We love our six year old!!

I had been planning on posting this blog the day I flew back to be with family.  Better late than never!....

      "Will you be sad tomorrow that you can't hug your five year old anymore?", Anneka asked me the night before her birthday.  "Nah," I said, "because I'll still be hugging my Anneka Dorothy, and I'll love hugging you at six!"  My mom always told me that she enjoyed me at every age, and I think that's helped me to not feel sad about my own kids growing.  It's really rewarding to see them grow and develop.  And I have to say that in this last year, it's been really great to see Anneka mature and blossom.

     For her birthday breakfast, Anneka wanted everyone to have their own puffed pancake.  Puffed pancakes are what we eat every morning before school, but usually it just takes 3 to feed the family.  =)

     It was special to have gifts from my parents and grandparents to open on her actual birthday.  Anneka wanted her hair fixed like a fairy named Fawn and then she wore her new fawn dress from her great grandparents.  So fun.  For dinner we let her choose whatever she wanted.  She chose walnuts in the shell, avacodos (hard to find here), pelmeni (kind of like dumplings) and these fish.  We all ate the fish to be polite, but were musing at her choice of foods!

     We wanted to emphasize relationships that Anneka has (through the team, church, and school from last year) instead of focusing on her classmates from this year that she'll less likely continue knowing. We also knew that it would be a great chance to connect with some parents that we don't really know and hope to begin a relationship with them.  We realized that she has a lot of friends and didn't even invite everyone  (as our space is limited).  Anneka took special care in picking out little gifts (notebooks and pens) for her friends and writing their names on them..

     When we first asked Anneka what she would like for the menu for her party, she said "soup" (probably thinking of her Russian friends).  This was laughable, as she doesn't herself really like soup.  We decided on pizzas and also veggies and dip and fruit/dessert pizza (pictured above).

     Anneka really wanted a clown to come to her party.  I asked around and got a phone number for this lady.  I didn't actually know if she was a clown or not until she showed up.  She led with lots of trivia questions and comparison games.  It was a little touch-and-go there for awhile, but she ended with games that everyone liked.  In this game, Leif got to dress like a famous Russian cartoon character.  

   

     We go to swimming lessons with this boy and his mom on Saturdays.  It was fun to see him get into the songs and games at the party.

These are Anneka's new friends from church.  

... and a friend from school.  Anneka's two school friends stayed after the party, and they all had a marvelous time jumping off of the bed and giggling.

Even Ike got into the games towards the end!

This picture is blurry, but I like it because it shows Anneka's pure joy!

     I had planned on ordering a cake, and we found a place where Anneka could choose what she wanted.  Unfortunately, the one she wanted (a Barbie cake) they couldn't make.  So I made her one.  I set it on our covered balcony to keep it refrigerated, but the sun shone into the windows and acted like a greenhouse.  All of the frosting began sliding down!  Thankfully I caught it before it all turned to liquid, and I just made a point not to point out that Barbies dress became strapless.  Anneka loved it.

      Happy Birthday, sweet Anneka!  Your name means gracious gift of God, and that is what you are. We look forward to another wonderful year together!