Katherine got home from youth group and her good friend, JianMian, had given her the sweetest present! She had all of these little notes explaining everything. She had been planning this gift for a while and had her mom buy special things in China for Katherine. It was so special.
This is a refrigerator magnet!!!
Birthday cookie cake....so we can travel easier with it.
BSF (our Bible study) fell on her birthday, so I took her picture on our way there. After Bible study we met up with the rest of the family and some of her friends for dinner.
18th birthdays in Italy are a huge deal and involves taking out lots of people to eat and celebrate. We couldn't take out a lot, but we could invite 3 of her friends to join us. We had so much fun...
...and so much food! It just kept coming and coming!
We love Chinese hot pot, but only eat it on special occasions
food waiting to go on teh table
opening some presents
her journal unwrapped
These 3 got soooo excited over the goodie bags. It's our little American custom so they had not experienced it before.
The cake got a little squished in transit but still tastes good!
The Italian candle scared Katherine as she lit it
Cristina, Hudson, Ellis, Katherine, Lauren, and Delphine
at the entrance to the restaurant
Becky and Jim Graham were visiting at the same time and joined us for the celbration
The kids made a "Welcome Back" sign for the Swanns. They couldn't say home because we already knew they were just landing for a couple of weeks to pack up everything.
TCK Youth Bible study at our house...Kelly, Lauren, Nolan, Ellie, Livia, the other Livia, Katherine, and Lizzy, and Hudson.
cute birthday post
lots of babysitting/hanging out with the Swann kids while their parents pack and sell and give things away
We accidentally got stuck in this crowd. It took us a while to figure out how to get out of it/around it, but we eventually did. We had no idea that the Pope was making an appearance.
HeTao...he's a character and so much fun to teach.
Random Chinese tourists that we met and talked to for a bit on the street. They were quite impressed that we could speak to them in their own language.
dinner with the Grahams
gelato
Becky REALLY wanted to see the Colloseum but Jim was not feeling up to it, so I took her out for the morning.
Some of our Chinese friends invited us all out to eat
last night of their visit and they still hadn't had tiramisu...a must when visiting Italy...so we ran down to Pompi before bed haha
getting ready for another birthday celebration for Katherine with the Swanns
Going for a Monet Water Lillies look...my chocolate bridge broke, but it's ok
She will forever be my mini me :)
