They Keep Growin' Up!

It's a quiet Saturday night.  The kids are bathed and in bed.  Not 10 minutes later we were turning off lights and seeking the sweet relief of sleep ourselves.

But before I retire, I have to share just a couple of special memories from the weekend in Vlash.  After church and games, Ellie begged last night for the umpteenth time to spend the night at  Ambra's house.  I don't know what was different this time but I said yes.  Oh my goodness was she excited. Her first real sleepover where I was not under the same roof.

The next morning was oddly quiet.  All I could think of was, they're going to offer her kos (a salty, drinkable yogurt) for breakfast and she's going to be in for a BIG surprise!  About 30 minutes before kids club was to begin this morning, she walked back up the road with Ambra, happy as a clam, albeit a bit confused that they actually slept.  Apparently she thought you stayed up all night at "sleepovers."

Our big Reni moment came when he actually wore his tall legs for the first time in months.  Okay, maybe his parents bribed him with a Kinder Egg (a German chocolate egg containing a tiny surprise inside).  His stubbies have been great, but he kind of lost his courage when it came to raising his center of gravity.  A little shaky at first, he was soon back up and at 'em.  Here's an early morning video of him playing soccer with a few guys who showed up around 8:30 this morning.




Finally,  before we left this afternoon to return to Tirana, we took a peek at the preliminary mural sketch drawn by Abby and Anna on the big meeting room wall (it will be painted in later this month).  Ellie took one look and in an ominous tone said, "Oh no.  That is going to cost a LOT of dollars to fix!"

Alright -- next up:  photos of Village Winter Olympic games... in the dark (because the power went out right before we were to begin).