More stuff...

Nicole had her birthday party the other night. It was lots of fun. Some of her friends were out of town, but 4 girls came over, and I took them to a hair salon and they all had a beautiful hairstyle done, we then went to Burger king (which is a big deal, if you can imagine) and then her friends were given a small amount each to find "silly" gifts for her at Confucius temple. They were all really cute and fun. They spent the rest of the evening dressing up and playing party games. I'm sure you can imagine what a crazy night it was. Nicole never ceases to make us laugh!
The salon:


Beautiful Girls:


Dress-ups????



Sunday morning we woke up and Mike went to see what the boys had been doing (they wake up with the sun). I was called into the bathroom, where I saw Eli. Now, I had just woken up, and it took me a minute to register what I saw...Every square inch of his face was covered in red. Apparently, when Mike went in, he asked if he looked like spiderman(???)! We had to keep straight faces and desperately wanted to take a photo of him, but knew it would send the wrong message. Nicole, however, was very unhappy that he used her make-up. I don't think Eli enjoyed washing all of that lipstick off of his head.

Well, things are pretty crazy around here right now. All three of the girls are in the school play and are practicing like crazy. There are of course lots of friends leaving at the end of the year, and lots of go-away parties. Things are all wrapping up with school etc.

I went to Student-lead conferences a couple of weeks ago. This is where you spend almost an hour with each child as they show you all of the things they have worked on this year. It was fun to see how proud they were. Some of the children showed me EVERY detail. It is great one on one time. I think all of the children have had a very successful year at school.

Last week was our final fundraiser for the year with Hopeful Hearts. We try to raise money to give to the Nanjing Orphans and some poor children around the province the heart surgery they need. We were able to earn enough for a surgery with this last fundraiser. There seems to be more and more cases brought to us, so we are working hard to try to earn money for these sweet children. When I am feeling stressed out from all of the fundraising, all I have to do is see the children. My favorite part is visiting them at the hospital, though sometimes it can be so sad and hard. This last week, we visited a 15 year old boy who needs an extremely complicated surgery. I felt such an amazing spirit from both him and his mother. Beautiful smiles and eyes! I wanted so badly to hug her, but I knew she would cry, and that isn't looked upon as a good thing here. We also visited a sweet little 4 month old girl who looks newborn size. She was so beautiful! I just want to take home every one of them!