We arrived home from our road trip on Monday afternoon and they were anxious to open presents (mostly just Carter...Kamryn didn't fully know what was in store, but she caught on quickly!). We were a bit exhausted from our travels, but still wanted to have a special night for them. We ordered cheese pizza (Carter's favorite) from Domino's and then had brownies and ice cream for dessert. We had received birthday packages from the grandparents before leaving for our trip, so they had lots of goodies to open! On Monday night we Skyped with Ryan's parents while the kids opened presents from them, then on Tuesday night we Skyped with my parents while they open the presents that came from them. Other than a few technical difficulties, it worked out great and we were happy that we could have a birthday party with the grandparents even from across the ocean!
I was excited to find these number candles here (although Kamryn's wouldn't stay lit...oh well!:) )
Carter opening his huge Nerf gun!
Everyone pitched in to get this play kitchen for Kamryn...she loves it!
And, of course, she loves the tunnel! (We are so thankful for Ikea here in Bucharest! :) )
Carter with his new drawing easel
New Wii games...so exciting!
Several months ago, as I thought ahead to the kids' birthdays, I decided to try throwing a party for Carter and inviting his friends from school. I felt like it would be a great opportunity to open doors to meet other parents and also help him in forming friendships. I was extremely nervous about it...I didn't know how many kids would actually come (there are only 10 kids in his class) and I didn't know how well we would be able to communicate with the kids and the parents. But thanks to many prayers on our behalf, God blessed us above and beyond and the party was great! We had beautiful weather...several kids and their parents came from school...and some of the neighbor kids came too when they saw our balloons, so it turned out to be a great opportunity to meet them as well. We had several simple games planned for the kids and I thought I was prepared to give instructions to the kids in Romanian...I gave it my best attempt, but thankfully some of the parents who spoke English well came to my rescue and helped translate! :) It was such a blessing to open our home to Romanians and to see Carter playing with the other children. We hope to have many more opportunities like this in the future!
Playing "Hot Potato" or in Romanian: "Mingea Frige"
Egg & Spoon race
Limbo!
(Some of the girls from his class preferred to play Barbies :) )
After having some pizza, it was time for cupcakes! We sang "La Mulți Ani" in Romanian and "Happy Birthday" in English.
Kamryn enjoying her cupcake
This picture cracks me up...the kids were playing catch with a football and it got thrown into our neighbors yard. Everyone was very concerned that Mia (the dog) would chew it up before Ryan could retrieve it!
Again, it was a great day! Thank you for the prayers! Since then we have had more opportunities to talk with the neighborhood kids and also some of the parents from Carter's school. Please keep praying that these relationships will grow and that we can share Christ with these families!
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