Canada Day and Birthday

We've had an eventful week and haven't gotten around to posting - G&E finished school, we celebrated Mebira's first Canada Day and also celebrated her 5th birthday.

Last Monday, Mebira was invited to a birthday party with her sisters and she was able to observe a party in action. It was actually her birthday that day, but we didn't acknowledge it that day at all as we wanted to observe her in a birthday party and see what she thought. She did very well and seemed to understand that the birthday girl was special and got gifts and a cake. Once that was done, we started prepping her for her birthday. Birthdays in Ethiopia aren't a big deal at all, and some of the people we spoke to didn't know how old they were...so we spent the week telling Mebira she was 4 years old and would be 5 on Sunday (the day of her party).

G&E finished school on Wednesday. I was relieved not to have to rush anywhere anymore, and to just be free (and yes, sleep in!). I was also a bit nervous about the drama of having all 3 home all day by myself. Thursday was a brutal day - the kids were fighting and needy and difficult all day. I was ready to sign them up for school again! Thankfully, Friday went much better and I started thinking it might not be so bad after all. Of course, it was Canada Day and Arvid was home to help! We told Mebira it was Canada's Birthday, and we all had either white or red Canada shirts on. I wish we would have gotten a family picture...it just didn't happen. We visited Arvid's dad at the hospital (he is stable but the recovery is a very slow process) then went to the Legislature and waved our flags and looked around.

On Sunday we had Mebira's birthday party. She loves princesses so we decorated the kitchen with some princess things and had presents waiting for her in the morning. In the afternoon we had our immediate family over for cake. With only our immediate family there were 9 kids so it was great fun for her! She got lots of Barbie stuff and immediately got to work setting it up.

Today we were back at home again...but the girls did pretty well. I had one major meltdown with Mebira (probably the biggest one yet) that lasted about 10 minutes but after that she was adorably cute again. One moment I'm thinking that summer is the best thing ever and I never want to put them in school again, and then next minute I'm climbing the walls wishing I could just have 5 minutes of peace! :-)

Anyway, we got some cute pictures over the last few days...I'll post them soon.