Here are a few pictures from the Easter egg hunt. Here were the winners - Mirela found the most eggs; Marija & Jelena found one silver egg; and Cookie found the other silver egg.

On Easter Sunday, we celebrated the day with our friends. Caleb and Samantha made a special treat for the group (thanks to Mimi and Papa for bringing the supplies), but I think Samantha ate more than she helped. We were also given some beautiful eggs!

Our dear friends Jovana and her mom Nevenka helped organize a precious opportunity to give Bibles to patients in the oncology department last Friday. Jovana is wearing the pink shirt and her mom is the lovely lady on the far left. Mirela (second from the left) also came with Becky and me. The other ladies pictured are nurses who work there.

On Thursday, our Bible study said "good-bye" to Natalie (third from the left). She is travelling back home today to the States. Please remember her in your prayers. We are so grateful for the chance to get to know her these past few months.

On Wednesday evening, Caleb's friends from the neighborhood and from the football team came over to celebrate his birthday. Dusan & Milos' mom made this terrific Mario cake for Caleb - isn't it fantastic? More came to the party than we were expecting so our plan to "just let the kids play" didn't go over so well. The rain outside didn't help that plan either. But Caleb had a blast with all the wildness surrounding him (surprise), and it was a blessing to meet some new neighborhood kids. We were also able to invite them to the Easter egg hunt on Sunday. During the party, I realized that I hadn't seen Samantha for awhile and hoped that she was with Tim. I finally found her in a box of balloons - playing with one of the toughest football players on the team - Jovan.

We were so grateful that the rain held off until the late afternoon. The kids had been learning about Easter traditions in America, and they all started jumping up and down when we told them we were going to have an Easter egg hunt. Caleb literally just kept running around the house. It was crazy! I think his friend Kosta found the most eggs. The kids had also learned a song to sing for Caleb about party music; it was really cute. Then they played a game that involved balloons, stomping, and running and the classic musical chairs. What a blessing this school, teachers, and kids have been to our family! We will miss them so much.

I don't know how it happened, but somehow we have a seven-year-old running around our house now. We wanted to share a few pictures and videos from Caleb's special day. Caleb's classmates and teachers came to our house for his party, and we really had a great time together. The kids were so well-behaved, and his teachers helped make everything go smoothly. His teacher Jelena is shown here pulling his ears (gently) - it's a Serbian tradition - but not one of Caleb's favorite traditions. All morning before the party, Samantha kept yelling, "Cake! Cake!" She was one happy girl when she finally got her piece.

Tomorrow is the big day . . . Caleb turns 7! Here is Samantha practicing "Happy Birthday." Instead of saying "Ka-ba" for his name, she actually says "Kay-web" when she sings. She's getting close!

On Friday, we received a package from Albert & Judy - it was such a nice surprise & wonderful timing! The kids almost tackled Tim as he walked in with the package. They sent us a boxful of treats, birthday gifts and clothes for Caleb, and some clothes for Samantha. She really liked her new dress and kept calling herself a "princess."

On Thursday, the kids also enjoyed an indoor Easter egg hunt. Mimi and Papa put money in their eggs, and Caleb was thrilled about finally having money of his very own. Samantha also enjoyed the egg hunt, but she kept saying, "E-gg, where are you?" She didn't really understand that she would actually have to look for the eggs. Later that night, Dobrovoje stopped by to say "good-bye." He and Zora really enjoyed seeing Tim's parents again, and it was obvious that the good-bye was tough to say. He shared how Tim and I are like his children and how much he respected the Sharpe family. No surprise - but I couldn't help but have tears in my eyes.
Thank you so much for all those who prayed for Tim's parents as they travelled back home. They arrived safe and sound and with all their luggage. We miss them, but we are so blessed that they had a great time here.

After lunch, we stopped by the English Club and visited with Natalie, Hayley, and Mirela. Tim's parents didn't see the English Club last year when they visited. We also were able to see Chris and Becky that afternoon - they had only been back a short time from their vacation in Egypt. The kids were especially excited to see them; I think Caleb sat as close as he could to Chris during their visit. Below is a picture of Caleb being tickled by Chris and Samantha. I also took a picture of the beautiful flowers Wayne and Susan bought for me. They were (and still are!) simply gorgeous.

Before lunch on Thursday, we also visited with Jovana and her mom Nena. We had a "girls' party" since the guys were handling lunch and also planning to start working on the lawnmower. They have a beautiful yard, and Samantha enjoyed playing outside and picking flowers (but not the tulips!). Jovana also showed us money that was used when inflation was so awful in Serbia in the early '90s. Some of those bills have 9 or 10 zeroes on them!

This past Friday, we had to say good-bye to Tim's parents. They left at 5 a.m. so really we said good-bye on Thursday. But Thursday was packed full with fun memories! That morning, we did some last-minute shopping as Ms. Susan picked up a few goodies for our family back in the States. The kids also got some goodies - Caleb loves his bow and arrow & Samantha might take up playing golf.

Yesterday we stayed around the house while Tim was at his practices. Caleb enjoyed playing with his legos (thanks Gamma & Papa!) and Tim's dad also showed that he is a pretty good lego-builder. Samantha decided to show off her Dora dancing skills.

On Tuesday, we headed to Belgrade for some sight-seeing. Although the weather was rainy, we had a lot of fun at one of the malls there. The kids had never played in the children's play area before and boy did they have a great time. Tim was very sweet and stayed with Samantha since she was too young to be by herself. I have too many memories of climbing up those tall slides at McDonald's and Burger King to "retrieve" Caleb because he didn't want to come down. Samantha loved playing in the balls the most. Tim and Caleb also enjoyed a few games of bowling.