a natural floater.
Little Yuri and J. were everywhere. They had enough energy between them to power a small town. First they jumped on the trampoline. This prooved to be a bit dangerous for Yuri, though, as he continually flew right through the holes in the safety net.
Yuri was also very interested in the butternut squash and spoke to them eagerly in Russian.
We came in to cool off. Mrs. Matreshka asked if she could check her e-mail on our computer since her internet was still not hooked up. Amazingly, this little family has taught themselves to type in an integrated fashion that was breath-taking to watch. They hopped side to side, to and fro, typing in their information. You should have seen this! Masha and Svetlana typed the letters along with their mother and little Yuri jumped on the space bar as directed. Incredible!
I couldn’t help exclaiming, “Mrs. Matreshka! Children! That is is so wonderful how you type together as a family–I’ve never seen such coordination!”
“Oh, thank you Missus Klay! You should see my chiltren and I on the pyannno! Kum chiltren, let us play somedink for de Klays!”
They hopped down from the the computer keyboard and climbed up onto the piano keyboard. We were literally speechless as they flew up and own the keys in an inexplicably complex fashion performing, in its entirety, Flight of the Bumblebee by famous Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov. Words can’t describe how phenomenal this was! I only wish I would have taken a video and posted it for you to watch. Oh well. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
After our hearty applause they said they had to be on their way. Once again I filled with thankfulness at having the opportunity to meet this sweet and unusually talented family. Mrs. Matreshka was anxious to begin planning her first year as her children’s personal tutor! Spasiba! See you next time!
What a delightful read this morning! I am giggling to myself still! You are just too creative, Scarlett! I know the kids will LOVE this entry!
Thanks Amy! We had a lot of fun with this one-and I learned how hard it is to hold my camera steady when I’m laughing 🙂
You had us in stitches reading your story of the little Russian family. You need to publish a book on your new found friends. I thought Rosanne was going to fall off the stool from laughing but we enjoyed the story and all of the photographs of your new family. You have talent!!
I have a little Polish family that came to America with my grandmother. I don’t take them out to play often enough, though. Hopefully they won’t read this post and see what they are missing!
I forgot about these posts! My daughter thought it was so funny to set these little dolls up in different places, take their picture, and make up a story about them. I do wonder why all of these older posts have mis-aligned text? Oh well, it’s been fun to see this again, thanks so much Jessica!