Selah's 3rd birthday

Well, we've know got an official 3 year old on our hands! She turned 3 yesterday-Nov. 12th. We had two parties for her, one with her classmates at school and one with our teammates.

School Party:

About a month ago, I recruited one of our students to help me plan a party, knowing full well it would take that long with the language barrier. She invited 5 other students to help with the party. So we walk in with our Hello Kitty cake in tow. The classmates (xiaopengyou-meaning "little friends") sang a birthday song to her in both chinese and english. They gave her a picture and everyone cheered. After that we played a game where we tied balloons to their ankles and they had to pop everyone else's balloons. Selah was scared of the noise, but most of the kids had a ball. One kid in particular jumped and screamed in laughter every time he popped a balloon. Other kids ran around with their ears covered and some just turned in circles watching the others.

Next we played duck duck goose in Chinese. They'd never played before, but they caught on. We next had the cake and blew out candles. The are so disciplined, that they all just sat there and waited to everyone had cake and then ate. (could you imagine 15 three year olds in the states waiting while their cake sat before them?!) We then played with balloons and handed out party favors. It was definately a fun thing and Selah felt really special.

Our other part was last night with our teammtes. We celebrated with the other November birthday, had desserts and opened presents.

So another year down...we cannot believe we've got a 3 year old and another one that's almost 1! The joy we get from being their parents in overwhelming.