Bike Team!

For those of you who have been checking out our "Coming Events" at the botton of this page, you will be pleased to see some of these photos! The Bike Team from Texas has arrived!


This is Johnny. He is the leader of the pack. A gentle giant... and pretty good with a bike.


Will is the audio/video guy. He rides right along with them, but he also makes great DVDs of their trips.


Ryan is helping to build a bike ramp in the empty lot next to our house... that is, until the owners showed up and put a stop to it. They were afraid we might mess up the property that they may or may not build on in the next 20 years. We were actually cleaning up all the garbage for him!

We knew we had kids in our neighborhood, but they really came out of the woodwork when Jake started doing his tricks. We were warned about Jake before he came. He is not afraid of anything, even getting hurt! He proved it the first night he was here by shattering a coffee mug with his foot. Ouch!


He is even crazy without a bike!



I let them do this to Steve, but when Maddie tried to volunteer I said, "Enough is enough!"


These are two girls, Anna & Ira, that we have been getting to know when they come to our house every other week to practice their English. Yes, that is me... I went a little short and light for the summer!

Shashlik with the Neighbors

We live in a duplex that we share with our landlords. They invited us for shashlik (Russian BBQ) and we COULDN'T refuse! Our landlord, Vladimir Ivanovich, makes the BEST shashlik in town!
(This picture is from April, before the garden really took off. You should see it now! Green growing things everywhere! I think I actually saw strawberries yesterday.)


They have two daughters. One lives in Israel with her husband and 1 year old son. Galya lives here. She is studying to be a Veterinarian.

There's a New Family in Town!

This is the Broberg Family. We are SO excited to have them living in Krasnodar! I wanted you to meet them because I will probably be mentioning them in the future quite a bit.


They moved here from St. Petersburg, where the sun only shines 66 days a year. Good choice! It has been in the 90s here for the past week.


I just love Jen. She is a mother of four, also, so she and I have a lot in common.


So much fun to come!!!

Maddie's Birthday Party

I can't believe how much a girl can change from 10 to 11!


Gone is the little girl who had to have her bunny all the time and loved to play with dolls.


Now she loves makeup (which has actually been discovered on her preteen face only after leaving for church!). The hat was a gift from Yana, our babysitter. She made it herself and Maddie has not taken it off in weeks!


And art is EVERYTHING! She says that someday she will be a missionary who sings and takes care of Russian street dogs while living off the sales of her artwork. Quite a plan!


She wanted to take her friends ice skating at the new rink in our mall and Yana generously allowed herself to be pushed, pulled and hung on for the whole hour! And I think this was her first time!


Maddie got the hang of it right away. She may even want to add it to her future plans... somehow...


I hung out with the ones who's feet were too small for the ice skates.