Goodbye Russia, Hello USA

I'm finally getting around to catching up here! And I'm writing from the USA! It's great to be back, visiting family & friends. First though, we need to back up to May, because we had some fun events happening before we left Russia. Get ready for LOTS of pictures again! First, a slide show from when our friends from PA came to visit.




Next, some pictures from Lydia's birthday party on May 17th. Lydia's "babushka" Svetlana came.
I made a cake of one of Lydia's favorite Russian cartoon characters: Luntik.

Quite a crowd!

After some cake & ice cream, we went to the park to play.

Here are some pictures from beautiful springtime in the park:

This was the morning of Lydia's last day of preschool.

On one of our last nights in St. Petersburg, we had Dasha come and watch the girls...

while we went to Teremok for one last blin!

And had one last walk through Palace Square!

Saying goodbye to friends...

On the long trip back to the USA. (Do we look a little tired?)

Back in our home church in PA: Lydia making a new friend.

Time with family: At Great Grandma & Grandpa's house.

Celebrating Birdie's 1st birthday!

Still a little too jet-lagged to act too happy, but the frosting was tasty!

Playing with second cousin, Micah.

Learning to hit the ball with Poppaw!

Family photo:

Mmmmm! Potluck fellowship meal at church!

Lots of little girls!

Lovin' time with Poppaw!

Fun ride!

Last shots of the "fang smile" before those front teeth came in!

Getting used to riding in the carseat: a new experience.

Picnic with my brother, sister-in-law and nephew.

Lydia and her cousin had so much fun getting to know each other!

Birdie (not sleeping) in the pack & play during our picnic. Love that smooshed face!

July 4th: Huge family reunion at my Aunt & Uncle's house. The kids loved riding on "The Jitney."

Birdie with Grandma.

Birdie in the garden at the reunion.

After a couple of weeks in PA, we hopped in our awesome mini-van, and headed to Arkansas. We camped 3 nights along the way. Here's a slide show of our adventures on the road and some time with Aaron's family in AR.



So, those are the highlights so far! Great memories being made!

Packing Up!

Taking a quick break from the frantic packing and cleaning. We fly back to the US tomorrow! The plan is to be there one year and then come back, Lord willing.

I haven't written for a while... Our internet wasn't working, and then we had friends visiting, and now we're busy preparing to leave! In the mean time we celebrated Lydia's 4th birthday- I'll post pictures later...

Back to the packing!

Here are the videos, as promised in my last post.

First, one of Birdie saying, "Hi," from a few weeks ago.


Here are the videos from Lydia's Spring Program:








And the ones from the Orthodox Easter midnight service:
The priests coming out to start the procession around the church:


The bell ringer:


Inside the church:


Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!


A little update on Birdie- I took her to the doctor yesterday, and here are her latest stats:
length: 70 cm
weight: 6.8 kg
head circumference: I forget, but it was in the 75th percentile. Her length was in the 25th percentile, and her weight was off the charts on the low end. Lydia was always like that too. The girls are skinny & smart, like their daddy! :)

Весна

The title of this post means, "spring." While it doesn't feel too springy today, we have been having some warmer weather, sunshine, and I'm finally seeing some leaves starting to appear on some of the trees! We saw some tulip leaves coming up in the park, too. Yesterday morning, Lydia had her spring celebration at preschool. It's so fun to watch her and the other kids singing and dancing. Here are some pictures:

I have some video clips of the program too, but I'll post those after I get them all uploaded to youtube.

Of course, since I haven't posted anything for a while, I need to catch up again. During the first week of April, we had some friends from Germany come to visit. On the Saturday night before Easter, Aaron took one of the ladies to an Orthodox church, to experience the easter service. They found it quite interesting. I would have gone too, but it would have been way to late for Lydia and Birdie. They start a little before midnight, and as part of the service, they march around the church. Then, right at midnight, they enter the church. The priest says, "Christ is risen," to which the people respond, "Risen indeed!" I have never seen it in person, but they televise the service from a large church in Moscow, and I have watched that. Here are some pictures Aaron took, and again, I'll post some videos once I get them all uploaded.

And, we have some fun family pictures...

Reading together! Gotta watch Birdie though- she thinks books are just as much fun to eat as they are to read!

Lydia had fun decorating Birdie with letters.

Birdie isn't crawling yet, but she has really started to scoot herself around on her belly. In this picture, she somehow got her foot stuck in her shape sorter!