See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

See no evil...

Olga, Ksyu, Uli, Nazar, Makar

Dasha D & Dasha K

...hear no evil...

Zhenya (and Vera Efremovna)

 

...speak no evil

Makar, Uli, Ksyu in back; Dasha D, Natasha, Nazar & Dasha K in front

My teddy bear

This post was inspired by this:

Ksyu

 Do you have to be so freakin' adorable, Ksyu??!!  (And no wonder Makar calls you her 4-year old child...)

And here are the other girls with their beloved stuffed animals...

Blizia

Uli

Yana

Zhenya

Zhenya & Kondak

Nastia N

...and people in bear suits

Ksyu, Blizia, Karolina, Uli, Nazar

Uli and her "husband"

The new cleaning lady at Novogorsk

She mops the floor...

...she cleans sinks: not only her own...

...but also Blizia's!...

...and she even makes potpourri!

To quote Uli, "what's gotten into her?!"  LOL!

Puppy love!

Well, I posted about the girls and their kittens last week, so here are a bunch of photos of the girls with dogs...

Yana & Zhenya

Dasha D & Zhenya (getting interviewed at the Olympics)

Nastia B (with Katya Donich's dog)

Karolina

Yana

Makar one-hand-lifting Katya Donich's poor dog and torturing Uli, plus Blizia

Fine, it's not a real dog, but Ksyu is too cute here!

Kondak

...and pretending to be dogs (bad dogs)

Uli, Makar, and ??

Happy Birthday Karolina!!

My goodness, there are so many birthdays this week! O_O

Happy 18th to Karolina, born on April 25!  I will post more about her later, but for now, here are a few of my favorite photos...

With Blizia in the background

Happy Birthday Irina Tchachina!

As it turns out, April 24 is the birthday of another gymnast from Omsk--Irina Tchachina!!

That must have been interesting to have the same birthday as her coach!!

Irina Tchachina won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games.
She was known for her very powerful jumps.

See, for example, here:


She was also someone whom Zhenya looked up to, and trained alongside, for many years...

Little Zhenya looking down at Ira

Zhenya even used some of Ira's old leos...

Zhenya on left, Ira on right

Ira giving Zhenya some words of advice

Nowadays, they still see each other since they're both Vice Presidents of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation

Happy Birthday Ira and best wishes for the future!!

Happy Birthday Vera Efremovna!

Happy happy birthday to one of the most successful and most beloved RG trainers of all time, Vera Efremovna Shtelbaums from Omsk!

Most notably (to me), she trained Zhenya!

Aww, so sweet!

In fact, she and her daughter Elena Arais trained Zhenya from the very beginning.

Vera Efremovna, Zhenya, Elena Arais

Vera Efremovna has also trained several other Olympic medal-winning gymnasts from Omsk, including:

Irina Tchachina, 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist in individual RG...

...Margarita Aliychuk, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in Group RG...

Margarita, Vera Efremovna, Zhenya

...and our darling Ksyu, 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist in Group RG

Elena Arais, Vera Efremovna, Ksyu

Ksyu, Vera Efremovna & Zhenya

But to me, she'll always be associated with Zhenya, and in honor of their wonderful partnership, here are my favorite photos of the two of them.

Of course, as you would expect, she always took care of Zhenya...

...helping her train...

...listening to her concerns..

...fixing her costume...

...always massaging her ears before her routines...

...and giving her lots of congratulations and kisses afterwards

But, since Zhenya is Mother Theresa, she also took good care of her trainer too!

Look at the two of them, just so happy together!  How sweet!

You can just hear her saying, "My darling baby~!"

To many more~!!