What we've been up to

Mostly we've been busy with just regular life. The kids send a couple hours a day doing homeschool stuff, either in their workbooks or on the iPad. While they have "recess" in the yard, I do laundry and cook and clean.

Jude is 8 months old! He chills in his stroller while we are outside and loves it when the boys play peekaboo with him around the laundry hanging on the line. He sits up well now, still has a funky worm crawl, and is super fast in his walker--will even play hide n seek in it. He has changed so much in the time that we've been here.


Nothing cuter than this round little man!



When the boys are outside, Luke is the ringleader, deciding what they will play. Choices include Liam being the man and Luke being his dog, either of them being a variety of Lego ninjas and the other one being the evil skeleton lord, and the current favorite, Harry (Liam) Ron (Luke) and Mrs. Weasley (me). This one is evil killer clown. Or something like that.


Liam jumps and climbs and roams all over the yard, and has managed to put holes in the knees of almost all his pants. Since there is no target with $4 pants...I have to mend! This is what I came up with for one (idea from a random foreign crafty blog):


I'm kind of proud of myself. It was my first patch attempt, and Liam loves his monster pants now. I put footballs on the knees of another pair. They're cute too but not as awesome as this! Grrrrr!


The lilacs have come and gone, and we are into roses and peonies. We are at the end of strawberry season. Such strawberries! Oh my! Small and tender and sweet! I made jam and pie and we ate the by the kilo. And for once in my life i think i am ready to be done with strawberries! On to cherries, first sour ones and later bing cherries.


We've been exploring around the city some more, taking advantage of sunny days before it gets too hot. We went to the botanical gardens again and hiked to a waterfall.





We spent a while observing a frog pond with lilies, frogs, and thousands of tadpoles.






Great views on the hike back:






We took a trip with some friends to a village called Sighnaghi, in the wine country of southeastern georgia. It was like stepping into Europe. So quaint and beautiful. We had an amazing meal at a winery--here is our chef who later took us on a tour around the town.



His wife held Jude so I could eat. The boy is so so so grabby. She fed him the crusty end of Georgian bread--and he loved it!!! He was happy so I was willing to let him try a new food, and it turned out great! He didn't have any reaction, so now he has something to eat wherever we go. Hooray!



We spent some time at a park making friends.


Isn't the town cute?



Carvings on their WWII memorial: they lost thousands of soldiers from their small town.


One last shot from Sighnaghi and then I have to go make some hamburgers to feed the missionaries :-)



Good times had by all. We are all doing well. Halfway done with our time here!

Location:Tbilisi