What a Fun July 30th Birthday

After Wednesday evening Bible study we went to Mama Pizza for fancy desserts. This was to celebrate July 30th birthdays -- of Arnold Schwartzenegger, Henry Ford, Hilary Swank, Paul Anka, Elizabeth Haley and - oh, me!


Here's the whole bunch - or at least the dessert afficianodos who could work ice cream into their schedules. And waistlines.


Meet dear Amal, Misha (standing), Marianna, Karina and Artash. Each of these special folks deserves a whole paragraph, make that a chapter in a book, if not a book. But what does that have to do with ice cream?


There's dear Julia, Tanya, Artur and. . . that's Yours Truly, the birthday girl. See my pretty roses in the corner? Roses and chocolate, that's the Russian way. Gotta love it!

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Earlier in the day, I went to the orphanage with 30-some bananas. It was so hot outside and I had wanted to take ice cream for children. That got vetoed of course, because of the prevailing thought that eating something cold and all the kids would end up sick and in the hospital - a exaggeration about the hospital part - however, bananas would be just fine. Oh was that fun, to be banana queen, and give out a gift with such a-peal.


Last Saturday at the orphanage, children were outside playing and, for the first time, seeing a little person - a baby! Lots of them, in fact. And babies need fresh air, too. What interesting creatures! Look at all those little tiny people over there.


Oh look, here's a little person up close. It's coming close to us! When an interesting little fellow!

Not quite sure who's on the outside looking in. But everybody's interested in what's on the other side of the fence. But it was the big ones looking this way who got to eat the bananas and they loved them. And monkeys love bananas and at the zoo they're inside the cages. So then maybe it's the older children who are on the inside. There's some logic in there. Or maybe not. Anyway, the ice cream went to 30-some caretakers. Oh what a relief, not a one of them ended up in the hospital after eating something cold. Whew!

I might add that almost all the employees of the orphanage showed up at work the morning of my birthday, even folks who had the day off. How could they possibly have known it was my birthday? How did they know I wanted to celebrate? But there they were, dressed up nicely and oh, did I ever feel special, that so many would want to celebrate with me. Sometimes it's hard to keep things in perspective with all this attention I get. But then again, it may not have been about me at all. They might have come to the orphanage simply to pick up their paychecks.

Now there's some humble pie for a birthday girl. Humble pie a la mode! ;)