PaPa's Birthday

Tomorrow is papa's (Greg) birthday and we just found out that Andrew and Marina had no idea of what a 'surprise birthday' party is supposed to be.....so they leaned over the dining room table and said, "Papa you are going to have a surprise birthday party on your birthday tomorrow when we go to the restaurant". Well, that was quite a suprise for the rest of us EVEN before it was to be a suprise for Greg! All this made for auite a bit of table chatter over the matter and at least we had a good laugh over it.

The children have been learning to play American baseball with the new baseball and bat we bought the other day for them. Andrew likes it so much that it may one day give his soccer 'a run for it'! Running around to all the bases is quite easy for the children but quite a challenge for yours truly.....but I do a good job at cheering so Andrew says. Papa really gets the workout. This afternoon they went to a local soccer fun day and were completely garbed in their soccer gear. I thought they would freeze but with all the running they do - they kept quite warm.

Andrew and Marina are half way through their month of summer school and liking the opportunity to continue to make good friends here. They only have a 3 hour day at school and then home again to ride bikes, do special projects or just enjoy being kids. Marina has really learned how to groom our old St. Bernard dog named Sim and they both really enjoy each other.

Both children are learning new ways of doing things here in America and are trying their best. We all are doing our best and the ups and downs of new rules, new places, new foods have all taken their toll at times; but they are coming along and believe it or not....Greg and I are too!!! It is not an easy task but really is a challenge each day to see what new adventure is going to come our way. We will let you all know WHEN we make it!!!