Happy Birthday Friends

I guess one of the good things about slacking on my blogs is that I can still them from Erin. Basically, we spend a lot of time together doing many similar things, and because she is a blog machine, I can just copy and paste hers, then change a few words and presto, I have a new blog. Thanks Erin. :)

I hadn't been to Chuck E Cheese since I was like 9...until a couple weeks ago.

One of the best things about my job is the relationships I get to build with the people we work with. Like, a lot of the times I think about how cool it is that when groups have to say goodbye to the families whose homes they worked on or the kids who attended their VBS at the end of the week, I will probably see them again in a few days or weeks. The family that exemplifies this to a T is the Moraleses, whose trailer in Sparks we have worked on extensively--you might even recognize the name because I write about them on here ALL the time ;) Anyways, both 3 year old Alejandra and 13 year old Joana had birthdays in September, so Erin and I took them and the Viramonteses (YLM's office manager Elvira and her family who also live in Sparks; their daughter Camila is the same age as Alejandra) to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate. I promised Alejandra that we would go not very long after we first befriended them, and I think she talked about "la pizza" EVERY time we saw them up until we actually went!

We wound up having a few more people than we bargained for join us...let's just say it was a good thing Erin brought the white van to go pick them up...but we learned our lesson and next time we'll say no when the people we're throwing the party for call the morning of and ask to bring "2" more people!

Erin made them a "special" joint birthday cake. I'll be honest and tell you that she accidentally added an extra cup of water to the batter, but she threw in some flour and a tiny bit of vanilla, and you couldn't even tell!

Alejandra blowing out her candles.

Then we re-lit them so Joana could blow hers out too!

We had some coupons that included tokens along with the pizza so everyone was able to play a few games...even Viviana (Chata's head is blocking her, but I am is holding her on the back of the seat...I think she might have been the only one looking AT the screen b/c the other 2 were laughing too hard!)!

It was pretty obvious to Erin and I that everyone LOVED the whole evening, and it felt great knowing that we were able to give them an experience they NEVER would have been able to have on their own!