Connor turns 13!

 Wow!  How can my baby be 13 already?

Connor was the first Israel to celebrate his birthday here in Serbia.  His birthday was on Thursday.  We had a pretty low key day.  We had birthday pancakes for breakfast and soft chicken tacos with DR. PEPPER for dinner and a giant snickerdoodle double doozie cookie for dessert.  He got to open up some presents and the cards that we received from the states.  It was cool to get cards from old friends, new friends, and even his kindergarten teacher.

Connor is blowing out the candle on his birthday pancakes.

The family enjoys celebrating Connor's life with the Dr. Peppers we had been hoarding for several weeks.

Connor is blowing out the candles on his cookie cake

On Friday is when the real fun began.  We had seventeen thirteen year olds here to eat pizza, cake and go on an "Amazing Race" through Novi Sad.  Trey and I worked all week writing clues, gathering answers, and translating everything into Serbian.  I must admit; I was afraid I'd bitten off more than I could chew, but it turned out great.  We're thankful for lots of you lifting us up and to our friend Kirk for helping out at one of the locations.

Friends

And More Friends

And More friends

And More and More Friends

The kids didn't know about the show, so we let them view a clip of it and then sent them racing to 5 different locations with 7 different tasks throughout our town.  They really got into it.  We only lost one along the way. (Seriously, we did, but as far as I know everything is fine.)

At the finish line we ate cookies and tallied the points.  I enjoyed getting to know Connor's classmates and watching them interact with each other.  Kids here stay with the same group from first through the eighth grade.  They are like a little family after seven years together.

One of the tasks was to go to the pijaca (open air market) and use 50 dinar (about 69 cents)  to buy something red and present it to Connor as a gift at the finish line.

Things we learned:

Serbian girls do not eat pizza at parties.

It is customary to wait until everyone is gone and open the presents after the party.

These kids are really competitive and great sports.

Sometimes you receive live animals as gifts.

God is in the details.

Meet Ivan and Misho...the newest members of the Israel family


Bonus:

As we were finishing up the party in the town square where we had the finish line set up there was a sweet little "baka"  (grandma) there watching all the crazy happenings.  She began to talk to us and told us how sweet our kids were.  She teared up as she told us she'd had three children too, but they had all passed away.  As we continued our conversation we decided that she needs someone to talk to and I need someone to speak Serbian with.  She wrote down my phone number and I'm hoping to meet Jelena for coffee sometime this week.