Guests

We've been living in our new place less than a week, and already we've been able to have several guests. It really makes it start to feel like "home"! We want to make the most of these weeks before going back to the States and have made a list of people in the neighborhood we want to reach out to and people we want to have over during this time. This past week I started teaching English to a lady from our neighborhood and her 8-year old son. Anneka joined us and learned Russian as they learned English. It's nice to have baby books around with simple pictures and basic words to begin with. We had a nice conversation and used lots of repetition!



Ella and Anneka are both my little helpers when we prepare for guests. Ella follows instructions really well- it's amazing how much she understands! She loves to throw things in the garbage for me or pick up items off the floor that I ask her to and take them to designated rooms. Here, she stirred up the garlic butter... but when I turned my head she stuck a big glob of the butter into her mouth. She smelled like garlic for hours afterwards. So, she's pretty good at following instructions, but there are a few kinks to work out. =)





Anneka likes being our photographer. I let her take this picture. I wanted my friend Ira to meet Kandid and Daniela before we leave for the States. We had good conversation and it was nice to all be together.



The kids ate at their own table and then ran off to play. They played together really well. I'm proud of Anneka for trying more and more Russian! I tried to tire Anneka out earlier in the day so that she would actually sleep during her rest time, as I knew the guests would be here past her bedtime. (she often gets pretty crazy when she's tired). But my plans backfired and she didn't sleep at all. Thankfully she was a good little hostess and friend to our little guests.

I love how much room the girls have in their bedroom and how much room in our apartment in general! It really makes it easy- and fun!- to have guests with kids! I still have more to put up on walls, handles to put on the dressers, etc.




And another picture from our little photographer. =) Vitya and Sveta came over for dinner last night. They live in our neighborhood, too. They have three kids and one of their girls is Anneka's age. Sveta and I talked about getting the girls together in the mornings sometimes. She's a great resource, too, for things to do in this community- how to get into the swimming pool, music lessons, etc. We really like this family. Vitya was so nice to help Leif get all of the rest of our furniture and stuff out of the apartment next door. This, of course made more dirt and mess... but once this last batch is clean and put away, we're officially DONE with moving and settling!


And one last picture from Anneka!