Here are a few pictures of the volunteer team at one of the schools. Cookie (our Serb friend) is in the top photo. The students seemed to enjoy learning about baseball, and we're hoping that more will start coming to the youth baseball practices.

Earlier this week, we walked to the park and Caleb's two buddies joined us. They decided the "island" needed a little repair work. Samantha chose to just watch them instead of joining in the work.

Here is Samantha dancing to a Mario tune. She's got some moves!

Our volunteer team arrived this past Thursday, and they have stayed busy with baseball tournaments, baseball clinics, meeting people at the English Club, etc. Today some of them went to the football game in Jagodina. We've really enjoyed seeing Bobby again (pictured here with Marko) and meeting the new folks that came for the first time.

Here are the kids in their summer jammies! Summer is here - temperatures are supposed to be in the 80s this week.

This past Saturday, a flag football tournament was hosted by the Cacak team. Here are a few pictures of the teams and one of the Cacak team practicing with our Serb friend cookie. Caleb had a great time seeing his buddy Dayne at the tournament. Dayne found a small "pond" near the field with tadpoles in it!

This past Saturday, my friend Mirela met me at the park with her nephew Srdjan. Isn't he a cutie? Samantha enjoyed strolling with them, but then she wanted OUT and DOWN. She had a great time, but I had to stop her when she started trying to shake the trees.

This past week at the English Club, we said good-bye to one of our favorite students, Nenad (in the center). He left for the States on Saturday and will be working in the D.C. area for the next several months. In the front row, Jovana and Becky are pictured. Stevka, Nenad, and Ratko are in the back row. We wish Nenad all the best!

On Tuesday night, we had some friends over for Mexican food. It was fun to watch them "chow down" - some of them tried it for the first time. We also played some cards later; I actually won a few hands at poker (my dad would be proud). We didn't play for money; Tim just dumped out all the change in one of our drawers and collected all of it (we think) at the end. :-) Marko tried to intimidate us by wearing sunglasses, but the Americans won (Tim says that he won but I think it might have been me). We were also grateful to spend some extra time with our friend Gagi. He will be leaving in a few days for the States to begin working there. We will miss him!

Here is the song the kids performed for me on Mother's Day. They love to watch this DVD of the Backyardigans, and there is one episode about the animals pretending to be samurais. But instead of training to be warriors, they are instead learning how to make apple pies. It's a little hard to explain but hope you enjoy the song!

On Sunday, Tim and the kids gave me some beautiful roses for Mother's Day and Caleb drew me a picture - I'm queen of the house according to him. Caleb and Samantha also performed a song for me.

Here is a very short clip from the game.

Here are some pictures from last Saturday's football game. We won!

This past week, Becky did a great job teaching American cooking classes at the English Club. The students learned how to fix twice-baked potatoes, tacos, potato salad, and brownies. I was so excited because two of my friends came to the English Club for the first time! Everyone really enjoyed the classes and liked sampling the food. I have a pictures here of my friend Ziza learning how to make tacos and of Jovana enjoying the brownie batter. One night I took the kids and Hayley decided to take another chess lesson from Caleb. She is so good with the kids. It's hard to believe that at the end of the month she will be returning to the States. We are going to miss her so much!

This past Tuesday, our Serb family invited us to celebrate their slava with them. A slava is a celebration in Serbia honoring a family's patron saint. Dobrovoje & Zora's patron saint is St. George. Last year we were also invited but this year was much less stressful (for me!) because I knew what to do. JUST SIT AND EAT LOTS OF DELICIOUS FOOD! Zora's daughter Mileva was there from Montenegro, and we enjoyed catching up with her. The kids had a great time; Caleb ate a lot of cake and Samantha ate a lot of bread.

At the birthday party, music was a big part of the festivities! Sorry this is sideways but hope you enjoy this little taste of Serbian music.

Last Saturday, we were invited to a birthday party for Aleksia (shown here with her dad). She turned two years old! The party was held at a very nice restaurant that also had a play area for the kids. The food was delicious!