KA-LA-DUUUUU!

Naughty? ...

Or nice...?

Santa comes early if you' re Latvian.
Seriously.

On Sunday, Vecais got to spend his "real" birthday partaking in Mudzuks' Latvian School Christmas party (a.k.a. "Eglite"). Of course, Krusa and her compadres had been drilled for the weeks leading up to the big affair so that they could put on a spectacular show. The little stars running around the Christmas tree thing went smashingly....

but despite wine-glass shattering rehearsal volumes of Krusa's favourite Lativan song (Kaladu), during the real performance our young Maria Callas suffered from a certain degree of stage-fright (you'd be frightened too if you added up the collective age of the audience - we're talking thousands of years of onlookers). Luckily, Mudzuks found her inner diva and managed to belt out at least one good round of KA-LA-DUUU to her loyal fan club's collective delight.


And even more luckily, when Santa did finally come to town, Mudzuks learned you could only get a bag of treats if you recited him a poem or sang him a song. Thus she did a pretty speedy job of locating her pipes. KA-LA-DUU could be heard from miles away. Seriously.

Meanwhile Vecais just took it all in. Now that he knows there' s a Santa, he's already planning next year's list (300-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, cappuccino maker, silk pyjamas, a year's subscription to the New Yorker....)

Vecais hits single digits

Yes, believe the hype! Vecais turns ONE this weekend!

He celebrated in style, with a selection of decadent cheeses, crusty bread, anitpasti and a fine vintage of milk, in the company of his privileged inner circle. The soiree was so rocking in fact it ran until the wee hours of the evening. Vecais sends his love and thanks to his well-wishers and fan-club, near and far.

Vecais and his guest of honour, Oma

A birthday kiss from Mudzuks, which Vecais is obviously very much enjoying.

Vecais and Papuks

Vecais chatting up his guests

Enjoying the loot, but of course there' s no better present than...

Vecais himself!

Faithful blog-readers will know by now that kids' birthdays are really just a vehicle for Mamuks to get her hands in the cake batter.

Mamuks blog-fodder hunting.

Hugo and best pal Sabina

Mudzuks per usual corralling unsuspecting relatives into book-reading duty

Hugo with Nanny and mouth full of cake

A bedtime kiss from tanta Laima

And the evening ended, as all great parties should, with Vecais puking all over his pyjamas.

and I'm crafty, too...

Mudzuks with her (quote) "goo goo goggles." (hey, you asked.)

Mudzuks showing Papuks how models should really be built.

It's All Fun & Games Until...

Well, first off, Mudzuks and Vecais send their apologies for being a bit lax with their blogging these past weeks. Apparently Papuks has some silly little thesis project or something that he's working on and is thus hogging the blogging computer. But a little chloroform, a handkerchief and pillow to cushion the fall fixed that! So, here we are.

We suppose the last quite exciting thing in our lives was the REAL 18th of November when we headed into the Big City for a Latvian School Pow-Wow. Anyways - BO-RING. So we wreaked havoc in the downstairs of the Latvian Centre - snacks, small people and other amusements flying everywhere. Hopefully they don't send us a bill for dry cleaning those couch cushions. We hear hummus is a bit of a pesky one to clean.

It was all going smashingly until Mamuks glanced over her shoulder and saw Mudzuks trying to take out Vecais' eye with a ballpoint pen. (We were just horsing around, MOM...) So that's when we got loaded back in the car and shipped the heck out of there. We know Latvians are banned from many hotels across the North American continent, but we're not quite sure if they can actually get banned from Latvian Centres, too. We've yet to receive a notice....

While the other children make Latvian flags, Mudzuks and Vecais decide the dollhouse is far more inspiring.

M&V and their friends, before things start to turn ugly (notice Markus, with his keen sixth sense, already making a break for it down the hall)

Vecais, before the fateful poking incident, with Markus