Birthday Fun

Kristy's birthday was in the beginning of July and we decided to make a day of it!  The girls were very excited and wanted to surprise her in some way, and Kristy's sister sent money for us to do something really fun!  In the morning, we let her sleep in and made her breakfast.  Then, later that morning, we headed out for an "English lesson", which was code for "surprise party!"  I left our "English lesson" to go get Kristy and the girls worked hard at getting pictures and finding a good place for a surprise party.  We ended up at the botanical gardens which were absolutely gorgeous!

 

Here are some pictures from our fun day:

 

Marina

Vica

 Vica, Sarah, Liuda, and Ruthanna.

I'm so glad Sarah and Ruthanna were here during this time.

Both girls are from the States and we have

 had a good time getting to know each other!

 Happy Birthday Miss Kristy!

Of course, what is a bday picture, if you can't pick up the bday person?

Cute little acorns

Maria

Liuda

Natalia, Sarah, and Ruthanna

 

 After spending a few hours at the park, we headed to Tucano Coffee and had cookies and coffee.

We played Uno, visited, and just had a great time!

I think it turned out to be a very special day. 

After coffee we went and played more games,

and then ordered in pizza(which I didn't realize you could do in Moldova) and watched a movie that night.  Everyone was exhausted by the end of the day, but it was worth it!

 

 

Here are a few random pictures from this summer that

I have been needing to post for awhile.  I hope you enjoy them!

I love these little well houses that are out on the streets :)

Stefan cel Mare

A famous person in the history of Moldova, although I'm not sure exactly what he did

 because I can't read Russian/Romanian.

He must have been important because he has his own statue... and even a park and street named after him!  ;)

 

I do know he was a great warrior and protected Moldova during the 1400's.

During his reign, he strengthened Moldavia and maintained its independence against the ambitions of Hungary, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire, which all sought to subdue the land.

 

Stefan cele Mare Park

 

Miss Tatiana had to get a picture with this cow :)

I believe I mentioned before that the girls really enjoy trying out new hairdos.

Here is one they whipped up in just a few minutes.



Two of our girls :)

Do you see how beautiful and sunshiny it was?

In the next few pictures, you'll see how dark it got within a few minutes.

It poured rain!  So much rain that we were completely soaked in a couple minutes.

It was a fun day!





Miss Tatiana and Ana dressed the part for

the Indian food they prepared one evening

Ana is an amazing cook and she enjoys making

creative dishes.  These are stuffed tomatoes.

Aren't they cute?

 

I decided to have the girls do a presentation on whatever country

they would like to visit.  It was good for them to study another country

and another culture.  Only two of them ended up doing the

presentation, but they did a really good job!

Marina doing a presentation on Italy



Our judges for the presentations

 

 

The next few pictures give a little bit of an

 idea of what the neighborhoods look like.

I'll try to get some more pictures out on the streets

before I leave, but I think you can get a pretty good

idea what the country generally look like from these.



 

I really like the fact that there are fruit and nut trees everywhere.

These grapes grow in our front yard, next to the cherry and apricot tree.

On the side of the house is a big walnut tree.  Maybe it isn't a big deal to some of you,

 but I'm from Montana, so I was pretty excited to try a raw walnut the other day! :)

 

Volleyball!!!

I'll end with a few picture of the kids' favorite sport!

We have had a good time playing volleyball... even in a few huge rainstorms :)