Super Happy Birthdays!

July is definitely birthday month in our family.  Jeff and Vivian usually get a couple celebrations, plus there's 4th of July and a bunch of our other friends' birthdays.  There's a lot to celebrate :-) 

The girls and I got to the States on July 3rd, so up first was the 4th of July.  The girls got into the spirit.

My dad grilled some hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch, and Elena discovered that she likes corn on the cob.

Some of our best friends from our posting in Thailand are now back in the States, and they have a big place with a lovely backyard within view of several fireworks displays, so in the afternoon we headed out to celebrate with them.  It was great to see them again.  They also set up a seasonal pool for the kids, so the girls spent most of the afternoon playing outside.  They managed to stay awake until the fireworks which were a lot of fun.  They then promptly fell asleep on the car ride home.

We had the rest of the week free to hang out with my parents and some of our other good friends from Thailand who live in Arlington now.  We were so busy having fun, that I didn't take many pictures, but I got a good one of Vivian and Grandpa heading out for a walk.

We also did practical things, like taking the girls to the mall to buy new sneakers.  Of course, they found the less than practical aspect to it.

Safta was also persuaded to make some Disney story purchases.

That Saturday was Vivian's official birthday party, even though it was a couple days early.  Our friends agreed to host it as a camp out, and we got our big group of Thailand friends together which was a ton of fun.  Not only did the kids have the pool, but they also got to have a water balloon fight.

Elena and her little buddy joined in too.  They had a great time, since none of the big kids were allowed to hit "the babies", so they could attack without consequences.  

Once the water balloons were out and the kids had recovered a bit, we sang happy birthday and had some cake for a snack.  Mom had pre-assembled as much of the cake as she could, and my friends and I worked on adding the finishing touches.  The whole thing was devoured in about 15 minutes, so I think it was a success.

We sent the kids back out to play, and our fabulous hosts put out an incredible dinner spread.  This is just a fraction of it.

We let the kids get some food and then sent them back out to eat.  When it got dark, we all gathered around the fire for s'mores dessert.

Luckily, I had put Elena into her PJs before the fireside festivities, because she crawled into my lap and fell asleep while we were all hanging out.

She barely stirred when I took her up to bed.  The big kids all slept outside in tents, and the littles slept with their parents.  Elena was in a great mood the next day.

We stayed for more food and outdoor fun, but eventually we had to head back to Arlington.  The girls both started camp the next day, and it was Vivian's for real birthday.  Unfortunately, Vivian woke up on her birthday morning with a fever, so I decided to keep her home to rest.  Elena went to her camp though which had a rainforest theme for the week, and came home thrilled with her day's work.

By the evening, Vivian was feeling better, but she still opted to open her presents on the sofa.  There were the usual toys, and then she got what she described as "just a card" from Judy.  Well, her reaction changed as she read what the card said.

It said, Happy Birthday! Do you want to go see Taylor Swift in concert with me tomorrow night?  Well, the answer was a resounding yes.  They put on Taylor Swift music to celebrate and Elena and my dad broke into a dance.

Luckily Viv was mostly recovered by the next day and able to go enjoy herself at her first live concert.

Elena got a present as well, some new play doh with fun equipment.

Jeff arrived on Thursday, and it was great to have everyone together.  Grandpa and Grandma Goerss also came to visit and we all got to go out to Jeff's favorite steak restaurant for his birthday.

I had finally lost patience with the girls' hair that morning and taken them both to get hair cuts, which ended up working out nicely for pictures, although Elena refused to be ponytailed.

Jeff was very magnanimous about sharing his birthday glory.

Vivi is just learning how to blow bubbles :-) 

We had one last birthday hoorah on Monday.  We went to IHOP for breakfast and then to Barnes and Noble for book shopping.

To make Jeff's day complete, we went to the Safeway that has a special escalator for shopping carts which brings him inexplicable joy. 

And to make the celebrations truly awesome, we went to Carlyle for dinner and got the girls frozen yogurt for dessert.

July birthdays are the best :-)

Fingernails, Football, and a Farm Visit

Since Vivian's birthday is in July, she usually gets a fun vacation type celebration, but doesn't necessarily get to celebrate with her school friends.  This year she asked if we could do a simple slumber party type thing before everyone left for summer vacation.  Friday was the last day of school, and on Saturday afternoon a group of her friends came over.  The plan was to get their nails done, and then let them have a "grown up" type dinner out.  The big girls were kind enough to include Elena for nails, so she got her first manicure.

She ended up loving the whole process, especially the grape scented hand scrub they used.  It took a while to get everyone's nails done, but when the owner heard it was Vivian's birthday celebration, she insisted on presenting Viv with a cake and taking time to sing happy birthday. 

We put the cake back in the box to save for dessert though, because the girls had dinner plans.  Jeff met us to retrieve Elena, and one of the other moms came to join me.  We let the girls have their own booth at The Ugly American, so that they could feel like grown ups, while the parents sat a discreet distance away.  It worked out really well.

The girls all piled into Vivian's room to sleep and took a quick dip in the pool the next morning.  The partying continued for the whole family the next day.  Colombia had a football game against Poland at 1, and we had invited the girls' families as well as a bunch of other friends to come over and watch.  One of the best parts about our big apartment is it gives us plenty of space to entertain.  Almost everyone came in their Colombia jersey, even the babies.  It was a lot of fun, especially since Colombia won.

My mom got in that night and helped with the girls while I finished up my last week of work.  Vivian tried out a cooking and mindfulness camp that was run in Spanish.  She really enjoyed it and came home with delicious food.  We were very proud of her.

The following weekend we met up with some friends at La Granja Tenjo which is a farm/restaurant/playground about an hour outside of Bogotá.  They also have a lot of interesting metal sculptures.

We took some time to visit the animals and explore the acre of playgrounds.

There was also a little playground near the table where the girls could play while we waited for food.  We got an assortment of things, but grilled meats were definitely their specialty.  The meat came on a hot skillet shaped like a butterfly.

We stayed for a few hours.  In true Bogotá fashion, every so often it rained for a few minutes.  All the kids screamed and ran off the playground when that happened and back to the shelter of the tables.  We also explored a bit inside the big complex of restaurant and activities.

There were lots of arts and crafts type activities, but the girls' favorite thing to do was feed the farm animals.

We finished off a great day out with some yummy desserts.

A couple days later, I got on a flight to the States with Mom and the girls.  It was another Colombia game day, so we traveled in our jerseys.

It was a close game against England and it came down to a shoot out.  We were in the welcome area at Dulles when the shoot out happened, and there is a bar there with televisions.  We stayed to watch while my dad went to get the car.  England won, which was sad, but we were happy to be at my parents' house all the same.