Matryoshka Nesting Dolls (or Kittens)

When we went to see Red Square with Cliff's parents we let the girls pick out their own matryoshka doll. First Diana and I took look and had some in mind for them. I knew that if it was overwhelming for me it was going to be twice that bad for them. I had the kitten picked out for Kira and once I showed it to them they all decided on a kitten. I told them they had to pick different ones so they could keep track of their own. Each kitten has 5 pieces. I didn't want anymore than that for choking reason and for keeping track of reasons. So far they have been very responsible and have not lost any pieces. I still want to go back and pick a doll out for myself to help me remember our time in Moscow.

I did a little research as to the history of the matryoshka dolls and here is what I found:

"Russian wooden dolls within smaller dolls were called matryoshka. In old Russian among peasants the name Matryona or Matriosha was a very popular female name. Scholars says this name has a Latin root "mater" and means "Mother". This name was associated with the image of of a mother of a big peasant family who was very healthy and had a portly figure.
Subsequently, it became a symbolic name and was used specially to image brightly painted wooden figurines made in a such way that they could taken apart to reveal smaller dolls fitting inside one another." http://russian-crafts.com/nesting-dolls/history.html

The girls with their matryoshkas. Kira picked out the grey kitten, Madison chose the white kitten and MacKenzie decided on the orange kitten. They did good job of deciding. Once Kira decided on a kitten the other two followed suit.

Kira and her "wooden kitty."
Madison and her Kitten.
MacKenzie and her kitten.
This was the matryoshka that Diana (mother-in-law) picked out for herself. There are 10 pieces. Pretty impressive how intricate they are with such small pieces.
It can be overwhelming when trying to decide on what style, size and design to choose, but once you get it home you are happy with your choice.