Mama, we got you some macaroni!

So said my 2.5-year-old, bearing a box of macarons from Cafe Michel.  ("Macaroni" is actually the correct Russian plural of "macaron," but it was still funny to hear.)

Jeremy took the girls out on a mission to get me flowers and macarons after church today, and he came back with a load of free loot.  As we've mentioned before, Russians love kids and are always much nicer if you happen to have one with you.  But a man alone with not one, but two kids?

Fuhgeddaboudit. 

Although you do see men out with their kids in Moscow, I am told that the absent or alcoholic husband and father is still quite common. 

So, the flower lady was so taken with Jeremy and our girls that, after he purchased a bouquet, she asked how many years we had been married, and then presented him with a hyacinth plant for each year (and fraction thereof). 

At Cafe Michel, where Jeremy bought me 10 macarons, he received as a freebie three boxes of mini-macarons.  One each for the girls and one for him.  (We had already eaten one box by the time I took this photo).