Ramona has done many crafts with Timothy this past week and has also begun teaching him various subjects in school. Tim loves to color and write his letters. He can now do every letter of his name it's putting them in the right order that needs a little work.

As Abby has grown Timothy has begun to play with her more and more. He loves to get her to chase him around the apartment. She loves to play with Tim's train set and cars.

Timothy and his jack-o-lantern.

My little doll.

Timothy and Abby playing together.

The fall evenings have been so lovely the past week. We have gone on a walk nearly every evening. The days are definitely getting shorter and the air is a bit cooler, but amazingly enough the sun continues to shine on. It usually turns rainy and cold by this time, but we will take this weather right up through spring.

Ramona with the kids at the end of the Fontanka.

I am holding the kids - a local bridge behind us is being remodeled.

Ramona and the kids at sundown.

A new discovery! The Varshavsky mall opened up recently in an old train station nearby our house. Ramona and I took the kids out this evening to see what we could find. What we found was a rainy day treasure.

The mall has a lovely food court and kids play area for those days when the weather just doesn't cooperate. St. Petersburg has a lot of those days, just not this summer.

Timothy played around in a three story playland/labyrinth. He even helped save a little girl who got stuck. Abby just ran around pushing buttons on all the flashing lights of the video games nearby. For 50 rubbles ($1.86) it was well worth it.

Family eating in the food court of the new mall.

Timothy and a picture of half the play land.


Abby posing at the end of our time at the mall. The smile says it all.

Strongly independent children and the lack of fine motor skilss makes for great pictures when your kids begin eating messy foods. Here are a few photos from the past month of our kids eating. Aren't they cute?!

Abigail eating some lasagna or spaghetti.

Timothy dipping into some delicious chocolate pudding.

Abigail trying on her new mud mask or should I say pudding mask.

Some friends of ours took Tim and I out to a park today. The park is on one f the islands near our friends house. Timothy had a wodnerful time feeding a reindeer and running around the park pulling a little toy truck. This was one night he got to stay out much later than his bedtime.

Tim feeding a reindeer.

The Petrov kids feeding a goat.

Timothy and I overlooking the Gulf of Finland.

Today we are celebrating the birthday of some friend's of ours daughter. We got to know them from our time in Krasnodar and now they are serving in a church in Petersburg. Their daughter Rayanne is turning five and for her birthday she wanted to bowl. They had bumper boards so that the kids could actually bowl. For getting four strikes in a row the bowling alley gave me a free drink. What fun!

The birthday gang hanging out at the bowling alley.

The birthday girl with her bowling ball.

The birthday girl with her cake.

Well, the lovely summer weather continues and we have decided to take a walk this evening at Narvskaya Park. It is not far from our home, but has decent walking trails and a little pond with ducks in it. It a great chance for the kids to get out and run around and release some of their energy.

Timothy making an A in the dirt with a stick.

Abigail making a new friend.

Ramona and a lovely little sunflower.

Today three of the Calvary Chapel churches in St. Petersburg got together for a worship seminar. It was a wonderful day of fellowship and worship together as a collective body. The Lord so blessed us as we searched his Scriptures and shared from personal experience.

Ramona laughing as our drummer was given an electric drum set to play during our worship time. The drum was for little kids.


Such beautiful weather I got out during lunch and took some pictures of summer's last flowers. One of this bumble bee's last meals of the season as well.

The group listening as Ramona teaches on practical aspects of worship. It was an encouragement for all.