My 33rd Birthday!!!

So I went to the beach last weekend and somehow didn't make it home with my camera... I don't know what's wrong with me but I can't stop losing things...first my Ipod, now this... I have no pictures of the beach or our trip to the water park last week. Luckily, Steve took a ton of pictures of my birthday and I managed to drag the celebration out for three days.

I'll start with Friday: the day before my birthday. This is a typical scene where we're sitting and talking around the table at lunch just before class (we're all matching because we gotta' wear our Berhan shirts every Friday).

I made these "swimming pool" cupcakes to give to my classes to celebrate my birthday.

For some reason, people here don't like a lot of sugar in their desserts but it seems like they put sugar in everything else that you wouldn't normally want sweetened like beans and soup and mayonnaise. After eating these cupcakes, my kids asked me why Americans always use so much sugar. Wow...really? Kids that don't like sugar...

Friday night, I waited 'till midnight to open my birthday package from my family:

My awesome mom sent all kinds of fun party favors... princess party hats, rings, a pin the tail on the donkey game, balloons, and these awesome rhinestone and gold grills:

Saturday: My Birthday!

We met our students at the movie theater and went to see Prince Caspian. We all wished we had our cameras but no one did...so no picture.

It rained all day so instead of going out to eat that night, we decided to order pizza and blend up some fruity mocktail drinks...

Mocktails!!!

Joseph (president of the birthday committee) designed an amazing card for my birthday...even though the idea for the card came from his need to ridicule these camouflaged shorts I own.

I even received this camouflaged shirt and a camouflaged sewing kit so that if I ever want to disappear in the jungle...I'm completely equipped...

We were all too full of pizza, mocktails, and s'mores to eat birthday cake so we saved it for Sunday after church:

Jessica (the culinary artist) made THE MOST amazing almond, coconut, and mango cake! It was fabulous!!!

The celebration culminated in a rousing game of pin the tail on the donkey.

Every body keeps telling me 33 is going to be a great year...but I don't know how it could possibly beat 32...

We're winding down now and getting ready to leave. This is our last week of teaching and next Monday we're headed off on a ten day trip around Taiwan. Then it's another ten day trip to Thailand before we fly home. I'm sad because Jessica has decided to stay another six months and I'm feeling a little jealous that she is staying and I'm not...but on the other hand, I'm excited to get back to America where everything is familiar and I can read signs and labels and actually communicate with people.

Case in point: How in the world do you find fabric dye in a place where you can't read or speak the language? In America, this would be no problem, but here, finding just about anything can be a struggle.

I wanted to do tie-dye shirts with my class to wear for the Olympic events we're having this week. I actually got my kids to bring in t-shirts...but when I looked for dye in the stores, I couldn't find it...I have no idea if they even sell it here and I don't even know where to look. Some stores have a craft section but I haven't been able to find any kind of fabric dye. So, I resorted to dying the shirts with food coloring...unfortunately, the food coloring will probably bleed and turn all my sweaty little students into Smurf's...so much for that idea...I tried...