Inky Marina!

Hello my friends near and far! I'm so sorry for not updating for over a month. Things have been really busy around here with lots of schoolwork. However, I have an adventure planned to share with you as soon as I finish these memory posts! This one is for 2010 and 2011, very exciting years!

2010

Here I am in Spring 2010 playing on the stoop of my our old apartment building. We ended up moving in summer 2010 to the apartment where we currently live. I love our new place but sometimes I miss the stoop and park near our old apartment!



Spring 2010 had a lot of rain, but I didn't mind because I had a new raincoat!



For our last Easter in our old apartment, I made special Russian egg carriers! They were so cute. I also received an Easter basket and dressed up in a dress- bleh!



That Spring was so fun! During hanami, or cherry blossom viewing, my family had a picnic in the park and I climbed a cherry tree. That year, we also celebrated the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. You can see the mascots of the games on my tee in this picture.



2010 was a big year for sports! As my family was moving, the 2010 FIFA World Cup went on. My parents got me a Zakumi (he was the mascot of the event) tee and I pretended to be a champion soccer player. I was rooting for the Netherlands in the final and was pretty bummed when they lost to Spain!



My best friend, Violet, came to visit me that summer. We had a great time playing on Fire Island. We got my parents to let us stay until sunset and climbed up on a lifeguard chair to watch the sun go down.



Of course Violet and I had to celebrate International Red Panda Day! Red Pandas are my absolute, all-time favorite animal. We worked very hard to make a cool red panda mask.



Just before Violet left to home to Utah, our friend Sophie came to visit from France! We all worked together to make an awesome jack o'lantern for Halloween.



I celebrated my 11th birthday with an Uglydoll party. My mama made me an Ice Bat cake- wasn't it awesome?

2011

2011 was a great year too. It started off with meeting a dear friend I know from the internet. Her name is Maiki and she lives in Hawaii! She was in town to do a hula demonstration. She's a great dancer! We really enjoyed meeting each other. One of my dreams is to visit her in Hawaii.



In the spring, I went to Utah to visit a dear friend of mine- Piper! We had so much fun together.



I went on a very, very special trip in the summer of 2011, to Ukraine! I visited my great-grandma in Sevastopol. This photo is of me playing on a beach on the Black Sea.  It's so beautiful there. Sevastopol is on the Crimean peninsula. I'm very, very lucky to have gotten to go there!



This is me playing by the fountains in Shevchenko Gardens in Kharkov, Ukraine.  Kharkov is my favorite, favorite city in the world! I had a great time spending a few weeks with my family there.



When we got back from Ukraine, my family took a trip to one of our favorite places in the United States- Cape Cod! I love playing on the beach! It was so different from the beach in Sevastopol. I don't know which I liked better!



Maiki came back to NYC over Labor Day weekend and we went hiking at Jamaica Bay. This was also a special hike because the very next year, Hurricane Sandy did a lot of damage to the pond there.



I traveled so much in 2011! In October, I got to go visit my grandma, Mama's mama, in New Mexico! We explored Chaco Canyon. Chaco Canyon is very special to my mama's family and her ancestors.



I celebrated my birthday in November with my friends!  Here I am with Coral, Sonali, Nell, and Ksenia!



My family has lots of traditions. One of them is that I always wear a pretty dress in December and go with my moms to see the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. Here I am in my silver dress in the promenade seeing the NYC Ballet!

And that was 2010 and 2011. Whoa! I did so much in only two years. I'll be back soon with a peek at 2012 and 2013.