Quinceanos...x2!!!

SO, one of our best friends at language school, Lauren, turns 30 in a few weeks BUT is also moving to Santa Cruz THIS week. Both of these big events call for parties, and we decided to celebrate the (BIG) birthday instead of the going-away part. In Bolivia the biggest birthday celebration is for girls when they turn 15 years old - their Quinceanos. Since Lauren's turning 15x2, we decided to have a Double Quince just for her...a surprise Double Quince at that! We MAY have rented her the cheapest, Barbiest dress we could find at La Cancha,  (because she loves dresses and pink oh so much.) Also, at quince fiestas, the birthday girl always has a group of 14 guys and 14 girls who dress up and are basically like a wedding party...so we had a really fun group join in the fun, and instead of wearing the basic bridesmaid-type outfits, we MAY have worn traditional cholita wear...? We had a lot of food, a lot of Kesha (shout out to BHS class of '05), and a LOT of fun. Lauren has been one of my best friends here in Cochabamba, and we're going to miss her tons!

The Set-up

the real cholita?

trying the food...

Oh, Spiderman was invited.

The Quinceanera arrives...to babysit? Blindfolded.

Getting her ready

SURPRISE!!?!

Chris Brown - Forever, anyone?

Three amigos

calmate, dr. spears

the world's most painfully horrible beautiful Quinceanos decor

possibly the scariest 15 barbies i've seen

viejito verde

 the manfolk...good try, team. haaaaaaa

maybe they should leave this job to the cholitas

 Team Spears - lookin fine

 YES she's old!!

just blending in

 our dj's

 Barney Pinata

 Barney Pinata after one hit.

 We love you, Lauren!

A Bedtime Story

One night this week, during bedtime prayers with a couple of older kids, one 4-year-old boy was praying for the 2-year-old little boy who had his hernia repair and got circumcised earlier. The 4-year-old prayed for help for Erik...and for his little "vaginita!"

Not too much to get lost in translation there...needless to say, prayer time may have been interrupted with lots of laughs.

Pajama Party

Over Christmas, my extended family gets together every year for a Christmas party at our house. It was no fun missing that this year, but this year they all surprised me by collecting all sorts of incredible donations for our Casa de Amor kids. We had SO much fun one night pulling out some special gifts from Amy, Lauren, Luke, & Brad...PAJAMAS! (Cute, cute, CUTE pajamas!)

Matching dino's for our twin boys!

Can you tell them apart?!

We're excited about our "pee-HOMMAS!"

So we lined up some kiddos on the couch for pictures...

...and they prompty burst into singing "Happy Birthday!"

A little clip from our sing-along:

GRACIAS, WILSON'S!!!

Sweet Dreams!

Least Fun Outing Of the Week...

...That award would go to this 2 year old!

Meet my little post-op patient - they don't come much cuter than this!

This poor guy had a double-whammy on Tuesday- he underwent a little hernia repair as well as circumcision - fun stuff, huh? All is well, but as you can imagine, we haven't been in the best of spirits since!

This little boy is actually part of a boy-girl twin set, and let's be honest...on a "good" day, he can be difficult. I was a little scared of bringing him home, but surprisingly, he has been a much better patient than I ever would have called. He's getting much better every day - the hardest part is keeping a 2 year old boy laying down all day! I think he's soaking up LOTS of attention from tias and curious toddlers - it's going to be a rude awakening when he doesn't have someone kissing his feet all day! Literally. :)

Cookie monster

He had a surprise visitor who wandered into our room...his second half!

Nurse's assistant

Big thank you goes out to anyone who sent the Sielbeck family a Christmas card this year...Mom brought them in her suitcase for me to look at when she visited in January, and they kept our patient entertained for HOURS today, no joke. He has inspected and played with every single one and ripped up quite a few of your lovely faces. Thanks for the entertainment...your cards have been put to good use! (And I loved seeing them, too.)

Just smile and wave...

...Done and done.

Thought we needed a few recent pics of our Buddha Baby - one of my grandmother's friends sent a ton of cloth diapers that she made to our kids here. This baby's the first to try them out. :)

COULD be the happiest baby in the world

Kindergarten Update - today we learned the Spanish version of Baa Baa Black Sheep, some song about a little balloon, and played with clay. Hard work - successful day. :)

Walking to school

Lined up in their classes to raise the flag and sing the Bolivian National Anthem (well, the teachers sang it...and the other moms...for the most part the kids just looked confused.) Sidenote - I went to a parents meeting today. In Spanish. Good.

We love Kinder!

1st Day of School!

February 1st...summer break has come to an end here in Cochabamba, and that means that today was the start of a new school year for kids all over town. Here in the Baby Home, we've been counting down, as our oldest little girl had her first day of KINDERGARTEN!

She has been excited about today for a long, long time! She's talked about all of the friends she's going to make, and we've been practicing our letters. Today I got to take her to her first day of school, (and I cannot tell you how much this made me feel like a mom...labeling every eraser and colored pencil with her name, going back-to-school shopping, and even being a little nervous for her...it's official...i'm an old lady.)

Getting ready to go...little brother helping with the send-off.

Waiting, waiting

Here's she is in her classroom! Today was actually my first time in a Bolivian elementary school, too. There were quite a few kids in her kindergarten class, and her teacher seems nice. Our little student seemed nervous but happy - and she came out of her first day with a big smile! She's excited to go back tomorrow...because la profesora said they're going to COLOR! :)

School is going to be great for her - I'm just going to miss having her home all day with us!

Cuatro!

Somebody turned 4 this week!

This sweet girl had an afternoon out on her birthday! The first place we went was to get her fingernails painted. Then, she asked if we could go celebrate at House 2! So, we stopped at the mercado to pick  up some favorite ice cream flavors and then headed to House 2 to have a party with the big kids!

Celebrating with the older kiddos at House 2

The birthday girl gets the giggles...

...!

We had some pretty fun party guests!

Our 4 year old here could be the next child who's going to be adopted - she's been assigned parents, (in Italy,) and she should be able to go home with them sometime in the near future! For now, though, we sure do love having her here.