Happy Women's Day!

Thursday Jared and the kids got a day off for International Women’s Day--a big holiday here. We had decided that we wouldn’t celebrate it since we already have American Mother’s Day. But Christoff and Megan had made cards for me in Russian class, and Megan and Mia decided they needed to make me a present. When I walked in the door after going out, the kids had hooked up Christoff’s ipod to speakers and there was an applause sound effect going on right outside the closed living room doors. I walked in and everyone jumped out and shouted, “Surprise!” They gave me their cards (and Megan had helped Mia make one, too), and Megan and Mia presented me with a homemade scarf and skirt, held together with tape (kind of reminded me of the dress I made for Christy’s birthday when I was that age, but I loosely stitched mine together) and a bracelet and earrings they had made to go with it. Christoff turned on some music and we all danced around together. Kade gave me some baskets he’d made out of pipe cleaners. After the celebration, I told Jared he might as well give me the Mother’s Day gift I’d ordered for myself (a DVD--it had arrived two days before) and we could just call it good for both days. :) Since we were now celebrating, we made a day of it and went out to Babour Park. Everyone rode bikes (except Caleb and the adults), and it was fun to see Mia starting to balance on her own more and more. We got to try a new ride (it’s now our new favorite!) and a brand new bouncy house with a giant slide, so it was a great time.