Birthday Fun!

This past week, we celebrated Lizzy's 12th birthday.  Lizzy is my social girl and she really wanted to have a sleepover.  This was our first birthday party here as the others have not felt the need to have a friend party this year.  I can tell you that giving a birthday party here is a lot more challenging.  I was desperately missing Michael's, Dollar Tree, Party City, and Target.  Not to mention, having to pre-make all of the party food since Tyson and Bagel Bites are non-existent.  Fortunately, we had it soon after a trip to the capital city, so we were able to pick up some paper products and goodies there.  Many things that we would have had in the States we just did without and, nobody missed them!

Though it took a bit of work, the party ended up being lots of fun.  We had a mystery theme and all of the girls came with an assigned role.  We played a whole house version of Clue and they moved as partners to different rooms where they found the clues which led them to solve the mystery of who killed our beloved Joe Bird's sister... Flo Bird.

 Here are the suspects/detectives:  Madame Magenta, Mrs. Terra Cotta, Violet Vonderplum, Ms. Flora Fauna, Countess Tangerine, Barroness Von Blueberry, and Mrs. Mara Chino.

Here's the birthday girl, about to bite into her cupcake.  We had a cupcake bar and each girl decorated her own cupcake.

 Abe was quite happy to decorate his own cupcake too!

 Here's Lizzy on her actual birthday, a few days later.  She enjoyed sporting the birthday glasses that Nana sent her.

 We waited until her birthday to give her our gift.  You can see, everyone was excited to see what she got.

We bought real ice cream for the first time since we moved to Africa.  When we can get it, it costs us about 5 to 6 times what it would cost us in the States (which is why we waited 8 months to purchase it!)  Lizzy requested it and we caved.  I'm not sure who enjoyed it most, but we were all licking up every last bit.

We are so thankful for Elizabeth and the 12 years we've had with her so far!  This past year has been a tough one for her, but she has tried hard to keep her chin up.  We know that God will use all of her struggles to grow her in even more amazing ways in the years to come.