Day 4 – The Birthday Party – Wednesday, 9 August, 2006

Day camp began today! Following a breakfast of oatmeal with raisins, we departed on time for camp. Imagine it….the Niles family on time for something? The only problem was that I forgot both her sunglasses and her sack lunch! Oooops!

Once everyone arrived, Anna got everyone together to get to know each other. As a combination ESL and introduction, all the kids sat in a semicircle and introduced themselves. The Ukranian kids had to say “Hi. My name is…. What is your name?” and then the other kid replied “My name is …” and then go introduce themselves to the next kid. The American kids got to do it in Russian! Masha had it down right away, and she worked hard at helping the little ones.

Mark and I hung out for a little while, met several of the other parents, and talked with the program director. Around 10:30, we went back home and worked for the afternoon. The kids had a pizza party and then went to the Botanical Gardens. Based on the photos generously provided by Khrystyna’s mom, the girls had a lot of fun, despite the report that they would have rather gone back to one of their houses to play!

At the end of the day, I arrived a little late to pick Masha up and she sure let me know it! Further, I forgot to bring her sunglasses….this made me America’s Most Wanted! After a very quiet ride home, we reviewed the previous day’s photos before Mark got home and we headed out to O’Charley’s for Masha’s first American restaurant dinner.

Dinner was another challenge. After spending the day laughing and playing with her friends, Masha was not thrilled to be back with us and unable to communicate. We think it was just frustration, but she sulked pretty much from the time I picked her up from camp. She didn’t loosen up until we got to Becky and Eric’s for dessert, where she headed straight out to the playset, and it was like nothing had ever happened!

The kids all played until dusk, and then came in for birthday presents and a beautiful princess cake and all was well. We got home around 10:00 and all three of us shot straight to bed…no work, no blog. We’ll just be that much more behind tomorrow!