Princess Party

Anna was invited to a princess birthday party on Saturday. Her little friend turned 4, and all the girls were encouraged to come dressed like princesses. Since we don't have a Cinderella or Snow White costume, I put Anna in her Halloween fairy costume. I figured that was close enough. The mom also made pretty tulle skirts for girls who didn't arrive in the proper attire. I'd say most partygoers came dressed up somehow, even if only in their ballet outfits. We had a fun time, and it was really cute to see all the little girly girlyness going on. Here are some party pics, including a few of Anna pretending to cook as the party was winding down.

When we arrived home, a furniture store service man was here fine-tuning a door on our new bookcase. I could tell as soon as I walked in through the kitchen door that Mikel was having a lively conversation and was a lot more interested than he normally would have been. As it turned out the man is originally from Russia! His family emigrated to the States in 1992 after his father was persecuted and had been imprisoned during the communist rule for his religious involvements. They even received some kind of refugee status, which helped them in many ways once they arrived. I think his father had been some sort of music minister or something in a Russian sort of Baptist church. He talked a lot and we asked many questions and could have kept going, but he had other calls to make. It was so nice to meet him and we exchanged contact information. He said there is a very small group of people from Russia here in our city, and it would be nice to meet them. You hear sometimes that you might encounter Russians who really frown upon people taking their children from their homeland -- as if they're somehow better off in an orphanage without parents -- but he was very supportive and happy for us and our children. He even read to Anna one our Russian Disney books that we had displayed in the case. It didn't seem apparent that hearing the accent or the Russian language sparked any memories for her. While we want them to know about their birthcountry some day, I'm kind of happy about that for now. I picked up on a few words he said to her, including the word that sounds like "krasiva," which means beautiful. A lot of people might disagree with this, but he also seemed to say that the children should do really well in school — as his school-age children have — because, essentially, they weren't born spoiled and came from poor conditions and have the sort of ingrained mentality that you have to work very hard to get things or to get ahead in life. I can see where he's coming from, but I also know it's more about a child's particular home life and the values and priorities that are instilled.