The blessing is in the seed.

Thursday's games were a great success!  After all the boys got in their teams and finished coming up with their cheers and skits, the games started off with an egg hunt.  Each team had 7 eggs hidden all over the Jovenes property.  My favorite hiding place for one of the team's eggs was in the swimming pool!  One of the boys just jumped right in, clothes on and everything.  The next game was a game of getting water from one bucket to another using a towel.  Best part - the floor between the buckets was soaped up (aka lots of slipping).  A game of charades, a bike race, some sort of tug of war, and an army crawl followed.  The boys were so excited with every game.  It was really cool to see the older boys stepping up and leading their teams.  For each game, the winners of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place received tickets that they were told could be used to buy prizes later.  After a short break for dinner, we all gathered around a bonfire (I didn't realize how much I missed this until we got to have one - reminded me of camping).  The rain that started falling quickly rushed us all into the cafeteria for the remainder of the day's activities.  Each team had prepared a bible story skit and a cheer.  Just imagine VBS skits in Spanish done by a bunch of boys.  Hannah and I laughed so much!  All the winners were announced, tickets were dispersed, and prizes were awarded - coke, chips and candy: what could be a better prize?

Friday, I decided to try out walking up the stairs in the pink house.  We have felt so welcome at Casa Verde and were so thankful to have a first floor room, but we missed our Casa Rosada boys!  Casa Rosada has become our home, so after successfully being able to get up to the second floor, we moved back in to our room!  As we moved our things back over, we were greeted at the gate to the house with huge smiles, hugs, “Are you moving back here?!” and without waiting for the answer boys grabbing our bags to carry them up to our room for us.  We love those boys with all of our hearts!!!

Since there has been so much that has gone on the past few days, and in an attempt to not jump all over the place with my stories, we just wanted everyone to point out some of the things that we really want to remember and share:

• Juan running up to us one night during a movie Hannah and I were sneaking out of to go to bed and telling us goodnight...we are becoming grandma's with our bed time.
• Watching the boys from Casa Rosada dance outside the window of the office to the music we are playing.
• Johan and Junior (brothers) sitting and talking together.
• Learning how to make chocolate covered bananas and frozen chocolate milk - not as easy as it sounds.
• Swimming with Jorge, Adonay, William, and Gomez and having a conversation about bodily functions (boys will be boys no matter what country you are in).
• Isaac sitting in my lap during church (not just sitting in my lap, he wanted to be held).
• Picking at all the boys just like Hannah and I would with our own brothers (Parker, Gavin, and Graeme - thanks for the practice).
• Talking to Walter, Juan Carlos, and Samael through the wall...Hola!
• Asking Kelsin, Ochoa, and Gomez what their dream was...Ochoa wants to be a surgeon so next time I break my leg, he can fix it (I told him there better not be a next time). 

Johan and Junior having a brother moment :)

What a goober!!!

Today we are really excited to have the Smyrna group come!  We are anxiously waiting their arrival in about an hour!  It will be really nice to see familiar faces (and family for Hannah).  Have a blessed day!

LauraBeth and Hannah