Gideon's Birthday

Well, poor Gideon... Dylan left to go interior for a week on May 3rd so we just told him that it was his birthday on Thursday.  He didn't care and we got to go to the mall and get a doughnut so he was thrilled! (this picture is proof that he did have clothes on for part of the day)

 The worst part was the cake.  Usually the cakes in bakeries here are lovely creations- frosted and decorated so beautifully they're just asking you to take a bite...and then you do and realize it's actually a sponge covered in colored and slightly sweetened lard.  I had heard that there was a hotel in the same city as the mall that made decent tasting cakes  (for here) so I was going to buy one instead of making another cake that week.  However, we found out you have to order them ahead of time so, when we stopped the afternoon of his 'birthday', we couldn't get one.  This is why he's standing in front of a tupperware container with the remaining pieces of Raquel's cake from the day before.  At least he got his own 'number 3' candle:)

and again, he didn't care.

 So excited about a car from Daddy and Mommy!

 I love the facial expressions!

 Inside the box of the car was a pamphlet with pictures of other cars.  Score!

 Hot wheels tracks from Grandpa and Grandma!

Dylan likes them just as much as Gideon.

Well, it wasn't glamorous, but our sweet guy turned three!  Happy Birthday Gideon, we love you big boy! (next year I'll make you a cake:)

Raquel's 7th Birthday!

May 1st, Raquel Ariana turned 7 years old.  I want to blame the backwards seven on her since she put it in the cake, but I'm the one that took several pictures of her and didn't notice until my friend pointed it out- oops.  She had some friends over that afternoon for a little party.

 She planned everything out.  First they colored pictures.  The girls were supposed to draw horses and the boys were instructed to draw boats, but they rebelled.

 Cake and ice cream.  We switched the 7:)

 I love this picture.  Poor Roman:)

 She had lots of fun opening presents.

 and then they played some games.

 Happy Birthday Raquel!! We love you very much!

Dad and Mom came to visit!!!!

Christmas Day!

Our celebration of Christmas was full of yummy treats, fun presents, one visit to a friend's house that we hadn't gotten to the day before, and putting the last ornament up on the Jesse tree.  Happy Birthday Jesus!

Pre Christmas

One street over from us had a light display for the month of December.  They had bamboo poles arched across the road with lights attached.  The kids loved it!

 This is a Pondok Natal or 'Christmas Hut'.  People build them all over the city and they usually have a manger scene (in this case a large star of David), a Christmas tree, maybe a Santa... and then they play very loud Christmas music from them.  This one was built by our neighbor just this Christmas.  He worked very hard on it (sometimes until 1 in the morning) and we were so glad when he was finished because the blaring music was a welcome change from the pounding hammers:)

 Dylan and Roman enjoying the Christmas Eve service at our church.

 On Christmas morning we took a quick trip to the beach for some pictures.

 We didn't celebrate our family Christmas until the next day.  On the 25th we visited homes of people from our church.

Everyone had lots of food, cookies, snacks and drinks to offer and loved playing with the kids.

In the afternoon we went home and opened our gate so that kids could come and get a can of coke. Raquel was very excited to hand out the soda:)  There were tons of kids roaming the neighbor hoods.  Some had backpacks full of cans of soda.  It reminded me of Halloween in the States.

That night we moved our mattresses to the living room and slept by the Christmas tree.  Well, Dylan, Raquel and I did.  We let the boys sleep in their beds:)