Birthday Fun!

On Saturday Rachel turned 8 years old. Our baby is growing up! We had a couple of small parties for Rachel instead of a big one. Last week our friends from the Bible College came over for a little surprise ice cream party for Rachel. It was fun to celebrate Rachel's birthday and it gave us an opportunity to see our friends before the end of the semester. They have all headed back to the states.

On Saturday, Rachel's "official birthday", our landlady, Wilma, and her daughter, Fiori, took us to El Bosque in Chosica for the day. El Bosque is a beautiful park about an hour from our house. We had a wonderful, relaxing day at the park. It was a blessing to escape the fog and cold of Lima for a few hours.

Cold and fog?? Don't you live in South America? Fall/winter just hit this past week. In winter, Lima's sky is described as being like the belly of a donkey~ it is soft, grey and hangs real low! Although Lima is close to the equator, it is strongly affected by the cold, pacific Humboldt Current and remains under a blanket of fog and humidity for 6 months out of the year. The other day the relative humidity was 96% and the temperature was 14C. We are grateful for our warm sweaters and scarves because the cold really does chill you to the bone. Once again we find our two years spent in Newfoundland has helped prepare us for life in Peru.

For Rachel's birthday, the boys and Fiori made a beautiful cake. Fiori has a catering business and makes incredible desserts. On Sunday afternoon we invited Anhel and Rachel (our friends from the orphanage) over for lunch and a little party. We were able to track down a box of Kraft macaroni here in Lima and had it with hotdogs. It was the first time Anhel and Rachel tried this "North American favourite" and although Anhel was hesitant at first, they both liked it!

After lunch we noticed the rest of the kids from the orphanage playing at the park outside our apartment. We decided to move the party outside and include them in the fun. Nathan led the games and we all had fun playing the impromptu spanish versions of Red Rover (Perro Rojo), What Time is it Mr. Wolf? (Que Hora Es, Sr. Lobo?) and Capture the Flag. The smiles on the faces of the younger children made the alteration in plans worth it. They were so appreciative of the opportunity to run around in the park with the older children. (We live on the third floor of the apartment building shown in this photo.)

A special note of thanks to all the kids at RMCC Kids Church who sent a wonderful video birthday message for Rachel. What an encouragement to see your beautiful faces and enthusiasm! Thank you grade 2 class for the ice cream treat. Rachel looks forward to taking her friends from the orphanage for a special treat at our favourite ice cream shop. We miss you guys. Lord willing we'll be home in a few weeks for a visit.